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A new SharePoint vulnerability is already being exploited

November 4, 2024 /

Attackers are exploiting a recently disclosed remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint to gain initial access to corporate networks.

SharePoint’s main role in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is for building intranets and dedicated web applications to support organizational processes. It is also used to build websites, and to gather together files in SharePoint teams connected to the Microsoft Teams communicator.

CVE-2024-38094 is a high-severity remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that affects Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft fixed the vulnerability on July 9, 2024 as part of July’s Patch Tuesday package, marking it as “important”.

A new SharePoint vulnerability is already being exploited

November 4, 2024 /

Attackers are exploiting a recently disclosed remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint to gain initial access to corporate networks.

SharePoint’s main role in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is for building intranets and dedicated web applications to support organizational processes. It is also used to build websites, and to gather together files in SharePoint teams connected to the Microsoft Teams communicator.

CVE-2024-38094 is a high-severity remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that affects Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft fixed the vulnerability on July 9, 2024 as part of July’s Patch Tuesday package, marking it as “important”.

Feds to locate the nation’s ‘flagship’ microchip R&D center in NY

November 4, 2024 /

The Biden Administration plans to spend about $825 million to create a flagship national semiconductor R&D center in upstate New York, where the government-funded NanoTech Complex already exists.

The new R&D facility in Albany, NY will be home to the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Accelerator project, which is being funded to advance leading-edge lithography research and adoption in the US.

EUV Lithography is essential for manufacturing smaller, faster, and more efficient integrated circuits and microchips. It involves transferring intricate patterns onto a semiconductor silicon wafer, which eventually forms the circuits that power all electronic devices.

As the semiconductor industry pushes the limits of Moore’s Law, EUV lithography has emerged as a critical technology to enable the high-volume production of transistors beyond 7nm, something that was previously unattainable. By comparison, a typical human hair is roughly 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers thick, and a DNA molecule is around 2.5nm.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) said access to EUV lithography R&D is essential to meet three primary goals: 1) extend US technology leadership, 2) reduce the time and cost to prototype, and 3) build and sustain a semiconductor workforce ecosystem.

The new R&D center represents a key milestone “in ensuring the United States remains a global leader in innovation and semiconductor research and development,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Anish Koshy, a Parthenon Principal at consultancy Ernst & Young LLP, said the center represents a strategic investment in both technology and talent.

“At the heart of this facility is advanced EUV technology, a cornerstone in producing the next generation of high-performance microchips essential for applications from AI to advanced computing,” Koshy said. “EUV technology has been largely concentrated outside of the US and the hope is that having this technology on US soil, combined with the collaborative research environment, will help American companies maintain their edge in designing next-generation chips.”

Another semiconductor expert, who asked not to be named, said EUV technology only affects a small number of companies, such as TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron. “That’s really it,” he said.

Many more companies, however, will benefit indirectly, including fabless chip makers such as NVIDIA and AMD; networking providers such as Broadcom; wireless providers such as Qualcomm and Mediatek; and cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Even Internet service and equipment providers such as Meta and Oracle, and enterprise hardware makers such as Cisco and Juniper, could benefit from the new R&D center’s potential innovations, the expert said.

“There is an entire ecosystem that we expect will get excited about having the Accelerator onshore — and very little of this ecosystem exists in the USA today, so much of this will be net new job creation,” he said. “There are obvious national security implications in getting more Americans working on EUV challenges, with benefits to [the Department of Defense] from a resiliency perspective.”

Funded by the CHIPS Act to reshore semiconductor manufacturing, the new research center’s aim is to unite researchers nationwide to accelerate innovation in the field. The Department of Commerce and the National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology (Natcast), will oversee the facility. Natcast was created under the CHIPS Act as a non-profit entity designated to operate the NSTC.

The new center will provide access to “cutting-edge research and tools” to the NSTC, which was just opened in Albany’s NY CREATES’ NanoTech Complex; that complex opened last year.

NanoTech Facility in Albany

NY CREATES’ NanoTech Center in Albany

NY CREATES

Through public-private partnerships, mega corporations from the semiconductor industry and others such as IBM, Micron, Applied Materials, and Tokyo Electron helped establish the facilities at the NanoTech Complex. 

In August 2022, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, allocating $52.7 billion to the Department of Commerce for the CHIPS for America program to enhance U.S. semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing. About $11 billion of that CHIPS funding went toward establishing several research centers, including the NSTC and the Nanotech complex in Albany.

With the CHIPS Act spurring them on, chip makers such as Intel, Samsung, Micron, TSMC, and Texas Instruments are already building or planning a number of new US chip fabrication plants. (Qualcomm, in partnership with GlobalFoundries, also said it would invest $4.2 billion to double chip production in its Malta, NY facility.)

To date, however, CHIPS Act funding has only been allocated, not distributed. There have also been setbacks on fabrication plant construction as workers to build and staff the plants are in short supply.

NY CREATES operates a complex with 150,000 square feet of cleanroom space (and another 50,000 square feet of space under construction) staffed by 2,750 scientists, engineers and other staffers. The R&D facility is in partnership with more than 200 industry, academic and international development facilities around the globe.

Raimondo said the CHIPS Act is building “a resilient ecosystem that will power everything from smartphones to advanced AI, safeguarding US national security and keeping America competitive for decades to come.”

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted critical gaps in the semiconductor supply chain as imports to the US and other nations ground to a halt, affecting the production of everything with electronics, from smart phones to cars.

NY CREATES is an Albany-based, non-profit semiconductor R&D facility that works with the National Institute for Industry and Career Advancement (NIICA). NIICA’s focus is on building the nation’s talent pipeline in semiconductor and advanced manufacturing industries. It also created the Semiconductor and Advanced Manufacturing Technician Apprenticeship Program (SAM-TAP).

NY CREATES has been operating an apprenticeship program: apprentices get hands-on training while also attending courses at local colleges to advance their careers.

“By supporting breakthrough EUV research and fostering a collaborative ecosystem, this facility will not only drive semiconductor innovation, but also address key challenges in supply chain resilience and workforce development, while maintaining U.S. technological leadership,” EY’s Koshy said.

Feds to locate the nation’s ‘flagship’ microchip R&D center in NY

November 4, 2024 /

The Biden Administration plans to spend about $825 million to create a flagship national semiconductor R&D center in upstate New York, where the government-funded NanoTech Complex already exists.

The new R&D facility in Albany, NY will be home to the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Accelerator project, which is being funded to advance leading-edge lithography research and adoption in the US.

EUV Lithography is essential for manufacturing smaller, faster, and more efficient integrated circuits and microchips. It involves transferring intricate patterns onto a semiconductor silicon wafer, which eventually forms the circuits that power all electronic devices.

As the semiconductor industry pushes the limits of Moore’s Law, EUV lithography has emerged as a critical technology to enable the high-volume production of transistors beyond 7nm, something that was previously unattainable. By comparison, a typical human hair is roughly 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers thick, and a DNA molecule is around 2.5nm.

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) said access to EUV lithography R&D is essential to meet three primary goals: 1) extend US technology leadership, 2) reduce the time and cost to prototype, and 3) build and sustain a semiconductor workforce ecosystem.

The new R&D center represents a key milestone “in ensuring the United States remains a global leader in innovation and semiconductor research and development,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Anish Koshy, a Parthenon Principal at consultancy Ernst & Young LLP, said the center represents a strategic investment in both technology and talent.

“At the heart of this facility is advanced EUV technology, a cornerstone in producing the next generation of high-performance microchips essential for applications from AI to advanced computing,” Koshy said. “EUV technology has been largely concentrated outside of the US and the hope is that having this technology on US soil, combined with the collaborative research environment, will help American companies maintain their edge in designing next-generation chips.”

Another semiconductor expert, who asked not to be named, said EUV technology only affects a small number of companies, such as TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron. “That’s really it,” he said.

Many more companies, however, will benefit indirectly, including fabless chip makers such as NVIDIA and AMD; networking providers such as Broadcom; wireless providers such as Qualcomm and Mediatek; and cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

Even Internet service and equipment providers such as Meta and Oracle, and enterprise hardware makers such as Cisco and Juniper, could benefit from the new R&D center’s potential innovations, the expert said.

“There is an entire ecosystem that we expect will get excited about having the Accelerator onshore — and very little of this ecosystem exists in the USA today, so much of this will be net new job creation,” he said. “There are obvious national security implications in getting more Americans working on EUV challenges, with benefits to [the Department of Defense] from a resiliency perspective.”

Funded by the CHIPS Act to reshore semiconductor manufacturing, the new research center’s aim is to unite researchers nationwide to accelerate innovation in the field. The Department of Commerce and the National Center for the Advancement of Semiconductor Technology (Natcast), will oversee the facility. Natcast was created under the CHIPS Act as a non-profit entity designated to operate the NSTC.

The new center will provide access to “cutting-edge research and tools” to the NSTC, which was just opened in Albany’s NY CREATES’ NanoTech Complex; that complex opened last year.

NanoTech Facility in Albany

NY CREATES’ NanoTech Center in Albany

NY CREATES

Through public-private partnerships, mega corporations from the semiconductor industry and others such as IBM, Micron, Applied Materials, and Tokyo Electron helped establish the facilities at the NanoTech Complex. 

In August 2022, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, allocating $52.7 billion to the Department of Commerce for the CHIPS for America program to enhance U.S. semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing. About $11 billion of that CHIPS funding went toward establishing several research centers, including the NSTC and the Nanotech complex in Albany.

With the CHIPS Act spurring them on, chip makers such as Intel, Samsung, Micron, TSMC, and Texas Instruments are already building or planning a number of new US chip fabrication plants. (Qualcomm, in partnership with GlobalFoundries, also said it would invest $4.2 billion to double chip production in its Malta, NY facility.)

To date, however, CHIPS Act funding has only been allocated, not distributed. There have also been setbacks on fabrication plant construction as workers to build and staff the plants are in short supply.

NY CREATES operates a complex with 150,000 square feet of cleanroom space (and another 50,000 square feet of space under construction) staffed by 2,750 scientists, engineers and other staffers. The R&D facility is in partnership with more than 200 industry, academic and international development facilities around the globe.

Raimondo said the CHIPS Act is building “a resilient ecosystem that will power everything from smartphones to advanced AI, safeguarding US national security and keeping America competitive for decades to come.”

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted critical gaps in the semiconductor supply chain as imports to the US and other nations ground to a halt, affecting the production of everything with electronics, from smart phones to cars.

NY CREATES is an Albany-based, non-profit semiconductor R&D facility that works with the National Institute for Industry and Career Advancement (NIICA). NIICA’s focus is on building the nation’s talent pipeline in semiconductor and advanced manufacturing industries. It also created the Semiconductor and Advanced Manufacturing Technician Apprenticeship Program (SAM-TAP).

NY CREATES has been operating an apprenticeship program: apprentices get hands-on training while also attending courses at local colleges to advance their careers.

“By supporting breakthrough EUV research and fostering a collaborative ecosystem, this facility will not only drive semiconductor innovation, but also address key challenges in supply chain resilience and workforce development, while maintaining U.S. technological leadership,” EY’s Koshy said.

Apple to expand its satellite services with Globalstar

November 1, 2024 /

Apple is becoming a satellite communications company, taking a 20% stake in its existing satellite services provider, Globalstar, as part of a much-expanded deal with the latter. The iPhone maker has agreed to put up to $1.1 billion into the satellite company, deepening its ties with the firm.

Apple in space

As a reminder, Globalstar provides the satellite infrastructure that enables life-saving satellite-based Apple services, including Emergency SOS by Satellite, Roadside Assistance via Satellite, Send Location via Satellite and, with iOS 18, Messages via Satellite. In the case of Emergency SOS, the service is already saving lives, including one example when five people were rescued after their fishing boat capsized near Key West, FL. 

These services have been proving themselves across the US this hurricane season. They are also being extended, as the recent introduction of Messages via Satellite shows.

All these services are being provided with existing infrastructure, which, under a current Apple/Globalstar deal, is being deployed to support a growing number of nations. The new deal suggests these services may be extended, as it includes provision of a new satellite constellation.

What is the deal?

Apple is spending its cash to support the deployment of a new satellite constellation and expanded ground infrastructure for those satellites. All of these will be owned and managed by Globalstar, but Apple will gain use of 85% of the company’s network capacity. (Globalstar will be able to use the remaining 15% to support other clients, presumably including enterprise clients seeking to deploy private 5G services in emerging economies, or in support of certain mission-critical applications in the US.)

The deal also sees Apple make payments for services. (Globalstar has previously confirmed Apple’s business accounted for around 48% of its revenue last year.)

Globalstar shared the news in a regulatory filing published just one day after Apple’s financial results call. Apple will also purchase $400 million of Class B shares in the company, which expects its total annual revenue to more than double in the year following the launch of these expanded satellite services.

It’s important to note a report from several months ago from a German publication, which claimed plans exist to launch thousands of satellites across the coming years.

What is the background to the deal

Apple and Globalstar have an existing relationship that supports iPhones in space. The Mac maker announced a $450 million investment in the satellite company in November 2022. That money was also invested in new satellite manufacturing and the launch of new satellites in support of Emergency SOS via Satellite.

On the relationship with GlobalStar, Apple Director for Hardware Engineering Michael Trela explained the complexity of the service to Via Satellite in 2022: “Using these Globalstar satellites wasn’t as simple as connecting to pre-existing cell towers in space. It did require us to develop some custom technologies and optimize the phone and the satellites to ensure we have reliable two-way communications.

 “The Globalstar satellites were only designed to talk to dedicated satellite communications devices, which feature larger, more purpose-built antennas. We started to maximize the iPhone’s capabilities by adding components to intelligently utilize multiple antennas to maximize the signal strength toward the satellite.”

Within that work, Apple developed a customized radio protocol from the ground up and optimized the link between the iPhone and satellite. That system also requires a proprietary system put in place at GlobalStar’s own ground stations. 

How the industry sees satellite connectivity

Satellite industry incumbents, telecoms, and tech companies see satellite communications as an important and necessary next step to bridge the digital divide. The idea is that these systems can connect communities globally, including in places in which the cost of building infrastructure remains too high, or even too risky.

That’s always been the case, of course. But as AI permeates everything and smart tech gets deployed broadly, the strategic and economic value of such services is growing. It’s already widely used across some industries, such as mining and maritime, and is expected to see wider use in smart city development, agriculture, and other areas.

Much of the potential has been opened up from advances in the tech inside Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Relatively cheap to manufacture and launch, LEO satellites are precisely the kind of devices Apple and GlobalStar are putting in space. They are also being integrated into the 5G ecosystem, which is, of course, precisely what Apple’s big investment in the tech will likely turn out to be all about. They provide another layer of network resilience ¸— and another attack surface, too. 

What happens next?

It is telling that in 2022, Trela described iPhone’s support for satellite as, “the first time that anyone has launched or integrated a two-way satellite technology in a mainstream way.”

What that means, obviously, is that the iPhone in your pocket is (to some extent) a satellite phone.

Apple has continued to expand the services and nations into which it provides satellite communications, but it seems unlikely to be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a tech just to help iPhone owners call emergency services. The company will have much bigger dreams, particularly as it is now involved in development of the 6G standard, which is likely to implement much deeper support for satellite connectivity than the existing standard. 

At least one space expert thinks Apple will choose to widen the network to become a full space communications service — broadly in line with predictions from Bloomberg in 2020. 

Speculation is an uneasy guide, but it isn’t completely unreasonable to imagine an Apple satellite communications network designed in such a way as it becomes more private and secure than those services currently provided by mobile telecoms firms.

That seems an unlikely outcome, in part because competing with iPhone network providers could impact Apple’s business. But it’s at least an opportunity to sign off here with the phrase, “If you want to know where Apple is going, look to the skies.” Because Apple is already there.

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill group on MeWe.

Microsoft delays Recall rollout to December

November 1, 2024 /

Microsoft has delayed the rollout of its Windows Recall feature. The controversial feature — which takes regular screenshots of a user’s desktop screen — is now slated to launch in preview in December

Microsoft unveiled Recall in May, and initially intended to release it to Windows Insiders in June. Those plans were put on hold as Microsoft addressed data security and privacy concerns raised by experts about  Recall, with a new release date set for October. 

Microsoft said it had again postponed Recall’s release as it continues working on the feature. 

“We are committed to delivering a secure and trusted experience with Recall,” Brandon LeBlanc, senior product manager of Windows, said in a statement. “To ensure we deliver on these important updates, we’re taking additional time to refine the experience before previewing it with Windows Insiders. 

“Originally planned for October, Recall will now be available for preview with Windows Insiders on Copilot Plus PCs by December.”

Pitched as an “explorable timeline of your PC’s past,” Recall has drew criticism from security and privacy experts, with some likening the feature to keylogging software.  When enabled, Recall will record all user actions  Copilot+ PCs, taking “snapshots” of the screen at five-second intervals. Users can then search a timeline of everything they’ve interacted with on their device, whether that’s an application, website, document, image, or anything else. 

Microsoft outlined plans to enhance security and privacy plans to enhance security and privacy measures in September. For instance, Recall is now opt-in, so Copilot+ PC users must turn the feature on or it won’t be record their screen. Biometric authentication is also required via Windows Hello each time a user wants to use Recall, and content filtering to prevent recording of sensitive data such as credit card details is turned on by default.

Microsoft reportedly delays Recall rollout to December

November 1, 2024 /

Microsoft has delayed the rollout of its Windows Recall feature, according to a report from The Verge. The controversial feature — which takes regular screenshots of a user’s desktop screen — is now slated to launch in preview in December

Microsoft unveiled Recall in May, and initially intended to release it to Windows Insiders in June. Those plans were put on hold as Microsoft addressed data security and privacy concerns raised by experts about  Recall, with a new release date set for October. 

According to The Verge, Microsoft again postponed Recall’s release as it continues working on the feature. 

“We are committed to delivering a secure and trusted experience with Recall,” Brandon LeBlanc, senior product manager of Windows, said in a statement to The Verge. “To ensure we deliver on these important updates, we’re taking additional time to refine the experience before previewing it with Windows Insiders. 

“Originally planned for October, Recall will now be available for preview with Windows Insiders on Copilot Plus PCs by December.”

Pitched as an “explorable timeline of your PC’s past,” Recall has drew criticism from security and privacy experts, with some likening the feature to keylogging software.  When enabled, Recall will record all user actions  Copilot+ PCs, taking “snapshots” of the screen at five-second intervals. Users can then search a timeline of everything they’ve interacted with on their device, whether that’s an application, website, document, image, or anything else. 

Microsoft outlined plans to enhance security and privacy plans to enhance security and privacy measures in September. For instance, Recall is now opt-in, so Copilot+ PC users must turn the feature on or it won’t be record their screen. Biometric authentication is also required via Windows Hello each time a user wants to use Recall, and content filtering to prevent recording of sensitive data such as credit card details is turned on by default.

Agentic AI swarms are headed your way

November 1, 2024 /

Developers are already using multiple large language model (LLM) and other generative AI-based tools in the creation of automation tools. And soon, the tools will be able to use each other.

A new development in AI “swarms” serves as a wake up call for everyone involved in cybersecurity, automation and, in fact, IT generally: OpenAI’s Swarm. 

What is OpenAI Swarm?

OpenAI launched an experimental framework last month called Swarm. It’s a “lightweight” system for the development of agentic AI swarms, which are networks of autonomous AI agents able to work together to handle complex tasks without human intervention, according to OpenAI. 

(I wrote about agentic AI, but not swarming agents, in July.)

Swarm is not a product. It’s an experimental tool for coordinating or orchestrating networks of AI agents. The framework is open-source under the MIT license (which allows Python developers to use, modify, and distribute the software with minimal restrictions), and available on GitHub.

In the GitHub readme section, OpenAI says: 

“Swarm is currently an experimental sample framework intended to explore ergonomic interfaces for multi-agent systems. It is not intended to be used in production, and therefore has no official support. (This also means we will not be reviewing PRs or issues!)

The primary goal of Swarm is to showcase the handoff & routines patterns explored in the Orchestrating Agents: Handoffs & Routines cookbook. It is not meant as a standalone library and is primarily for educational purposes.”

Swarm is not totally unique. Other existing systems can be used for the orchestration of multiple agents, which approaches the functioning of agentic AI swarms. Though not explicitly designed for swarming, they can be used for making AI agents interact with each other to varying degrees. These include: Microsoft AutoGen, CrewAI, LangChain, LangGraph, MetaGPT, AutoGPT, and Haystack.

While Swarm might be designed for simplicity and relative ease of use, all these other tools are more robust, reliable, supported and ready for prime-time.  

OpenAI apparently launched Swarm to explore methods for improving agent collaboration through “routines” and “handoffs.” In this case, “routines” are predefined sets of instructions that guide agents through tasks or workflows. They serve as recipes for agents to follow, which adds control and predictability to multi-agent systems. “Handoffs” enable one agent to delegate a job to another based on the current context. For example, if the agent requires something specific that can be better handled by an agent specializing in that task, it can delegate it. That “handoff” provides the history of the task to the new agent, so it has context under which to proceed. 

One characteristic of Swarm is that it’s stateless, so agents don’t remember anything from previous interactions. That simplifying element also limits the tool to simpler tasks. (Developers can, however, build solutions that do enable memory between agent interactions.)

While Swarm isn’t intended for actual production (and OpenAI won’t maintain it going forward), the fact that it’s dabbling in the concept is one indication that agent swarms could eventually become commonplace.

It also points to a trend in which agent swarm technology becomes increasingly usable and, for lack of a better term, democratized.

The right tool for the job?

One way to look at agentic AI swarming technology is that it’s the next powerful phase in the evolution of generative AI (genAI). In fact, Swarm is built on OpenAI’s Chat Completions API, which uses LLMs like GPT-4. 

The API is designed to facilitate interactive “conversations” with AI models. It allows developers to create chatbots, interactive agents, and other applications that can engage in natural language conversations.

Today, developers are creating what you might call one-off AI tools that do one specific task. Agentic AI would enable developers to create a large number of such tools that specialize in different specific tasks, and then enable each tool to dragoon any others into service if the agent decides the task would be better handled by the other kind of tool. These tool types could include: 

  • 1. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation): Enhancing text generation with relevant retrieved information. Basically, these agents would be tasked to “Google it” and return to the task at hand with that found information. 
  • 2. NL2SQL: Converting natural language queries into SQL commands.
  • 3. Text Generation: Creating various forms of written content.
  • 4. Code Generation: Producing code based on natural language descriptions.
  • 5. Data Analysis: Processing and interpreting large datasets.
  • 6. Image Generation: Creating images from text prompts.
  • 7. Speech Synthesis: Converting text to spoken audio.
  • 8. Language Translation: Translating between different languages.
  • 9. Summarization: Condensing long-form content into concise summaries.
  • 10. Dialogue Management: Handling multi-turn conversations in chatbots.

Instead of the user making choices, opening new tools and essentially serving as the guide and glue for complex AI-based tasks, the agents would do all this autonomously. 

Easy-to-use swarms of AI agents — what could go wrong? 

It’s clear that agentic AI swarms could seriously boost enterprise productivity, offloading chores from people, enabling them to focus on higher-level responsibilities.

The risks are also clear. Take security, for example. 

At present, as far as we know, no nation-state or state-sponsored hackers are using agentic AI swarms. But that day is surely coming.

Hostile nation states are using LLMs in general, and even ChatGPT in particular, for malicious rreconnaissance and research, scripting and coding, social-engineering and phishing content, language translation, and detection evasion.

At present, people working for these nation states are doing individual hacking, and using LLMs as part of their knowledge toolset, manually prompt-engineering chatbots, then using the returned results in their breach attempts.

In an agentic AI swarm future, state-sponsored hackers will be able to create individual specialist AI agents to do each of these tasks, and enable the agents to call into play the other agents as needed. By removing the “bottleneck” of a human operator, malicious hacking can take place on a massive scale at blistering speed.

It’s reasonable to assume at this early stage that the most effective defense against agentic AI swarm attacks will be agentic AI swarm defenses. 

Another area of concern is the risk of overcomplexity. Agentic AI, including agentic AI swarming technology, operates autonomously to pursue goals. It can be “creative,” or, more accurately, unpredictable in how it achieves goals given to it by the developers who create it and the users who deploy it. Because it’s autonomous, people might not know what it’s doing or how it’s doing it. And it’s possible to lose track of what agent swarms are doing, or even that they’re still operating. 

Individual employees might automate their own work using agentic AI swarms they monitor close — agents that could continue running after the workers leaves the company (or gets hit by a bus). 

Pessimistic (or realistic) prognosticators fear agentic AI swarms might even accelerate job losses because they’ll be so capable of operating like people do.

As with other new, powerful developments in AI technology, agentic AI swarms are packed with promise and peril. 

What’s important to know about OpenAI’s Swarm is that it represents a move to simplify and democratize swarming agents. That probably means near-future exponential growth in the number of swarming agents in operation, and a rise in the expectation that tech pros will be using agentic AI agents for all manner of automation. 

The agents are coming. I recommend you learn all about them before they get here.