The Download: reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy use, and Caiwei Chen’s three things

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The Download: reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy use, and Caiwei Chen’s three things

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Four reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy usage Two weeks ago, we launched Power Hungry, a new series shining a light on the energy demands and carbon costs of the artificial intelligence revolution. It raised some worrying issues, not least the incredible energy demands of AI video generation. But there are also reasons to be hopeful: innovations that could improve the efficiency of the software behind AI models, the computer chips those models run on, and the data centers where those chips hum around the clock. Here’s what you need to know about how energy use, and therefore carbon emissions, could be cut across all three of those domains, plus an added argument for cautious optimism: the underlying business realities may ultimately bend toward more energy-efficient AI. Read the full story and check out the rest of the package here. —Will Douglas Heaven 3 Things Caiwei Chen is into right now In each issue of our print magazine, we ask a member of staff to tell us about three things they’re loving at the moment. For our latest edition, which was all about creativity, we asked our China reporter Caiwei Chen to give us an insight into her life. Check out her recommendations here, and subscribe to catch future editions here. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 DOGE’s efforts are slowing down federal agenciesEven though the taskforce was assembled under the guise of doing the exact opposite. (WP $)+ The Trump administration wants to slash the federal workforce even further. (AP News)+ Right wing politicians in the UK are trying to ape DOGE. (The Guardian)+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review) 2 AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio wants to build ‘honest’ AIHis new non-profit will develop a system to catch deceptive agents. (The Guardian)+ Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming. (MIT Technology Review) 3 The FDA is launching an agency-wide AI toolIt’s designed to help scientific reviewers and others to streamline their work. (Axios)+ Restoring “gold standard science” is easier said than done. (Ars Technica) 4 A Neuralink rival has successfully inserted a brain implant into a patientIt’s a first step towards longer trials for startup Paradromics. (Wired $)+ What to expect from Neuralink in 2025. (MIT Technology Review) 5 The FTC is investigating US advertising and advocacy groups It’s probing whether they violated antitrust law by coordinating boycotts. (NYT $) 6 How Alibaba AI models leapfrogged Meta’sAfter initial struggles, Alibaba is now the world’s open-source leader. (The Information $) 7 AI is shaking up how your home maintenance services operateFrom plumbers and electricians to roofers and heating specialists. (WSJ $) 8 Why it’s so difficult to track down critical mineralsThey’re vital for clean energy, and demand for them is surging.(Vox)+ The race to produce rare earth elements. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Tinder is testing out a height filterWhich doesn’t seem very fair on the world’s short kings. (Mashable) 10 Animal cloning is big businessSome people will go to great lengths to keep their pets alive. (The Atlantic $)+ Game of clones: Colossal’s new wolves are cute, but are they dire? (MIT Technology Review) Quote of the day “If we build AIs that are smarter than us and are not aligned with us and compete with us, then we’re basically cooked.” —Yoshua Bengio, an academic regarded as one of the godfathers of AI, warns about the dangers of putting AI progress before safety, the Financial Times reports. One more thing A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?In the fall of 2020, gig workers in Venezuela posted a series of images to online forums where they talk shop. The photos were mundane, if sometimes intimate, household scenes—including a particularly revealing shot of a young woman in a lavender T-shirt sitting on the toilet, her shorts pulled down to mid-thigh.The images were not taken by a person, but by development versions of iRobot’s Roomba robot vacuum, a company now owned by Amazon. They were then sent to Scale AI, a startup that contracts workers around the world to label data used to train artificial intelligence. In 2022, MIT Technology Review obtained 15 screenshots of these private photos, which had been posted to closed social media groups. The images speak to the growing practice of sharing potentially sensitive data to train algorithms. They also reveal a whole data supply chain—and new points where personal information could leak out—that few consumers are even aware of. Read the full story.—Eileen Guo We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + How cool are Latvia’s passports?+ Not only are seals incredibly smart, they’re a dab hand (flipper?) at video games 🦭+ A slice of New Jersey crumb cake and a cup of tea, please.+ Happy world bicycle day to all who celebrate!

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Four reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy usage

Two weeks ago, we launched Power Hungry, a new series shining a light on the energy demands and carbon costs of the artificial intelligence revolution.

It raised some worrying issues, not least the incredible energy demands of AI video generation. But there are also reasons to be hopeful: innovations that could improve the efficiency of the software behind AI models, the computer chips those models run on, and the data centers where those chips hum around the clock.

Here’s what you need to know about how energy use, and therefore carbon emissions, could be cut across all three of those domains, plus an added argument for cautious optimism: the underlying business realities may ultimately bend toward more energy-efficient AI. Read the full story and check out the rest of the package here.

—Will Douglas Heaven

3 Things Caiwei Chen is into right now

In each issue of our print magazine, we ask a member of staff to tell us about three things they’re loving at the moment. For our latest edition, which was all about creativity, we asked our China reporter Caiwei Chen to give us an insight into her life. Check out her recommendations here, and subscribe to catch future editions here.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 DOGE’s efforts are slowing down federal agencies
Even though the taskforce was assembled under the guise of doing the exact opposite. (WP $)
+ The Trump administration wants to slash the federal workforce even further. (AP News)
+ Right wing politicians in the UK are trying to ape DOGE. (The Guardian)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

2 AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio wants to build ‘honest’ AI
His new non-profit will develop a system to catch deceptive agents. (The Guardian)
+ Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The FDA is launching an agency-wide AI tool
It’s designed to help scientific reviewers and others to streamline their work. (Axios)
+ Restoring “gold standard science” is easier said than done. (Ars Technica)

4 A Neuralink rival has successfully inserted a brain implant into a patient
It’s a first step towards longer trials for startup Paradromics. (Wired $)
+ What to expect from Neuralink in 2025. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The FTC is investigating US advertising and advocacy groups
It’s probing whether they violated antitrust law by coordinating boycotts. (NYT $)

6 How Alibaba AI models leapfrogged Meta’s
After initial struggles, Alibaba is now the world’s open-source leader. (The Information $)

7 AI is shaking up how your home maintenance services operate
From plumbers and electricians to roofers and heating specialists. (WSJ $)

8 Why it’s so difficult to track down critical minerals
They’re vital for clean energy, and demand for them is surging.(Vox)
+ The race to produce rare earth elements. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Tinder is testing out a height filter
Which doesn’t seem very fair on the world’s short kings. (Mashable)

10 Animal cloning is big business
Some people will go to great lengths to keep their pets alive. (The Atlantic $)
+ Game of clones: Colossal’s new wolves are cute, but are they dire? (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“If we build AIs that are smarter than us and are not aligned with us and compete with us, then we’re basically cooked.”

—Yoshua Bengio, an academic regarded as one of the godfathers of AI, warns about the dangers of putting AI progress before safety, the Financial Times reports.

One more thing

A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?

In the fall of 2020, gig workers in Venezuela posted a series of images to online forums where they talk shop. The photos were mundane, if sometimes intimate, household scenes—including a particularly revealing shot of a young woman in a lavender T-shirt sitting on the toilet, her shorts pulled down to mid-thigh.

The images were not taken by a person, but by development versions of iRobot’s Roomba robot vacuum, a company now owned by Amazon. They were then sent to Scale AI, a startup that contracts workers around the world to label data used to train artificial intelligence.

In 2022, MIT Technology Review obtained 15 screenshots of these private photos, which had been posted to closed social media groups. The images speak to the growing practice of sharing potentially sensitive data to train algorithms. They also reveal a whole data supply chain—and new points where personal information could leak out—that few consumers are even aware of. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ How cool are Latvia’s passports?
+ Not only are seals incredibly smart, they’re a dab hand (flipper?) at video games 🦭
+ A slice of New Jersey crumb cake and a cup of tea, please.
+ Happy world bicycle day to all who celebrate!

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Stay ahead with more perspectives on cutting-edge power, infrastructure, energy, bitcoin and AI solutions. Explore these articles to uncover strategies and insights shaping the future of industries.

AMD acquires Brium to loosen Nvidia’s grip on AI software

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GenAI controls and ZTNA architecture set SSE vendors apart

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TotalEnergies Acquires Low Carbon’s UK Renewables Portfolio

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Sonardyne Secures Monitoring Deal for NEP CCS Project

Sonardyne International Ltd. has won the bid to provide baseline environmental monitoring services for the UK’s first offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) site. The company said in a media release that it has been contracted by the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) of BP plc, Equinor ASA, and TotalEnergies SE. NEP is the developer of the onshore and offshore infrastructure needed to transport carbon dioxide (CO2) from carbon capture projects across Teesside and the Humber – collectively known as the East Coast Cluster – for storage under the North Sea. Sonardyne said it will implement environmental monitoring through seabed landers at crucial spots above and around the subsurface Endurance site – the saline aquifer situated 145 kilometers (90.1 miles) from the Teesside coast, where captured CO2 will be stored. “NEP is at the forefront of driving the UK’s journey to net zero in securing a permit for carbon capture and storage at the Endurance site. Our collaboration with Sonardyne to monitor the storage site plays a critical role in ensuring carbon is stored safely and securely”, Sarah Buchanan, BP Subsurface Manager, said. Site monitoring will start in the summer of 2026 for two years before CO2 transportation and storage begins. Seabed landers will use the Edge data processing app, power management, and acoustic communications for remote deployment. Each lander will feature the Origin 600 ADCP, Wavefront’s passive sonar array, and various third-party sensors to detect changes in water chemistry, Sonardyne said. Data will be collected wirelessly without retrieving the landers. Monitoring is crucial for ensuring the safe containment of CO2, reassuring stakeholders, and fostering public confidence in CCS initiatives, the company stated. “We are delighted to be working with NEP in delivering cutting-edge marine technology to ensure their safe and successful offshore carbon storage operations”, Stephen Auld, Business Development Manager for Custom

Oil Falls as Saudi Arabia Seeks More Major Production Hikes

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Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Prices for Asia as OPEC+ Adds More Barrels

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Amazon, Google exploring all options for meeting growing power needs

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BlackRock Escapes Texas Oil-Boycott List After ESG Retreat

BlackRock Inc. was removed from Texas’ blacklist of companies that boycott fossil fuels, ending a three-year standoff over the environmental policies of the world’s largest asset manager. The move means pension funds and other state-run investment accounts — which manage more than $300 billion of assets — will be allowed to purchase BlackRock shares, invest in its exchange-traded funds and hire the firm for advice and risk management. Inclusion on the list resulted in some Texas entities pulling billions of dollars of assets from the firm. State Comptroller Glenn Hegar said BlackRock had rolled back many of its green-focused initiatives, including exiting the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative and stepping back from the Climate Action 100+, a group devoted to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The move marks a win for BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink, who has been courting Texas leaders. Last year, he took the stage with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick at a summit focused on shoring up the state’s energy grid, and just months ago BlackRock sponsored a table at the Black Tie & Boots Gala, a celebration of conservative politics in Texas. The company is also backing a Dallas-based Texas Stock Exchange. “We appreciate the Comptroller’s resolution of this matter,” a spokesperson for the firm said in a statement. “BlackRock is proud to help millions of Texans retire with dignity and, on behalf of clients, invests over $400 billion in corporations, local governments, energy infrastructure and other private assets throughout the state. These investments support the continued growth of the Texas economy.” Hegar touted some of BlackRock’s steps. He said while they are “unrelated” to the listing decision, the actions “show a real commitment to overall policy changes and a desire to act as a trusted partner in the growth of the Texas economy.” The company was a major target for conservative activists for years, with

LiquidStack launches cooling system for high density, high-powered data centers

The CDU is serviceable from the front of the unit, with no rear or end access required, allowing the system to be placed against the wall. The skid-mounted system can come with rail and overhead piping pre-installed or shipped as separate cabinets for on-site assembly. The single-phase system has high-efficiency dual pumps designed to protect critical components from leaks and a centralized design with separate pump and control modules reduce both the number of components and complexity. “AI will keep pushing thermal output to new extremes, and data centers need cooling systems that can be easily deployed, managed, and scaled to match heat rejection demands as they rise,” said Joe Capes, CEO of LiquidStack in a statement. “With up to 10MW of cooling capacity at N, N+1, or N+2, the GigaModular is a platform like no other—we designed it to be the only CDU our customers will ever need. It future-proofs design selections for direct-to-chip liquid cooling without traditional limits or boundaries.”

Enterprises face data center power design challenges

” Now, with AI, GPUs need data to do a lot of compute and send that back to another GPU. That connection needs to be close together, and that is what’s pushing the density, the chips are more powerful and so on, but the necessity of everything being close together is what’s driving this big revolution,” he said. That revolution in new architecture is new data center designs. Cordovil said that instead of putting the power shelves within the rack, system administrators are putting a sidecar next to those racks and loading the sidecar with the power system, which serves two to four racks. This allows for more compute per rack and lower latency since the data doesn’t have to travel as far. The problem is that 1 mW racks are uncharted territory and no one knows how to manage the power, which is considerable now. ”There’s no user manual that says, hey, just follow this and everything’s going to be all right. You really need to push the boundaries of understanding how to work. You need to start designing something somehow, so that is a challenge to data center designers,” he said. And this brings up another issue: many corporate data centers have power plugs that are like the ones that you have at home, more or less, so they didn’t need to have an advanced electrician certification. “We’re not playing with that power anymore. You need to be very aware of how to connect something. Some of the technicians are going to need to be certified electricians, which is a skills gap in the market that we see in most markets out there,” said Cordovil. A CompTIA A+ certification will teach you the basics of power, but not the advanced skills needed for these increasingly dense racks. Cordovil

HPE Nonstop servers target data center, high-throughput applications

HPE has bumped up the size and speed of its fault-tolerant Nonstop Compute servers. There are two new servers – the 8TB, Intel Xeon-based Nonstop Compute NS9 X5 and Nonstop Compute NS5 X5 – aimed at enterprise customers looking to upgrade their transaction processing network infrastructure or support larger application workloads. Like other HPE Nonstop systems, the two new boxes include compute, software, storage, networking and database resources as well as full-system clustering and HPE’s specialized Nonstop operating system. The flagship NS9 X5 features support for dual-fabric HDR200 InfiniBand interconnect, which effectively doubles the interconnect bandwidth between it and other servers compared to the current NS8 X4, according to an HPE blog detailing the new servers. It supports up to 270 networking ports per NS9 X system, can be clustered with up to 16 other NS9 X5s, and can support 25 GbE network connectivity for modern data center integration and high-throughput applications, according to HPE.

AI boom exposes infrastructure gaps: APAC’s data center demand to outstrip supply by 42%

“Investor confidence in data centres is expected to strengthen over the remainder of the decade,” the report said. “Strong demand and solid underlying fundamentals fuelled by AI and cloud services growth will provide a robust foundation for investors to build scale.” Enterprise strategies must evolve With supply constrained and prices rising, CBRE recommended that enterprises rethink data center procurement models. Waiting for optimal sites or price points is no longer viable in many markets. Instead, enterprises should pursue early partnerships with operators that have robust development pipelines and focus on securing power-ready land. Build-to-suit models are becoming more relevant, especially for larger capacity requirements. Smaller enterprise facilities — those under 5MW — may face sustainability challenges in the long term. The report suggested that these could become “less relevant” as companies increasingly turn to specialized colocation and hyperscale providers. Still, traditional workloads will continue to represent up to 50% of total demand through 2030, preserving value in existing facilities for non-AI use cases, the report added. The region’s projected 15 to 25 GW gap is more than a temporary shortage — it signals a structural shift, CBRE said. Enterprises that act early to secure infrastructure, invest in emerging markets, and align with power availability will be best positioned to meet digital transformation goals. “Those that wait may find themselves locked out of the digital infrastructure they need to compete,” the report added.

Cisco bolsters DNS security package

The software can block domains associated with phishing, malware, botnets, and other high-risk categories such as cryptomining or new domains that haven’t been reported previously. It can also create custom block and allow lists and offers the ability to pinpoint compromised systems using real-time security activity reports, Brunetto wrote. According to Cisco, many organizations leave DNS resolution to their ISP. “But the growth of direct enterprise internet connections and remote work make DNS optimization for threat defense, privacy, compliance, and performance ever more important,” Cisco stated. “Along with core security hygiene, like a patching program, strong DNS-layer security is the leading cost-effective way to improve security posture. It blocks threats before they even reach your firewall, dramatically reducing the alert pressure your security team manages.” “Unlike other Secure Service Edge (SSE) solutions that have added basic DNS security in a ‘checkbox’ attempt to meet market demand, Cisco Secure Access – DNS Defense embeds strong security into its global network of 50+ DNS data centers,” Brunetto wrote. “Among all SSE solutions, only Cisco’s features a recursive DNS architecture that ensures low-latency, fast DNS resolution, and seamless failover.”

HPE Aruba unveils raft of new switches for data center, campus modernization

And in large-scale enterprise environments embracing collapsed-core designs, the switch acts as a high-performance aggregation layer. It consolidates services, simplifies network architecture, and enforces security policies natively, reducing complexity and operational cost, Gray said. In addition, the switch offers the agility and security required at colocation facilities and edge sites. Its integrated Layer 4 stateful security and automation-ready platform enable rapid deployment while maintaining robust control and visibility over distributed infrastructure, Gray said. The CX 10040 significantly expands the capacity it can provide and the roles it can serve for enterprise customers, according to one industry analyst. “From the enterprise side, this expands on the feature set and capabilities of the original 10000, giving customers the ability to run additional services directly in the network,” said Alan Weckel, co-founder and analyst with The 650 Group. “It helps drive a lower TCO and provide a more secure network.” Aimed as a VMware alternative Gray noted that HPE Aruba is combining its recently announced Morpheus VM Essentials plug-in package, which offers a hypervisor-based package aimed at hybrid cloud virtualization environments, with the CX 10040 to deliver a meaningful alternative to Broadcom’s VMware package. “If customers want to get out of the business of having to buy VM cloud or Cloud Foundation stuff and all of that, they can replace the distributed firewall, microsegmentation and lots of the capabilities found in the old VMware NSX [networking software] and the CX 10k, and Morpheus can easily replace that functionality [such as VM orchestration, automation and policy management],” Gray said. The 650 Group’s Weckel weighed in on the idea of the CX 10040 as a VMware alternative:

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.

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

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

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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