Until now, most scientists have said that outer space is 100 kilometers away.

A country’s sovereign airspace theoretically extends to the (disputed) boundary with space.

The benefits include higher resolution imagery: World View’s investor presentation claims sensor resolutions of 3 to 5 centimeters per pixel, compared to the 50 cm per pixel resolution that is top of line in space-based Earth observation. The balloons also offer more persistent monitoring by floating above one location for weeks at a time, whereas Earth observation satellites can typically gather data a few times a day at most. World View already has a partnership with Maxar, a leading satellite firm with an extensive remote-sensing business.

Axiom, a space company that flies passengers to the International Space Station and is developing its own space station, said this week that most of the demand for passenger services is coming from governments without their own space programs, not tourists with deep pockets.

But the dream of space fanatics is a proper nuclear rocket, one using a fission reactor to run an engine two to three times more powerful than any motor dependent on combusting fossil fuels. Launched into space on a conventional rocket, it could shorten trips to Mars or give the Space Force unprecedented maneuverability. Last week, NASA and DARPA, the US military’s advanced tech lab, announced a collaborative project called DRACO to build and test exactly such a vehicle.

Deep space missions regularly rely on nuclear power, using the heat emitted by radioactive substances to generate electricity without an atom-splitting chain reaction. NASA’s Perseverance rover, currently exploring the surface of Mars, is powered by one of these devices.

Asteroid miners prepare for launch. AstroForge, which wants to pluck platinum-group metals from near-Earth objects, plans to launch a payload in April that will demonstrate the ability to mine metals in space. The company also expects to launch another spacecraft onboard Intuitive Machines’ lunar mission later this year that will fly to a target asteroid and assess its viability for future mining.

training for women, with a special focus on digital expertise.

The focus is to be increasingly on software solutions (digital health),

stimulating the creation of jobs offering decent working conditions. It fo-cuses in particular on the promising industries of the future, such as information and communica-tion technologies (ICT),

Support digitalisation of the African economyThe BMZ aims to effectively support the rapidly developing digital economy, for example through the Make-IT in Africa initiative, the establishment of digicentres and activities to assist African initiatives including the Smart Africa Alliance. It helps African partner countries to enhance the economic and political framework for digital transformation, to create digital markets, provide secure, universal internet access and bridge the “digital divide” within the population. It is also fostering legal standards and data privacy regulations, for example through Team Europe Initiatives such as the African European Digital Innovation Bridge Network and the EU-AU Data Flagship

digital infrastructure and health infrastructure, the BMZ aims to mobilise invest-ment –

Support the AfCFTA and ensure trade agreements are pro-development

That seems likely to change in the next few weeks, when an uncrewed lander becomes the first commercial vehicle to touch down on the Moon

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, space law’s foundational text, is showing its age. It dates back to the era when only governments had access to space. And it states that no claims of sovereignty can be made, on the Moon or elsewhere. Efforts to update the treaty to establish rules around resource extraction have run into the lunar regolith. America has refused to sign the Moon Agreement, adopted by 18 countries in 1984, whereas China and Russia have rejected America’s latest proposal, the Artemis accords of 2020.

Of 178 successful missions in 2022, 90 were by companies (in many cases subcontracted by governments), and of those 61 were by one firm, SpaceX.

growing support for a ban on anti-satellite weapons tests as one sign of progress, but that effort came after a series of particularly messy orbital tests, and can be seen as an effort to limit Chinese and Russian weapons development.

global governance: Rules for space traffic management, protocols for space debris mitigation and removal, and norms for economic activity in space, from resource extraction to property rights.

OpenAI is developing a tool for “statistically watermarking the outputs of a text [AI system].” Whenever a system — say, ChatGPT — generates text, the tool would embed an “unnoticeable secret signal” indicating where the text came from.

he expressed the belief that, if OpenAI can demonstrate that watermarking works and doesn’t impact the quality of the generated text, it has the potential to become an industry standard.Not everyone agrees. As Devadas points out, the tool needs a key, meaning it can’t be completely open source — potentially limiting its adoption to organizations that agree to partner with OpenAI. (If the key were to be made public, anyone could deduce the pattern behind the watermarks, defeating their purpose.)But it might not be so far-fetched. A representative for Quora said the company would be interested in using such a system, and it likely wouldn’t be the only one.

“If [it] becomes a free-for-all, then a lot of the safety measures do become harder, and might even be impossible, at least without government regulation,”

Unaffiliated academics and industry experts, however, shared mixed opinions.

OpenAI’s watermarking tool acts like a “wrapper” over existing text-generating systems, Aaronson said during the lecture, leveraging a cryptographic function running at the server level to “pseudorandomly” select the next token. In theory, text generated by the system would still look random to you or I, but anyone possessing the “key” to the cryptographic function would be able to uncover a watermark.

“We want it to be much harder to take [an AI system’s] output and pass it off as if it came from a human,” Aaronson said in his remarks. “This could be helpful for preventing academic plagiarism, obviously, but also, for example, mass generation of propaganda — you know, spamming every blog with seemingly on-topic comments supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without even a building full of trolls in Moscow. Or impersonating someone’s writing style in order to incriminate them.”

Alongside funding for military jets and naval warships, the new $857.9 billion US defense spending bill includes a program to fund musical exchanges around the globe. Dubbed the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act, the legislation funds US State Department cultural exchange projects that encourage artistic collaboration across borders.

People using the stimulator and their physicians could no longer access the proprietary software needed to recalibrate the device and maintain its effectiveness.

has readers fretting about space debris and traffic management. Given the attention to the problem, it’s unfair to say that this will sneak up on us, but the lack of urgency around addressing space safety might leave us with a nasty surprise. The leak in the Soyuz spacecraft at the ISS, likely caused by a micrometeroid impact, may be a warning for congested space lanes to come. It’s a champagne problem, in the sense that space junk worries us because of the growing value of space activity. But as I will ruefully attest on Jan. 1, champagne problems can still hurt.

Robots are headed for the moon en masse: Attempted landings from companies including Japan’s iSpace, Intuitive Machines (two different missions!), Astrobotic, plus robots built by space agencies in Japan, India, and Russia.

China’s new space station will be complete, and western researchers have already started signing up to collaborate there. Will we see a non-Chinese astronaut visit?

Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine, for example, has been a debacle, but it put an incredible spotlight everything changing in space. One of Russia’s first acts of war was hacking satellite communications networks, while SpaceX’s Starlink network became a vital tool for Ukrainian resistance. The public, along with intelligence agencies and militaries, relied on satellite data to understand and prosecute the fighting. Drones and missiles that rely on satellite navigation and communications have become central to the conflict. AdvertisementIt’s not the first “space war”—the 1990 Gulf War typically gets that distinction—but never before have space assets been so front and center.

internationally agreed legal framework

Promoting open, secure, peacefuland cooperative ICT environment

ECOWAS Programme on the Promotion of Digital Skills and Digital Entrepreneurship for Youth

The legal framework as provided by ECOWAS to regulate electronic transactions

seven nations onboard with a moratorium on destructive tests of anti-satellite weapons

he FCC adopted new rules for defunct satellites.

Firefly gets to orbit. The company has put satellites on orbit with the first launch of its Alpha rocket.

ViaSat merges with Inmarsat

the first Russian astronaut to depart from the US since the days of the Space Shuttle

when NASA announced that it would study the feasibility of a privately led and funded mission that would use a Dragon to boost the Hubble space telescope to a higher altitude, thus extending the operational life of the flagship observatory

measures taken to realize the vision set forward in this framework should be proportionate with the extent and nature of the harm, or risk of harm, to people’s rights, opportunities, and access.

a two-part test to determine what systems are in scope. This framework applies to (1) automated systems that (2) have the potential to meaningfully impact the American public’s rights, opportunities, or access to critical resources or services

Automated systems should be developed with consultation from diverse communities, stakeholders, and domain experts to identify concerns, risks, and potential impacts of the system

this framework is accompanied by From Principles to Practice—a handbook for anyone seeking to incorporate these protections into policy and practice, including detailed steps toward actualizing these principles in the technological design process

five principles that should guide the design, use, and deployment of automated systems to protect the American public in the age of artificial intelligence. The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights is a guide for a society that protects all people from these threats—and uses technologies in ways that reinforce our highest values.

ICTs for the environment

option of telecommunications/ICTs and improving digital skills

e-health and e-education

tudy Group Questions

Fostering telecommunication/ICT-centric entrepreneurshipand digital innovation ecosystems for sustainable digital development

he ITU Partner2Connect Digital Coalition

Connecting every school to the Internet and every young person to information and communication technology services

ESOLUTION WGPLEN/1 (Kigali, 2022)Digitaltransformation for sustainable development

RESOLUTION 85(Rev. Kigali, 2022)Facilitating the Internet of Things and smart sustainable cities and communities for global development

RESOLUTION 76(Rev. Kigali, 2022)Promoting information and communication technologiesamong young women and men for socialand economic empowerment

RESOLUTION 67(Rev. Kigali, 2022)The role of the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector in child online protection

RESOLUTION66(Rev. Kigali, 2022)Information and communication technology, environment, climate change and circular economy

RESOLUTION 58(Rev. Kigali, 2022)Telecommunication/information and communication technology accessibility for persons with disabilities and persons with specific needs

RESOLUTION55(Rev.Kigali, 2022)Mainstreaming a gender perspective1in ITU to enhance women's empowerment through telecommunications/ICTs

RESOLUTION 46(Rev.Kigali, 2022)Assistance toindigenouspeoples and communities through information and communication technologies

RESOLUTION45(Rev. Kigali, 2022)Mechanisms for enhancing cooperation on cybersecurity, including countering and combating spam

RESOLUTION 40(Rev.Kigali, 2022)Group on capacity-building initiatives

RESOLUTION 37(Rev. Kigali, 2022)Bridging the digital divide

RESOLUTION 34(Rev. Kigali, 2022)The role of telecommunications/information and communication technology in disaster preparedness, early warning, rescue, mitigation, relief and response

RESOLUTION 15(Rev. Kigali, 2022)Applied research and transfer of technolo

RESOLUTION 11(Rev.Kigali, 2022)Telecommunication/information and communication technology services in rural, isolated and poorly served areas

RESOLUTION 5(Rev. Kigali, 2022)Enhanced participation by developing countries1in the activities of the Union

Resolutions

REGIONAL INITIATIVES

Implementation of ITU-D Priorities

Affordable Connectivity

Promoting international cooperation and partnership among ITU membership and development-oriented stakeholders for achieving sustainable development using telecommunication/ICT-centric digital technologies.

Providing support to and cooperating with developing countries, LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS in addressingtheir constraints for accessing digital-centric new and emerging telecommunication/ICT technologies and services and for the integration thereof into different sectors, such as government services, agriculture, education, health, finance, transport, etc

Promoting sound, open, transparent, collaborative and future-proof policy and regulatory decisions with a view to facilitating digital transformation in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. We will implement innovative strategies and policy/regulatory initiatives to bridge the widening digital divides by enabling universal, secure and affordable broadband connectivity and promoting increased digital inclusion, while enhancing confidence and security in the use of telecommunication/ICT infrastructure and services. As such, we will develop and implement policy/regulatory frameworks to help ensure infrastructure resiliency, interoperability and protection of data, as well as increase broadband uptake. Besides, we will adopt effective plans to develop and enhance digital capacities and skills that are required in the online world, without which the digital divides will continue to widen

bold and innovative national plans and recovery strategies for ensuring governance, business, education and social-life continuity. This includes providing the necessary platforms and networks for essential activities such as teleworking, e-commerce, remote learning, telemedicine and digital financial services, while paying special attention to the needs of women and girls, persons with disabilities and persons with specific needs, the elderly and children, and at the same time preparing the ground for future developments in the post-COVID-19 era

We are also fully committed to tackling environmental and climate-change issues, notably in implementing telecommunication/ICT tools to mitigate the impact of climate change and addressing the impact of telecommunications/ICTs on the environment, in collaboration with users, the private sector, policy-makers and regulators

Accelerating the expansion and use of efficient and up-to-date digital infrastructures, services and applications for building and further developing the digital economy,including mobilization of financial resources for providing universal, secure and affordable broadband connectivity to the unconnected as soon as possible. This will also include promoting investments in broadband infrastructure deployment, adoption and acces

Digital inclusionis a necessity, and insufficient digital capacity and lack of digital skills are core barriers to digital transformation and the digital economy. The demand for digitally skilled workers will increase with the accelerated move towards digital transformation. While many jobs have been and will be lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital transformation and the digital economy can nurture new ICT-centric jobs. Education and capacity building for youth, and their access to digital skills and tools, are essential for youth engagement in shaping the digital future

We recognize that available, affordable, dependable and accessible ICTs when leveraged through adequate digital skills can provide powerful drivers for development and are instrumental in timely, inclusive and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Capacity building/development in different ICT areas, including spectrum management, remains a challenge

build confidence, trust and security in the use of telecommunications/ICTs

Another first for WTDC-22 is the Network of Women (NoW)

The Kigali conference revised Resolution 55 on mainstreaming a gender perspective in ITU to enhance women’s empowerment through telecommunications/ICTs to encourage Member States to have gender parity in their delegations to ITU-D activities to help solve the issue of under representation of women

SeveralpledgesweremadedirectlyinsupportofITUprojects,including

Thefirst-everITUPartner2Connect (P2C) Digital DevelopmentRoundtablewas heldon7-9June2022asanintegralpartofWTDC-22.Atthetimeofthiswriting(13June2022),374pledges had been announced, representinganestimatedvalueofUSD24.5billion.Thedriveforuniversalandmeaningfulconnectivityrepresentedinthesepledgesisexpectedtobenefitbillionsofpeoplearoundtheworld,especiallyindevelopingcountries.

Regions

Common sense is different from intelligence in that it is usually something innate and natural to humans that helps them navigate daily life, and cannot really be taught.

Synthetic data, however it is produced, offers a number of very concrete advantages over using real world data.

There are a couple of ways this synthetic data generation happens

he upcoming establishment of an EU office in San Francisco

stakeholders from business, academia and civil society

countries of strategic importance or that have a high level of vulnerability

In support of this goal,

competing to control international data,

onceived of as agents of geopolitical influence or means to control critical, strategic resources

multistakeholder deliberation u

appropriate scope of sanctions

It might be a smart gamble—a new variant, the climate crisis, or a nuclear apocalypse might force us all indoors again—but it is, to put it dramatically, a bet against humankind

released version 1.0 of its technical specification for digital provenance

the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA)

the MIT team’s new qubit appears to be extremely robust, able to maintain a superposition between two vibrational states, even in the midst of environmental noise, for up to 10 seconds.

Where a classical bit in today’s computers carries out a series of logical operations starting from one of either two states, 0 or 1, a qubit can exist in a superposition of both states. While in this delicate in-between state, a qubit should be able to simultaneously communicate with many other qubits and process multiple streams of information at a time, to quickly solve problems that would take classical computers years to process.

MIT physicists have discovered a new quantum bit, or “qubit,” in the form of vibrating pairs of atoms known as fermions.

Entanglement forging could markedly expand the computational power of quantum systems

Entanglement forging, it turns out, involves the use of a classical computer to capture quantum correlations and effectively split the problem in half, making it possible to separate the 10 spin-orbitals of the into two groups of five that could be processed separately. This doubles the size of the system that can be simulated on quantum hardware.

there is nothing preventing a vendor from “complementing" a standardized interface with additional proprietary techniques.

Unfortunately, the long and short of it is usually: the more qubits you have the more errors you get. The new research hopes to alleviate that by creating a new way to handle qubit operations, thus allowing gate-based quantum computer systems to scale.

each team was able to build a distinct, silicon-based, two-qubit quantum computing system capable of operating with greater than 99% accuracy