Nha Trang Khanh Hoa Spark

by Editor | Jun 2, 2024 | News

In a significant move to strengthen international ties and foster development, the Boston Global Forum (BGF) co-hosted a conference with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, welcoming a delegation from Khanh Hoa province, led by HE Nguyen Hai Ninh, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Khánh Hoà. The event marked a pivotal moment for the collaboration between Nha Trang Khanh Hoa and the Boston Global Forum and Massachusetts.

The conference saw the attendance of top leaders from Khanh Hoa province and Nha Trang city, alongside a delegation of business leaders. Together, they discussed the “Nha Trang Khanh Hoa Spark Program,” an initiative designed to support the development and global integration of Nha Trang Khanh Hoa.

To help Nha Trang Khanh Hoa deeply connect with Boston and Massachusetts, the Boston Global Forum contributes the Nha Trang Khanh Hoa Spark Program, which aims to connect Nha Trang Khanh Hoa with Boston and the Eastern United States, Japan, Europe, and India, bringing intellectual, innovative, and financial resources to help develop Nha Trang Khanh Hoa.

The Nha Trang Khanh Hoa Spark program includes key initiatives:

1. Nha Trang Khanh Hoa Spark Community: Creating connections between the intellectual, innovative community at Harvard University, MIT, and other universities, research centers, and innovation hubs in Boston to support and help Nha Trang Khanh Hoa.

2. Establishing the AIWS Forum between Boston – Nha Trang – Washington DC – Tokyo – Bengaluru – Rome to create special ties among distinguished communities in these cities and link events between Boston, Nha Trang, and Tokyo, laying the foundation for a new image and credibility for Nha Trang Khanh Hoa as a global gem.

3. Launching the Boston – Nha Trang Investment Forum to attract investment resources from the United States to Nha Trang Khanh Hoa. Khanh Hoa serves as a getway for Massachusets to invest and do business in Vietnam.

4. Initiating the Forum for Building an Advanced Healthcare Ecosystem in the AI Era to discuss and invest in developing a high-quality healthcare system for Nha Trang Khanh Hoa.

5. Contributing to the Innovative Nha Trang Citizens Program:

• Assisting Nha Trang in implementing the Innovative Nha Trang Citizens Program, enabling each citizen to use the internet, mobile technology, and AI to build innovative businesses, seize opportunities presented by AI and digital technology, and mitigate associated risks and challenges.

6. Raising Awareness and Appreciation, Bringing Great Minds and Esteemed People to Support Nha Trang Khanh Hoa:

• Promoting Nha Trang Khanh Hoa with AI and Advanced Platforms: Using AI to promote Nha Trang Khanh Hoa throughout the United States, including connecting with top media outlets, supported by AI and validated by humans. Journalists and influencers will create engaging stories to highlight the region’s natural beauty, people, and cultural values.
• Hosting Global Thinkers and Innovators: Hosting discussions among thinkers, innovators, and leaders of the AI World Society in Nha Trang Khanh Hoa to announce pioneering global initiatives and solutions using AI and digital technology to build a better world.
• Connecting Nha Trang Khanh Hoa with Major Global Cities: Connecting Nha Trang Khanh Hoa with Boston, Washington DC, Tokyo, Bengaluru and Rome by organizing events that link communities in these cities. This includes promoting events like the Sea Festival in Nha Trang and integrating technical, innovative, cultural and artistic events in Boston, Tokyo, and Nha Trang Khanh Hoa. During major cultural and technological events in one city, the other cities will participate by providing input, sending representatives, and interacting online with the elite communities of the other cities.
• Advising on Event Optimization and Global Connectivity: Advising Nha Trang Khanh Hoa to optimize and elevate its events to a global level and connect them with Boston and Tokyo.
• Advising on Products and Services: Assisting with the introduction of products and services from Nha Trang Khanh Hoa to the world.
• Developing Nha Trang Khanh Hoa into a World-Class Tourism and Innovation City: Providing solutions to develop Nha Trang Khanh Hoa into a world-class tourism and innovation city, akin to a gem of East Asia.

Vint Cerf, recipient of the World Leader in AIWS Award, reflects on creating the Internet with his colleagues

by Editor | Jun 2, 2024 | News

This article was originally published in CBS News.

In an era where the answers to the most random questions — like the indoor land speed record or the Earth’s weight — are just a few clicks away, we often take for granted the colossal network that makes it all possible: the internet. At the heart of this technological marvel are pioneers such as Vint Cerf, Steve Crocker and Bob Kahn, whose groundbreaking work has woven the fabric of the digital world we live in today.

Despite their monumental achievements, these innovators remain modest about their contributions. “One of the big issues about the internet is that most people don’t really have a good idea of what it is,” Kahn said.

Their journey began with a simple, yet revolutionary, idea: developing the technologies and software necessary to send data from one computer to another, eventually reaching across the globe.

“I don’t think the internet is a physical thing. I think it’s the implementation of the internet protocols that’s physical,” Kahn said.

“Bob is taking an interesting philosophical view of this,” said Cerf. “There are descriptions of how the thing is supposed to work and you have to implement those descriptions in things called computers and routers and things like that.”

“It’s the description of how it’s supposed to work that’s important. So you can keep building new things to work in new ways to make the internet even more interesting,” said Cerf.

That’s what allowed their early networks to blossom into a whole universe of interconnected laptops and smartphones and speakers and headsets. All of which changed the way we — and they — get things done.

The astonishment never fades for Cerf, who finds incredible “all the stuff that had to work” for a simple Google search to return results.

The internet’s origins trace back to a military tool — the ARPANET — developed in collaboration with figures like Joseph Haughney, a retired major in the U.S. Air Force who died last month. A precursor to the internet, ARPANET was developed to help the military, sharply different from from the internet’s current role as a platform for socializing, entertainment and community building.

“We always had this technology that my dad would kind of wheel it in and then show it to my mom, and no one really knew what it was,” recalled Haughney’s daughter, Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan.

As her father got older, Dare-Bryan, an editor at Inc. magazine, decided to record his stories, building a podcast all about the founders of the internet. She selected a term her father had previously used to label some of these innovators for the podcast’s name.

“He called them these ‘computer freaks.’ He didn’t want these computer freaks coming on and kind of hurting or harming his beloved ARPANET. And instead, we had something that was being used for, you know, socializing and finding communities,” said Dare-Bryan.

But for all the ways their work has improved our lives — and there are a lot of them — it’s also introduced some challenges for privacy and personal connections.

The ease of spreading misinformation and disinformation has become a significant concern. Cerf said he has no regrets and sees the internet’s misuse as a human issue, not a technological flaw. “It’s their responsibility,” Cerf said.

“I just hope that something like the internet will continue to be part of the society that we live in and that maybe some, you know, in some distant time, somebody will remember I had a tiny role to play in it,” Cerf said.

Saber-rattling across the world: Four Pillars Roundup

by Editor | May 29, 2024 | News

The Biden administration continues imposing strong tariffs measures on China, now removing tariff exceptions for Chinese exports. It seems that they will be joined soon by Europe, another Pillar. As mentioned last week, the EU is seeking to implement its own tariffs on China for EVs and other industries. At the G7 meeting, leaders expressed concerns over Chinese overproduction flooding their markets – and understandably so, one only has to see the proliferation of Chinese dropshipped goods on Amazon or the marketing push Temu has been on. While free trade is a net positive generally, some bad faith actors can take advantage of it, like the CCP has to assert their authority domestically and expand its influence abroad. Furthermore, dependency on a potential adversary is a national security risk. It seems that the second trade war has begun. It is important that the Four Pillars coordinate these efforts  against China, to ensure the highest effectiveness. Furthermore, tariffs on a rival state should not mean tariffs on allies either – even if it may be a political play for the domestic audience, incidents like the US Steel buyout by Nippon Steel only hamper cooperation on peace and security between the Pillars and their allies.

It should be remembered that while some may bemoan the loss of cheap products, the CCP continues to harass and threaten its neighbors – whether it be in the Taiwan Strait, the East and South China Seas, or in the Himalayas. In fact, with the recent inauguration of the new Taiwanese president, China held its vaguely threatening wargame in the Strait and issued a warning that consequences for  leaders visiting Taiwan will be harsh. While the CCP makes a show, remember the idiom “China’s Final Warning”, where they send definitive complaints but actually don’t act upon them. In fact, the reason for this phrase’s entry into the English lexicon was Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, before which the CCP raised all kinds of hell about consequences (no action was taken after her landing in Taipei).

However, there are some concerning developments within Europe – and not within Ukraine or Russia this time (we’ll get to that actually). Hungary under Viktor Orban, after embracing Putin and Russia for the past decade, has now begun giving the same treatment to Xi Jinping and China. Hungary is not the only European country to have done so (see: Serbia), but they are the first EU and NATO member to publicly sway to these authoritarian states to this degree. Essentially, there may be a Fifth Column in these vital alliances now, and the EU gives all its member-states a non-overridable veto on key issues. Hungary has already used it to Russia’s advantage, such as voting against aid to Ukraine.

In Ukraine, Kharkiv is under threat again after Russia’s incursion last week. It appears they may be preparing for an offensive in the region. NATO members, parts of the Four Pillars, are now weighing in sending their own soldiers to Ukraine and/or giving the (official) go-ahead for Ukraine to strike Russia directly. President Macron has announced that France will be sending advisors and trainers to Ukraine, while NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and European leaders like Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the US should allow Ukraine to use the supplied weaponries to attack Russia directly.

Ed Ram for The Washington Post

Article of the week – Xi Jinping’s Recipe for Total Control: An Army of Eyes and Ears – The New York Times

Minh Nguyen is the Chief Editor of the Boston Global Forum and a Shinzo Abe Initiative Fellow. She writes the Four Pillars column in the BGF Weekly newsletter.