Welcome to the February 26, 2025 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• Weather Forecasting Takes Big Step Forward with Europe's New AI System
• Korean Researchers Enhance DNA Storage Technology with File Access System
• Government-Forced Internet Disruptions Hit Record High
• OpenAI Uncovers Evidence of AI-Powered Chinese Surveillance Tool
• Yoshua Bengio Proposes 'Scientist AI' to Mitigate Catastrophic Risks from Superintelligent Agents
• Apple Announces Billions in U.S. Investment After Trump Meeting
• Tiny 6-Gram Robot Swims Through Tight Spaces with Ease
• Large Language Models Pose Growing Security Risks
• Despite 2024 Layoffs, Tech Jobs Expected to Take Off
• Google AI Co-Scientist to Aid Biomedical Researchers
• Diagnosing Diabetes, HIV, COVID from a Blood Sample with AI Tool
• Hackers Steal $1.5 Billion from Exchange Bybit in Biggest-Ever Crypto Heist

Weather Forecasting Takes Big Step Forward with Europe's New AI System

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has launched an AI forecasting system that can predict a tropical cyclone track 12 hours ahead. It also was found to be 20% more accurate than conventional forecasting methods for predictions up to 15 days ahead. The system predicts standard temperature, precipitation, and wind, as well as solar radiation and wind speeds at 100 meters, the height of a typical wind turbine, which will be useful data for the renewable energy sector.
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Korean Researchers Enhance DNA Storage Technology with File Access System

Researchers at South Korea’s Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul National University, and biotech company ATG Lifetech have developed a new method for locating and manipulating specific files within DNA data. The new method eliminates the need to design and synthesize a pair of primers for each DNA file, instead allowing the use of barcodes at the single base level. The researchers said the new method increased the number of distinguishable DNA files by at least 74 million times.
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Government-Forced Internet Disruptions Hit Record High

A report by digital civil rights nonprofit Access Now identified 296 government-imposed Internet shutdowns in 54 countries in 2024, with more governments using them to silence dissenters during conflicts, protests, and elections. Myanmar bumped India out of the top spot for the first time since 2018 with 85 shutdowns, versus 84 in India. More than 70% (210) of the total shutdowns occurred in India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Russia.
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OpenAI Uncovers Evidence of AI-Powered Chinese Surveillance Tool

OpenAI said it found evidence that a Chinese security operation developed an AI-powered surveillance tool to assemble real-time reports about anti-Chinese posts on Western social media. OpenAI researchers discovered the tool when one of its developers used OpenAI's models to debug its underlying computer code. The researchers also identified another campaign in which Chinese developers used OpenAI's technologies to produce English-language posts that were critical of Chinese dissidents.
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Yoshua Bengio Proposes 'Scientist AI' to Mitigate Catastrophic Risks from Superintelligent Agents

ACM A.M. Turing Award laureate Yoshua Benjio is among the AI researchers who proposed "Scientist AI," an AI system trained to explain the world based on observations. Unlike agentic AIs, which they described as “unsafe,” Scientist AI is not trained to pursue a goal, but to explain events and estimate their probability. The researchers said the system does not use reinforcement learning, which can “easily lead to goal misspecification and misgeneralization.”
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Apple Announces Billions in U.S. Investment After Trump Meeting

Following CEO Tim Cook’s recent meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, Apple said it would invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. The plan includes the development of a production line for AI computer servers in Houston and a multi-billion-dollar commitment to purchase computer chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s Arizona factory. However, Apple did not commit to building any of its products in the U.S.
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Tiny 6-Gram Robot Swims Through Tight Spaces with Ease

A six-gram flexible swimming robot developed by researchers at Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne can carry more than its weight and navigate tight spaces. Propelled by silently undulating fins that enable it to travel up to 12 cm (2.6 body lengths) per second, the robot is equipped with four artificial muscles to move the fins, allowing it to turn and swim forward, backward, and sideways. Additionally, the robot can identify and follow light sources autonomously.
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Large Language Models Pose Growing Security Risks

In the absence of government policy on the security of large language models (LLMs), companies face new cybersecurity challenges from them, particularly the unstructured and conversational nature of user interactions. In addition to the possibility of employees inputting sensitive corporate data into LLMs, companies should be concerned that information generated by LLMs could contain malicious code, infringe on intellectual property, or violate copyright. Further, threat actors can use prompt injection attacks to manipulate models to perform certain actions.
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Despite 2024 Layoffs, Tech Jobs Expected to Take Off

Layoffs.fyi reported a slowdown in the pace of global tech sector layoffs last year, when more than 150,000 jobs were cut at hundreds of companies. Now the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is forecasting a 9% increase in U.S. employment for electrical engineers from 2023 to 2033, versus a 4% gain among all occupations. BLS anticipates a 15% jump in demand over that period for electrical and electronics engineers in semiconductor manufacturing.
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Google AI Co-Scientist to Aid Biomedical Researchers

An AI tool developed by Google and tested by researchers at Stanford University and the U.K.'s Imperial College London is intended to serve as an assistant to biomedical scientists. The multi-agent AI co-scientist helps researchers synthesize literature and produce novel hypotheses through the use of advanced reasoning. In tests involving liver fibrosis, Google found the tool recommended promising solutions for disease prevention and indicated it could improve the solutions it provides over time.
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Diagnosing Diabetes, HIV, COVID from a Blood Sample with AI Tool

Stanford University computer scientists have developed an AI tool that can screen immune-cell gene sequences in blood samples to diagnose such conditions as COVID-19, type 1 diabetes, HIV, and lupus or determine whether an individual has received the flu vaccine. The tool contains six machine-learning models that can analyze gene sequences encoding key regions in B-cell and T-cell receptors and detect patterns indicating certain diseases.
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Hackers Steal $1.5 Billion from Exchange Bybit in Biggest-Ever Crypto Heist

Threat actors associated with the North Korean state-sponsored hacking collective Lazarus Group have stolen $1.5 billion from the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit in the biggest crypto heist reported so far. The attackers gained access to Bybit's offline secure storage system, known as a cold wallet. The funds, mainly in ether, were transferred among numerous wallets and then liquidated using several platforms. Tom Robinson of the blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said the hackers' addresses have been labeled in its software to stop cash-outs of the stolen funds via other exchanges.
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