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Multimodal AI for iot devices requires a new class of MCU

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Tags programming cloud ai infosec servers iot how-to

Context-aware computing enables ultra-low-power operation while maintaining high-performance AI capabilities when needed. The rise of AI-driven IoT devices is pushing the limits of today’s microcontroller unit (MCU) landscape. While AI-powered perception applications—such as voice, facial recognition, object detection, and gesture control—are becoming essential in everything from smart home devices to industrial automation, the hardware available to support them is not keeping pace. By Todd Dust.

You will learn about:

  • Traditional MCUs are Inadequate: The existing landscape of 32-bit MCUs cannot efficiently handle the computational and power requirements of modern AI-driven IoT applications.
  • The Need for Energy Efficiency: Many current AI MCUs are not optimized for the ultra-low-power, always-on nature of IoT devices, leading to poor battery life and performance trade-offs.
  • Multi-Gear Architecture is the Solution: A tiered architecture that dynamically shifts between ultra-low-power, efficiency, and high-performance compute domains is key to balancing power consumption and AI processing needs.
  • Context-Aware Computing: The new approach enables devices to use only the necessary compute power for a given task, from simple environmental monitoring to complex AI inferencing, dramatically improving energy efficiency.
  • Standardization is Crucial: Supporting common platforms like FreeRTOS and Zephyr helps standardize development, making it easier for designers to adopt these advanced MCUs in a rapidly evolving IoT space.

The rise of AI in IoT devices has exposed the limitations of traditional MCUs, which struggle with the performance and power demands of modern workloads. Current AI-ready hardware is often inflexible, proprietary, or repurposed from other domains, resulting in poor energy efficiency for always-on, battery-powered devices. This creates a significant gap in the market for a new class of processors.

To address this, a new multi-tiered MCU architecture offers a more intelligent solution. It uses a “multi-gear” approach with three distinct domains: an ultra-low-power “always-on” tier for constant monitoring, an “efficiency” tier for basic AI tasks, and a “performance” tier for demanding computations. This design dynamically allocates the right amount of power, ensuring high performance when needed while drastically conserving energy during idle or low-intensity periods. This context-aware computing represents a major step forward for creating scalable and efficient AI-enabled IoT devices. Nice one!

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The edge of security: How edge computing is revolutionizing cyber protection

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Tags programming cloud cio infosec servers iot

The traditional centralized model of cloud computing presents significant cybersecurity risks, creating a single point of failure and suffering from latency that can delay critical security updates. Edge computing emerges as a superior, decentralized solution that brings processing power closer to where data is generated. By Andrew Garfield.

Further in this article:

  • Cloud’s Centralized Vulnerability: The centralized architecture of cloud computing creates a single point of failure, making it a prime target for large-scale cyber attacks.
  • Edge Computing as a Decentralized Solution: Edge computing decentralizes processing, bringing it closer to the data source, which reduces latency and improves performance.
  • Real-Time Threat Mitigation: By processing data locally, edge devices can detect and respond to security threats in real-time, minimizing potential damage.
  • Reduced Attack Surface: Edge computing limits the transmission of sensitive data to the cloud, thereby shrinking the overall attack surface and reducing opportunities for data breaches.
  • Growing Adoption in Critical Industries: Sectors like industrial automation, smart cities, and healthcare are already leveraging edge computing to enhance their security posture against sophisticated cyber threats.

This proximity enables real-time threat detection and response, significantly reducing the window for potential attacks. By processing data locally, edge computing also minimizes the attack surface, as less sensitive information needs to be transmitted to the cloud. This paradigm shift is already being adopted in critical sectors like industrial automation, smart cities, and healthcare, proving its effectiveness in safeguarding against modern cyber threats. Edge computing is not just an alternative but the future direction for a more resilient and secure digital infrastructure. The proactive approach to security enables businesses to stay ahead of the threat landscape and minimize the risk of data breaches. Good read!

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Wget to wipeout: Malicious Go modules fetch destructive payload

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Tags programming golang app-development infosec servers

Sockets threat research team uncovered a destructive supply-chain attack targeting Go developers. In April 2025, three malicious Go modules were identified, using obfuscated code to fetch and execute remote payloads that wipe disks clean. The Go ecosystem’s decentralized nature, lacking central gatekeeping, makes it vulnerable to namespace confusion and typosquatting, allowing attackers to disguise malicious modules as legitimate ones. By @socket.dev.

You will learn the following:

  • Go’s open ecosystem, while flexible, is prone to exploitation due to minimal validation.
  • Namespace confusion increases the risk of integrating malicious modules.
  • Obfuscated code can hide catastrophic payloads like disk-wipers.
  • Disk-wiping attacks cause permanent data loss, with no recovery possible.
  • Proactive security, including audits and real-time threat detection, is critical for protection.

The payloads, targeting Linux systems, download a script that overwrites the primary disk with zeros, causing irreversible data loss and rendering systems unbootable. This attack highlights the severe risks in open-source supply chains, potentially leading to operational downtime and significant financial damage. Socket recommends proactive security measures like code audits and dependency monitoring to mitigate such threats. Good read!

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Why Go rocks for building a Lua interpreter

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Tags programming golang app-development web-development google

Roxy Light shares an insightful journey of building a custom Lua interpreter in Go, highlighting the unique aspects of both languages. The project, spanning months, was driven by the inadequacy of existing Lua interpreters for specific needs. Lua, a dynamically typed language, supports various data types like nil, booleans, numbers, and tables, which are crucial for its functionality.

Lua is a dynamically typed language, so any variable can hold any value. Values in Lua can be one of a handful of types. The article also explains:

  • Lua Language Overview: Dynamically typed with diverse data types.
  • Interpreter Structure: Utilizes Go packages for a streamlined pipeline.
  • Data Representation: Go interfaces effectively map to Lua values.
  • Development Advantages: Go’s features ease interpreter construction.
  • Challenges Faced: Notable issues in error handling and library compatibility.

The interpreter’s structure in Go is divided into packages for scanning, parsing, and execution, leveraging Go’s interfaces for Lua value representation. This design choice, along with Go’s garbage collector and testing tools, simplified development compared to the PUC-Rio Lua implementation. Challenges included error handling and compatibility issues with Lua’s standard libraries. Nice one!

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A 10x faster TypeScript

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Tags azure javascript app-development web-development performance

Most developer time is spent in editors, and it’s where performance is most important. We want editors to load large projects quickly, and respond quickly in all situations. Modern editors like Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code have excellent performance as long as the underlying language services are also fast. With our native implementation, we’ll be able to provide incredibly fast editor experiences. By Anders Hejlsberg.

Microsoft is revolutionizing TypeScript with a native port of its compiler and tools, promising a 10x performance boost. Announced by Anders Hejlsberg, this initiative aims to enhance developer experience in large codebases by slashing build times, editor startup, and memory usage. The native implementation, expected by mid-2025, already shows impressive results, with build times for projects like VS Code dropping from 77.8s to 7.5s.

Main points made in the article:

  • Performance Boost: Native TypeScript port offers up to 10x faster build times across various codebases.
  • Editor Efficiency: Editor load times improved by 8x, enhancing developer productivity.
  • Versioning Roadmap: TypeScript 7.0 will introduce the native codebase, with TypeScript 6.x maintained for compatibility.
  • Future Prospects: Enables advanced refactorings and AI tools for an evolved coding experience.

When the native codebase has reached sufficient parity with the current TypeScript, it will be released as TypeScript 7.0. This is still in development and it’ll be announcing stability and feature milestones as they occur. Nice one!

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Anonymize RAG data in IBM Granite and Ollama using HCP Vault

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Tags ibm bots ai miscellaneous cio data-science

This article explores using HCP Vault to anonymize sensitive data in retrieval augmented generation (RAG) workflows with IBM Granite and Ollama. It addresses the risk of large language models (LLMs) leaking personal identifiable information (PII) by employing Vault’s transform secrets engine for data masking and tokenization. A demo illustrates masking credit card numbers and tokenizing billing addresses for vacation rental bookings, ensuring safe data handling in a local test environment using Open WebUI. By Rosemary Wang.

Main points discussed:

  • RAG and PII Risks: RAG enhances LLM output but risks exposing sensitive data like PII, a top concern in OWASP 2025 risks for LLMs.
  • HCP Vault Solution: Vault’s transform secrets engine masks and tokenizes data to prevent leaks.
  • Demo Setup: Uses Terraform to configure Vault, Python scripts for data generation, and Docker for local LLM testing with Ollama and Open WebUI.
  • Data Protection: Masking hides credit card details (non-reversible), while tokenization with convergent encryption allows address analysis without revealing plaintext.
  • Controlled Access: Authorized agents can decode tokenized data via Vault, ensuring security.

By masking or tokenizing sensitive data before augmenting a LLM with RAG, you can protect access to the data and prevent leakage of sensitive information. In this demo, an LLM in testing and other applications by default do not require access to sensitive information like credit card information or billing street address. They can still analyze and provide other information without leaking payment information. Good read!

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How AI bots secretly infiltrated a Reddit forum, sparking ethical outrage

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Tags ai bots miscellaneous cio browsers

In a startling breach of digital trust, researchers from the University of Zurich conducted a secret experiment on Reddit, deploying sophisticated AI bots to influence human opinion on the popular r/changemyview forum. These bots, operating without user or platform consent, adopted convincing human personas—from a rape victim to a Black man critical of the Black Lives Matter movement—and posted over 1,000 comments to sway discussions on contentious topics.

The key points discussed in the article:

  • Non-consensual Research Carries High Risk: Conducting secret AI experiments on public platforms without user or platform consent can lead to severe ethical backlash, community outrage, and potential legal action.
  • AI’s Persuasive Power is Advancing: The experiment demonstrates that AI bots can convincingly mimic complex human identities and engage in nuanced, persuasive arguments on sensitive and contentious topics, raising concerns about manipulation.
  • Ethics vs. Academia: The incident highlights a growing tension between the pursuit of academic research and the ethical standards of online communities and platforms, which prioritize user safety and consent.
  • Enforcement Gaps: Platform-level rules and academic ethics guidelines may not be sufficient to prevent controversial research, especially when institutional recommendations are not legally binding on the researchers.
  • Demand for Transparency: There is a strong and clear demand from users and online communities for transparency and explicit consent when interacting with AI in social spaces, reinforcing the need for clear disclosure.

The revelation has triggered a significant backlash. Reddit has condemned the study as “deeply wrong on both a moral and legal level,” banning the bot accounts and threatening legal action against the university. The subreddit’s moderators, feeling their community was violated, filed an ethics complaint, demanding the research not be published. They emphasized that their forum is a “decidedly human space” and that users do not consent to being experimented upon by AI.

In response to the outcry, the University of Zurich has launched an investigation, and the researchers have agreed not to publish their findings. The incident serves as a stark case study on the ethical minefield of AI research in public online spaces, highlighting the growing conflict between academic inquiry and the fundamental rights of digital citizens to transparency and consent. Interesting read!

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How to improve JVM-based application startup time?

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Tags cloud jvm java app-development performance

Optimizing JVM startup time is vital for many applications. This post explores various strategies, comparing their effectiveness through benchmarking a simple Netty server. Class Data Sharing (CDS) and its evolution, AppCDS, cache class data to reduce initialization overhead. By Michał Zyga.

This article then dives into the following:

  • Caching class data (CDS/AppCDS) is a fundamental optimization
  • AOT compilation (GraalVM) provides fast startup but has trade-offs
  • Process snapshots (CRaC) can enable rapid restarts with potential for peak performance
  • Project Leyden promises further improvements in startup speed
  • Consider platform compatibility and application requirements when choosing a method

GraalVM leverages ahead-of-time compilation for faster startup but presents challenges with dynamic code and platform compatibility. CRaC uses process snapshots for rapid restarts, potentially maintaining peak performance but demanding code modifications and primarily supporting Linux. Project Leyden, still under development, aims to further accelerate startup by including more data in the archive. Benchmarks reveal that AppCDS offers a substantial improvement over CDS, while CRaC and GraalVM provide the fastest startup times. The best approach depends on factors like application complexity, desired performance level, and target platform. good read

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Evogene and Google Cloud unveil foundation model for generative molecule design

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Tags cloud data-science gcp big-data google

Evogene and Google Cloud are accelerating life science discovery with ChemPass AI, a generative AI foundation model focused on small-molecule design. Launched in May, this collaboration dramatically reduces the time and cost associated with identifying novel drug candidates and crop protection agents. ChemPass AI’s core strength lies in its ability to simultaneously optimize multiple critical properties – potency, toxicity, stability, and bioavailability – within a single molecule generation cycle, surpassing previous approaches. By Antoine Tardif.

Unlike traditional methods that focus on trial-and-error, ChemPass utilizes transformer neural networks trained on a massive chemical dataset—estimated at 40 billion molecules—to understand complex relationships between structure and property. The model’s multi-objective optimization proactively guides the AI towards optimal design, mitigating risks associated with complex drug discovery. Recent evaluations suggest ChemPass AI exhibits notable performance and accuracy improvements, particularly regarding novelty generation. Initial tests showed that the model consistently generated molecules significantly more diverse than baseline GPT models, exhibiting a 30-40% increase in chemical space exploration. Critically, the model’s predictive accuracy for efficacy – specifically, predicting how well a molecule would interact with a target protein – increased by approximately 15% compared to existing models.

This integration extends beyond just molecule generation; it includes broader tools like MicroBoost AI, facilitating a holistic approach to chemical data analysis. The partnership strategically positions Evogene as a leader in AI-driven innovation across multiple sectors – pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and materials science. The move underscores the growing importance of AI in revolutionizing R&D—potentially impacting billions of dollars in research and development costs globally.

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Exclusive-OpenAI taps Google in unprecedented cloud deal despite AI rivalry

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Tags cloud ai gcp google

OpenAI is collaborating with Alphabet’s Google Cloud, a move designed to address the escalating demand for high-powered computing infrastructure required by AI models. The agreement, finalized in May, represents a substantial expansion of Google’s cloud services, signaling a broadening strategic focus beyond Microsoft’s Azure. The primary goal appears to be to meet OpenAI’s projected $10 billion annualized revenue, driven primarily by the training and operation of large language models, as well as inference tasks. This partnership isn’t simply about adding capacity; it’s a calculated move to aggressively contest Google’s market share within cloud computing and AI. It’s a dynamic where two giants are vying for control of the most important technology – AI. By CNA.

Key points in the announcement:

  • Strategic Focus: Google’s strategy centers around bolstering its cloud infrastructure through a combined effort with OpenAI
  • Competitive Pressure: The deal amplifies the competitive tension between Google and OpenAI in the AI space
  • Cloud Hardware Advantage: Google’s TPUs are crucial to this strategic shift, positioning it as a hardware-software partner
  • Ecosystem Implications: This collaboration has the potential to reshape the entire cloud computing ecosystem

The implications extend beyond just increased revenue. Google’s expansion of its own in-house chip, Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), further positions it as a key player in hardware and software convergence within the cloud space. The deal also underscores the evolving competitive landscape; ChatGPT is forcing Google to re-evaluate its approach to AI-driven cloud offerings – potentially impacting existing customer relationships and investment strategies. The long-term impact on the overall cloud market could be substantial, driving further innovation and consolidation.

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