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What's inside AI’s black box? | Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump | More
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January 27, 2025

Close-up of the top of the Doomsday Clock against a grey background. The top of the Clock, which looks like the top-left quarter of an analog clock with circles standing in for the numbers, appears with the minute and hour hands situated close to midnight.

(Jamie Christiani)

Tomorrow: Join us for the 2025 Doomsday Clock announcement

The announcement will be held on January 28th at 10:00am EST/1500 GMT. Tune in via livestream.

Speakers include members of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board alongside Juan Manuel Santos, chair of The Elders, former president of Colombia, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Read more.

A letter from Kim Jong Un to Donald Trump, penned by two top US experts

By Robert L. Carlin, Siegfried S. Hecker

"There is considerable speculation about how President Trump will deal with Kim a second time around—and how Kim may respond."

Two experts from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies write a hypothetical Kim-to-Trump letter based on their understanding of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Read more.

Why nobody can see inside AI's black box

By Abi Olvera

AI companies don't fully understand how their models work, and they aren't making the training data available to outside researchers. "With generative AI rapidly reshaping society, from medical diagnoses to classroom teaching, academic and independent researchers are pursuing parallel investigations: They hope to crack open the AI 'black box' to understand its decision-making, while rigorously studying how these systems affect the real-world." Read more.

The Trump administration's health communications "pause" is unique 

By Matt Field

The long history of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report "is now on at least temporary hold." The Report has previously been at the center of allegations of political interference by the Trump administration. Read more.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Nothing is more powerful at chilling speech and encouraging self-censorship than the feeling that your entire digital world, which probably touches your whole world, could be invaded by people who mean you harm simply because of what you're doing at work [...] Simply because you're concerned about rising sea levels."

— John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at the Citizen Lab, University of Toronto, "The U.S. is trying to unravel a hacking plot that targeted climate activists," NPR

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