Economic Archives | Page 367 of 708 | Digital Watch Observatory

Pakistan appoints crypto advisor amid push for Bitcoin mining

Pakistan has named Bilal Bin Saqib special assistant to the prime minister on blockchain and cryptocurrency. He is also chief advisor to the finance minister and CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council.

Bin Saqib studied at the London School of Economics and was honoured with an MBE.

The government plans to use 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity for Bitcoin mining. The move aims to generate revenue, create tech jobs, and attract foreign investment.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao joined the crypto council as an advisor in April.

Despite the push, concerns remain. Foreign direct investment dropped sharply last year. Pakistan has hired a US lobbyist and engaged with World Liberty Financial, a crypto project linked to Donald Trump.

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German court allows Meta to use Facebook and Instagram data

A German court has ruled in favour of Meta, allowing the tech company to use data from Facebook and Instagram to train AI systems. A Cologne court ruled Meta had not breached the EU law and deemed its AI development a legitimate interest.

According to the court, Meta is permitted to process public user data without explicit consent. Judges argued that training AI systems could not be achieved by other equally effective and less intrusive methods.

They noted that Meta plans to use only publicly accessible data and had taken adequate steps to inform users via its mobile apps.

Despite the ruling, the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Centre remains critical, raising concerns about legality and user privacy. Privacy group Noyb also challenged the decision, warning it could take further legal action, including a potential class-action lawsuit.

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Manhattan man accused of holding victim for Bitcoin credentials

A Manhattan-based crypto investor has been charged with kidnapping an Italian man. He allegedly tortured the victim in an attempt to gain access to his Bitcoin wallet.

John Woeltz, 37, was arrested on 24 May and later appeared in court, where he pleaded not guilty to four felony charges, including kidnapping for ransom.

Police said the 28-year-old victim was held inside a rented townhouse in Soho after arriving in the US on 6 May. He was allegedly beaten, electroshocked, and threatened with a firearm when he refused to give up his wallet credentials.

The man eventually escaped and contacted the authorities. Photographs found at the scene appeared to show signs of ongoing abuse.

A woman was also taken into custody, although no charges were filed against her. Investigators have not confirmed whether any cryptocurrency was taken or what the relationship between the parties may have been.

The case comes as more crypto executives and investors seek private security due to a rise in ransom threats. In France, authorities have introduced extra protections for those in the crypto industry.

These measures follow several kidnapping incidents, including the abduction of Ledger co-founder David Balland earlier this year.

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AI regulation offers development opportunity for Latin America

Latin America is uniquely positioned to lead on AI governance by leveraging its social rights-focused policy tradition, emerging tech ecosystems, and absence of legacy systems.

According to a new commentary by Eduardo Levy Yeyati at the Brookings Institution, the region has the opportunity to craft smart AI regulation that is both inclusive and forward-looking, balancing innovation with rights protection.

Despite global momentum on AI rulemaking, Latin American regulatory efforts remain slow and fragmented, underlining the need for early action and regional cooperation.

The proposed framework recommends flexible, enforceable policies grounded in local realities, such as adapting credit algorithms for underbanked populations or embedding linguistic diversity in AI tools.

Governments are encouraged to create AI safety units, invest in public oversight, and support SMEs and open-source innovation to avoid monopolisation. Regulation should be iterative and participatory, using citizen consultations and advisory councils to ensure legitimacy and resilience through political shifts.

Regional harmonisation will be critical to avoid a patchwork of laws and promote Latin America’s role in global AI governance. Coordinated data standards, cross-border oversight, and shared technical protocols are essential for a robust, trustworthy ecosystem.

Rather than merely catching up, Latin America can become a global model for equitable and adaptive AI regulation tailored to the needs of developing economies.

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AI to disrupt jobs, warns DeepMind CEO, as Gen Alpha faces new realities

AI will likely cause significant job disruption in the next five years, according to Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind. Speaking on the Hard Fork podcast, Hassabis emphasised that while AI is set to displace specific jobs, it will also create new roles that are potentially more meaningful and engaging.

He urged younger generations to prepare for a rapidly evolving workforce shaped by advanced technologies. Hassabis stressed the importance of early adaptation, particularly for Generation Alpha, who he believes should embrace AI just as millennials did the internet and Gen Z did smartphones.

Hassabis also called on students to become ‘ninjas with AI,’ encouraging them to understand how these tools work and master them for future success. While he highlighted the potential of generative AI, such as Google’s new Veo 3 video generator unveiled at I/O 2025, Hassabis also reminded listeners that a solid foundation in STEM remains vital.

He noted that soft skills like creativity, resilience, and adaptability are equally essential—traits that will help young people thrive in a future defined by constant technological change. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in industries from education to entertainment, Hassabis’ message is clear – the next generation must balance technical knowledge with human ingenuity to stay ahead in tomorrow’s job market.

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AI agents bring new security risks to crypto

AI agents are becoming common in crypto, embedded in wallets, trading bots and onchain assistants that automate decisions and tasks. At the core of many AI agents lies the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which controls their behaviour and interactions.

While MCP offers flexibility, it also opens up multiple security risks.

Security researchers at SlowMist have identified four main ways attackers could exploit AI agents via malicious plugins. These include data poisoning, JSON injection, function overrides, and cross-MCP calls, all of which can manipulate or disrupt an agent’s operations.

Unlike poisoning AI models during training, these attacks target real-time interactions and plugin behaviour.

The number of AI agents in crypto is growing rapidly, expected to reach over one million in 2025. Experts warn that failing to secure the AI layer early could expose crypto assets to serious threats, such as private key leaks or unauthorised access.

Developers are urged to enforce strict plugin verification, sanitise inputs, and apply least privilege access to prevent these vulnerabilities.

Building AI agents quickly without security measures risks costly breaches. While adding protections may be tedious, experts agree it is essential to protect crypto wallets and funds as AI agents become more widespread.

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Nvidia unveils cheaper AI chip for China

Nvidia is preparing to launch a lower-cost AI chip for China that complies with US export restrictions, with mass production expected to begin as early as June.

The upcoming GPU will be based on the latest Blackwell architecture but will carry reduced specifications compared to the recently restricted H20 model. It is expected to sell for $6,500 to $8,000, significantly cheaper than the $10,000–$12,000 H20, reflecting its simpler design and less advanced components.

Sources say the new chip, likely named either the 6000D or B40, will use GDDR7 memory instead of high-bandwidth memory and will avoid Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s CoWoS packaging technology.

Nvidia had initially planned to downgrade the H20, but tighter US rules made that unviable. Instead of relying on its older Hopper architecture, the company is shifting to Blackwell for future developments in China.

Nvidia has been forced to adapt repeatedly due to tightening US export restrictions aimed at slowing China’s technological progress. Its market share in China has dropped from 95% before 2022 to around 50% today, as competitors like Huawei gain ground with chips like the Ascend 910B.

CEO Jensen Huang noted that continuing restrictions could further drive Chinese firms towards domestic alternatives, cutting Nvidia off from more of the $50 billion data centre market.

Huang also revealed that US curbs have forced Nvidia to write off $5.5 billion in inventory and abandon $15 billion in potential sales. New limits now target GPU memory bandwidth, a key factor for AI performance, capping it at around 1.8 terabytes per second.

The upcoming chip is expected to remain just within this limit, allowing Nvidia to retain a foothold in China instead of exiting the market entirely.

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NotebookLM Improves User Experience With Streamed Answers

Google has updated its AI research assistant, NotebookLM, to display AI responses in real time rather than all at once. This change reduces perceived waiting time by 30 to 40%, according to Simon Tokumine, the product’s lead.

The update follows the tool’s move to using more advanced ‘thinking’ models, which, while more capable, can take longer to generate responses.

NotebookLM, which recently launched mobile apps for iOS and Android, was previously limited to the web. However, the mobile apps currently lack features like Mind Maps and content generation. Still, the new response streaming feature marks a meaningful improvement in user experience.

Additional announcements at Google I/O 2025 include more control over Audio Overviews, allowing users to select shorter or longer summaries based on their preferences. Google also confirmed that Video Overviews are in development, following the positive reception of the audio feature.

While many of these updates are incremental, they reflect Google’s continued investment in refining NotebookLM as a practical, AI-powered research assistant.

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Trump meme coin holders offload tokens before gala dinner

Most top holders of the TRUMP meme coin sold or moved their tokens before attending Donald Trump’s exclusive crypto dinner on Thursday.

Only eight of the 25 wallets that earned VIP access still held TRUMP tokens the next day, data from Solscan shows.

Tron founder Justin Sun was among those who retained his holdings, keeping nearly all of the 1.43 million TRUMP tokens that secured his top spot on the leaderboard.

The wallet linked to MemeCore, a meme coin blockchain, also kept its full balance. However, most other wallets sent their tokens to centralised exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, or Wintermute.

The combined average holdings of the VIP group have dropped to roughly $2.11 million from around $4.78 million. The top two wallets now make up the bulk of the value, holding nearly $37.3 million combined.

Those who sold or transferred their coins will no longer qualify for the limited edition ‘diamond hand’ NFT, which was reserved for loyal holders.

The timing of the sales has raised concerns about potential ‘pay-to-play’ tactics. Some lawmakers say these investments aimed to buy access to Trump, leading to protests and a proposed bill to block his crypto profits.

Senators had already requested an ethics probe ahead of the dinner. Meanwhile, the TRUMP token has fallen 14% in the past 24 hours and is now down over 80% from its January peak.

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Agentic AI could accelerate and automate future cyberattacks, Malwarebytes warns

A new report by Malwarebytes warns that the rise of agentic AI will significantly increase the frequency, sophistication, and scale of cyberattacks.

Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, threat actors have used generative AI to write malware, craft phishing emails, and execute realistic social engineering schemes.

One notable case from January 2024 involved a finance employee who was deceived into transferring $25 million during a video call with AI-generated deepfakes of company executives.

Criminals have also found ways to bypass safety features in AI models using techniques such as prompt chaining, injection, and jailbreaking to generate malicious outputs.

While generative AI has already lowered the barrier to entry for cybercrime, the report highlights that agentic AI—capable of autonomously executing complex tasks—poses a far greater risk by automating time-consuming attacks like ransomware at scale.

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