Welcome to 2023. It promises to be something of a wild ride.

Shashank Joshi (Economist) sets out his three scenarios for the conflict in Ukraine: the best for Ukraine is also the most dangerous.

AI-assisted code is more likely to be insecure.

In AI, ChatGPT may come to look like a ‘boring toy‘, further raising expectations on Open AI’s next model, GPT-4. ChatGPT is interesting, with some obvious and emerging limitations, and already powering applications. New models will underpin advances in robotics (eg Tesla, Giant AI) and augmented reality.

Jon Lindsay, writing in Strategic Studies Quarterly in mid-2020, offers a no-less urgent but somewhat more–conditionally–sanguine approach to the ‘coming quantum cryptocalypse‘ (pdf). His hopefulness is informed by his assessment of the breaking of cryptography as self-denying prophecy, which spurs the investment and creativity needed to offset catastrophe.

Hard on the heels of Lawrence Livermore’s breakthrough in nuclear fusion, the US Department of Energy is soliciting poposals for AI/ML to help devise an eventual fusion pilot plant.

Meantime, the Israel Innovation Authority is forming a consortium to pursue quantum computing technologies.

The Southwest Airlines debacle is another reminder that every organisation is a technology organisation. It’s not just cyber vulnerabilities that increase when IT systems are neglected: things break, sometimes badly.

Canada is banning foreigners from buying residential property in an effort to manage surging house prices.

Last: One of the highlights from my trip in October was the food, in Tuscany (numerous), Milan, Paris and London. So of the ‘25 travel experiences you must have‘, from the NYT Magazine, 1, 5 and 20 have an immediate ‘yes’ vote, as does the Komono Kodo (16–I’d do it again for the food as much for the walk), the Pan-American road trip (18), and the northern lights in Norway (3)–or in Iceland.