Saturday, August 9, 2025
American AI Companies Open Up To Counter China
by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
OpenAI on Aug. 5 released two open-weight language models, the company’s first such release since GPT-2 in 2019.
Open-weight models make their training parameters, or weights, publicly available but tend not to provide access to the source code or datasets. Open-source models typically include access to the source code, weights, and methodologies.
With weights publicly accessible, developers can analyze and fine-tune a model for specific tasks without requiring original training data.
The weights for the new gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b models are free to download for developers to fine-tune and deploy in their own environments, OpenAI said.
“These open models also lower barriers for emerging markets, resource-constrained sectors, and smaller organizations that may lack the budget or flexibility to adopt proprietary models,” OpenAI said in an Aug. 5 statement. “Broad access to these capable open-weights models created in the US helps expand democratic AI rails.”
Amazon announced on Aug. 6 that OpenAI’s open-weight models are now available on its Bedrock generative AI marketplace in Amazon Web Services. It marks the first time an OpenAI model has been offered on Bedrock, Amazon said in a statement.
In May, Meta announced a collaboration with Red Hat to advance open-source AI for enterprise.
American AI companies and the Trump administration have been in broad agreement about the need for the United States to dominate the AI space, which requires the wide adoption of the American AI stack, including the hardware, models, software, applications, and standards.
On July 23, the White House released its AI action plan, which involves removing barriers for companies to accelerate innovation and build out infrastructure, along with using diplomacy to set AI standards internationally.
Chinese AI companies currently dominate the open-source space. Republican senators recently signed a letter asking the Commerce Department to examine data security risks and potential backdoors in Chinese open-source models such as DeepSeek.
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told Chinese state-run media in June that Chinese AI development will include “thousands upon thousands of open-source software.” Chinese state-run media Global Times on Aug. 7 published an editorial opining that US efforts to curb China’s AI strategy would fail, as “China has embraced an open-source approach” to meet its vast needs.
Beginning in the 2000s, the Chinese communist regime built open-source software alliances and directed its tech sector to enter the open-source community with the goal of reducing dependency on American proprietary software.
Over time, China has moved from consumer to contributor. According to a 2024 report by GitHub, China was the third biggest contributor of open source software on the platform. Though it is still far from leading in AI globally, it maintains a strong presence in AI open-source software.
Among the concerns about Chinese-run AI models are data harvesting, including for espionage purposes, and a lack of safeguards, which could allow for malware dissemination or the generation of harmful content.
OpenAI notes that once an open-weight model is released, “adversaries may be able to fine-tune the model for malicious purposes.”
To counter this, it fine-tuned the two new models “on specialized biology and cybersecurity data, creating a domain-specific non-refusing version for each domain the way an attacker might” and tested the models to see if they would continue to operate within safety guardrails.
“These processes mark a meaningful advancement for open model safety,” OpenAI stated. The company is also inviting third parties to find and report novel safety issues in its models for a chance to win a $500,000 prize.
Vetting Software for Security
Chris Gogoel, vice president and public sector general manager at mobile app security firm Quokka, says the proliferation of AI apps, especially AI assistant apps, has increased security risks for users exponentially.
It used to be that users would rely on different apps for different functions, segmenting the data collected and permissions given, but AI apps tend to be “do-everything” apps, Gogoel told The Epoch Times.
That elevated data collection translates into more inherent risk, he said. The data collected can also be more sensitive because users may be feeding the apps long passages or instructions revealing in-depth thoughts, intentions, and rationale, rather than simply having access to raw files.
With more data collected, the apps could be bigger targets of a potential breach to extract the data over a network or from a device. The bigger risk is if these apps come from sources that have not been proven to be secure. OpenAI has adopted an approach that values security, but there are plenty of other unvetted AI apps that have been downloaded millions of times, Gogoel said.
“‘What are these applications doing with our data?’ is a very serious question,” Gogoel added.
“The verification of what happens with that data, and where it goes, how it’s protected, becomes even more important, because if that data is misused, on accident or on purpose, you have a serious, serious problem,” he said, pointing to abuse of data being used to create deepfakes and phishing attacks.
Gogoel notes that the declarations a developer makes about what data their app collects may not be what the app does.
Sometimes, the developer might not know this is the case as they are often trying to jump on trends and launch apps in time to rise in the rankings, leading to mistakes like not using proper encryption, he said. They may fail to invest in security, perhaps using open-source software that contains flaws. App stores do not currently require verification of a developer’s declarations, and Gogoel advocates moving to a verify-first approach.
One bad app can spoil the bunch, he said.
Quokka, which began working with the Pentagon around its founding in 2011, provides mobile vetting services to the federal government and other clients, which led the firm to examine TikTok and ByteDance in 2018.
It found that TikTok not only requested ample permissions, but it would also connect with other apps on a user’s device to obtain permissions the user did not explicitly give. So, data collected by trusted applications for legitimate purposes may still present security risks if they come in contact with unvetted apps.
“It’s not something that we should be looking back after something has exploded and the fire is already raging, so to speak, and there’s tens of millions of users. We’re trying to enable, in our work, the ability to verify at every step,” Gogoel said. “Verify as soon as something hits the store, as soon as something hits your device, as soon as this brand new service comes out ... that it does what it says on the tin and nothing else.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/american-ai-companies-open-counter-china
'Europe stresses need to protect Ukrainian interests ahead of Trump-Putin talks'
European officials presented their own Ukraine peace proposals to the United States on Saturday as President Donald Trump prepared for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war.
Trump announced on Friday that he would meet Putin in Alaska on August 15, saying the parties, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, were close to a deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict.
Details of the potential deal have yet to be announced, but Trump said it would involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both". It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory - an outcome Kyiv and its European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance met Ukrainian and European allies in Britain on Saturday to discuss Trump's push for peace.
The Wall Street Journal said European officials had presented a counter-proposal, including demands that a cease-fire must take place before any other steps are taken and that any territory exchange must be reciprocal, with firm security guarantees.
"You can't start a process by ceding territory in the middle of fighting," it quoted one European negotiator as saying.
A European official confirmed a counterproposal was put forward by European representatives at the meeting but declined to provide details.
Zelenskiy said the meeting was constructive. "All our arguments were heard," he said in his evening address to Ukrainians.
"The path to peace for Ukraine should be determined together and only together with Ukraine, this is key principle," he said.
He had earlier rejected any territorial concessions, saying "Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier".
French President Emmanuel Macron also said Ukraine must play a role in any negotiations.
"Ukraine's future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians, who have been fighting for their freedom and security for over three years now," he wrote on X after what he said were calls with Zelenskiy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
"Europeans will also necessarily be part of the solution, as their own security is at stake."
'CLEAR STEPS NEEDED'
Zelenskiy has made a flurry of calls with Ukraine's allies since Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow on Wednesday which Trump described as having achieved "great progress".
"Clear steps are needed, as well as maximum coordination between us and our partners," Zelenskiy said in a post on X earlier on Saturday.
Ukraine and the European Union have pushed back on proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what Moscow called threats to Russia's security from a Ukrainian pivot towards the West.
Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab.
"Today’s hours-long meetings produced significant progress toward President Trump’s goal of bringing an end to the war in Ukraine, ahead of President Trump and President Putin’s upcoming meeting in Alaska," a U.S. official said.
It was not clear what, if anything, had been agreed.
Moscow has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions and Russia has demanded that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts of all four of them that they still control.
Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia's Kursk region a year after its troops crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations. Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, described the current peace push as "the first more or less realistic attempt to stop the war".
"At the same time, I remain extremely sceptical about the implementation of the agreements, even if a truce is reached for a while. And there is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine," she said.
Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1,000-km (620-mile) front line along eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country's territory.
Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine's east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say.
Ukrainians remain defiant.
"Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories," Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ukraines-zelenskiy-rejects-land-concessions-132415134.html
Vacuuming, Mopping, Mowing: More Household Robots Are Coming
According to data from Statista Market Insights, reported by Anna Fleck, global revenue of service robots for domestic tasks is set to nearly double from $13.5 billion in 2021 to $22.8 billion in 2027.
Meanwhile, the total number of consumer service robots worldwide will reach 39.7 million in 2025, rising to more than 50 million by 2027.
A consumer service robot here includes a robot designed for personal or household use, such as robot vacuum cleaners, robotic toys and even drones.
Population aging is one of the factors contributing to the need for more assistive robots, having led to the development of robotics solutions for elderly care, whether that’s for mobility assistance to help with daily tasks or as social robots for companionship.
This is the case in Japan, where strict labor laws and cultural acceptance of technology have created a good environment for the adoption of service robots in various industries, such as hospitality and retail.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/vacuuming-mopping-mowing-household-robots-are-coming
Fermented Stevia Extract Kills Pancreatic Cancer Cells In Lab Tests
by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Hiroshima University researchers have found that fermented stevia extract may fight pancreatic cancer without harming healthy cells—potentially making it more than just a zero-calorie sugar substitute.
Pancreatic cancer shows significant resistance to existing treatments like surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
“Globally, the incidence and mortality rates of pancreatic cancer continue to rise, with a five-year survival rate of less than 10 percent,” study coauthor Narandalai Danshiitsoodol, associate professor at Hiroshima University, said in a press statement.
There’s a growing need to find new, effective cancer-fighting compounds—especially those that come from medicinal plants, said Danshiitsoodol.
Fermentation Unlocks Cancer-Fighting Power
The study, recently published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, found that when stevia is fermented with a probiotic, the resulting extract kills pancreatic cancer cells while sparing healthy kidney cells. The fermented extract inhibited cancer growth but did not harm normal cells.
The research team fermented stevia leaf extract using the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum SN13T, a beneficial bacterium commonly found in fermented foods like sauerkraut, pickles, and kimchi. The researchers noted that fermenting the extract with bacteria can change its structure and produce beneficial compounds called bioactive metabolites.
“To enhance the pharmacological efficacy of natural plant extracts, microbial biotransformation has emerged as an effective strategy,” Masanori Sugiyama, a professor of microbiology and biotechnology and coauthor of the study, said in a press statement.
Sugiyama’s lab has studied more than 1,200 strains of bacteria from fruits, vegetables, flowers, and medicinal plants, evaluating their health benefits.
The results showed that the fermented stevia leaf extract (FSLE) was more effective at killing cancer cells than the nonfermented version.
Sugiyama said that FSLE was also less harmful to the HEK-293 cells, which are human kidney cells used in the study. Even at the highest dose tested, FSLE caused minimal damage to these cells.
This is important because conventional chemotherapy, such as cisplatin, can damage the kidneys—especially the left one, which is adjacent to the pancreas.
Key Anticancer Agent Identified
Further analysis identified a compound called chlorogenic acid methyl ester (CAME) as the key anticancer agent. Fermentation reduced the amount of chlorogenic acid—a precursor to CAME—in the extract by sixfold, a change caused by bacterial enzymes, according to Danshiitsoodol.
“This microbial transformation was likely due to specific enzymes in the bacteria strain used,” she said.
CAME was found to stop cancer cells from multiplying, trigger them to self-destruct, and change the expression of key genes so that cells are more likely to die.
The experiments were conducted on cancer cells grown in laboratory dishes—not in living organisms. The researchers plan to conduct tests in mice to better understand how different doses of the fermented extract affect the entire body.
They emphasized that their results help explain how probiotic bacteria can boost the anticancer effects of herbal medicines. Danshiitsoodol noted that the study significantly advances understanding of how the Lactobacillus plantarum SN13T strain works in fermenting herbal extracts, and it also offers insight into using probiotics as natural antitumor agents.
Stevia Safety and Benefits
Dr. Joseph Mercola, a board-certified family medicine physician not involved in the study, called the research “a powerful reminder” that plants like stevia offer more than just sweetness—they may deliver compounds that support long-term health.
Mercola noted that stevia extract is a “far healthier” alternative to artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. “Unlike synthetic options that can disrupt gut bacteria or trigger metabolic changes, pure stevia extract—which has a glycemic index close to zero—has minimal to no impact on your blood sugar or insulin,” he added.
However, he cautioned that sweeteners blended with stevia—such as those containing dextrose or maltodextrin—can raise blood sugar if taken in large amounts.
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/fermented-stevia-extract-kills-pancreatic-cancer-cells-lab-tests
Google, NASA test AI medical assistant
Google and NASA are collaborating on a new AI-powered tool aimed at enabling autonomous medical care for astronauts during extended space missions, including future journeys to the Moon and Mars.
The project centers on the development of the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant, an AI-based clinical decision support system designed to help astronauts assess symptoms, identify potential conditions and determine treatment options when contact with Earth is limited or unavailable.
As part of the proof-of-concept phase, the system was trained using spaceflight medical literature and tested on a range of simulated scenarios. Evaluations were conducted using a clinical assessment framework commonly applied in medical education and professional certification. Initial results indicated that the tool could generate reliable diagnostic suggestions based on the symptoms provided.
The AI interface incorporates natural language processing and machine learning capabilities to process user input and offer real-time insights. The tool is intended to support the mission’s designated medical officer, assisting in decision-making during health-related incidents without relying on real-time input from flight surgeons on Earth.
Google and NASA are continuing to work with physicians to refine the model and expand its accuracy across a broader range of medical cases. They are positioning the tool as a potential asset not only for space exploration but also for delivering quality care in remote or resource-limited environments on Earth.
The project was detailed in an Aug. 7 blog post by Google Cloud.
Physicians with more patient complaints also more likely to receive industry payments
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators report that physicians who attract more unsolicited patient complaints also tend to accept larger nonresearch payments from industry.
Patient welfare is the foundation of medical professionalism. Unprofessional behavior can put patients at risk and increase malpractice risk. Industry payments to physicians may influence clinical decisions, creating potential professional conflicts.
Tools such as the Patient Advocacy Reporting System quantify unsolicited patient complaints linked to adverse outcomes. Separately, the Open Payments Program tracks financial entanglements between physicians and industry. But how do these two forms of risk overlap?
In the study, "Unsolicited Patient Complaints and Industry Payments for US Physicians," published in JAMA Network Open, researchers conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study to examine the association between unsolicited patient complaints, measured by the Patient Advocacy Reporting System Index, and acceptance of general industry payments, categorized annually as $0, $1 to $4,999, or $5,000 or more.
Data covered 71,944 physicians practicing at Patient Advocacy Reporting System-participating sites nationwide from 2015 to 2020.
Investigators linked each physician's highest PARS Index score to Open Payments Program disclosures using National Provider Identifier numbers and categorized general payments into $0, $1-$4,999, or ≥$5,000 annually.
Results showed that 68.3% of physicians accepted at least one general payment, and 11.2% collected more than $5,000 in a single year. Physicians in higher complaint categories were increasingly likely to receive larger payments, with those in the highest PARS Index tier (≥51) showing an adjusted odds ratio of 1.69 compared with those with a score of 0.
Male physicians were more likely to receive higher general payments regardless of complaint history with an OR of 1.90. Nonacademic practice was also associated with higher payment likelihood (OR, 1.15).
The authors conclude that vigilant conflict-of-interest review, coupled with peer feedback interventions for high-complaint physicians, can bolster professionalism and maintain patient trust.
More information: Yong Hyun Park et al, Unsolicited Patient Complaints and Industry Payments for US Physicians, JAMA Network Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.26643
Aaron P. Mitchell, More Industry Payments and More Patient Complaints—What Explains This Link?, JAMA Network Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.26646
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-physicians-patient-complaints-industry-payments.html