Over 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV, a chronic infection that remains a leading cause of death. Developing an effective vaccine has proven difficult due to the virus’s rapid mutations and the vast volume of clinical data produced during trials.
Scripps Research has received $1.1 million from CHAVD to purchase high-performance computing and AI technology. The investment lets researchers analyse millions of vaccine candidates faster, speeding antibody identification and refining experimental vaccines.
StepwiseDesign enables the AI system to evaluate vaccine-induced antibodies and identify the most promising candidates for development. The system has found rare antibodies that neutralise HIV in uninfected individuals, showing its ability to detect extremely rare precursors.
Researchers hope the computational framework will not only fast-track HIV vaccine development but also be applied to other complex pathogens, including influenza and malaria. The project highlights collaboration and innovation, with potential to improve global health outcomes for millions at risk.
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According to Microsoft, Azure was hit on 24 October 2025 by a massive multi-vector DDoS attack that peaked at 15.72 terabits per second and unleashed 3.64 billion packets per second on a single endpoint.
The attack was traced to the Aisuru botnet, a Mirai-derived IoT botnet. More than 500,000 unique IP addresses, mostly residential devices, participated in the assault. UDP floods with random ports made the attack particularly potent and harder to spoof.
Azure’s automated DDoS Protection infrastructure handled the traffic surge, filtering out malicious packets in real time and keeping customer workloads online.
From a security-policy viewpoint, this incident underscores how IoT devices continue to fuel some of the biggest cyber threats, and how major cloud platforms must scale defences rapidly to cope.
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai advises people not to unquestioningly trust AI tools, warning that current models remain prone to errors. He told the BBC that users should rely on a broader information ecosystem rather than treat AI as a single source of truth.
Pichai said generative systems can produce inaccuracies and stressed that people must learn what the tools are good at. The remarks follow criticism of Google’s own AI Overviews feature, which attracted attention for erratic and misleading responses during its rollout.
Experts say the risk grows when users depend on chatbots for health, science, or news. BBC research found major AI assistants misrepresented news stories in nearly half of the tests this year, underscoring concerns about factual reliability and the limits of current models.
Google is launching Gemini 3.0, which it claims offers stronger multimodal understanding and reasoning. The company says its new AI Mode in search marks a shift in how users interact with online information, as it seeks to defend market share against ChatGPT and other rivals.
Pichai says Google is increasing its investment in AI security and releasing tools to detect AI-generated images. He maintains that no single company should control such powerful technology and argues that the industry remains far from a scenario in which one firm dominates AI development.
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SAP has announced new partnerships with Bleu, Capgemini, and Mistral AI to advance Europe’s digital sovereignty. The collaboration combines SAP’s expertise in enterprise software with France’s AI ecosystem to develop secure, scalable, and sovereign cloud solutions for governments and regulated sectors.
Bleu and Delos Cloud have established a Franco-German alliance focused on crisis resilience, creating joint capabilities for early detection, analysis, and remediation of cyber incidents. Their cooperation supports rapid response in extreme scenarios and reinforces control over critical infrastructure.
SAP and Capgemini are expanding their partnership to advance sovereign agentic AI and strengthen cybersecurity across Europe. Their new Sovereign Technology Partnership will deliver data management, cloud services, and automation tools for public and regulated sectors.
SAP and Mistral AI are also deepening their collaboration to create Europe’s first full sovereign AI stack. SAP will offer Mistral’s frontier models through its sovereign AI foundation on SAP BTP, while both companies co-develop industry-specific AI applications designed for engineering and R&D workloads.
These partnerships form part of SAP’s broader sovereign cloud strategy, backed by more than €20bn in investment. SAP states that its aim is to provide a secure, compliant, and locally controlled infrastructure that enables innovation while safeguarding European data, assets, and long-term technological independence.
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A new WHO Europe report warns that AI is advancing faster than health policies can keep up, risking wider inequalities without stronger safeguards. AI already helps doctors with diagnostics, reduces paperwork and improves patient communication, yet significant structural safeguards remain incomplete.
The assessment, covering 50 participating countries across the region, shows that governments acknowledge AI’s transformative potential in personalised medicine, disease surveillance and clinical efficiency. Only a small number, however, have established national strategies.
Estonia, Finland and Spain stand out for early adoption- whether through integrated digital records, AI training programmes or pilots in primary care- but most nations face mounting regulatory gaps.
Legal uncertainty remains the most common obstacle, with 86 percent of countries citing unclear rules as the primary barrier to adoption, followed by financial constraints. Fewer than 10 percent have liability standards defining responsibility when AI-driven decisions cause harm.
WHO urged governments to align AI policy with public health goals, strengthen legal and ethical frameworks, improve cross-border data governance and invest in an AI-literate workforce to ensure patients stay at the centre of the transformation.
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Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai recently warned people against having total confidence in artificial intelligence tools. Speaking to the BBC, the head of Google’s parent company stressed that current state-of-the-art AI technology remains ‘prone to errors’ and must be used judiciously alongside other resources.
The executive also addressed wider concerns about a potential ‘AI bubble’ following increased tech valuations and spending across the sector. Pichai stated he believes no corporation, including Google, would be completely safe if such an investment surge were to collapse. He compared the current environment to the early internet boom, suggesting the profound impact of AI will nonetheless remain.
Simultaneously, the largest bank in the US, JPMorgan Chase, is sounding an alarm over market instability. Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chair and chief executive, expressed significant worry over a severe US stock market correction, predicting it could materialise within the next six months to two years. Concerns over the geopolitical climate, expansive fiscal spending, and worldwide remilitarisation are adding to this atmosphere of economic uncertainty.
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SAP and UNESCO have agreed to deploy the AI-supported disaster management system EDiSON in the Solomon Islands.
The platform, created by SAP Japan and the start-up INSPIRATION PLUS, utilises the SAP Business Technology Platform with machine learning to merge real-time meteorological information with historical records, rather than relying on isolated datasets.
A system that delivers predictive insights that help authorities act before severe weather strikes. It anticipates terrain damage, guides emergency services towards threatened areas and supports decisions on evacuation orders.
The initiative aims to serve as a model for other small island states facing similar climate-related pressures.
UNESCO officials say the project strengthens early warning capacity and encourages long-term resilience. EDiSON will become operational in 2026 and aims to offer a scalable approach for nations with limited technical resources.
Its performance in Japan has already demonstrated how integrated data management can overcome fragmented information flows and restricted analytical tools.
The design of EDiSON enables governments to adopt advanced disaster preparedness systems instead of relying on costly, bespoke infrastructure. A partnership that seeks to improve national readiness in the Solomon Islands, where earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones and floods regularly threaten communities.
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Meta has defeated a major antitrust challenge after a US federal judge ruled it does not currently hold monopoly power in social networking. The decision spares the company from being forced to separate Instagram and WhatsApp, which regulators had argued were acquired to suppress competition.
The judge found the Federal Trade Commission failed to prove Meta maintains present-day dominance, noting that the market has been reshaped by rivals such as TikTok. Meta argued it now faces intense competition across mobile platforms as user behaviour shifts rapidly.
FTC lawyers revisited internal emails linked to Meta’s past acquisitions, but the ruling emphasised that the case required proof of ongoing violations.
Analysts say the outcome contrasts sharply with recent decisions against Google in search and advertising, signalling mixed fortunes for large tech firms.
Industry observers note that Meta still faces substantial regulatory pressure, including upcoming US trials regarding children’s mental health and questions about its heavyinvestment in AI.
The company welcomed the ruling and stated that it intends to continue developing products within a competitive market framework.
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The FCC is scheduled this week to vote on rescinding rules imposed in January that required major telecommunications carriers to secure networks from unauthorised access and interception under Section 105 of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.
Current FCC Chair Brendan Carr argues the prior policy exceeded the agency’s legal authority and did not offer flexible or targeted protections. The proposed reversal follows lobbying by major carriers who claim the rules could undermine partnership efforts between public and private sectors.
Lawmakers, including Maria Cantwell, ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, have strongly opposed the move. They describe the Salt Typhoon campaign, attributed to Chinese-linked actors targeting numerous US carriers, as one of the most serious telecom breaches in US history, emphasising that loosening these rules could undermine national security.
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Google has issued an emergency update to fix the seventh Chrome zero-day exploited in attacks this year. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-13223, is caused by a type confusion bug in the browser’s V8 JavaScript engine and was used in the wild before the patch was released.
The company says updates will roll out across the Stable Desktop channel in the coming weeks, though users can install the fix immediately by checking for updates in Chrome’s settings. Google is withholding technical details until most users have upgraded to avoid encouraging further exploitation.
The vulnerability was reported by a member of Google’s Threat Analysis Group and allowed attackers to trigger code execution or browser crashes through malicious HTML pages. It continues a pattern of high-severity zero-days discovered and patched throughout 2025.
Google stresses that prompt updates remain essential, as attackers often target unpatched systems. Automatic updates can help ensure that newly released fixes reach users quickly and reduce exposure to emerging threats.
Security experts also recommend enabling scheduled antivirus scans and using protective features, such as hardened browsers or VPNs. With multiple zero-days already patched this year, analysts say more are likely, and users should keep Chrome’s update settings enabled.
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