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Marcel Brown: December 3rd, 2001. Inventor Dean Kamen unveils the Segway self-balancing battery-powered vehicle on the TV show Good Morning America. The Segway uses computers and motors in its base to keep itself upright while the user is riding it. While the original Segway was not considered a commercial success, it definitely became a familiar icon of personal transportation.

Edwin Kwan: Security researchers revealed a vulnerability in Zoom that allowed the unauthorized access of service accounts. The vulnerability enabled hackers to claim a Zoom Room's service account, gaining invisible access to team chat, whiteboards, and other applications.

Hillary Coover: As we approach peak shopping season, it's crucial to consider measures to protect yourself from online fraud. One effective tool is the use of virtual credit cards. Here are a few frequently asked questions to get you all set up.

Katy Craig: Security researchers have unveiled "LogoFAIL," a set of vulnerabilities in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), used by various firmware vendors. These flaws, found in firmware image-parsing libraries, pose a significant risk to a wide range of consumer and enterprise devices from major manufacturers.

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Marcel Brown: December 1st, 1996. America Online launches a new subscription plan offering their subscribers unlimited dial up internet access for $19.95 a month. Previously, AOL charged $9.95 a month for 5 hours of usage. The new plan brought in over 1 million new customers to AOL within weeks, and daily usage doubled among subscribers, to a whole 32 minutes per day.

Edwin Kwan: Apple has urgently released security updates to address two zero day vulnerabilities that were actively being exploited. These vulnerabilities impact iPhones, iPads, and Mac devices.

Katy Craig: CISA and the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre jointly released guidelines for secure AI system development, developed in cooperation with 21 other agencies and ministries from across the world, including all members of the group of seven major industrial economies.

Trac Bannon: The CISA AI Roadmap is a comprehensive, whole of agency plan. They've aligned it with the U. S. National AI Strategy. The roadmap has lines of effort to promote the beneficial uses of AI, enhance cybersecurity capabilities, and improve protection of AI systems from cyber based threats. One specific example that I find particularly valuable is the emphasis on secure by design principles in AI adoption.

Olimpiu Pop: UK's Cyber Security Agency provided guidelines, and they invite you to act securely while developing your AI system. They mostly refer to general software development practices. Practices that the industry is trying to impose without much success for years now.

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Marcel Brown: November 30th, 2009. Book retailer Barnes Noble releases their first Nook eReader to compete with the highly successful Amazon Kindle, released two years earlier.

Edwin Kwan: Are we sharing too much on LinkedIn? Daniel Barbosa from WeLiveSecurity recently published an article on the potential risks associated with the wealth of personal information shared on LinkedIn, which is the world's largest professional social network.

Katy Craig: MITRE, a government-funded research organization, is leading an ambitious project to map the security vulnerabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Recognizing the critical nature of AI security, international cyber defense agencies have called for enhanced security practices throughout the AI system lifecycle.

Ian Garrett: Is investing in cybersecurity hot or not? It turns out it depends who you're asking, because there's a huge divide between the private and public markets.

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Marcel Brown:  November 29th, 1972. Atari introduces their first product, Pong, which would become the world's first commercially successful video game. Nolan Bushnell installed the game at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California on this day. There were 10,000 machines installed within four months.

Edwin Kwan: In 2023, Australians suffered over $400 million in losses due to scams. The actual figure is believed to be much higher considering under reporting. Australian banks have yielded to pressure from consumer groups and pledged to enhance efforts against scams by implementing technology to block transfers to suspicious accounts.

Hillary Coover: As more and more cocaine is sneaking into Europe, big ports like Rotterdam and Antwerp are facing cybercrime aiding smuggling operations. In a shocking expose, the intricate web of criminal infiltration into Europe's major ports is revealed.

Katy Craig: Google's latest cybersecurity forecast presents a concise yet comprehensive look at the emerging cyber landscape for 2024. This report from Google underlines the urgent need for advanced AI-integrated cybersecurity measures to combat these evolving threats and safeguard digital ecosystems in 2024 and beyond.

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Marcel Brown: November 28, 1948. Just in time for the Christmas shopping season, 57 units of the first commercial instant camera, the Polaroid Land Camera Model 95, go on sale at the Jordan Marsh Department Store in Boston. Polaroid believed that 57 units would be enough to last through Christmas.

Edwin Kwan: Open Source Blender Project is being targeted by Distributed Denial of Service attacks resulting in site outages. The attacks have severely disrupted operations, making it difficult to process legitimate connection requests. Despite continuous efforts by the administrators, attempts to block attackers' IP ranges were unsuccessful.

Katy Craig: In a landmark collaboration, the United States and the United Kingdom have jointly issued comprehensive guidelines to strengthen the security and integrity of artificial intelligence, or AI, systems. This crucial document is directed at AI system providers, including those using both in-house and external models and APIs.

Ian Garrett: Microsoft has announced the deprecation of Defender Application Guard for Office and the Windows Security Isolation APIs. These tools were integral in securing Microsoft 365 apps by creating a secure sandbox for files from untrusted sources. Microsoft's decision to deprecate Defender Application Guard for Office has significant implications for organizations and IT professionals.

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Marcel Brown: November 27, 1995. Nearly six months to the day after Bill Gates sent his Internet Tidal Wave memo recognizing the importance of the Internet, and only three months after releasing version 1.0, Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 2.0 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5.

Edwin Kwan: Three critical vulnerabilities have been reported to affect OwnCloud, exposing users to potential data breaches. One of these flaws, with a maximum severity score, exposes administrator passwords and mail server credentials.

Hillary Coover: Despite the widespread belief that private browsing can secure better prices during online shopping, it turns out that Incognito mode doesn't deliver on this promise. All private browsing modes do is erase your search history from the device and prevent the browser from using cookies to track your activity across sites.

Katy Craig: The Pentagon is racing against time and technology in its ambitious Replicator initiative, aiming to deploy thousands of AI-enabled autonomous vehicles by 2026. This strategic push is to keep pace with China's rapid advancements in military technology.  

Hello, this is Trac Bannon reporting from Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

The news of San Altman sacking by the OpenAI Board of Directors shook the world on Friday, November 17th. As events unfolded in the following hours and days, the world suffered collective whiplash. While many are asking why the board made that decision, more profound questions are being raised about the balance between innovative leadership and effective governance.

The sacking of Altman, coupled with the ChatGPT outage on November 21st, underscores the delicate equilibrium required in leading cutting edge technology organizations. The impact of such high level upheaval on an organization’s workforce can’t be overstated.

Morale, trust, and psychological safety matter. In the case of Sam Altman, the mix of political events and operational stability are sending additional shockwaves.

Right or wrong, Sam Altman is viewed as a bold visionary pushing the boundaries of AI technology while maintaining a strong ethical compass. His departure from OpenAI could change the company’s direction and shows the difficulty of balancing visionary leadership and governance.

It is no secret that Microsoft is the largest corporate investor in OpenAI, sinking over $10 billion and the use of their Azure cloud computing environment.  As the OpenAI drama plays out, Satya Nadella has been the steady hand on the rudder. His simple words speak volumes. Surprises are bad.

Consider that industry leaders have consistently warned us of the potential risk of AI on humanity. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Ginni Rometty, Mark Zuckerberg, and the late Stephen Hawking.

Nadella immediately stepped in to voice his support for the work of OpenAI, regardless of the configuration… a reference to Microsoft’s offer to hire Altman, Greg Brockman, and 743 of OpenAI’s 770 workers to keep the technology and innovation moving forward, yet contained.

Should OpenAI’s Camelot be restored? No, the evidence is clear. The world’s most powerful technology needs a combination of innovation and governance.

Sam Altman is currently in discussions to return to OpenAI. Satya has voiced continuing support for OpenAI. The world should collectively hope for a future where AI is both innovative and responsibly governed, benefiting humanity wisely and ethically.

Something to noodle on.

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The recent turmoil at OpenAI, stemming from the ousting of CEO Sam Altman, has thrown the AI community into a state of intense discussion and speculation. We have a whole saga that looks more like a new season of HBO's Game of Thrones than a sane tech company that is crafting the future of humanity. The coup backfired and Altman seems to be returning in a more powerful position, just in time for the Thanksgiving turkey.

The saga has significant implications for the broader AI industry. ChatGPT's release and OpenAI's innovative strides have triggered a surge in AI investment, with heavyweights like Microsoft investing substantially.

What do these events actually underline? Altman's departure underscores the schism in AI development philosophy.

On one side are proponents of rapid development and public deployment of AI, represented by Altman, argue that such an approach is essential for stress testing and perfecting the technology. On the other side are advocates of a more cautious approach favoring extensive development and testing in control environments, to ensure AI safety for public use.

Concerns over the uncontrollability of hyper intelligent AI software, have been a significant factor in this divide. This issue is particularly acute among tech workers following the effective altruism movement who prioritize benefits to humanity.

The question of how to balance commercial success with ethical and safe AI development has become increasingly pertinent.

Originally founded as a non profit to ensure ethical AI development, OpenAI's transformation into a for profit entity under Altman's tenure has been a contentious issue. This shift has raised concerns about profit motives potentially overshadowing the company's ethical charter, which aims to prevent harm to humanity or undue concentration of power.

More opinions and resources can be found on 505updates.com.

Olimpiu Pop, reported from Transylvania, Romania.

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Hi, this is Shannon Leitz from San Diego, California.

With all the brouhaha going on with Sam Altman and OpenAI, there's a lot to unpack and digest. A few things for all of us. When OpenAI, not yet a year ago, released its ChatGPT to the world, a fabulous capability if you ask me, it was pretty obvious at the time that they were chasing adoption and velocity as a brand new organization entering into the market.

I say that because most folks know that there's sort of a chase for go to market. When doing so, I don't know that anybody, maybe Sam Altman could have known, but I don't know that anybody would have predicted 100 million folks adopting ChatGPT as quickly as they did.

At the time, there was a clear understanding that resilience was sort of left behind, and the company knew about some of the errors associated with its technology and believed that it could fix it in time.

Along the way, we've also seen Microsoft throw in billions of dollars in investment and the world is actually at an awe. From my perspective, analyzing the win, lose, or draw of this situation, it's pretty clear to me that we're at a current place in time where everyone's at a draw.

What will happen to our beloved ChatGPT? How will that actually turn out in the end? And add a draw, who stands to win? Who stands to lose in this situation?

It's pretty clear that when Microsoft brought on billions of dollars of investment, and OpenAI moved to Azure to be able to support its technology, that the clear winner that's going to come out of this is going to be Microsoft in the end.

That means that who loses in this is going to be ultimately OpenAI, its workers, and it's customers. You know, yesterday, only yesterday, even just logging into ChatGPT, there was a huge outage, a spike, if you look at down detector. This tells me that resilience truly is the fuel of a durable company that underpins the technology that we all love and care about deeply.

So if you're out there and you're trying to figure out how you're going to deal with this, if your company is born on ChatGPT or OpenAI technology, it's really important to start thinking about how you're going to find a resilient, adoptable, high velocity technology with lower errors. And that ultimately, the ones that are out there right now, that are being born to compete with OpenAI, they probably have a little bit more time, as they well know.

This is Shannon Leitz, reporting on the Win, Lose, or Draw.

This is Katy Craig in San Diego, California.

In an extraordinary twist fit for a Silicon Valley drama. OpenAI's boardroom coup against CEO Sam Altman not only failed, but spectacularly backfired, leading to a reshuffling of the board itself. The recent turmoil at OpenAI, a beacon in the AI industry, laid bare the complexities and power dynamics at play in the high stakes world of technological innovation.

The attempt to oust Altman, ostensibly for a lack of transparency, was more than just a disagreement over leadership style. It symbolized a deeper conflict about the direction and speed of AI development. Altman, known for his ambitious, even aggressive, push for rapid AI advancement, found himself at odds with a cautious board.

However, this move to sideline him inadvertently galvanized a workforce adamant about their leader's vision, leading to a near rebellion. This employee revolt, a clear indicator of Altman's influence and the high regard in which he is held, forced the board's hand. The result, a stunning reversal of fortune where the board not Altman faced the chopping block.

OpenAI's announcement of Altman's return, flanked by a restructured board, is not just a reinstatement of a CEO, it's a resounding endorsement of his approach to AI development. What's particularly intriguing is the role of Microsoft in this saga. The tech giant, a significant financial backer of OpenAI, briefly flirted with the idea of integrating Altman and co-founder, Greg Brockman into its fold.

However, as the crisis unfolded, it became clear that Microsoft's interests were best served with Altman at the helm of OpenAI, leading to its tacit support for the board's overhaul.

The swift resolution culminating in Altman's return underscores a pivotal shift in corporate governance within tech companies. It's a clear message that visionary leadership, often personified by figures like Altman, cannot be easily sidelined, especially when it resonates so strongly with employees and aligns with key stakeholders interests.

As OpenAI charts its course under Altman's renewed leadership, with a board more aligned with his vision, one thing is clear. In the high octane world of AI development, it's not just about the technology, but also about the people who drive it. Altman's return is a testament to his leadership and a cautionary tale for boards that underestimate the power of visionary CEOs and the teams they inspire.

This is Katy Craig, stay safe out there. 

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