Belfer Center Topics

Harvard Project Director Robert Stavins Moderates Climate Action Week Panel on “Strategies for Mitigating Global Methane Emissions”

Belfer Center — Jul 11, 2024

Jul 11, 2024

Efforts to measure and mitigate the impact of methane emissions was the topic of discussion last Monday (June 10, 2024) at a panel convened as part of Climate Action Week in the Northwest Building, sponsored by Harvard’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability and moderated by Harvard Environmental Economics Program and Harvard Project Director Robert Stavins.

The Hacking of Culture and the Creation of Socio-Technical Debt

Belfer Center — Jun 13, 2024

Jun 13, 2024

In an era in which internet companies dominate both public and private life, both power and culture are increasingly corporate, write Kim Córdova and Bruce Schneier.

How Online Privacy Is Like Fishing

Belfer Center — Jun 3, 2024

Jun 3, 2024

In the wake of a Microsoft spying controversy, it’s time for an ecosystem perspective.

AI Will Increase the Quantity — and Quality — of Phishing Scams

Belfer Center — May 30, 2024

May 30, 2024

Gen AI tools are rapidly making these emails more advanced, harder to spot, and significantly more dangerous. Recent research showed that 60% of participants fell victim to artificial intelligence (AI)-automated phishing, which is comparable to the success rates of non-AI-phishing messages created by human experts. Companies need to: 1) understand the asymmetrical capabilities of AI-enhanced phishing, 2) determine the company or division’s phishing threat severity level, and 3) confirm their current phishing awareness routines.

How AI Will Change Democracy

Belfer Center — May 28, 2024

May 28, 2024

Artificial intelligence is coming for our democratic politics, from how politicians campaign to how the legal system functions.

Lattice-Based Cryptosystems and Quantum Cryptanalysis

Belfer Center — May 24, 2024

May 24, 2024

Quantum computers are probably coming—and when they arrive, they will, most likely, be able to break our standard public-key cryptography algorithms.

Seeing Like a Data Structure

Belfer Center — May 23, 2024

May 23, 2024

Our data-centric way of seeing the world isn't serving us well. Barath Raghavan and Bruce Schneier argue that we need new socio-technical systems that leave room for the inherent messiness of reality.

LLMs’ Data-Control Path Insecurity

Belfer Center — May 9, 2024

May 9, 2024

The comingling of data and commands means that large language models are vulnerable to manipulation by prompt injection.

US-China Cooperation Remains Possible

Belfer Center — May 6, 2024

May 6, 2024

Joseph S. Nye advocates for identifying areas for cooperation between the United States and China such as climate change and public health.

Setting a Course for Arctic Research: Arctic Initiative at Arctic Science Summit Week 2024

Belfer Center — Apr 16, 2024

Apr 16, 2024

The Arctic Initiative team helped kick off discussions for the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning Process 2022-2026 (ICARP IV) research priority teams at the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Backdoor in XZ Utils That Almost Happened

Belfer Center — Apr 9, 2024

Apr 9, 2024

The xz Utils backdoor incident reveals that the security of the global internet depends on countless obscure pieces of software written and maintained by even more obscure unpaid, distractible, and sometimes vulnerable volunteers. It’s an untenable situation, and one that is being exploited by malicious actors. Yet precious little is being done to remedy it.

Is Fusion Commercialization in Sight? Not Yet, Says John Holdren

Belfer Center — Apr 3, 2024

Apr 3, 2024

Great progress on nuclear fusion has been made, but commercialization of the technology before 2050 is unlikely, said John Holdren during a United States Energy Association press briefing.

Let’s Not Make the Same Mistakes with AI That We Made with Social Media

Belfer Center — Mar 13, 2024

Mar 13, 2024

Social media’s unregulated evolution over the past decade holds a lot of lessons that apply directly to AI companies and technologies.

How Technoscientific Knowledge Advances: A Bell-Labs-Inspired Architecture

Belfer Center — Feb 22, 2024

Feb 22, 2024

Authors Narayanamurti and Tsao propose a new architecture for how technoscientific knowledge advances, which maps to the actual operational practice of research and development nurtured at the iconic Bell Labs.

Unraveling the Political Dynamics Shaping the U.S. Strategy for Technology Leadership

Belfer Center — Feb 20, 2024

Feb 20, 2024

Although there is broad agreement between the two major parties on the desirability of technology leadership, significant sources of tension—and confusion—persist. By examining the political dynamics that led to the enactment of the CHIPS and Science Act, Constanza M. Vidal Bustamante and Douglass Vijay Calidas probe these tensions and seek to assess their likely impact on the federal technology strategy in the coming years.

Is This a Sputnik Moment?

Belfer Center — Feb 17, 2024

Feb 17, 2024

Kari A. Bingen and Heather W. Williams write that if Russia plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space to target satellites, the threat is definitely serious—and the U.S. should act fast.

CFPB’s Proposed Data Rules Would Improve Security, Privacy and Competition

Belfer Center — Jan 24, 2024

Jan 24, 2024

The collection and sale of consumer data is too lucrative for companies to say no to participating in the data broker economy. New rules proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may help eliminate the incentive for companies to buy and sell consumer data.

AI Needs to Be Both Trusted and Trustworthy

Belfer Center — Jan 8, 2024

Jan 8, 2024

Sensors, actuators, and IoT devices will enable AI to interact with the physical plane on a massive scale. The question is, how does one build trust in its actions?

AI Could Improve Your Life by Removing Bottlenecks Between What You Want and What You Get

Belfer Center — Dec 21, 2023

Dec 21, 2023

Artificial intelligence is poised to remove human limitations inherent in many systems, including information and logistical bottlenecks in decision-making.

From the Frontlines to the Future: Assessing Emerging Technology in Russia's Invasion Strategy and NATO's Next Moves

Belfer Center — Dec 20, 2023

Dec 20, 2023

This piece is a series in the Defense, Emerging Technology, and Strategy (DETS) Program’s analysis on the war in Ukraine, including a corresponding policy brief on Ukraine’s Battlefield Technologies and Lessons for the U.S. published in July 2023.