By Harry BoothJanuary 8, 2025 12:46 PM ESTIn 2017, Beijing unveiled an ambitious roadmap to dominate artificial intelligence development, aiming to secure global leadership by 2030. By 2020, the plan called for iconic advances in AI to demonstrate its progress. Then in late 2022, OpenAIs release of ChatGPT took the world by surpriseand caught China flat-footed.At the time, leading Chinese technology companies were still reeling from an 18-month government crackdown that shaved around $1 trillion off China's tech sector. It was almost a year before a handful of Chinese AI chatbots received government approval for public release. Some questioned whether Chinas stance on censorship might hobble the countrys AI ambitions. Meanwhile, the Biden administrations export controls, unveiled just a month before ChatGPTs debut, aimed to cut China off from the advanced semiconductors essential for training large-scale AI models. Without cutting-edge chips, Beijings goal of AI supremacy by 2030 appeared increasingly out of reach.But fast forward to today, and a flurry of impressive Chinese releases suggests the U.S.s AI lead has shrunk. In November, Alibaba and Chinese AI developer DeepSeek released reasoning models that, by some measures, rival OpenAIs o1-preview. The same month, Chinese videogame juggernaut Tencent unveiled Hunyuan-Large, an open-source model that the companys testing found outperformed top open-source models developed in the U.S. across several benchmarks.holds its own against top performing closed systems from OpenAI and Anthropic.Before DeepSeek-v3 was released, the trend had already caught the attention of Eric Schmidt, Googles former CEO and one of the most influential voices on U.S. AI policy. In May 2024, Schmidt had confidently asserted that the U.S. maintained a two-to-three year lead in AI, which is an eternity in my books. Yet by November, in a talk at the Harvard Kennedy School, Schmidt had changed his tune. He cited the advances from Alibaba, and Tencent as evidence that China was closing the gap. This is shocking to me, he said. I thought the restrictions we placed on chips would keep them back.Beyond a source of national prestige, who leads on AI will likely have ramifications for the global balance of power. If AI agents can automate large parts of the workforce, they may provide a boost to nations economies. And future systems, capable of directing weapons or hacking adversaries, could provide a decisive military advantage. As nations caught between the two superpowers are forced to choose between Chinese or American AI systems, artificial intelligence could emerge as a powerful tool for global influence. Chinas rapid advances raise questions about whether U.S. export controls on semiconductors will be enough to maintain America's edge.Building more powerful AI depends on three essential ingredients: data, innovative algorithms, and raw computing power, or compute. Training data for large language models like GPT-4o is typically scrapped from the internet, meaning its available for developers across the world. Similarly, algorithms, or new ideas for how to improve AI systems, move across borders with ease, as new techniques are often shared in academic papers. Even if they werent, China has a wealth of AI talent, producing more top AI researchers than the U.S. By contrast, advanced chips are incredibly hard to make, and unlike algorithms or data, they are a physical good that can be stopped at the border.The supply chain for advanced semiconductors is dominated by America and its allies. U.S. companies Nvidia and AMD have an effective duopoly on datacenter-GPUs used for AI. Their designs are so intricatewith transistors measured in single-digit nanometersthat currently, only the Taiwanese company TSMC manufactures these top-of-the-line chips. To do so, TSMC relies on multi-million dollar machines that only Dutch company ASML can build.The U.S. has sought to leverage this to its advantage. In 2022, the Biden administration introduced export controls, laws that prevent the sale of cutting-edge chips to China. The move followed a series of measures that began under Trumps first administration, which sought to curb Chinas access to chip-making technologies. These efforts have not only restricted the flow of advanced chips into China, but hampered the countrys domestic chip industry. Chinas chips lag years behind, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told 60 minutes in April.Yet, the 2022 export controls encountered their first hurdle before being announced, as developers in China reportedly stockpiled soon-to-be restricted chips. DeepSeek, the Chinese developer behind an AI reasoning model called R1, which rivals OpenAIs O1-preview, assembled a cluster of 10,000 soon-to-be-banned Nvidia A100 GPUs a year before export controls were introduced. Smuggling might also have undermined the export controls effectiveness. In October, Reuters reported that restricted TSMC chips were found on a product made by Chinese company Huawei. Chinese companies have also reportedly acquired restricted chips using shell companies outside China. Others have skirted export controls by renting GPU access from offshore cloud providers. In December, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. is preparing new measures that would limit Chinas ability to access chips through other countries.Read more: Has AI Progress Really Slowed Down?While U.S. export controls curtail Chinas access to the most cutting-edge semiconductors, they still allow the sale of less powerful chips. Deciding which chips should and should not be allowed has proved challenging. In 2022, Nvidia tweaked the design of its flagship chip to create a version for the Chinese market that fell within the restrictions thresholds. The chip was still useful for AI development, prompting the U.S. to tighten restrictions in October 2023. We had a year where [China] could just buy chips which are basically as good, says Lennart Heim, a lead on AI and compute at the RAND corporations Technology and Security Policy Center. He says this loophole, coupled with the time for new chips to find their way into AI developers infrastructure, is why we are yet to see the export controls have a full impact on Chinas AI development.It remains to be seen whether the current threshold strikes the right balance. In November, Tencent released a language model called Hunyuan-Large that outperforms Metas most powerful variant of Llama 3.1 in several benchmarks. While benchmarks are an imperfect measure for comparing AI models overall intelligence, Hunyuan-Larges performance is impressive because it was trained using the less powerful, unrestricted Nvidia H20 GPUs, according to research by the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab. They're clearly getting much better use out of the hardware because of better software, says Ritwik Gupta, the author of the research, who also advises the Department of Defenses Defense Innovation Unit. Rival Chinese labs DeepSeek-v3, believed to be the strongest open model available, was also trained using surprisingly little compute. Although there is significant uncertainty about how President-elect Donald Trump will approach AI policy, several experts told TIME in November that they expected export controls to persistand even be expanded.Before new restrictions were introduced in December, Chinese companies once again stockpiled soon-to-be-blocked chips.This entire strategy needs to be rethought, Gupta says. Stop playing whack-a-mole with these hardware chips. He suggests that instead of trying to slow down development of large language models by restricting access to chips, the U.S. should concentrate on preventing the development of military AI systems, which he says often need less computing power to train. Though he acknowledges that restrictions on other parts of the chip supply chainlike ASMLs machines used for manufacturing chipshave been pivotal in slowing Chinas domestic chip industry.Heim says that over the last year, the U.S.s lead has shrunk, though he notes that while China may now match the U.S.s best open source models, these lag roughly one year behind the top closed models. He adds that the closing gap does not necessarily mean export controls are failing. Lets move away from this binary of export controls working or not working, he says, adding that it may take longer for China to feel them bite.The last decade has seen a dizzying increase in the compute used for training AI models. For example, OpenAIs GPT-4, released in 2023, is estimated to have been trained using roughly 10,000 times more compute than GPT-2, released in 2019. There are indications that trend is set to continue, as American companies like X and Amazon build massive supercomputers with hundreds of thousands of GPUs, far exceeding the computing power used to train today's leading AI models. If it does, Heim predicts that U.S. chip export restrictions will hamper China's ability to keep pace in AI development. Export controls mostly hit you on quantity, Heim says, adding that even if some restricted chips find their way into the hands of Chinese developers, by reducing the number, export controls make it harder to train and deploy models at scale. I do expect export controls to generally hit harder over time, as long as compute stays as important, he says.Within Washington, right now, there is a hesitation to bring China to the [negotiating] table, says Scott Singer, a visiting scholar in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The implicit reasoning: [If the U.S. is ahead], why would we share anything?But he notes there are compelling reasons to negotiate with China on AI. China does not have to be leading to be a source of catastrophic risk, he says, adding its continued progress in spite of compute restrictions means it could one day produce AI with dangerous capabilities. "If China is much closer, consider what types of conversations you want to have with them around ensuring both sides' systems remain secure, Singer says.

What just happened? There's always an absolute boatload of new tech products on show at CES, some of which are more useful than others. Your opinion of Corsair's Xeneon Edge touchscreen might depend on how much you desire a 14.5-inch, 32:9 secondary display that's also touchscreen. Secondary displays are far from new, of course, but they've become increasingly complex in modern times. The Xeneon Edge is certainly fancy, or a bit weird, boasting a 2,560 by 720 LCD touchscreen, which offers a very crisp 183 PPI density, 350 nits of brightness, and a 60Hz refresh rate on the IPS panel.The Xeneon Edge is flexible when it comes to where you put it. Users can place the device on their desk using the included stand, attach it to a PC or any ferromagnetic surface via the 14 built-in magnets, or put it inside a case at a 360mm radiator mounting point, which does sound pretty cool, admittedly. Corsair writes that it's thinner than a regular case fan, too, so clearance should be of minimal concern.The display connects via USB Type-C DP-Alt Mode or a standard HDMI port. Something else that sounds quite interesting is its ability to operate in both vertical and horizontal orientations. That means it will be useful to anyone who has the need to constantly scroll through their social media feeds or keep an eye on Discord. Windows will detect the Xeneon Edge as another screen, so you can use it as such.Corsair writes that the Xeneon Edge has a five-point multi-touch capacitive touchscreen that functions as a standard Windows touchscreen display for added versatility.The press image shows the display running several apps, including a clock, calendar, weather, and a music player, on the screen simultaneously. It's unclear if this is software that will come bundled with the device. // Related StoriesThe screen also integrates with Corsair's iCue software to show comprehensive information about a system's fan speeds, temperatures, CPU and GPU utilization. You can also alter profiles, lighting, fans, etc., via the touchscreen.No word yet on how much the Xeneon Edge will cost, but don't be surprised if it's quite pricey. The screen will be available in Q2 2025 from Corsair resellers and the company's website.We've seen plenty of LCD screens on the pump caps of AIO liquid coolers before. There was this Full HD one from Lamptron last year that also doubled as a secondary screen, and last March saw Chinese hardware manufacturer Tryx unveil the world's first AIO coolers to feature a curved AMOLED display.

The big picture: TSMC's state-of-the-art $65 billion chip factory in Arizona is reportedly churning out some of the most sought-after processors on the market already. Sources indicate that the facility, known as Fab 21, began manufacturing chips for AMD and Apple earlier this year. Tim Culpan, a well-connected industry insider, has revealed that Fab 21 is already producing at least three major chip designs as part of its initial installed capacity.Last September, it was confirmed that Apple's A16 Bionic SoC for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus would be manufactured at the Arizona facility. According to Culpan's report, the fab is now also producing chips for the next-generation Apple Watch.While the exact model remains unclear, Culpan says he is "99% sure" it's the S9 processor package. This specialized system-in-package design is expected to integrate the main application processor core alongside silicon dedicated to AI and neural processing tasks.The biggest surprise from TSMC Arizona is its production of AMD's new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs. Codenamed "Grand Rapids," according to sources, these processors utilize TSMC's cutting-edge 4nm-class N4 and N4P process technologies and form a key part of AMD's latest mainstream lineup. However, the report did not specify which Ryzen 9000 models are currently in production.With three major product lines now being built at the Arizona facility, TSMC's $65 billion investment appears to be paying off. Culpan reports that the fab is currently operating at a capacity of approximately 10,000 wafer starts per month during its initial phase (Phase 1A). That number is projected to more than double to 24,000 wafer starts as part of Phase 1B, though the expansion is reportedly facing a "bottleneck" due to "tooling delays." // Related StoriesOne of the fab's most significant challenges has been staffing and worker retention. While TSMC has prioritized hiring locally now employing more local workers than foreign transfers it has still relied heavily on expertise from Taiwan. This week, the company issued an internal call for hundreds of additional experienced workers from its Taiwan headquarters to help fill critical roles in fab operations and equipment installation.Despite these hurdles, TSMC appears determined to keep its ramp-up schedule on track. In a noteworthy move underscoring the strategic importance of the Arizona facility, the company's board of directors is set to hold a meeting on-site. This rare occurrence will likely include a full tour of the fab, allowing board members to witness the manufacturing process firsthand.

Smelly Games: Sony at CES 2025 unveiled an immersive demo set in the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us. Naughty Dog's acclaimed action-adventure series features hostile humans transformed into cannibalistic creatures by a mutated fungus. Now, Sony aims to elevate one of PlayStation's most successful franchises into a more physical and undoubtedly terrifying experience. Have you ever wondered what the hideous hosts of the Cordyceps fungus in The Last of Us might smell like? Sony is betting that plenty of people have and built its Future Immersive Entertainment Concept (FIEC) around this eerie idea. The one-time demonstration debuted at CES 2025, showcasing Sony's vision for translating gaming narratives into entirely new mediums.The Japanese tech giant designed a large, interactive room where "players" were surrounded by cutting-edge Crystal LED panels. Upon entering the enclosed space, visitors could immerse themselves in interactive content pulled directly from The Last of Us series. The experience was enhanced by dynamic audio, haptic feedback, atmospheric scents, and other sensory effects to bring the game's haunting world to life.Sony described FIEC as a potential glimpse into the future of large-scale, immersive experiences. Players could interact with the environment using real-world tools, such as illuminating a specific area with a flashlight or firing at fungal creatures emerging from the shadows.A scent-enabled, fungus-equipped FIEC setup is undoubtedly a costly experience to create, making it unlikely to become a mass-produced product anytime soon. Sony has also faced criticism for investing in esoteric technologies that many consumers didn't ask for this while still marketing the pricey PSVR2 headset to PlayStation and PC users.At the moment, Sony doesn't seem interested in expanding console-based VR experiences beyond the PSVR2. Instead, the PlayStation company appears to be exploring other innovative entertainment formats. // Related StoriesNaughty Dog first released The Last of Us in 2013, followed by additional downloadable content and a remake. The series' proper sequel, The Last of Us Part II, debuted in 2020 and is now being ported to PC in a "remastered" edition.In recent years, the franchise has reached a broader audience thanks to HBO's award-winning live-action series starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal. A second season is set to premiere in April 2025, with a third season already in development.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsIs there an IR blaster on the OnePlus 13?What about the OnePlus 13R?What does an IR blaster do?The OnePlus 13 has made its international debut after launching earlier in its home country of China. The new smartphone offers an excellent camera system, impressive battery life, and a fresh design. But does it include an IR blaster? How about on the OnePlus 13R? Its time to find out.Andy Boxall / Digital TrendsYes, the OnePlus 13 has an IR (infrared) blaster. This feature allows users to use their smartphone as a remote control for various compatible devices, such as TVs, air conditioners, sound systems, and set-top boxes. This capability is particularly advantageous for those who prefer a streamlined approach to managing multiple gadgets from a single device.Recommended VideosIncluding an IR blaster is a thoughtful addition, especially considering this feature has become increasingly rare in many modern smartphones. Its a nod to versatility and user convenience, allowing for easy control of appliances without needing to search for dedicated remotes. This functionality was also present in the OnePlus 12, showcasing the brands commitment to maintaining valuable features that enhance user experience. With the OnePlus 13, you can enjoy the convenience of managing your home entertainment setup with just a few taps, making it a versatile tool for everyday living.RelatedJoe Maring / Digital TrendsThe OnePlus 13R also includes an IR blaster. The phone, released alongside the OnePlus 13, includes many of the same features as the flagship devices, but for less. The fact that OnePlus made sure to include the humble IR blaster in a more budget-friendly device is admirable.An IR blaster emits infrared light signals to control various electronics, functioning similarly to a traditional remote control. It allows you to transform your phones into universal remotes. Essentially, the IR blaster converts digital commands from the phone into infrared signals that supported devices can recognize. This consolidation lets you manage multiple remotes with just one device, providing convenience and the potential for smart home integration.The OnePlus 13 is powered by the cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, a performance powerhouse capable of efficiently handling demanding tasks and games. The phone features a 6.82-inch AMOLED display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Its camera system, co-developed with Hasselblad, includes a 50-megapixel main, 50MP wide-angle, and 50MP telephoto camera. On the front, there is a 32MP camera.The OnePlus 13 also has a long-lasting 6,000mAh battery with super-fast charging support, ensuring you can stay connected throughout the day. It runs on OxygenOS 15, which is based on Android 15. The new phone is available in Midnight Ocean, Arctic Dawn, and Black Eclipse.Editors Recommendations

RingRing made a big though rather surprising announcement at CES 2025, revealing that it has partnered with Kidde to launch a new collection of smart smoke alarms. Arriving in April, the collection includes the Kidde Smart Smoke Alarm and Combination Alarm, the latter of which detects both smoke and carbon monoxide. Theyll sync with the existing Ring app to send users alerts should anything trigger its sensors, and they should be an enticing option for folks who have already bought into the Ring ecosystem.While customers will receive alerts via the mobile app, they can also sign up for the new Ring 24/7 Smoke & CO Monitoring Subscription for $5 per month. This is a professional monitoring service that lets a trained dispatch team keep tabs on your detectors and if theyre triggered, the dispatch team can automatically contact emergency services and send them to your home. That should provide more peace of mind than your normal smoke alarms, which might ring out loud and clear but cant alert the fire department.Recommended VideosWhile Ring is bringing the smarts, Kidde is bringing the technical know-how. Kidde has equipped the products with equipment that detects smoke three times more precisely and up to 25% faster than the competition. Theyre also built to reduce false alarms caused by cooking. Best of all, youll get a notice in the Ring app seven days before your batteries are low, helping to eliminate the pesky chirping thatll wake you up in the middle of the night.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThe Kidde Smart Smoke Alarm will retail for $55, while the Combination Alarm will retail for $75. When they launch in April, theyll be exclusive to Home Depot.RelatedBeyond smoke alarms, Ring also announced that the Floodlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro are being upgraded to support 2K footage capture. Existing users can upgrade for free via an over-the-air update through the Ring app. Jumping from their current HD resolution to 2K is a pretty big win, allowing users to better see their surroundings and zoom in with enhanced clarity. If you own either camera, the update should now be available be sure to dive into your Ring app and enjoy the enhanced resolution.Editors Recommendations

Whispers about an Xbox handheld have been circulating for a while now, but it looks like the project is still in the very early stages. At an AMD and Lenovo event this week at CES, however, Xbox chief Phil Spencer spoke to The Verge and dropped hints about Microsofts plans to combine the Xbox and Windows gaming experiences together.It seems this phrasing refers to bringing the strengths of the Xbox operating system to existing and future Windows gaming handhelds. Working on a handheld version of the XboxOS is part of the work the company will need to do to create an Xbox handheld, but it looks like well get to see ongoing developments way before that hardware is ready to come out. Spencer said that we should expect to see changes to the Windows handheld gaming experience at some point this year.Recommended VideosThis should be welcome news to anyone with a Windows gaming handheld because its no secret that Windows in its current form is not ideal for handheld gaming. Over the years, the OS has received just about every complaint you could think of: It pushes Microsoft products and data sharing too much; its not optimized for gamepad controls; the onscreen keyboard is no good; and it cant handle the sleep and resume functionality that is essential for any gaming handheld. Many say its a lot less intuitive than Valves SteamOS.Jacob Roach / Digital TrendsThe problem with Microsofts sudden plans to improve, however, is the timing. Just as everyone knows that Windows is not great on gaming handhelds, they also know that SteamOS is the current gold standard. Until now, its been firmly locked to the first-party Steam Deck handheld but all of that changed this week. Lenovo revealed its third-party handheld running SteamOS, and Valve confirmed its plans to partner with many more manufacturers. In other words, if Microsoft doesnt hurry up and get these promised improvements out the door, Valve could start convincing handheld manufacturers to switch from Windows to the Linux-based SteamOS. If Valve makes it easy enough to switch, it should be a tempting offer for plenty of manufacturers.Editors Recommendations

Genki shows what Nintendon't New videos show off larger Nintendo Switch 2, snap-on Joy-Cons Accessory maker says 3D mock-up at CES is sourced from an actual console. Kyle Orland Jan 8, 2025 12:57 pm | 10 Genki's 3D printed Switch 2 mockup (below) is significantly larger than a standard Switch Credit: Numerama Genki's 3D printed Switch 2 mockup (below) is significantly larger than a standard Switch Credit: Numerama Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreNintendo still isn't ready to officially reveal any details about the Switch 2 (beyond a brief mention of backward compatibility in November). But that hasn't stopped gaming accessory maker Genki from giving us one of the best looks yet at the size and shape of Nintendo's upcoming hardware, as well as a video glimpse of how the console's new Joy-Cons will attach to the base tablet.Genki is reportedly using a scale 3D model of the Switch 2 to show off its console cases behind closed doors at the Consumer Electronics Show. A video from French tech site Numerama shows that 3D model dwarfing an original Switch model in both length and width.In a longer write-up of Genki's Switch 2 mock-up, Numerama reports that Genki says its 3D model was derived from an actual Switch 2 console, not merely "3D blueprints." Genki's model also includes a second USB-C port atop the system, Numerama reports, as well as a mysterious C button underneath the home button on the right Joy-Con. Genki says its Switch 2 model has the same dimensions as the actual console. Credit: Netzwelt German site Neztwelt, which seems to have seen the same 3D model, compared Genki's dummy Switch 2 size to Lenovo's Legion Go and said it looks to have a display of "8 inches or even more." Neztwelt also reports that the dummy model Joy-Cons do not attach to the main unit magnetically, and it expects that the final console might actually use a similar mechanical connection to lock the controllers in place.Roll that beautiful Switch footage Of note in this encased Switch 2 shot from a Genki video: the top USB port, expanded shoudler buttons, mysterious C button below the Home button. GenkiOf note in this encased Switch 2 shot from a Genki video: the top USB port, expanded shoudler buttons, mysterious C button below the Home button.Genki A rear look appears to show the built-in Switch 2 stand and the underside USB port. GenkiA rear look appears to show the built-in Switch 2 stand and the underside USB port.Genki Yet another look at the inner edge of the Switch 2 Joy-Con, courtesy of Genki. GenkiYet another look at the inner edge of the Switch 2 Joy-Con, courtesy of Genki.GenkiA rear look appears to show the built-in Switch 2 stand and the underside USB port.GenkiYet another look at the inner edge of the Switch 2 Joy-Con, courtesy of Genki.Genki The Switch 2 Joy-Con preparing to snap onto a Genki charging dock in much the same way that it attaches to the Switch 2 itself. Genki An encased Switch 2 preparing to slide into a dock in Genki's video. Genki A brief look at a supposed Switch 2 logo embossed on a dock in Genki's video. GenkiAway from CES, Genki's website was updated Tuesday night with a new video showing encased Switch 2 Joy-Cons attaching to the tablet via a horizontal snap-on motion, as opposed to the vertical slide seen on the original Switch. The video also shows a special lever on the back of the Joy-Cons engaging to detach the Joy-Cons horizontally, seemingly with the aid of a small extendable post near the top of the inner edge of the controller itself.The inner edges of the Joy-Cons shown in Genki's video match very closely with other recent leaked photos of the Switch 2 Joy-Cons, right down to the mysterious optical sensor. That sensor can even be seen flashing a laser-like red dot in the Genki promo video, helping to support rumors of mouse-like functionality for the controllers. The Genki video also offers a brief glimpse of the Switch 2 itself sliding into a familiar-looking dock labeled with an embossed Switch logo and a large number 2 next to it.A Genki representative also told Numerama that the company expects the console will release in April, which is just after Nintendo's self-imposed deadline for announcing more details about the system. The company had better get a move on, as third-party accessory makers are apparently getting tired of waiting.Kyle OrlandSenior Gaming EditorKyle OrlandSenior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 10 Comments

No protection Misconfigured license plate readers are leaking data and video in real time Video feeds from at least 150 Motorola license plate readers accessible without a password. Matt Burgess and Dhruv Mehrotra, wired.com Jan 8, 2025 12:52 pm | 11 An automated license plate reader is seen mounted on a pole on June 13, 2024 in San Francisco, California. Credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan An automated license plate reader is seen mounted on a pole on June 13, 2024 in San Francisco, California. Credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreIn just 20 minutes this morning, an automated license-plate-recognition (ALPR) system in Nashville, Tennessee, captured photographs and detailed information from nearly 1,000 vehicles as they passed by. Among them: eight black Jeep Wranglers, six Honda Accords, an ambulance, and a yellow Ford Fiesta with a vanity plate.This trove of real-time vehicle data, collected by one of Motorolas ALPR systems, is meant to be accessible by law enforcement. However, a flaw discovered by a security researcher has exposed live video feeds and detailed records of passing vehicles, revealing the staggering scale of surveillance enabled by this widespread technology.More than 150 Motorola ALPR cameras have exposed their video feeds and leaking data in recent months, according to security researcher Matt Brown, who first publicized the issues in a series of YouTube videos after buying an ALPR camera on eBay and reverse engineering it.As well as broadcasting live footage accessible to anyone on the Internet, the misconfigured cameras also exposed data they have collected, including photos of cars and logs of license plates. The real-time video and data feeds dont require any usernames or passwords to access.Alongside other technologists, WIRED has reviewed video feeds from several of the cameras, confirming vehicle dataincluding makes, models, and colors of carshave been accidentally exposed. Motorola confirmed the exposures, telling WIRED it was working with its customers to close the access.Over the last decade, thousands of ALPR cameras have appeared in towns and cities across the US. The cameras, which are manufactured by companies such as Motorola and Flock Safety, automatically take pictures when they detect a car passing by. The cameras and databases of collected data are frequently used by police to search for suspects. ALPR cameras can be placed along roads, on the dashboards of cop cars, and even in trucks. These cameras capture billions of photos of carsincluding occasionally bumper stickers, lawn signs, and T-shirts.Every one of them that I found exposed was in a fixed location over some roadway, Brown, who runs cybersecurity company Brown Fine Security, tells WIRED. The exposed video feeds each cover a single lane of traffic, with cars driving through the cameras view. In some streams, snow is falling. Brown found two streams for each exposed camera system, one in color and another in infrared.Broadly, when a car passes an ALPR camera, a photograph of the vehicle is taken, and the system uses machine learning to extract text from the license plate. This is stored alongside details such as where the photograph was taken, the time, as well as metadata such as the make and model of the vehicle.Brown says the camera feeds and vehicle data were likely exposed as they had not been set up on private networks, possibly by law enforcement bodies deploying them, and instead exposed to the internet without any authentication. Its been misconfigured. It shouldnt be open on the public internet, he says.WIRED tested the flaw by analyzing data streams from 37 different IP addresses apparently tied to Motorola cameras, spanning more than a dozen cities across the United States, from Omaha, Nebraska, to New York City. Within just 20 minutes, those cameras recorded the make, model, color, and license plates of nearly 4,000 vehicles. Some cars were even captured multiple timesup to three times in some casesas they passed different cameras.Jehan Wickramasuriya, corporate vice president overseeing license plate recognition products at Motorola Solutions, confirmed to WIRED that some devices were exposed and that the company plans to introduce new security measures going forward.Some customer-modified network configurations potentially exposed certain IP addresses, Wickramasuriya says in a statement. The company did not address how many systems were incorrectly configured. Wickramasuriya says if its customers use its recommended configurations, there is not a risk of cameras being exposed.We are working directly with these customers to restore their system configurations consistent with our recommendations and industry best practices, Wickramasuriya says. Our next firmware update will introduce additional security hardening.By leaving these incredibly insecure tracking devices on the open internet, police have not only breached public trust but created a bounty of location data for everyone who drives by which can be abused by stalkers and other criminals, says Cooper Quintin, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which last year found security vulnerabilities in ALPR cameras. Police shouldn't be collecting this data at all unless there is an active investigation, and even then, the devices must be strictly scrutinized for security and public safety."Brown initially found the exposed camera data after recently buying one of Motorolas ALPR cameras on eBay, he says, and reverse engineered it to extract the devices firmware. The researcher says he found details of both the color and infrared video streams on the device he purchased and was able to access the video from the camera in his testing lab.Brown then set out to see whether any devices in the real world were publicly available online. Brown was able to use text from a 404 error page shown by the camerasincluding unique language and peculiar grammarto find IP addresses of exposed devices on the public internet. I think that is a very unique type of error page that only exists on this device, Brown says.More than 150 results appear when using publicly available internet-scanning tools. The researcher says these likely belong to a sort of hub that is connected to individual cameras, each of which have their own streaming URLs.As ALPR cameras have been deployed by law enforcement agencies, there has been little public debate on their use and the privacy implications that come with collecting and storing billions of images that include peoples location. Civil liberties campaigners have questioned how long data is stored for and the need for such widespread surveillance systems.This is part of a general pattern where governments are inclined to roll out technical systems to meet the specific goals they have without thinking about, let alone working on, the potential negative impacts that those systems have and doing the work that you need to do to minimize the negative impacts, says Daniel Kahn Gillmor, a senior staff technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union.Gillmor points to New Hampshires ALPR law as one that is reasonable. The law says records from cameras should not be recorded or transmitted anywhere and shall be purged from the system within 3 minutes of their capture.This story originally appeared on wired.com.Matt Burgess and Dhruv Mehrotra, wired.com Wired.com is your essential daily guide to what's next, delivering the most original and complete take you'll find anywhere on innovation's impact on technology, science, business and culture. 11 Comments

Probe to wrap ASAP EU energetically probing disinformation, right-wing bias on X, report says Elon Musk wading further into global right-wing politics raises alarms in EU. Ashley Belanger Jan 8, 2025 12:37 pm | 17 Credit: Tom Williams / Contributor | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Credit: Tom Williams / Contributor | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe European Commission (EC) is planning to "energetically" advance its probe into content moderation on X (formerly Twitter), potentially ordering changes at Elon Musk's social network in the coming months, Bloomberg reported.Since 2023, the EC has been investigating X for possible violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Notably, it's the group's first formal probe under the DSA, which requires very large online platforms to meet strict content moderation and transparency standards to ensure user safety, reduce misinformation, prevent illegal/harmful activity, and facilitate "a fair and open online platform environment."In a letter to European lawmakers viewed by Bloomberg, EC tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen and justice chief Michael McGrath apparently confirmed that the investigation into X will end as early as legally possible."When the sweeping probe was first announced, the EC explained it would investigate X "in areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers."At that time, the EC was concerned about "the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel" on X. The investigation is partly focused on X's potential failure to detect and remove illegal content required by the DSA, as well as on the effectiveness of X's Community Notes and other "related policies mitigating risks to civic discourse and electoral processes."Since then, Musk has become more heavily involved in right-wing politics, campaigning for US president-elect Donald Trump and increasingly using X to support right-wing figures globally, most recently in a posting rampage concerning United Kingdom "grooming gangs." The Financial Times reported that Musk's UK posts appeared to be fueled by a few X accounts that seemingly appeared on his "For You" page, with one former Twitter exec in Europe, Bruce Daisley, suggesting that "Musk has seemingly become the first tech leader to fall down the rabbit hole of radicalization by his own product.Musk also took to X to endorse German far-right leader Alice Weidel, Bloomberg noted, which could potentially be a problem if Musk's platform is found to be favoring right-wing voices and skewing civic discourse in the EU.On Thursday, Musk will host a live-streamed interview with Weidel, and the EC plans to watch it closer than most, seeking "to see if Xs algorithms are used to deliberately boost the live-stream, which would potentially be in breach of the DSA," Bloomberg reported.There's no deadline to conclude the probe. But EC leaders have signaled that its end could be near. If the EC concludes that X violated the DSA, X could be hit with fines of up to 6 percent of its global revenue or be ordered to make changes to comply with the strict law.X could also voluntarily make changes if remedies are requested. In 2023, X said it was "committed to complying with the Digital Services Act and is cooperating with the regulatory process," while emphasizing that "it is important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law."In the EU, some officials are worried that Musk might possibly be controlling X to boost conservative narratives and influence electionsand that the EC potentially isn't acting fast enough to protect the democratic process.Bloomberg noted that French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has urged the EC to "use the tools that weve given it democratically a lot more robustly to discourage this sort of behavior.""Either the European Commission applies the laws weve created to protect the public sphere with the utmost firmness, or it doesnt, in which case it must agree to return the ability to do so to EU member states," Barrot said.X CEO: Community Notes are good for the worldIt seems unlikely that X would ever take a drastic step like abandoning Community Notes in favor of hiring back more content moderators laid off shortly after Musk's Twitter acquisition. At CES 2025, X CEO Linda Yaccarino bragged that Community Notes are "good for the world.""Think about it as this global collective consciousness keeping each other accountable at global scale in real time," Yaccarino said, telling the audience that it was "validating" that Meta now plans to use a similar system over more traditional fact-checking.According to Yaccarino, there are now "almost a million Community Noters" globally, and noted posts are "dramatically shared less."Brand safety on X has supposedly improved so much through Community Notes and new advertiser controls, Yaccarino claimed at CES, that she estimated that 90 percent of advertisers are back on X.That would represent a major shift since Trump's re-election if data that Sensor Tower provided to Ars in October is accurate. The data showed that major brands continued to shy away from X in 2024, with "72 out of the top 100 spending US advertisers on X from October 2022" having "ceased spending on the platform as of September 2024."Ars could not immediately reach Sensor Tower for more current data but will update this story if more information becomes available.As Meta faces backlash over its pivot to an X-like Community Notes approach, experts have noted that there's still limited research on Community Notes' effectiveness. The Center for Countering Digital Hate, which Musk tried and failed to sue over its independent research on X, reported in October that toxic X users were sabotaging some Community Notes by downvoting fact checks they didn't politically agree with to keep the notes from appearing on the platform. Another study last year found that community noters target different posts than traditional fact-checkers. The authors advocated for a multi-pronged approach on popular platforms to quickly check a wider variety of posts than would seemingly be checked by either group alone.The EC's probe could expose flaws in Community Notes in the EU, or it could further give Yaccarino the "validation" X has sought since expanding the fact-checking alternative initially launched prior to Musk's acquisition.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 17 Comments