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Tech CEOs warn Senate: Outdated US power grid threatens AI ambitions

The implications are clear: without dramatic improvements to the US energy infrastructure, the nation’s AI ambitions could be significantly constrained by simple physical limitations – the inability to power the massive computing clusters necessary for advanced AI development and deployment. Streamlining permitting processes The tech executives have offered specific recommendations to address these challenges, with […]

The implications are clear: without dramatic improvements to the US energy infrastructure, the nation’s AI ambitions could be significantly constrained by simple physical limitations – the inability to power the massive computing clusters necessary for advanced AI development and deployment.

Streamlining permitting processes

The tech executives have offered specific recommendations to address these challenges, with several focusing on the need to dramatically accelerate permitting processes for both energy generation and the transmission infrastructure needed to deliver that power to AI facilities, the report added.

Intrator specifically called for efforts “to streamline the permitting process to enable the addition of new sources of generation and the transmission infrastructure to deliver it,” noting that current regulatory frameworks were not designed with the urgent timelines of the AI race in mind.

This acceleration would help technology companies build and power the massive data centers needed for AI training and inference, which require enormous amounts of electricity delivered reliably and consistently.

Beyond the cloud: bringing AI to everyday devices

While much of the testimony focused on large-scale infrastructure needs, AMD CEO Lisa Su emphasized that true AI leadership requires “rapidly building data centers at scale and powering them with reliable, affordable, and clean energy sources.”

Su also highlighted the importance of democratizing access to AI technologies: “Moving faster also means moving AI beyond the cloud. To ensure every American benefits, AI must be built into the devices we use every day and made as accessible and dependable as electricity.”

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Nutanix expands beyond HCI

The Pure Storage integration will also be supported within Cisco’s FlashStack offering, creating a “FlashStack with Nutanix” solution with storage provided by Pure, networking capabilities as well as UCS servers from Cisco, and then the common Nutanix Cloud Platform. Cloud Native AOS: Breaking free from hypervisors Another sharp departure from

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IBM introduces new generation of LinuxOne AI mainframe

In addition to generative AI applications, new multiple model AI approaches are engineered to enhance prediction and accuracy in many industry use cases like advanced fraud detection, image processing and retail automation, according to IBM. LinuxONE Emperor 5 also comes with advanced security features specifically designed for the AI threat

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PJM, utilities urge FERC to dismiss call for colocation settlement talks

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should reject a call for a 90-day pause in its deliberations over the PJM Interconnection’s rules for colocating data centers at power plants, according to PJM, major utilities and other organizations. “The national interest will be best served by a quick dismissal of this proceeding, and a ruling that the existing PJM Tariff remains just and reasonable,” PJM transmission owners said in a Wednesday filing urging FERC to dismiss a call for stakeholder settlement talks. “Rather than fighting about a wish list of new rules, the parties will then instead begin to focus on obtaining service under the rules in place today.” The transmission owners include utility companies such as American Electric Power, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Exelon, FirstEnergy and PPL Electric. “The record is clear — no matter how connected to the PJM transmission system, large loads pose both a safety and a reliability concern,” the utilities said. “It is unrealistic to ask the [transmission owners] to accede to these demands in the context of settlement procedures while those questions remain unresolved.” PJM also wants FERC to ignore the call for settlement discussions that was made in late April by the Electric Power Supply Association, the PJM Power Providers Group, Calpine, Cogentrix Energy Power Management, Constellation Energy Generation and LS Power Development. “The Commission should not pause its work on offering the industry guidance on a path forward for co-location arrangements,” PJM said in a Monday filing. The call for settlement talks lacks broad stakeholder support, PJM said, noting it is holding a workshop on “large load” issues on Friday. American Municipal Power, a wholesale power provider for public power utilities, and Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative and Northeastern Rural Electric Membership Corp. also oppose holding settlement talks. Beside the power generators and trade organizations,

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IRA’s fate unclear as Republicans look to finance megabill

Dive Brief: The Inflation Reduction Act – which passed in 2022 without any Republican support and is anticipated to cost taxpayers between $780 billion and $2 trillion over its first ten years – is likely to be targeted for cuts as the Republican-controlled Congress aims to cut spending by $2 trillion in order to cut taxes by $4.5 trillion. However, certain provisions of the IRA have won support with Republican lawmakers, setting up likely disagreements over cuts in the budget reconciliation process. That process is already expected to be “very contentious,” said Harry Godfrey, who leads Advanced Energy United’s federal investment and manufacturing working group. “[House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith] and the Ways and Means Republicans will need revenue and will be seeking it, and have been saying all along that the IRA is an area they’re going to look at,” said Ryan Abraham, a principal with Ernst & Young’s Washington Council advisory practice. “But obviously there are some concerns among some members.” Dive Insight: Abraham noted the May 1 letter sent by 26 House Republicans to Chairman Smith, advocating for the preservation of the IRA’s 45U, 45Y, and 48E tax credits. The letter advocates on behalf of nuclear power specifically, “[urging Smith] to maintain federal investment in the existing nuclear energy fleet while accelerating deployment of the next generation of nuclear power technologies.” The 45U credit is the IRA’s zero-emission nuclear power production credit, while 48E and 45Y are technology-neutral credits, which were targeted in legislation introduced in April by Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D. “There’s a lot of concern that some of the bonus items that have been created in the IRA, like direct pay and transferability, which were also in that Fedorchak bill, could also get targeted,” Abraham said. However, he said, “Chairman Smith is aware

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Energy Department Aligns Award Criteria for For-profit, Non-profit Organizations, and State and Local Governments, Saving $935 Million Annually

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced three new policy actions that are projected to save more than $935 million annually for the American taxpayer, while expanding American innovation and scientific research. In three new policy memorandums, the DOE announced that it will follow best practices used by fellow grant providers and limit “indirect costs” of DOE funding to 10% for state and local governments, 15% for non-profit organizations, and 15% for for-profit companies. The Energy Department expects to generate over $935 million in annual cost savings for the American people, delivering on President Trump’s commitment to bring greater transparency and efficiency to federal government spending. Estimated savings are based on applying the new policies to 2024 fiscal year spending. “This action ensures that Department of Energy funds are supporting state, local, for-profit and non-profit initiatives that make energy more affordable and secure for Americans, not funding administrative costs,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said. “By aligning our policy on indirect costs with industry standards, we are increasing accountability of taxpayer dollars and ensuring the American people are getting the greatest value possible from these DOE programs.” These policy actions follow an announcement made in April to limit financial support of “indirect costs” of DOE research funding at colleges and universities to 15%, saving an estimated additional $405 million annually. By enacting indirect cost limits, the Department aligns its practices with those common for other grant providers. The full three memorandums are available below: POLICY FLASH SUBJECT: Adjusting Department of Energy Financial Assistance Policy for State and Local Governments’ Financial Assistance Awards BACKGROUND: Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(a)(2), the Department of Energy (“Department”) is updating its policy with respect to Department financial assistance funding awarded to state and local governments. Through its financial assistance programs (which include grants and cooperative agreements),

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BP-Shell Megadeal Would Create European Rival to Exxon Mobil

If Shell Plc were to acquire BP Plc, it would be among the largest deals in European history, creating for the first time a European oil major that could challenge industry leaders Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. The circumstances for such a takeover might not be auspicious for BP — its shares have lost almost a third of their value in the last year and investors are unconvinced by the company’s turnaround plan — but the deal would be transformative for Shell. Since Bloomberg reported that Shell has been studying the merits of an acquisition — something both companies have so far declined to comment on — analysts have been gaming out both the upsides and downsides. Here are some of their conclusions: Oil Behemoth Combining the two London-based oil majors would create an energy giant with upstream oil and gas production of nearly 5 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, according to UBS Group. This would be an 85% increase from Shell’s current output of about 2.7 million barrels a day, making the combined company the largest investor-owned oil and gas producer. Exxon produced an average of 4.6 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the first quarter, while Chevron pumped 3.4 million a day.  Adding BPX, the Denver-based US shale unit, to Shell’s portfolio would go some way to correct the company’s decision to sell its business in the Permian basin to ConocoPhillips in 2021, just before the industry experienced a major boom. Shell’s then-upstream director, Wael Sawan, is now chief executive officer.  LNG Dominance  Shell is already the world’s largest seller of liquefied natural gas, and acquiring BP would propel the business “to new heights,” said RBC. The combined companies’ LNG sales would jump to more than 90 million tonnes a year, representing more than 20%

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Devon Sells Stake in Permian Gas Pipeline

Devon Energy Corp. and Ridgemont Equity Partners are divesting their interests in a natural gas pipeline serving the Permian Basin with a capacity of about 2.5 billion cubic feet a day. Put onstream November 2024, the Matterhorn Express Pipeline is fully contracted. The system consists of a 510-mile mainline and associated compression that carries gas from the Waha area to Wharton, Texas. It also has delivery capabilities for Katy, Texas, as well as laterals in the Midland Basin, according to operator WhiteWater Development LLC. The stake sales by Devon and Ridgemont will result in WhiteWater, MPLX LP and Enbridge Inc. owning 65 percent, 10 percent and 10 percent of the pipeline respectively, according to a joint statement. “WhiteWater’s equity interest in the Matterhorn Express Pipeline will be jointly backed by [infrastructure investors] FIC and I Squared, and WhiteWater will continue to operate the Matterhorn Express Pipeline”, said the statement posted on WhiteWater’s website. The parties expect to complete the transactions in the second quarter. MPLX separately said its side of the transaction consists of a 5 percent acquisition that would raise its stake to 10 percent for a purchase price of $151 million. Devon separately said it will receive about $375 million in proceeds. “Proceeds from the divestiture will be used to further strengthen the company’s investment-grade financial position”, it said in its quarterly report. “The monetization of Devon’s equity ownership will not change the terms or conditions of the company’s secured capacity on the pipeline”. In a separate transaction, Devon said in the report its partnership with BPX for the Blackhawk field in the Eagle Ford shale had been dissolved. That dissolution has resulted in Devon owning around 46,000 net acres with a stake of 95 percent and operatorship. For the first quarter (Q1), Devon reported $494 million in net profit.

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UK and Norway sign green energy industrial partnership amid difficult week for Labour

The UK and Norway have formalised a green industrial partnership focused on the energy transition amid a week of setbacks for Labour’s clean power goals. UK energy secretary Ed Miliband travelled to Oslo to sign the deal alongside Norway’s trade and industry minister Cecilie Myrseth and energy minister Terje Aasland. The two governments first announced the partnership in December last year, stating their ambition to cooperate on carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. Alongside CCS, the partnership will also focus on hydrogen, offshore wind, sustainable energy systems, green supply chains and joint efforts on skills development. The UK government said it will also feature collaboration on the protection of UK and Norwegian offshore infrastructure and reducing barriers to cross-border CO2 storage. An independent report found that closer cooperation between the UK and Norway could create up to 51,000 jobs and add up to £36 billion to the UK economy. © Leon Neal/PA WirePrime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store tour the Northern Lights CCUS Plant CO2 transport and storage facility in Bergen, during a trip to Norway. Image: Leon Neal/PA Wire The Norwegian government said the UK is the country’s second-largest trading partner after the EU, with total trade in 2024 coming to approximately £38bn. More than 200 Norwegian firms operate in the UK, including Equinor, Statkraft Vårgrønn, which altogether employ over 15,000 people. In a statement, Miliband said that together, Norway and the UK can “take advantage of the opportunities ahead in the North Sea”. “Energy security is national security – and only by working with key partners like Norway can we accelerate clean power that we control, getting us off the rollercoaster of fossil fuels in these unstable times,” Miliband said. Meanwhile, Aasland said the two countries “have a unique relationship in the

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Tech CEOs warn Senate: Outdated US power grid threatens AI ambitions

The implications are clear: without dramatic improvements to the US energy infrastructure, the nation’s AI ambitions could be significantly constrained by simple physical limitations – the inability to power the massive computing clusters necessary for advanced AI development and deployment. Streamlining permitting processes The tech executives have offered specific recommendations to address these challenges, with several focusing on the need to dramatically accelerate permitting processes for both energy generation and the transmission infrastructure needed to deliver that power to AI facilities, the report added. Intrator specifically called for efforts “to streamline the permitting process to enable the addition of new sources of generation and the transmission infrastructure to deliver it,” noting that current regulatory frameworks were not designed with the urgent timelines of the AI race in mind. This acceleration would help technology companies build and power the massive data centers needed for AI training and inference, which require enormous amounts of electricity delivered reliably and consistently. Beyond the cloud: bringing AI to everyday devices While much of the testimony focused on large-scale infrastructure needs, AMD CEO Lisa Su emphasized that true AI leadership requires “rapidly building data centers at scale and powering them with reliable, affordable, and clean energy sources.” Su also highlighted the importance of democratizing access to AI technologies: “Moving faster also means moving AI beyond the cloud. To ensure every American benefits, AI must be built into the devices we use every day and made as accessible and dependable as electricity.”

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Networking errors pose threat to data center reliability

Still, IT and networking issues increased in 2024, according to Uptime Institute. The analysis attributed the rise in outages due to increased IT and network complexity, specifically, change management and misconfigurations. “Particularly with distributed services, cloud services, we find that cascading failures often occur when networking equipment is replicated across an entire network,” Lawrence explained. “Sometimes the failure of one forces traffic to move in one direction, overloading capacity at another data center.” The most common causes of major network-related outages were cited as: Configuration/change management failure: 50% Third-party network provider failure: 34% Hardware failure: 31% Firmware/software error: 26% Line breakages: 17% Malicious cyberattack: 17% Network overload/congestion failure: 13% Corrupted firewall/routing tables issues: 8% Weather-related incident: 7% Configuration/change management issues also attributed for 62% of the most common causes of major IT system-/software-related outages. Change-related disruptions consistently are responsible for software-related outages. Human error continues to be one of the “most persistent challenges in data center operations,” according to Uptime’s analysis. The report found that the biggest cause of these failures is data center staff failing to follow established procedures, which has increased by about 10 percentage points compared to 2023. “These are things that were 100% under our control. I mean, we can’t control when the UPS module fails because it was either poorly manufactured, it had a flaw, or something else. This is 100% under our control,” Brown said. The most common causes of major human error-related outages were reported as:

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Liquid cooling technologies: reducing data center environmental impact

“Highly optimized cold-plate or one-phase immersion cooling technologies can perform on par with two-phase immersion, making all three liquid-cooling technologies desirable options,” the researchers wrote. Factors to consider There are numerous factors to consider when adopting liquid cooling technologies, according to Microsoft’s researchers. First, they advise performing a full environmental, health, and safety analysis, and end-to-end life cycle impact analysis. “Analyzing the full data center ecosystem to include systems interactions across software, chip, server, rack, tank, and cooling fluids allows decision makers to understand where savings in environmental impacts can be made,” they wrote. It is also important to engage with fluid vendors and regulators early, to understand chemical composition, disposal methods, and compliance risks. And associated socioeconomic, community, and business impacts are equally critical to assess. More specific environmental considerations include ozone depletion and global warming potential; the researchers emphasized that operators should only use fluids with low to zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) values, and not hydrofluorocarbons or carbon dioxide. It is also critical to analyze a fluid’s viscosity (thickness or stickiness), flammability, and overall volatility. And operators should only use fluids with minimal bioaccumulation (the buildup of chemicals in lifeforms, typically in fish) and terrestrial and aquatic toxicity. Finally, once up and running, data center operators should monitor server lifespan and failure rates, tracking performance uptime and adjusting IT refresh rates accordingly.

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Cisco unveils prototype quantum networking chip

Clock synchronization allows for coordinated time-dependent communications between end points that might be cloud databases or in large global databases that could be sitting across the country or across the world, he said. “We saw recently when we were visiting Lawrence Berkeley Labs where they have all of these data sources such as radio telescopes, optical telescopes, satellites, the James Webb platform. All of these end points are taking snapshots of a piece of space, and they need to synchronize those snapshots to the picosecond level, because you want to detect things like meteorites, something that is moving faster than the rotational speed of planet Earth. So the only way you can detect that quickly is if you synchronize these snapshots at the picosecond level,” Pandey said. For security use cases, the chip can ensure that if an eavesdropper tries to intercept the quantum signals carrying the key, they will likely disturb the state of the qubits, and this disturbance can be detected by the legitimate communicating parties and the link will be dropped, protecting the sender’s data. This feature is typically implemented in a Quantum Key Distribution system. Location information can serve as a critical credential for systems to authenticate control access, Pandey said. The prototype quantum entanglement chip is just part of the research Cisco is doing to accelerate practical quantum computing and the development of future quantum data centers.  The quantum data center that Cisco envisions would have the capability to execute numerous quantum circuits, feature dynamic network interconnection, and utilize various entanglement generation protocols. The idea is to build a network connecting a large number of smaller processors in a controlled environment, the data center warehouse, and provide them as a service to a larger user base, according to Cisco.  The challenges for quantum data center network fabric

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Zyxel launches 100GbE switch for enterprise networks

Port specifications include: 48 SFP28 ports supporting dual-rate 10GbE/25GbE connectivity 8 QSFP28 ports supporting 100GbE connections Console port for direct management access Layer 3 routing capabilities include static routing with support for access control lists (ACLs) and VLAN segmentation. The switch implements IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging, port isolation, and port mirroring for traffic analysis. For link aggregation, the switch supports IEEE 802.3ad for increased throughput and redundancy between switches or servers. Target applications and use cases The CX4800-56F targets multiple deployment scenarios where high-capacity backbone connectivity and flexible port configurations are required. “This will be for service providers initially or large deployments where they need a high capacity backbone to deliver a primarily 10G access layer to the end point,” explains Nguyen. “Now with Wi-Fi 7, more 10G/25G capable POE switches are being powered up and need interconnectivity without the bottleneck. We see this for data centers, campus, MDU (Multi-Dwelling Unit) buildings or community deployments.” Management is handled through Zyxel’s NebulaFlex Pro technology, which supports both standalone configuration and cloud management via the Nebula Control Center (NCC). The switch includes a one-year professional pack license providing IGMP technology and network analytics features. The SFP28 ports maintain backward compatibility between 10G and 25G standards, enabling phased migration paths for organizations transitioning between these speeds.

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Engineers rush to master new skills for AI-driven data centers

According to the Uptime Institute survey, 57% of data centers are increasing salary spending. Data center job roles that saw the highest increases were in operations management – 49% of data center operators said they saw highest increases in this category – followed by junior and mid-level operations staff at 45%, and senior management and strategy at 35%. Other job categories that saw salary growth were electrical, at 32% and mechanical, at 23%. Organizations are also paying premiums on top of salaries for particular skills and certifications. Foote Partners tracks pay premiums for more than 1,300 certified and non-certified skills for IT jobs in general. The company doesn’t segment the data based on whether the jobs themselves are data center jobs, but it does track 60 skills and certifications related to data center management, including skills such as storage area networking, LAN, and AIOps, and 24 data center-related certificates from Cisco, Juniper, VMware and other organizations. “Five of the eight data center-related skills recording market value gains in cash pay premiums in the last twelve months are all AI-related skills,” says David Foote, chief analyst at Foote Partners. “In fact, they are all among the highest-paying skills for all 723 non-certified skills we report.” These skills bring in 16% to 22% of base salary, he says. AIOps, for example, saw an 11% increase in market value over the past year, now bringing in a premium of 20% over base salary, according to Foote data. MLOps now brings in a 22% premium. “Again, these AI skills have many uses of which the data center is only one,” Foote adds. The percentage increase in the specific subset of these skills in data centers jobs may vary. The Uptime Institute survey suggests that the higher pay is motivating workers to stay in the

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Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs).  In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

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John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

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2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for enterprise AI. The past year has seen rapid innovation, and this year will see the same. This has made it more critical than ever to revisit your AI strategy to stay competitive and create value for your customers. From scaling AI agents to optimizing costs, here are the five critical areas enterprises should prioritize for their AI strategy this year. 1. Agents: the next generation of automation AI agents are no longer theoretical. In 2025, they’re indispensable tools for enterprises looking to streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. Unlike traditional software, agents powered by large language models (LLMs) can make nuanced decisions, navigate complex multi-step tasks, and integrate seamlessly with tools and APIs. At the start of 2024, agents were not ready for prime time, making frustrating mistakes like hallucinating URLs. They started getting better as frontier large language models themselves improved. “Let me put it this way,” said Sam Witteveen, cofounder of Red Dragon, a company that develops agents for companies, and that recently reviewed the 48 agents it built last year. “Interestingly, the ones that we built at the start of the year, a lot of those worked way better at the end of the year just because the models got better.” Witteveen shared this in the video podcast we filmed to discuss these five big trends in detail. Models are getting better and hallucinating less, and they’re also being trained to do agentic tasks. Another feature that the model providers are researching is a way to use the LLM as a judge, and as models get cheaper (something we’ll cover below), companies can use three or more models to

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OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has taken a more aggressive approach to red teaming than its AI competitors, demonstrating its security teams’ advanced capabilities in two areas: multi-step reinforcement and external red teaming. OpenAI recently released two papers that set a new competitive standard for improving the quality, reliability and safety of AI models in these two techniques and more. The first paper, “OpenAI’s Approach to External Red Teaming for AI Models and Systems,” reports that specialized teams outside the company have proven effective in uncovering vulnerabilities that might otherwise have made it into a released model because in-house testing techniques may have missed them. In the second paper, “Diverse and Effective Red Teaming with Auto-Generated Rewards and Multi-Step Reinforcement Learning,” OpenAI introduces an automated framework that relies on iterative reinforcement learning to generate a broad spectrum of novel, wide-ranging attacks. Going all-in on red teaming pays practical, competitive dividends It’s encouraging to see competitive intensity in red teaming growing among AI companies. When Anthropic released its AI red team guidelines in June of last year, it joined AI providers including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and even the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which all had released red teaming frameworks. Investing heavily in red teaming yields tangible benefits for security leaders in any organization. OpenAI’s paper on external red teaming provides a detailed analysis of how the company strives to create specialized external teams that include cybersecurity and subject matter experts. The goal is to see if knowledgeable external teams can defeat models’ security perimeters and find gaps in their security, biases and controls that prompt-based testing couldn’t find. What makes OpenAI’s recent papers noteworthy is how well they define using human-in-the-middle

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