Tootfinder

"Deep Research, Shallow Agency: What Academic Deep Research Can and Can't Do"
https://aarontay.substack.com/p/how-agentic-are-academic-deep-research

Researchers Show Copilot and Grok Can Be Abused as Malware C2 Proxies
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed that artificial intelligence (AI) assistants that support web browsing or URL fetching capabilities can be turned into stealthy command-and-control (C2) relays, a technique that could allow attackers to blend into legitimate enterprise communications and evade detection.
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Researchers Show Copilot and Grok Can Be Abused as Malware C2 Proxies
Researchers show AI assistants can act as stealth C2 proxies, enabling malware communication, evasion, and runtime attack automation.

The Trump administration is moving to
dismantle the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado,
taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs

Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.

Source: Tencent tells staff that Yao Shunyu, an ex-OpenAI researcher who joined in September, is now its chief AI scientist, reporting to President Martin Lau (Juro Osawa/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/tencent-name…

Tencent Names Former OpenAI Researcher Chief AI Scientist
Tencent Holdings internally announced that Yao Shunyu, a researcher who joined from OpenAI in September, is now serving as a chief AI scientist overseeing the Chinese tech giant’s large language model department as well as its newly established AI infrastructure department, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Yao’s major role, part of Tencent’s office of the CEO and president,

Two big threat intel firms released their annual reports this morning: Palo Alto Networks and Dragos.
One Palo Alto finding that jumps out: nearly half (48%) of their observed intrusions in 2025 involved browser-based activity.
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/resources

2026 Unit 42 Global Incident Response Report
Read the 2026 Unit 42 Global Incident Response report to discover attacker tactics and get real-world insights and expert recommendations to safeguard your business.

SNF (Switzerland) restrictions proposed: only 1 concurrent research grant per PI (plus maybe one coop), only 1 proposal per year.
🔥 Hot take (since I'm not at all operating like this currently): I actually think this might be a good idea? It would curb some of the biggest "research mills", where one PI has a huge pyramid scheme underneath them, and might encourage more careful grant proposals, slower science. And might even put more emphasis back into the basic research funding (instead of the grant lotteries)?
(Maybe naive, I know, and I have no idea how this would be implemented)
#academicChatter #researchGrants
https://www.snf.ch/de/7qymWfJMG1z9XR2S/news/einschraenkungen-in-der-projektfoerderung

Research Grants $2,500 - $10,000 supporting field research at known or suspected terrestrial impact sites. The goal of the Barringer Family Fund "is to nurture and help sustain a vibrant impact crater research community by supporting students and early career scientists" Deadline 1 April. #geology #meteorite

Why we sleep: insights from current research https://www.ru.nl/en/donders-institute/news/why-we-sleep-insights-from-current-research

Why we sleep: insights from current research | Radboud University
In the sleep lab of Martin Dresler, scientists work every day to piece together the scientific puzzle of sleep. We spend roughly a third of our lives asleep, switching off for eight hours makes any organism highly vulnerable.

2026 NFL offseason resource rankings: How do all 32 teams stack up by salary cap space and draft capital? https://www.nfl.com/news/2026-nfl-offseason-resource-rankings-how-do-all-32-teams-stack-up-by-salary-cap-space-…