An injectable chip that works with a smartphone can be purchased for as little as $25. The company sells a package of three chips that include high and low radio-frequency identification technology and short-range wireless technology. The kit works with smartphones, door locks, USB contactless readers and key fobs. It does not allow GPS location tracking. The $211.96 price includes a sterile injector assembly, antiseptic wipes, gauze pads, bandages and a pair of latex gloves. During a recent Reddit forum chat, Dangerous Things CEO Amal Graafstra said injectable microchips are safer than body piercings because they are not exposed to the outside and better protect a user’s privacy than smartphones, which are subject to snooping by Big Tech and hackers. In November, the brain-computer interface technology company Paradromics received FDA approval to begin human testing of a brain implant to help restore speech in people with disabilities. Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface, Neuralink, allows users to control computers and robotic arms with their thoughts. The technology promises to “restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs and unlock new dimensions of human potential.” Three Square Market’s microchips use radio frequency identification and do not track employee location. Todd Westby, who was CEO of Three Square Market when the microchipping program began, told CNBC at the time that he could log in to his phone and computer, pay for items and gain access to the company’s building. “The vast majority of our employees absolutely love the conveniences this chip brings to them,” he said. “It’s really a huge convenience factor the employees seem to like with it.”

States moved to set limits on microchipping in response to Three Square Market, a Wisconsin-based software company that made headlines in 2017 by offering employees the option of having a grain-size microchip implanted under the skin between the thumb and forefinger. Dozens of employees signed up for the program, and company officials said more than 80 people got the implant. The chips opened doors, unlocked computers, made payments on proprietary self-checkout software and more. Company officials acknowledged “serious backlash from groups citing privacy and religious concerns.” They said they had “zero interest in tracking anyone” and turned down requests to develop tracking technology. Cantaloupe purchased Three Square Market in 2022. The Washington Times reached out to Cantaloupe to see whether the microchipping program was still operational. Since Three Square Market made a splash with its microchipping program, no major U.S. company has announced plans to offer or require employees to wear similar implants. Two companies in Sweden offer employee microchipping, and thousands have signed up for the implants that unlock doors, access computers and pay for items, and also carry health data, including vaccine records. In the U.S., biohacking technology is here to stay and advancing in new ways. The Food and Drug Administration approved implantable chip access to medical records in 2004. Since then, the technology has advanced to much more sophisticated uses in the medical field and is being tested to help patients with neurological conditions and even paralysis. It is also advancing commercially for people who simply want the convenience and technological benefits of microchipping. Seattle-based tech company Dangerous Things allows consumers to buy a microchip and have it inserted by a professional body-piercing or body-modification business that partners with the company.

Never mind microchipping your dog. Some companies are giving employees microchip implants that grant them access to facilities, company accounts and vending machines with a wave of the hand. The technology sounds convenient and cool, but it alarms privacy rights advocates, and some states have moved to ban the practice. In March, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a bill that prohibits employers from requiring, coercing or even asking employees to have a microchip implanted for any reason. “Microchips may seem like science fiction, but the technology is here,” said state Rep. Brianna Thomas, a Democrat and sponsor of the legislation. “It creates an opportunity for employers to track employees during work hours and at home. That is scary.” At least 13 other states have also banned employer-mandated human microchips, and some have imposed stricter regulations amid growing concerns about technology’s increasing encroachment on privacy rights. Nevada banned microchip programs, even for voluntary recipients, in 2019. In addition to concerns about bosses tracking employees, the technology could be vulnerable to hacking, leaving microchip wearers’ personal, health and work information exposed. Some medical studies found that the rice-size chips can injure tissues and tendons in the human hand and have been associated with tumors in laboratory mice. “From my point of view, there is nothing beneficial that can come from this,” said Nevada Assemblyman Skip Daly, who sponsored the bill banning the practice. “We have insurance companies, credit reporting, monitoring locations, tracking transactions and employers having access to personal information, et cetera, which some of you may see as having potentially beneficial applications, all of which are overshadowed by, in my opinion, the negative applications and potential for abuse and infringement upon our freedoms.”

Regardless of whether individual jobs are being replaced by AI, the money for those roles is,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That growth came from the retail, healthcare, transportation, warehousing and hospitality sectors. The information services sector, where AI automation has taken its heaviest toll, lost 13,000 jobs. “AI is no longer operating quietly in the background as an administrative tool,” said Noelle London, CEO and founder of Illoominus, an Atlanta company that provides AI-generated data to HR managers. “It is increasingly functioning as a gatekeeper to employment.” Workforce insiders interviewed by The Washington Times /said /the MyPerfectResume report confirms /that more employers are quietly using AI to automate jobs,/ suggest layoffs /and craft new AI-assisted roles that require skills their current workers lack. U.S. employers have used AI algorithms to process and sort resumes since the 2010s. Andrew Crapuchettes, CEO of the Idaho-based jobs board RedBalloon, said the technology’s recent expansion into layoff recommendations adds to “a major impending backlash against this trend.” “The adoption of AI in HR today feels like a fad-driven bubble that is fit to burst in a bad way,” Mr. Crapuchettes said. “It can’t decide what is a good culture fit for your company, and evaluate someone’s work ethic.” A January survey from Resume Now found that 60% of 1,006 workers said AI would eliminate more jobs than it creates by the end of this year. The survey also found that 51% of workers worried about losing their jobs to AI, and 46% said a bot could replace them by 2030. Adnan Malik, CEO of Software Finder, predicted it will take time for companies to develop policies that overcome those fears.

Employers have shifted from using AI for sorting resumes to taking its advice on which employees to eliminate in layoffs, according to a recent workforce report. MyPerfectResume’s survey of 1,000 hiring managers found that 52% use artificial intelligence to generate productivity data for “workforce Another 28% of human resources directors said they were considering doing the same, while 20% said they didn’t plan to use AI for issuing pink slips. Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at MyPerfectResume, said the findings confirm that AI use has “expanded beyond hiring processes and is now being applied to broader organizational decisions.” “AI can provide valuable insights by analyzing large amounts of data and identifying patterns, but it should not be the sole driver of staffing decisions,” Ms. Escalera said in an email. The MyPerfectResume AI in Hiring Report found the technology has become widespread among job recruiters: 73% of hiring directors surveyed said they used AI to manage what the report called “an overwhelming volume of applications.” The findings come as AI automation has driven some technology workers into unemployment, replacing their jobs with AI-assisted positions that require skills they lack. The consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported last week that AI was the top reason for downsizing cited in April for the second consecutive month: Companies cited AI in 21,490 job cuts announced last month, or 26% of all downsizing. As of last month, the firm found that AI accounted for roughly 16% of job cut plans this year, up from 13% through March. Most of the 83,387 job cuts in April occurred among technology firms.

A 21-year-old Chinese man has pleaded guilty in federal court to photographing planes at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Tianrui Liang pleaded guilty Thursday to the charges over photos he took of planes at the base from just outside its perimeter on March 31, according to court records. The planes included the E-4B, which acts as a “National Airborne Operations Center” when necessary, and the RC-135 reconnaissance plane, according to an affidavit filed against Liang. Liang admitted to law enforcement that he knew that taking pictures of the planes on the ground was illegal. Offutt Air Force Base was not the only place Liang planned to visit. The University of Glasgow student flew into Vancouver on March 26 to meet a friend who attends Columbia University, then crossed the border on March 28. Liang and his friend then stopped in Billings, Montana. The friend, Zhihe Tian, flew back to New York to attend school, while Liang went to snap photos of a B1-B bomber at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, about 320 miles northeast of Denver, per the affidavit. The B1-B plane had been relocated to the United Kingdom, and Liang continued on from South Dakota to Nebraska, with plans to then leave the car at the airport in Kansas City for Mr. Tian to come pick up after flying back from New York. He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on April 7, ahead of a flight that would have taken him to Frankfurt, Germany. From there, he was going to head to Scotland, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Liang is still in custody pending the conclusion of his trial, according to court records. He faces up to one year in prison unless other, more serious charges are levied against him, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska said.

The new CI Fortify initiative is a response in part to ongoing Chinese pre-positioning hacking activity known by the code name Volt Typhoon. Volt Typhoon hackers have been detected operating inside U.S. and other foreign networks since mid-2021. The group has been linked by U.S. intelligence agencies to the People’s Liberation Army Cyberspace Force. The goal of Volt Typhoon operations is said to be focused on developing pre-war capabilities that could disrupt or slow U.S. military mobilizations in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. U.S. military and intelligence leaders have said China is preparing to take over Taiwan in the coming years and have warned that a military assault could take place as early as next year, based on Mr. Xi’s directive to the PLA to be ready for war then. The CISA CI Fortify program warns that hackers could use their access to telecommunications networks to “take out phone and internet services.” Ownes of critical infrastructure are being urged to fortify cybersecurity on their networks that will allow for vital U.S. services during a geopolitical conflict. “Investing in isolation and recovery capabilities today is essential to maintaining service delivery during a future crisis, when an adversary may disrupt communications and manipulate control systems,” the CISA website said. Infrastructure network owner are urged to be ready to disconnect from third-party dependencies and to operate without reliable telecommunications, internet vendors, service providers, and upstream providers.

The advisory said Chinese hackers were detected inside infrastructure networks mainly related to the communications, energy, transportation and water and wastewater sectors in the continental U.S. and on Guam. China’s Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored hacking group, seeks to disrupt functions and operations, the advisory said. U.S.-China relations remain unsettled over Beijing’s decades-long cyberattacks that have penetrated both government and private systems for theft of data ? useful for Beijing’s artificial intelligence development ? and prepositioning prior to a conflict. The attacks have continued with little or no response from Congress or from multiple U.S. presidential administrations. China also is opposing new U.S. arms sales to Taiwan ? a major flashpoint in relations with the potential to erupt into a military confrontation over Beijing’s threats to annex the island by force. Relations also are soured over U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and China’s loss of energy resources from Venezuela and Iran, which have impacted the flagging Chinese economy. Despite the ongoing tensions, President Trump is set to visit Beijing next week for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Since last year, Mr. Trump has downplayed differences with China and repeatedly said that ties with Beijing are strong and that his relationship with Mr. Jinping borders on friendship.

American critical infrastructures are vulnerable to Chinese sabotage and the federal government is taking steps to mitigate the threats, according to the lead U.S. cybersecurity agency. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency(CISA) on Tuesday launched a new program called “CI Fortify,” a program to help civilian utilities and other infrastructure stakeholders “prepare to operate through a crisis or conflict, continuing vital service delivery even as their systems are under attack.” “In a geopolitical crisis, the critical infrastructure organizations Americans rely on must be able to continue delivering ? at a minimum ? crucial services,” CISA Acting Director Nick Anderson said in a statement. “They must be able to isolate vital systems from harm, continue operating in that isolated state, and quickly recover any systems that an adversary may successfully compromise,” he said. The CI Fortify program will seek to strengthen security against adversaries, notably the Chinese state-run cyber intrusions that have been detected inside some of 16 critical U.S. infrastructures, including electric grids and financial computer networks. Most critical infrastructure computer networks are not government-owned, making securing them more difficult from sophisticated cyber penetrations. The new CI Fortify web page states that Chinese hackers have successfully pre-positioned malware and access points across critical infrastructure that can be used to “disrupt and destroy the operational technology (OT) running the United States.” The page contains a link to a security advisory from CISA, the FBI and National Security Agency identifying Chinese government hackers as working to pre-position themselves in information technology networks for disruptive or destructive cyberattacks on critical infrastructures in a crisis or conflict with the United States.

The Pentagon is spurring industry to build more laser weapons as a first step, he said. Ground-based lasers are expected to be a key element of the Golden Dome missile defense capable of disrupting or destroying enemy satellites during a future conflict. Laser and directed energy weapons have been researched and developed by the U.S. military for decades based on their ability to provide near-instantaneous impact, rapid refire capability and low-cost per shot against enemy missiles. During the Strategic Defense Initiative program in the 1980s, space- and ground-based lasers were studied but never deployed over problems with power generation and tracking limits. One advanced weapon, the airborne laser, was developed using a powerful laser fired from inside an aircraft. The program was canceled before it could be produced. In recent years, the Navy fielded a ship-based AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System that reportedly can destroy land, air, and sea targets for $1 per shot. The Army has the Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense, called M-SHORAD, that is said to be able to counter drones, small boats, rockets, and artillery. Direct energy guns included high-energy lasers that use electricity to produce a focused beam of light that can cause structural failure on a target by melting, or ignition. Microwave weapons emit bursts of electromagnetic energy capable of disrupting or destroying electronic circuits on targets, such as drones. A third weapon is a particle beam that use accelerated charged or neutral particles that can damage targets.