The White House has directed NASA to establish a unified standard of time for the moon and other celestial bodies, aiming to set international norms in space amid a growing lunar race among nations and private companies. This Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) would provide a time-keeping benchmark for lunar spacecraft and satellites, essential for future missions to the moon and Mars. The initiative will require international agreements and coordination among spacefaring nations, and could involve deploying atomic clocks on the lunar surface.
The United Arab Emirates has been removed from the global money laundering "grey list" after implementing reforms to strengthen its financial regulations and meet international standards, marking a significant milestone for the country's efforts to combat financial crime. The move reflects the UAE's commitment to enhancing its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework, which is crucial for maintaining its position as a global financial hub.
New Zealand's government plans to introduce legislation that will require large businesses to report their gender pay gaps, with around 900 companies initially affected. The requirement will eventually extend to cover companies with over 100 employees. The move aims to address workplace inequities and increase transparency. While New Zealand has made progress in reducing the gender pay gap in the public service sector, the overall gap across the economy remains at 9.2%. Other countries, such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, already have gender pay gap reporting in place. The government will also consider including reporting on ethnicity pay gaps for Māori and Pacific peoples. The legislation is yet to be drafted and will be implemented once a new government is formed after the upcoming general election.
The leaders of the G-7 summit have called for international standards for the use of artificial intelligence (AI), acknowledging that rules governing their use and compliance have not kept pace with the rapid growth of AI and immersive technologies. They emphasized that new technologies should be governed in line with democratic values, including fairness, accountability, transparency, protection from online abuse, and respect for privacy and human rights. The leaders also called for technical standards to develop "trustworthy" AI and established the "Hiroshima AI process" to discuss generative AI and report back by the end of 2023.
The G7 leaders have called for the development and adoption of international technical standards for trustworthy AI, recognizing that approaches may vary. The European Union, represented at the G7, is inching closer to passing legislation to regulate AI technology. The leaders also mentioned generative AI and agreed to create a ministerial forum to discuss issues around generative AI tools. The G7 digital ministers' meeting last month also called for "risk-based" AI regulation.
The White House national strategy for emerging technologies includes distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital identity infrastructure, with a focus on building international standards and finding use cases in the economic sector. The strategy aims to increase U.S. leadership in the development of international standards for these emerging technologies, with collaboration between the government and private sector. DLT can find great use in building cybersecurity and privacy-based features and services, and will be actively tested in areas such as smart communities and the Internet of Things.
