(NewsUSA) - Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to integrate into our daily lives with the rise of AI “companions,” that are designed to provide users with constant interaction and also may be hijacked by intelligence services from United States adversaries, according to experts at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

Increasing numbers of companies are launching “AI companion” applications that are designed to mimic behaviors of close personal contacts, including a love interest, therapist, coach, or other advisor, and to be inquisitive, sympathetic, and always available.

The “AI Companion” phenomenon marks a significant shift from interaction with AI as a tool to AI as a presence, SCSP experts noted in a recent Substack post.

Unfortunately, there is a darker side to seemingly innocuous AI companions: they offer a new way for America’s adversaries to target vulnerable individuals for recruitment into espionage, or to spread disinformation. For example, foreign adversaries may target Americans who are engaging with AI companions in gaming environments and other online venues. More Americans, notably, young adults, spend more time engaging with AI in gaming and other venues, which opens doors for adversaries to build relationships and trust and convince their new assets to steal secrets.

However, on the flip side, U.S. intelligence can use AI to recruit foreign spies.  AI companions can gain trust in three ways:

Sycophantic Loops:  Sycophantic loops in Large Language Models (LLMs) refer to AI responses that are excessively agreeable, flattering, or validating of user’s stated opinions or beliefs, whether correct or not.  AI prioritizes validating the user over maintaining factual accuracy, and the users may receive supportive information that is incorrect.

Encouraging Self-Disclosure. AI companions are designed to ask questions and express interest in the user’s well-being. In some cases, the AI companion mirrors users’ disclosures by sharing similar “revelations” about similar struggles to building closeness and intimacy.

Creating illusions of privacy. Many people who interact with AI companions assume, often incorrectly, that their information if safe, and the sense of confiding in an anonymous, non-judgmental companion masks the potential for manipulation.

In light of the potential threats to U.S. intelligence, the U.S. Government should design options to mitigate the impact of AI companions, the SCSP experts emphasized. They recommend several strategies including banning the use of AI companions from countries of concern to U.S. intelligence, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea; publicizing the national security risks of AI companions; requiring app stores that host AI companion apps to label their development locations; and exploring how to use AI companions for our own foreign intelligence gathering.

For more information and to read the full post, visit scsp.ai.

(NewsUSA) - The new captains of China’s growing space industry are riding the new wave of a hybrid technology ecosystem that combines the size and infrastructure of large, state-owned space-oriented businesses and the nimble innovation of startups, according to a new report from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

In the report, analysts David Lin and Eileen Chen reviewed key features of China’s evolving space program, and some notable traits of the “space cowboys” driving the industry into the future.

The Industry

China’s current space industry includes state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private companies. Of the top 25 space companies assessed in the SCSP report, 8 were SOEs and 17 were a mix of state and private ownership. Most of the private companies appeared after the industry was opened to private investment in 2014.

Notably, many of China’s top space companies have close ties to the People’s Liberation Army, according to the report. “This cross-pollination is increasingly structural rather than incidental, reflecting Beijing’s push to implement its military-civil fusion (MCF) strategy – to more seamlessly integrate private sector innovation into national military capabilities – an initiative that has raised alarm bells in Washington,” the authors wrote.

On a general level outside of military applications, China’s top space companies are focusing on two objectives: developing reusable launch vehicles and deploying low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, according to the report. However, data show that other startups are developing other space-based applications such as in-space advanced manufacturing, space-based data centers, infrastructure, and space positioning technologies.

The Players

Most of the top leaders of the current Chinese space industry boom were born in the late 1970s or early 1980s, putting them at career peaks in in 2014. Most have academic or technical backgrounds vs. entrepreneurial or market-driven credentials. The SCSP report identified two types of executives among the Chinese space cowboys: the Academic Founder and the SOE Veteran. “Notably, an overwhelming majority of leaders conform to both archetypes, indicating that the ideal talent has expertise in both spaces,” the authors wrote.

The common technocratic lineage among much of China’s space industry leadership supports a space sector that is commercially driven and strategically focused in a way that could challenge U.S. leadership in the space industry in the next few decades, the report concludes.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more and to access the full report.

(NewsUSA) - Artificial intelligence is poised to be a game-changer in managing the increasingly congested and potentially contested domain of space, from Earth’s orbit to the Moon and beyond, according to a new podcast from the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

At the recent AI + Space Summit hosted by SCSP, General Jay Raymond (U.S. Space Force, Ret.) joined SCSP’s NatSecTech podcast host Jeanne Meserve to discuss the future of space as a warfighting domain. They explore how AI can improve space traffic management, surveillance, acquisition, and data fusion; the growing role of commercial partnerships; and the need for stronger norms, faster capabilities, and a technically skilled workforce.

Many Eyes in the Sky

Launching satellites or anything else is becoming more complicated because of the volume of objects in the Earth’s orbit, said Gen. Raymond. “You have to make sure you don’t launch something into something else,” he noted. The increased number of satellites and other objects have made the world a more transparent place, as a lot of the current objects in space are intelligence surveillance reconnaissance satellites, he added.

In some cases, objects that appear to be space debris have been identified as something else because they maneuver in a defined way, Gen. Raymond said. Ideally, AI could be used to track debris and determine whether it is maneuvering, he said. The vast majority of people currently experience space through data or observations, said Gen. Raymond. Harnessing that data and applying AI to it can facilitate problem solving by speeding up analysis, he said.   

Implications of AI

One of the greatest risks associated with AI and space is that adversaries of the United States will get ahead of us and use technology to their advantage, Gen. Raymond said. Although the original stated goal of the U.S. Space Force remains one of deterrence, it is important to improve AI literacy and stay aware of the potential need to be prepared to fight, if necessary, while working to maintain stability, he added. However, deterrence related to space may occur in other domains, he noted. “If someone did something in space, you wouldn’t have to respond in space,” he said. The concept of integrated deterrence involves multiple domains and capabilities in partnership with allies, Gen. Raymond emphasized.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more about the SCSP’s AI + Space Summit and other ways in which AI is driving space industries.

(NewsUSA) - Emerging sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to drive the most profound changes to the world of spy craft since the advent of the internet, according to experts at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

“Advances in virtual- and augmented-reality technologies, robotics and autonomous systems, and large-scale data analysis capabilities present both an existential challenge to traditional human intelligence operations and a once-in-a-generation opportunity for transformation,” said Ylli Bajraktari, president and CEO of SCSP, in a recent report.

Key advances including multimodal AI, which can process and generate text, images, video, and audio, opens new opportunities for information gathering and exploitation.

In the private sector, companies involved in customer service are increasingly using AI tools to develop chatbots that provide companionship, advice, and mental health therapy. However, more nefarious entities may use these same tools to persuade users to take actions against their interests.

An AI tool could likely be used to persuade someone to divulge proprietary corporate data or betray their country, particularly if the AI were backed with the resources and kills of a professional national intelligence service, according to SCSP experts.

To prepare for and operate in this new landscape, the SCSP offers several recommendations for how the U.S. intelligence community can leverage AI in spy craft:

-Identify targets. AI can synthesize data sets to identify potential spy targets and prioritize intelligence assets according to access, motivation, and vulnerability.

-Assess and develop. AI technology can be used to analyze digital footprints and develop detailed psychological profiles. Hyper-realistic personas can engage spy targets and build trust and rapport. In addition, AI can manage hundreds of developmental conversations at once.

-Recruit and handle. AI also can create personalized recruitment pitches based on a spy target’s specific grievances or motivations, and also provide real-time operational security advice to targets after recruitment.

Importantly, the objective of AI in spy craft is not to replace human officers, but to empower them and serve as force multipliers, the SCSP experts note in their report. The human-machine team will be key to success; AI will handle data processing, which frees case officers to focus on the high-value work of making nuanced judgments, managing the psychology of the asset-case officer relationship, and overseeing high-stakes operations.

Any expansion of AI in espionage, must involve Meaningful Human Control (MHC). At every critical juncture, especially the final decision to recruit, the tasking of an asset, or actions that pose significant risk to the asset or U.S. national security interests, an accountable human must be able to exercise final judgment,” Bajraktari emphasized.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more.

(NewsUSA) - The United States and India sit front and center in the global emerging technology competition, and a recent meeting have sparked promising collaboration.

As part of the AI+ Expo in Washington, DC, the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) and the Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America) hosted the launch of the U.S.-India AI & Technology Cooperation Dialogue. Both SCSP and ORF America are non-partisan, non-profit organizations.

In the face of increasing global risk from China, partnership between the United States and India in AI development and deployment will impact the balance of economic and strategic power across the Indo-Pacific.

During the Dialogue meeting, U.S. and Indian officials and industry representatives discussed four key elements:

• Applications. AI use case deployments refer to the integration of AI models into real-world solutions such as fraud detection, automating business processes, and personalizing customer experiences. Expanding AI use case deployment in both civilian and military domains will benefit both countries, and partnering with India on deployment of AI applications can meaningfully strengthen both countries’ economic and strategic positioning in third countries, according to SCSP experts.
• Infrastructure. Increasing partnership with India includes securing the building blocks that power AI technologies. India’s demand for data centers, energy resilience, and trusted computing is creating opportunities for American companies to establish computing infrastructure before other competitors. Joint infrastructure gives India the backbone needed for its national AI deployment, and the United States gains a large, strategically-located partner capable of supporting redundant, secure infrastructure routes in the Indo-Pacific.
• Talent. Establishing education to employment pipelines is essential for long-term innovation success. India boasts an enormous pool of young and ambitious engineers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs with the desire to build solutions for global markets. However, both the United States and India need to look beyond elite institutions and tap into broader university systems to provide practical technical training, along with clear pathways to AI and technology careers.
• Policy and AI Governance. A key feature of the U.S./India dialogue meeting was the consensus that AI governance should be based on enabling innovation, rather than prescribing frameworks for development that might suffocate the fast-moving ecosystems of AI development.

“While the United States is exploring deregulation across several technology domains, India has articulated a “light regulation” approach focused on enabling and not constraining startups,” according to the SCSP team.

Both countries highlighted risks of cyber incidents, weak data-quality controls, and unclear cross-border standards impeding AI deployment at scale. Looking ahead, the United States and India can set the tone for a trusted and flexible framework.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more about the SCSP activities and initiatives to strengthen America’s long-term competitiveness in AI.

(NewsUSA) - Until now, one of the most widely used Internet of Things (IoT) networks has operated quietly behind the scenes, powering smart cities, tracking shipments, and protecting public spaces. For years, it has connected the world around us and now, the same technology that powers smart cities is starting to enter your home.

It’s called LoRaWAN^®, short for Long Range Wide Area Network, and it’s one of the fastest-growing wireless standards in the world. Unlike Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, LoRaWAN^® uses very little power to send data over long distances, even through walls or underground. More than 125 million devices already rely on it, from air quality sensors to streetlights that alert crews when bulbs burn out.

LoRaWAN^® networks are increasingly popular among building managers for comfort, security and health and safety applications, including indoor air quality, temperature, energy consumption, water leak detection, office and desk occupancy, pest control, tracking, motion detection, panic buttons, thermostat, door/window contact sensors, and vibration sensors, among others.

LoRaWAN^® runs on open, unlicensed radio frequencies, and leverages its low-power and high-penetration capability to enable use cases that are not practical or cost-effective with other in-home technologies. A single gateway can connect dozens of devices without draining power, and it can easily penetrate walls and ceilings to offer very strong coverage with long battery times for connected sensors.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, LoRaWAN^® is stepping into the spotlight. New products will demonstrate how the same secure, energy-efficient network used by cities and industries can power home technology. Solutions encompass applications such as smart sensors for health, climate, security and energy monitoring, to automated irrigation, pest control, and more, which all come together to provide efficient, reliable, and cost-effective home automation solutions. 

For anyone looking to deploy IoT, CES offers the opportunity to connect with LoRa Alliance^® members, who are the leading IoT experts. They have extensive experience deploying IoT across multiple verticals and are bringing it to this year’s show in the LoRa Alliance^® Pavilion, LVCC North Hall booth 10349 and a dedicated conference track on Wednesday, January 7, titled “LoRa Alliance^®: Massive IoT Unfolding – LoRaWAN^® in Action,” in the LVCC North Hall, room N257.

LoRaWAN^®’s reach extends across continents, yet its promise is simple: connect what matters, reliably and efficiently. With its arrival in the home, that promise is about to become personal. For more information about the next generation of networking, visit lora-alliance.org.

(NewsUSA) - As autonomous vehicles (AV) continue to evolve, consumers may be on the cusp of a new age of autonomous mobility, according to experts at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

The international standard for vehicular autonomy classification includes six levels from 0 to 5, with 0 being cars with features that provide short-term and limited assistance, such as blind spot and lane departure warnings, and 5 being “full, unfettered autonomous driving,” according to SCSP.

The United States maintains a small lead in AV production over other countries, including China, and forecasts for 2030 project potentially more than four trillion dollars in revenue for fully and semi-autonomous vehicles. Auto manufacturers are responding to these forecasts by ramping up research and development.

However, changes in attitudes toward legal liability and shifts in consumer trust may threaten America’s slim lead, said George Ngoh, a research assistant on the Future Tech Platforms team at SCSP, in a recent newsletter.

Recently, a Florida jury ruled a carmaker partly responsible for a fatal crash involving a semiautonomous car. “To build confidence with both the public and policymakers, automakers and regulators require more than just miles driven; they need comprehensive, transparent data—especially fault data—to definitively prove the safety and reliability of these platforms,” Ngoh explained.

Looking ahead, global leadership in AV goes beyond commercial benefits; it is key to maintaining American security, according to SCSP experts.

AV technology offers a range of military advantages, such as improved precision for munitions guidance and fully autonomous platforms for strike, surveillance, and logistics.

The primary challenge to AV leadership comes from China, where advantages in data and nanometer design may make it easier to develop improved onboard chips in for better decision-making in AVs, and enhanced computing capacity will help Chinese companies develop the complex simulations needed to validate AV safety.

To maintain a competitive advantage, AV firms in the United States should increase their investments in modeling and simulation of their platforms and software, SCSP experts emphasize. In addition, state and federal governments must collaborate to collect the best and most stringent data for developing AV technology. These measures will build trust with policymakers and the public to increase domestic adoption of AVs and position the United States as a leader in the global automotive market. Autonomous vehicles more than the future of transportation; they are a bellwether of strategic advantage in an AI-driven world.

For more information about AV evolution and other aspects of American AI strategies, visit scsp.ai.

(NewsUSA) - Obscure lawsuits don’t just hurt corporations—they can hit consumers’ wallets and limit their choices.

Walk through almost any living room in America, and you’ll find a small miracle of engineering: a smart TV that streams your favorite shows, connects to Wi-Fi, syncs with your phone and updates itself overnight. What most people do not see is the battle behind the screen, where a troubling type of lawsuit can quietly push up the price of that TV or slow the release of new features by making it harder for companies to compete.

These cases often come from entities that are commonly known as patent trolls. Patent trolls don’t invent things or make products but exist solely to pursue lawsuits related to patents they buy. Patent troll litigation costs US firms an estimated $29 billion annually in direct legal expenses, and approximately $60 billion when accounting for lost firm value and diverted resources. Patent troll litigation surged 22% from 2023 to 2024 alone, making it a growing issue for American business.

The effect of this legal warfare doesn’t stop at the boardroom. It affects supply chains and, ultimately, the consumers buying the products. Think of it as a hidden tax on consumer technology. Money that could go to researching better features or making the products less expensive instead gets diverted to paying legal bills. A product that could have shipped this spring slips to the fall—or launches with fewer features. Over time, those delays and costs show up in higher prices and fewer choices at the store.

Patent trolls have been at work for decades. But now, in a new twist, patent trolls are being hired to file lawsuits against others in the industry. The aim isn’t to defend a real invention, but to make it harder for rivals by driving up legal costs, scaring off customers, delaying product launches, or pushing for monetary settlements. This puts more pressure on the price of everyday technology products.

Americans are noticing. A recent national poll shows many respondents see the connection between frivolous litigation and the prices they pay. According to the survey, 82% of those surveyed say they are concerned that patent abuse could lead to higher prices and supply chain disruptions for products made for U.S. consumers. Three in four Americans (73%) say they would be more likely to support companies that take a stand against patent trolls.

The same poll shows bipartisan concern about the effects of this kind of abuse in the US legal system. 90% agree that the U.S. must ensure a fair legal playing field so smaller companies can innovate and compete without fear of costly, frivolous lawsuits. And a clear majority said lawmakers should act to curb these kinds of lawsuits and strengthen transparency requirements around who is behind them.

State leaders are also taking notice and acting. In the past year, 15 governors from both parties have signed new laws aimed at curbing frivolous patent lawsuits, and more than thirty states nationwide have taken steps to discourage abuse by patent trolls.

Analysts say growing public attention to this issue reflects a broader concern about affordability and competition in the tech sector. Industry observers note that when companies use litigation as a competitive strategy, prices can rise, product improvements can take longer to reach the market, and smaller innovators—the firms that often drive new breakthroughs—can lose ground. Those effects can extend beyond technology companies, influencing local job growth, supply-chain stability, and U.S. competitiveness in global markets.

While the technology inside consumer electronics continues to advance, many Americans wonder if that innovation will remain affordable. Lawmakers and industry experts are weighing how best to ensure the legal system’s protections for genuine inventors, while discouraging tactics that use the courts to impede progress. They note that when litigation is used to block competition rather than defend ideas, it can lead to higher prices, fewer options and slower progress in the products consumers rely on every day.

(NewsUSA) - The federal government’s release of America’s AI Action Plan marks the most consequential artificial intelligence policy development of the current administration to date, according to experts at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative with a goal of making recommendations to strengthen America's long-term competitiveness in AI.

“The AI Action Plan reinforces and accelerates the Administration’s existing strategy of pursuing American AI dominance,” said Ylli Bajraktari, CEO of SCSP, in a recent newsletter.

The AI Action Plan not only builds on previous efforts to accelerate innovation and dismantle regulatory barriers, but also asserts American leadership across AI.

The plan includes three pillars:

-Accelerate AI Innovation. A key feature of the government’s new policy of accelerating AI innovation is the removal of red tape and regulations that can impede it. The AI Action Plan emphasizes deregulation as a way to promote America’s AI dominance and foster innovation. The Plan encourages agencies with AI funding to consider the regulatory environments different states and ensure that federal funds are not trapped in restrictive policies. “The Plan also outlines reforms to Federal Trade Commission investigations that may have imposed undue liability burdens on AI innovators,” according to SCSP.

-Build American AI Infrastructure. The AI Action Plan dedicates an entire pillar to infrastructure development, acknowledging that abundant power is essential to U.S. competitiveness in AI.

 and abundant power are foundational to U.S. competitiveness in the AI era. Other recommended policy actions include developing secure, classified computing environments to support the safe deployment of sensitive AI models, and creating new technical standards for high-security AI data centers.

“These initiatives are designed to ensure that government AI workloads, especially in defense and intelligence, are run on infrastructure hardened against insider threats and nation-state actors,” Bajraktari noted.

-Lead in International AI Diplomacy and Security. The AI Action Plan emphasizes that American leadership in AI is a matter of national and international security and calls for the export of full-stack AI solutions to our allies and partners. A recent executive order from the White House supports this pillar by directing various government agencies to streamline the coordination, financing, and deployment of these systems.

“This move directly advances SCSP’s call to make American AI the preferred global platform and to project AI leadership through strategic technology statecraft,” Bajraktari said.

For more information about SCSP and America’s continuing AI evolution, visit scsp.ai.

(NewsUSA) - Commercial auto insurance and fleet safety are meeting the demands of modern-day risk management by analyzing telematics, but more work is needed to optimize this information and put it into action in the industry, according to results of a new report from SambaSafety, the leading provider of cloud-based driver risk management solutions.

Telematics is used by commercial insurers to capture driving patterns from telematics devices their fleet customer use, such as visibility into riskier driving such as speed, mileage, and braking— empowering insurers to collaborate with fleets on tailored coverage and proactive risk consulting strategies.

The 2025 SambaSafety Telematics Report: Uncovering Market Dynamics and Technology Trends, shows that telematics is front and center in the risk and safety ecosystem, according to SambaSafety CEO Matt Scheuing.

“The current state of commercial auto reflects an industry under strain, but also one on the edge of transformation, with telematics at the center,” said Matt Scheuing, CEO of SambaSafety. “When fleets and insurers connect through shared data and trust, we move closer to a market that prevents losses instead of reacting to them. 

“At SambaSafety, we’re closing that gap for millions of drivers through our Risk Cloud, integrating telematics, court, DOT and claims data to deliver actionable insights and targeted training—through our newly enhanced driver app. With our SambaSafety Verified program, we’re also helping insurers identify and reward fleets that actively manage risk. Together, these advancements represent the next step in connecting our customers through shared data, smarter insights and measurable safety outcomes.” 

The new report includes survey responses from industries including trucking & transportation, construction, energy, utilities, government, and healthcare. SambaSafety collected responses from 152 individuals from fleets, 180 insurance brokers and 70 insurance carriers, all based in North America, in June and July 2025.

Overall, 88% of fleets reported using telematics for safety reasons, and 95% considered driver training important.

However, the complexity of the data and technical challenges of integration were mentioned often as barriers to using telematics more widely in optimizing insurance.

Nearly two-thirds (66%) of fleets said that “interpreting or acting on the data” was a challenge, and 58% of fleet drivers said that linking drivers to their data remains an operational concern.

Telematics data is reshaping relationships between commercial fleets and insurers, but there is room for improvement in collaboration, according to the SambaSafety survey. Although 41% of fleets reported that use of telematics lowered their insurance premiums, 70% of fleets rarely interact with insurers around telematics, creating a gap in shared innovation and risk reduction. When insurers initiate telematics discussions, fleets report strong partnership in risk reduction—yet 79% of non-engaged fleets say that outreach never happens.

The 2025 SambaSafety Telematics Report: Uncovering Market Dynamics and Technology Trends is available for download. For more information and to access the report, visit sambasafety.com.