The Biological Computer

Is here.

“I start every day pretty much the same way: Coffee and News Items.” — Richard Haass, president emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations.

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1. The world's first "biological computer" that fuses human brain cells with silicon hardware to form fluid neural networks has been commercially launched, ushering in a new age of AI technology. The CL1, from Australian company Cortical Labs, offers a whole new kind of computing intelligence – one that's more dynamic, sustainable and energy efficient than any AI that currently exists – and we will start to see its potential when it's in users' hands in the coming months. Known as a Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI), Cortical's CL1 system was officially launched in Barcelona on March 2, 2025, and is expected to be a game-changer for science and medical research. The human-cell neural networks that form on the silicon "chip" are essentially an ever-evolving organic computer, and the engineers behind it say it learns so quickly and flexibly that it completely outpaces the silicon-based AI chips used to train existing large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. (Source: newatlas.com)

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2. Excerpts from The Global Terrorism Index:

Deaths from terrorism fell to 7,555 in 2024, a 13 per cent reduction from the prior year. The fall follows the surge in deaths in 2023, driven by Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel.

Without the 2023 Hamas attack, deaths in 2024 would have been nearly equal to those recorded in 2023.

The number of terrorist attacks fell by three per cent in 2024 to 3,492 total attacks. This was driven by an 85 per cent decrease in terrorist activity in Myanmar. Without the reduction in Myanmar, attacks would have increased by eight per cent.

The four terrorist groups responsible for the most deaths in 2024 were Islamic State (IS), Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and alShabaab. Their combined influence continues to increase, with deaths attributed to these groups increasing by 11 per cent to 4,204 deaths.

Islamic State (IS) and its affiliates remained the world’s deadliest terrorist group in 2024, and is active in 22 countries, one more than in 2023. Deaths attributed to the group and its affiliates declined by ten per cent, from 1,996 to 1,805 deaths.

The Sahel is the most affected region globally, accounting for over half of all deaths from terrorism in 2024, and 19 per cent of attacks globally. Five of the ten countries most impacted by terrorism are in the Sahel region. à Burkina Faso remains the country most impacted by terrorism this year, despite attacks and deaths falling by 57 and 21 per cent respectively. A fifth of all terrorism deaths globally were in Burkina Faso, followed by Pakistan and Syria.

Niger and Pakistan had the largest increases in deaths from terrorism, with increases of 94 and 45 per cent respectively.