In a nutshell: The Biden administration might be limiting China's ability to manufacture advanced chips, but according to an independent think tank, the Asian nation is still ahead of the US when it comes to research in 37 out of 44 crucial and emerging technologies, including AI, defense, and key quantum tech areas.
The big picture: The US government has had a bad run of cybersecurity-related incidents over the last couple of weeks. In the span of 12 days, officials from the FBI, DoD, and USMS have confirmed one data leak caused by human error and two separate attacks against government systems. So far, investigators have either not found any suspects or are keeping the lid on what they have discovered.
It awarded $40 million to build a new version instead
What just happened? The controversial deal between Microsoft and the US Army for the military branch to buy 6,900 HoloLens-based headsets at the cost of $400 million has been blocked by congress. As a consolation, the government approved $40 million for Microsoft to build a new and improved version that soldiers will hopefully hate less.
A hot potato: End Live Piracy Now is a new initiative against unlicensed streaming of live sports and events. More than 100 organizations want the EU to "end piracy" for good, with new laws that would shut pirate servers off even before a live show comes to an end. Which is easier said than done.
Why it matters: Earlier this month, the US government blocked the sale of specific chips to anyone in China. We see this as an important change by the government in the tactics they are deploying. The United States has gone from blocking specific companies in China, to blocking all companies and focusing on specific products.
This is a big change, and opens up the question -- what exactly are they hoping to achieve? This matters obviously in that it can help us predict the outcome, but we increasingly hold the view that the government may not have entirely thought through how this will ultimately play out.