Capacity development

Cyber attacks and ransomware rise globally in early 2025

Cyber attacks have surged by 47% globally in the first quarter of 2025, with organisations facing an average of 1,925 attacks each week.

Check Point Software, a cybersecurity firm, warns that attackers are growing more sophisticated and persistent, targeting critical sectors like healthcare, finance, and technology with increasing intensity.

Ransomware activity alone has soared by 126% compared to last year. Attackers are no longer just encrypting files but now also threaten to leak sensitive data unless paid — a tactic known as dual extortion.

Instead of operating as large, centralised gangs, modern ransomware groups are smaller and more agile, often coordinating through dark web forums, making them harder to trace.

The report also notes that cybercriminals are using AI to automate phishing attacks and scan systems for vulnerabilities, allowing them to strike with greater accuracy. Emerging markets remain particularly vulnerable, as they often lack advanced cybersecurity infrastructure.

Check Point urges companies to act decisively by adopting proactive security measures, investing in threat detection and employee training, and implementing real-time monitoring. Waiting for an attack instead of preparing in advance could leave organisations dangerously exposed.

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Google’s AI Edge Gallery boosts privacy with on-device model use

Google has released an experimental app called AI Edge Gallery, allowing Android users to run AI models directly on their devices without needing an internet connection.

The app supports several publicly available models from Hugging Face, including Google’s own lightweight Gemma 3n, and offers tools for image generation, Q&A, and code assistance.

The key feature of the app is its local processing capability, which means data never leaves the user’s device.

This addresses rising concerns over privacy and data security, particularly when interacting with AI tools. By running models locally, users benefit from faster response times and greater control over their data.

AI Edge Gallery includes features such as ‘AI Chat,’ ‘Ask Image,’ and a ‘Prompt Lab,’ where users can experiment with tasks like text summarisation and single-turn AI interactions.

While the app is optimised for lighter models like Gemma 3—just 529MB in size—Google notes that performance will depend on the hardware of the user’s device, with more powerful phones delivering faster results.

Currently in Alpha, the app is open-source and available under the Apache 2.0 licence via GitHub, encouraging developers to explore and contribute. Google is also inviting feedback to shape future updates and improvements.

To enhance app security, especially as AI features become more embedded in mobile experiences, Google suggests integrating secure, passwordless login methods.

Solutions like MojoAuth—offering OTP-based logins via phone or email—can reduce risks of data breaches while offering a smooth, user-friendly authentication process.

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OpenAI turns ChatGPT into AI gateway

OpenAI plans to reinvent ChatGPT as an all-in-one ‘super assistant’ that knows its users and becomes their primary gateway to the internet.

Details emerged from a partly redacted internal strategy document shared during the US government’s antitrust case against Google.

Rather than limiting ChatGPT to existing apps and websites, OpenAI envisions a future where the assistant supports everyday life—from suggesting recipes at home to taking notes at work or guiding users while travelling.

The company says the AI should evolve into a reliable, emotionally intelligent helper capable of handling a various personal and professional tasks.

OpenAI also believes hardware will be key to this transformation. It recently acquired io, a start-up founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, for $6.4 billion to develop AI-powered devices.

The company’s strategy outlines how upcoming models like o2 and o3, alongside tools like multimodality and generative user interfaces, could make ChatGPT capable of taking meaningful action instead of simply offering responses.

The document also reveals OpenAI’s intention to back a regulation requiring tech platforms to allow users to set ChatGPT as their default assistant. Confident in its fast growth, research lead, and independence from ads, the company aims to maintain its advantage through bold decisions, speed, and self-disruption.

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DeepSeek claims R1 model matches OpenAI

Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek has announced a major update to its R1 reasoning model, claiming it now performs on par with leading systems from OpenAI and Google.

The R1-0528 version, released following the model’s initial launch in January, reportedly surpasses Alibaba’s Qwen3, which debuted only weeks earlier in April.

According to DeepSeek, the upgrade significantly enhances reasoning, coding, and creative writing while cutting hallucination rates by half.

These improvements stem largely from greater computational resources applied after the training phase, allowing the model to outperform domestic rivals in benchmark tests involving maths, logic, and programming.

Unlike many Western competitors, DeepSeek takes an open-source approach. The company recently shared eight GitHub projects detailing methods to optimise computing, communication, and storage efficiency during training.

Its transparency and resource-efficient design have attracted attention, especially since its smaller distilled model rivals Alibaba’s Qwen3-235B while being nearly 30 times lighter.

Major Chinese tech firms, including Tencent, Baidu and ByteDance, plan to integrate R1-0528 into their cloud services for enterprise clients. DeepSeek’s progress signals China’s continued push into globally competitive AI, driven by a young team determined to offer high performance with fewer resources

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NSO asks court to overturn WhatsApp verdict

Israeli spyware company NSO Group has requested a new trial after a US jury ordered it to pay $168 million in damages to WhatsApp.

The company, which has faced mounting legal and financial troubles, filed a motion in a California federal court last week seeking to reduce the verdict or secure a retrial.

The May verdict awarded WhatsApp $444,719 in compensatory damages and $167.25 million in punitive damages. Jurors found that NSO exploited vulnerabilities in the encrypted platform and sold the exploit to clients who allegedly used it to target journalists, activists and political rivals.

WhatsApp, owned by Meta, filed the lawsuit in 2019.

NSO claims the punitive award is unconstitutional, arguing it is over 376 times greater than the compensatory damages and far exceeds the US Supreme Court’s general guidance of a 4:1 ratio.

The firm also said it cannot afford the penalty, citing losses of $9 million in 2023 and $12 million in 2024. Its CEO testified that the company is ‘struggling to keep our heads above water’.

WhatsApp, responding to TechCrunch in a statement, said NSO was once again trying to evade accountability. The company vowed to continue its legal campaign, including efforts to secure a permanent injunction that would prevent NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp or its users again.

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AI data centre boom sparks incentives and pushback

The explosive growth of AI and cloud computing has ignited a data centre building boom across the United States, with states offering massive financial incentives to attract investment.

However, electricity, and water is beginning to meet resistance from lawmakers and local communities concerned about long-term costs and environmental strain.

Dozens of states have rolled out tax exemptions, permitting fast-tracks, and deregulated energy options to lure hyperscale data centres—massive facilities consuming hundreds of megawatts of power.

Kansas, Kentucky, and Arkansas have expanded tax breaks, while Pennsylvania seeks to streamline permitting in hopes of capturing a share of the billions flowing into data infrastructure.

Other states, including West Virginia and Utah, have passed laws enabling data centres to bypass grid operators and buy power directly.

Supporters say data centres deliver high upfront spending and create thousands of construction jobs. However, critics argue the facilities offer few permanent positions, strain public utilities, and place an unfair burden on ratepayers to fund new power plants.

In South Carolina, lawmakers clashed over whether customers should be forced to underwrite infrastructure primarily serving a single tech company.

Meanwhile, some states are beginning to push back. Oregon and Georgia are exploring laws requiring data centres to pay the full cost of the electricity infrastructure they consume.

In Texas, where winter blackouts in 2021 exposed grid fragility, lawmakers are cautiously debating balancing power supply with growing AI and cloud demands amid fears the state could lose investment due to regulatory uncertainty.

As the demand for AI soars, so does the pressure to weigh economic opportunity against sustainability, transparency, and fairness in energy use. The data centre boom may be here to stay—but how states handle it could define their long-term digital and environmental futures.

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Microwave tech offers cleaner path to e-waste recovery

When your old phone or computer reaches the end of its life and heads off for recycling, most of its valuable materials—like steel, aluminium and copper—are recovered with ease. But hidden in its circuitry are tiny specks of rare metals such as gallium, indium and tantalum.

These are critical to modern technology but often lost in current recycling processes, ending up in landfills or repurposed in cement. That might be about to change.

Engineers at West Virginia University have developed a novel method using microwave technology to extract these rare materials more safely and efficiently.

Unlike conventional methods, which rely on toxic chemicals or are too costly to justify, this approach uses electromagnetic waves to target and heat carbon present in e-waste plastics. This creates a reaction with critical minerals, yielding nearly pure, sponge-like metals that can be easily filtered out.

Laboratory tests have already recovered around 80% of gallium, indium and tantalum from e-waste, with purities reaching up to 97%.

Backed by the United States Department of Defense, the researchers are preparing larger pilot projects using smartphones, LED lights and server boards—materials rich in these rare elements. If scaled successfully, the system could recover up to 50 pounds of critical minerals per ton of processed waste.

The urgency is clear. America recycles just 15% of its e-waste, and much of it is exported to countries with lax safety and environmental standards. Gallium alone can cost over $500 per kilogram—making it 50 times more expensive than copper.

The technology’s success could help shift the economics of recycling, turning discarded electronics into a domestic supply of essential materials and reducing reliance on imports from countries like China.

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IIT Bombay and BharatGen lead AI push with cultural datasets

In a landmark effort to support AI research grounded in Indian knowledge systems, IIT Bombay has digitised 30 ancient textbooks covering topics such as astronomy, medicine and mathematics—some dating back as far as 18 centuries.

The initiative, part of the government-backed AIKosh portal, has produced a dataset comprising approximately 218,000 sentences and 1.5 million words, now available to researchers across the country.

Launched in March, AIKosh serves as a national repository for datasets, models and toolkits to foster home-grown AI innovation.

Alongside BharatGen—a consortium led by IIT Bombay and comprising IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIM Indore and IIIT Hyderabad—the institute has contributed 37 diverse models and datasets to the platform.

These contributions include 16 culturally significant datasets from IIT Bombay alone, as well as 21 AI models from BharatGen, which is supported by the Department of Science and Technology.

Professor Ganesh Ramakrishnan, who leads the initiative, said the team is developing sovereign AI models for India, trained from scratch and not merely fine-tuned versions of existing tools.

These models aim to be data- and compute-efficient while being culturally and linguistically relevant. The collection also includes datasets for audio-visual learning—such as tutorials on organic farming and waste-to-toy creation—mathematical reasoning in Hindi and English, image-based question answering, and video-text recognition.

One dataset even features question-answering derived from the works of historian Dharampal. ‘This is about setting benchmarks for the AI ecosystem in India,’ said Ramakrishnan, noting that the resources are openly available to researchers, enterprises and academic institutions alike.

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China creates AI to detect real nuclear warheads

Chinese scientists have created the world’s first AI-based system capable of identifying real nuclear warheads from decoys, marking a significant step in arms control verification.

The breakthrough, developed by the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE), could strengthen Beijing’s hand in stalled disarmament talks, although it also raises difficult questions about AI’s growing role in managing weapons of mass destruction.

The technology builds on a long-standing US–China proposal but faced key obstacles: how to train AI using sensitive nuclear data, gain military approval without risking secret leaks, and persuade sceptical nations like the US to move past Cold War-era inspection methods.

So far, only the AI training has been completed, with the rest of the process still pending international acceptance.

The AI system uses deep learning and cryptographic protocols to analyse scrambled radiation signals from warheads behind a polythene wall, ensuring the weapons’ internal designs remain hidden.

The machine can verify a warhead’s chain-reaction potential without accessing classified details. According to CIAE, repeated randomised tests reduce the chance of deception to nearly zero.

While both China and the US have pledged not to let AI control nuclear launch decisions, the new system underlines AI’s expanding role in national defence.

Beijing insists the AI can be jointly trained and sealed before use to ensure transparency, but sceptics remain wary of trust, backdoor access and growing militarisation of AI.

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Uber’s product chief turns to AI for reports and research

Uber’s chief product officer, Sachin Kansal, is embracing AI to streamline his daily workflow—particularly through tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and, soon, NotebookLM.

Speaking on ‘Lenny’s Podcast,’ Kansal revealed how AI summarisation helps him digest lengthy 50- to 100-page reports he otherwise wouldn’t have time to read. He uses AI to understand market trends and rider feedback across regions such as Brazil, South Korea, and South Africa.

Kansal also relies on AI as a research assistant. For instance, when exploring new driver features, he used ChatGPT’s deep research capabilities to simulate possible driver reactions and generate brainstorming ideas.

‘It’s an amazing research assistant,’ he said. ‘It’s absolutely a starting point for a brainstorm with my team.’

He’s now eyeing Google’s NotebookLM, a note-taking and research tool, as the next addition to his AI toolkit—especially its ‘Audio Overview’ feature, which turns documents into AI-generated podcast-style discussions.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi previously noted that too few of Uber’s 30,000+ employees are using AI and stressed that mastering AI tools, especially for coding, would soon be essential.

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