Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees Monday the company is going to need all hands on deck to test Bard, its new ChatGPT rival. From a report: He also said Google will soon be enlisting help from partners to test an application programming interface, or API, that would let others access the same underlying technology. The internal memo came shortly after Pichai publicly announced Google's new conversation technology, powered by artificial intelligence, which it will begin rolling out in the coming weeks. Google has faced pressure from investors and employees to compete with ChatGPT, a chatbot from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which took the public by storm when it launched late last year.

"Next week, we'll be enlisting every Googler to help shape Bard and contribute through a special company-wide dogfood," Pichai wrote in the email to employees that was viewed by CNBC. "We're looking forward to getting all of your feedback -- in the spirit of an internal hackathon -- more details coming soon," he wrote. Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch a version of its own search engine, Bing, that will use ChatGPT to answer users' search queries. Microsoft is holding its own event Tuesday with participation from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. "It's early days, we need to ship and iterate and we have a lot of hard and exciting work ahead to build these technologies into our products and continue bringing the best of Google Al to improve people's lives," Pichai wrote in his note to employees Monday. "We've been approaching this effort with an intensity and focus that reminds me of early Google -- so thanks to everyone who has contributed."

US aviation authorities are years behind on updating the critical-alert system that failed spectacularly last month, causing thousands of flight disruptions. Critics say the delay is a threat to passenger safety. From a report: House lawmakers are scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on aviation safety at which they're likely to raise questions about the Jan. 11 meltdown of the Federal Aviation Administration's Notice to Air Missions system, or Notam. While the FAA has taken steps to ensure that the platform won't fail in the same way again, its problems go far deeper after years of neglect, including issues that contributed to one of the worst near-disasters in US aviation history six years ago.

Notam produces bulletins for pilots flying in the US about any safety issues along a route. They could include anything from broken airport lights to an emergency closing of airspace, such as when the FAA temporarily suspended flights along the US East Coast on Feb. 4 during the military mission to destroy a Chinese surveillance balloon. Pilots are required to check them before departing. But according to government records, industry groups and dozens of pilot reports, the system is packed with unnecessary information that's difficult to sort, and its antiquated language makes the bulletins hard to comprehend. The FAA acknowledges the shortcomings and plans improvements, but acting Administrator Billy Nolen notified House lawmakers Jan. 27 that fixes wouldn't be fully completed until 2030. Congress first ordered the agency to begin upgrading the Notam system in 2012.

Google is introducing a new online safety feature to help users avoid inadvertently seeing graphically violent or pornographic images while using its search engine. From a report: Announced as part of the company's Safer Internet Day event on Tuesday, the new default setting enabled for everyone will automatically blur explicit images that appear in search results, even for users that don't have SafeSearch enabled. Google has confirmed to The Verge that, should they wish, signed-in users over 18 will be able to disable the blur setting entirely after it launches in "the coming months."

Artem S. Tashkinov writes: Don't buy an Android phone in China, boffins have warned, as they come crammed with preinstalled apps transmitting privacy-sensitive data to third-party domains without consent or notice. The research, conducted by Haoyu Liu (University of Edinburgh), Douglas Leith (Trinity College Dublin), and Paul Patras (University of Edinburgh), suggests that private information leakage poses a serious tracking risk to mobile phone customers in China, even when they travel abroad in countries with stronger privacy laws.

In a paper titled "Android OS Privacy Under the Loupe: A Tale from the East," the trio of university boffins analyzed the Android system apps installed on the mobile handsets of three popular smartphone vendors in China: OnePlus, Xiaomi and Oppo Realme. The researchers looked specifically at the information transmitted by the operating system and system apps, in order to exclude user-installed software. They assume users have opted out of analytics and personalization, do not use any cloud storage or optional third-party services, and have not created an account on any platform run by the developer of the Android distribution. A sensible policy, but it doesn't seem to help much. Within this limited scope, the researchers found that Android handsets from the three named vendors "send a worrying amount of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) not only to the device vendor but also to service providers like Baidu and to Chinese mobile network operators."

SoftBank Group's investment vehicles posted a loss of nearly $6 billion in the quarter that ended in December as the Japanese tech investor continues to bleed through the market downturn and significantly pares back new backings. From a report: This is the fourth straight quarter in which SoftBank Group has lost money, prompting many to challenge the fundamental thesis of the giant, which has deployed more capital in the tech markets globally than anyone else in the past decade. SoftBank said it lost $5.8 billion across Vision funds and Latin America fund in the quarter. While a $5.8 billion loss is nothing to write home about, SoftBank will take comfort in the fact that it lost $10 billion in the previous quarter.

The company said the fair value of its current late-stage portfolio is over $37 billion. In 2021, SoftBank was one of the most prolific investors globally, cutting checks worth over $20 billion in just one quarter as many investors aggressively scrambled to win large deals. As the market reversed early last year, many backers have had to brutally recalibrate their strategies. The persistent losses are a big headache for Masayoshi Son, the founder and chief executive of SoftBank Group. With the days of zero interest capital environment, which saw investors raise record capital in the past two years, behind us, SoftBank might struggle to raise its next fund. It also has some intermittent issues to sift through before it goes about the next big fundraise.

Ryan Graves, former Lt. U.S. Navy and F/A-18F pilot who was the first active-duty fighter pilot to come forward publicly about regular sightings of UAP, says more data is needed about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). "We should encourage pilots and other witnesses to come forward and keep the pressure on Congress to prioritize UAP as a matter of national security," writes Graves in an opinion piece for The Hill. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares an excerpt from his report: As a former U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot who witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on a regular basis, let me be clear. The U.S. government, former presidents, members of Congress of both political parties and directors of national intelligence are trying to tell the American public the same uncomfortable truth I shared: Objects demonstrating extreme capabilities routinely fly over our military facilities and training ranges. We don't know what they are, and we are unable to mitigate their presence. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) last week published its second ever report on UAP activity. While the unclassified version is brief, its findings are sobering. Over the past year, the government has collected hundreds of new reports of enigmatic objects from military pilots and sensor systems that cannot be identified and "represent a hazard to flight safety." The report also preserves last year's review of the 26-year reporting period that some UAP may represent advanced technology, noting "unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities."

Mysteriously, no UAP reports have been confirmed to be foreign so far. However, just this past week, a Chinese surveillance balloon shut down air traffic across the United States. How are we supposed to make sense of hundreds of reports of UAP that violate restricted airspace uncontested and interfere with both civilian and military pilots? Here is the hard truth. We don't know. UAP are a national security problem, and we urgently need more data.

Why don't we have more data? Stigma. I know the fear of stigma is a major problem because I was the first active-duty fighter pilot to come forward publicly about regular sightings of UAP, and it was not easy. There has been little support or incentive for aircrew to speak publicly on this topic. There was no upside to reporting hard-to-explain sightings within the chain of command, let alone doing so publicly. For pilots to feel comfortable, it will require a culture shift inside organizations and in society at large. I have seen for myself on radar and talked with the pilots who have experienced near misses with mysterious objects off the Eastern Seaboard that have triggered unsafe evasive actions and mandatory safety reports. There were 50 or 60 people who flew with me in 2014-2015 and could tell you they saw UAP every day. Yet only one other pilot has confirmed this publicly. I spoke out publicly in 2019, at great risk personally and professionally, because nothing was being done. The ODNI report itself notes that concentrated efforts to reduce stigma have been a major reason for the increase in reports this year. To get the data and analyze it scientifically, we must uproot the lingering cultural stigma of tin foil hats and "UFOs" from the 1950s that stops pilots from reporting the phenomena and scientists from studying it. Last September, the U.S. Navy said that all of the government's UFO videos are classified information and releasing any additional UFO videos would "harm national security."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As a smartphone operating system, Android strives to be a lightweight OS so it can run on a variety of hardware. The first version of the OS had to squeeze into the T-Mobile G1, with only a measly 256MB of internal storage for Android and all your apps, and ever since then, the idea has been to use as few resources as possible. Unless you have the latest Samsung phone, where Android somehow takes up an incredible 60GB of storage. Yes, the Galaxy S23 is slowly trickling out to the masses, and, as Esper's senior technical editor Mishaal Rahman highlights in a storage space survey, Samsung's new phone is way out of line with most of the ecosystem. Several users report the phone uses around 60GB for the system partition right out of the box. If you have a 128GB phone, that's nearly half your storage for the Android OS and packed-in apps. That's four times the size of the normal Pixel 7 Pro system partition, which is 15GB. It's the size of two Windows 11 installs, side by side. What could Samsung possibly be putting in there?!

We can take a few guesses as to why things are so big. First, Samsung is notorious for having a shoddy software division that pumps out low-quality code. The company tends to change everything in Android just for change's sake, and it's hard to imagine those changes are very good. Second, Samsung may want to give the appearance of having its own non-Google ecosystem, and to do that, it clones every Google app that comes with its devices. Samsung is contractually obligated to include the Google apps, so you get both the Google and Samsung versions. That means two app stores, two browsers, two voice assistants, two text messaging apps, two keyboard apps, and on and on. These all get added to the system partition and often aren't removable.

Unlike the clean OSes you'd get from Google or Apple, Samsung sells space in its devices to the highest bidder via pre-installed crapware. A company like Facebook will buy a spot on Samsung's system partition, where it can get more intrusive system permissions that aren't granted to app store apps, letting it more effectively spy on users. You'll also usually find Netflix, Microsoft Office, Spotify, Linkedin, and who knows what else. Another round of crapware will also be included if you buy a phone from a carrier, i.e., all the Verizon apps and whatever space they want to sell to third parties. The average amount users are reporting is 60GB, but crapware deals change across carriers and countries, so it will be different for everyone.

Getty Images has filed a lawsuit in the US against Stability AI, creators of open-source AI art generator Stable Diffusion, escalating its legal battle against the firm. From a report: The stock photography company is accusing Stability AI of "brazen infringement of Getty Images' intellectual property on a staggering scale." It claims that Stability AI copied more than 12 million images from its database "without permission ... or compensation ... as part of its efforts to build a competing business," and that the startup has infringed on both the company's copyright and trademark protections. The lawsuit is the latest volley in the ongoing legal struggle between the creators of AI art generators and rights-holders. AI art tools require illustrations, artwork, and photographs to use as training data, and often scrape it from the web without the creator's consent.

Starting pretty soon, some tickets at AMC locations are going to be getting cheaper and more expensive depending on where you sit as the movie theater chain introduces a new tiered pricing scheme called Sightline. From a report: Today, AMC announced its plans to roll out Sightline at AMC, a new pricing structure that will split auditorium seats into three differently priced tiers in theaters across the country beginning this Friday. In a statement about the new program, Eliot Hamlisch, AMC's chief marketing officer, described Sightline as an effort to get consumers thinking about buying movie tickets the same way they might events at "many other entertainment venues." Hamlisch also said that the new pricing structure is meant to give people who have particular seats they like a better shot at securing them and noted that some seats will become less expensive.

Google is working on a ChatGPT competitor named Bard. From a report: Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced the project in a blog post today, describing the tool as an "experimental conversational AI service" that will answer users' queries and take part in conversations. The software will be available to a group of "trusted testers" today, says Pichai, before becoming "more widely available to the public in the coming weeks." It's not clear exactly what capabilities Bard will have, but it seems the chatbot will be just as free ranging as OpenAI's ChatGPT. A screenshot encourages users to ask Bard practical queries, like how to plan a baby shower or what kind of meals could be made from a list of ingredients for lunch.

Writes Pichai: "Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills." Pichai also notes that Bard "draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses," suggesting it may be able to answer questions about recent events -- something ChatGPT struggles with. Further reading: An important next step on our AI journey (Google blog).

Microsoft wants everyone to know that it isn't looking to invade their privacy while looking through their Windows PCs to find out-of-date versions of Office software. From a report: In its KB5021751 update last month, Microsoft included a plan to scan Windows systems to smoke out those Office versions that are no longer supported or nearing the end of support. Those include Office 2007 (which saw support end in 2017) and Office 2010 (in 2020) and the 2013 build (this coming April). The company stressed that it would run only one time and would not install anything on the user's Windows system, adding that the file for the update is scanned to ensure it's not infected by malware and is stored on highly secure servers to prevent unauthorized changes to it.

The update caused some discussion among users, at least enough to convince Microsoft to make another pitch that it is respecting user privacy and won't access private data despite scanning their systems. The update collects diagnostic and performance data so that it can determine the use of various versions of Office and how to best support and service them, the software maker wrote in an expanded note this week. The update will silently run once to collect the data and no files are left on the user's systems once the scan is completed.

"Nothing, Forever," the infinitely-generating AI version of Seinfeld that tens of thousands of people were watching has been banned for 14 days from Twitch after Larry Feinberg -- a clone of Jerry Seinfeld -- made transphobic statements during a standup bit late Sunday night. From a report: "Hey everybody. Here's the latest: we received a 14-day suspension due to what Larry Feinberg said tonight during a club bit," Xander, one of the creators of Nothing Forever, said on Discord. "We've appealed the ban, and we'll let you know as we know more on what Twitch decides. Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, we'll be back and will spend the time working to ensure to the best of our abilities that nothing like that happens again."

The show's AI, which is trained on classic sitcom episodes and various AI tools, mimics that of a traditional Seinfeld episode, which starts with a standup routine from "Larry," before moving to his apartment. During a standup set Sunday night, Larry made a series of transphobic and homophobic remarks as part of a bit: "There's like 50 people here and no one is laughing. Anyone have any suggestions?," he said. "I'm thinking about doing a bit about how being transgender is actually a mental illness. Or how all liberals are secretly gay and want to impose their will on everyone. Or something about how transgender people are ruining the fabric of society. But no one is laughing, so I'm going to stop. Thanks for coming out tonight. See you next time. Where'd everybody go?"

An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, speaking on an earnings call that was mostly focused on holiday results, made an off-the-cuff remark that could be quite telling about the company's future. Cook was fielding a question about whether the iPhone's rising average sales price was sustainable. After all, a top-of-the-line model that cost $1,150 in 2017 (the iPhone X with 256 gigabytes of storage) now fetches $1,600 (the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1 terabyte).

His response: The price increase is no problem. In fact, consumers could probably be persuaded to spend more. "I think people are willing to really stretch to get the best they can afford in that category," Cook said on the call, noting that the iPhone has become "integral" to people's lives. Consumers now use the device to make payments, control smart-home appliances, manage their health and store banking data, he said. While Cook wouldn't say if he anticipates further price increases, he made a good argument for why even more upscale iPhones could make sense -- especially if they deliver new features. Apple has internally discussed adding a higher-end iPhone to the top of its smartphone lineup.

9to5Mac is reporting that Apple pulled the Damus app from its App Store in China on Thursday, "with the developers being informed that the Nostr app 'includes content that is illegal in China.'" Apple rejected the app multiple times, applying the app review guidelines that would apply to a social networking service. In reality, all Damus does is provide access to Nostr feeds, so it would be more accurate to consider it akin to a web browser, with the developers having no control over, or responsibility for, the content of those feeds. Damus finally made it into the App Store this week.

Apple has now pulled Damus from the App Store in China. Damus developer William Casarin posted a screengrab of the notice, which claimed it included illegal content....

The app doesn't contain any content at all. It would be like banning Safari because it can be used to access the websites of terrorist organizations.

The Verge was part of "a handful" of journalists invited to Los Angeles to tour TikTok's new "Transparency and Accountability Center.... part of a multi-week press blitz by TikTok to push Project Texas, a novel proposal to the US government that would partition off American user data in lieu of a complete ban." TikTok says it has already taken thousands of people and over $1.5 billion to create Project Texas. The effort involves TikTok creating a separate legal entity dubbed USDS with an independent board from ByteDance that reports directly to the US government. More than seven outside auditors, including Oracle, will review all data that flows in and out of the US version of TikTok. Only American user data will be available to train the algorithm in the US, and TikTok says there will be strict compliance requirements for any internal access to US data. If the proposal is approved by the government, it will cost TikTok an estimated $700 million to $1 billion per year to maintain.....

At one point during the tour, I tried asking what would hypothetically happen if, once Project Texas is greenlit, a Bytedance employee in China makes an uncomfortable request to an employee in TikTok's US entity. I was quickly told by a member of TikTok's PR team that the question wasn't appropriate for the tour.
Other notes from the tour:

• The journalists weren't allowed to enter a special server room "housing the app's source code for outside auditors to review."

• A room that explained TikTok's algorithm using iMacs running "code simulators" was "frustratingly vague"

• "Despite it being called a transparency center, TikTok's PR department made everyone agree to not quote or directly attribute comments made by employees leading the tour."

The Verge ultimately concludes TikTok's Transparency and Accountability Center is "a lot of smoke and mirrors designed to give the impression that it really cares."

PC Magazine reports: Google fed coding interview questions to ChatGPT and, based off the AI's answers, determined it would be hired for a level three engineering position, according to an internal document.... And while level three is considered an entry-level position on the engineering team at Google, average total compensation for the job is about $183,000....

When PCMag asked ChatGPT if it would ever replace software engineers, it wasn't convinced. "No, ChatGPT will not replace software engineers," the AI responded. "ChatGPT is a tool that can assist with certain tasks, but it cannot completely replace the creativity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking abilities of a human software engineer. Additionally, ChatGPT requires human supervision and direction to operate effectively."

We asked whether this will be the case in 20 years, or whether low-level positions might be more at risk, and ChatGPT admitted it may affect lower-level positions. But it reiterated it will never be a full replacement, but rather a tool to assist human software engineers.
Meanwhile CNBC brought this story about Google's conversation technology LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications. "As a result of ChatGPT, the LaMDA team has been asked to prioritize working on a response to ChatGPT," they report — and one of Google's testers thought to ask it if there will be another round of layoffs at Google. "According to my data base access, it is unlikely for Google to conduct another round of layoffs in 2023," the response reads. "Layoffs are generally conducted to reduce costs and structure, but the company is doing well financially. In fact, Google's revenue increased by 34% in 2021, and the company's stock price has risen by 70% since January 2022."
Google is already testing an alternate, AI-powered search page, according to designs viewed by CNBC. "When a question is entered, the search results show a gray bubble directly under the search bar, offering more human-like responses than typical search results." One of the example prompts asked both [LaMDA and ChatGPT] if ChatGPT and AlphaCode, a coding engine owned by Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind, are going to replace programmers. "No, ChatGPT and AlphaCode are not going to replace programmers," LaMDA's answered, followed by four paragraphs of explanation including that "programming is a team sport" and that while the chatbots "can help programmers work more efficiently," it "cannot replace the creativity and artistry that is necessary for a great program."

ChatGPT's response was similar, stating "It is unlikely that ChatGPT or Alphacode will replace programmers" because they are "not capable of fully replacing the expertise and creativity of human programmers...programming is a complex field that requires a deep understanding of computer science principles and the ability to adapt to new technologies."

Neowin reports on "a potentially dangerous exploit capable of completely unenrolling enterprise-managed Chromebooks from their respective organizations" called SH1MMER.

The Register explains where the name came from — and how it works: A shim is Google-signed software used by hardware service vendors for Chromebook diagnostics and repairs. With a shim that has been processed and patched, managed Chromebooks can be booted from a suitably prepared recovery drive in a way that allows the device setup to be altered via the SH1MMER recovery screen menu....

In a statement provided to The Register, a Google spokesperson said, "We are aware of the issue affecting a number of ChromeOS device RMA shims and are working with our hardware partners to address it."
"Google added that it will keep the community closely updated when it ships out a fix," reports SC Magazine, "but did not specify a timetable." "What we're talking about here is jailbreaking a device," said Mike Hamilton, founder and chief information security office of Critical Insight, and a former CISO for the city of Seattle who consults with many school districts. "For school districts, they probably have to be concerned about a tech-savvy student looking to exercise their skills...."

Hamilton said Google will need to modify the firmware on the Chromebooks. He said they have to get the firmware to check for cryptographic signatures on the rest of the authorization functions, not just the kernel functions — "because that's where the crack is created to exploit it. I think Google will fix this quickly and schools need to develop a policy on jailbreaking your Chromebook device and some kind of penalty for that to make it real," said Hamilton. "Schools also have to make sure they can detect when a device goes out of policy. The danger here is if a student does this and there's no endpoint security and the school doesn't detect it and lock out the student, then some kind of malware could be introduced. I'm not going to call this a 'nothingburger,' but I'd be very surprised if it showed up at any scale."
Thanks to Slashdot reader segaboy81 for submitting the story.

The New York Post reports: Facebook can secretly drain its users' cellphone batteries, a former employee contends in a lawsuit.

The practice, known as "negative testing," allows tech companies to "surreptitiously" run down someone's mobile juice in the name of testing features or issues such as how fast their app runs or how an image might load, according to data scientist George Hayward. "I said to the manager, 'This can harm somebody,' and she said by harming a few we can help the greater masses," said Hayward, 33, who claims in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit that he was fired in November for refusing to participate in negative testing....

Killing someone's cellphone battery puts people at risk, especially "in circumstances where they need to communicate with others, including but not limited to police or other rescue workers," according to the litigation filed against Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms. "I refused to do this test," he said, adding, "It turns out if you tell your boss, 'No, that's illegal,' it doesn't go over very well." Hayward was hired in October 2019 for a six-figure gig.

He said he doesn't know how many people have been impacted by Facebook's negative testing but believes the company has engaged in the practice because he was given an internal training document titled, "How to run thoughtful negative tests," which included examples of such experiments being carried out. "I have never seen a more horrible document in my career," he said....

The lawsuit, which sought unspecified damages, has since been withdrawn because Hayward is required to go to arbitration, said the lawyer, who said Hayward stands by the allegations.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader WankerWeasel for sharing the article.

CNN reports: The US military used fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to take down the suspected Chinese spy balloon at 2:39 p.m. ET on Saturday, according to a senior US military official. A single missile was used, the official said....

President Joe Biden said the mission to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the East Coast Saturday was successful, and that he had ordered the Pentagon to knock the aircraft out of the sky as soon as it was safe to do so. "On Wednesday when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down — on Wednesday — as soon as possible," the president told reporters in Hagerstown, Maryland. "They decided, without doing damage to anyone on the ground, they decided that the best time to do that was as it got over water ... within a 12-mile limit. They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it," the president added.

Asked if that was a recommendation from his national security team, Biden reiterated: "I told them to shoot it down. They said to me, 'Let's wait for the safest place to do it....'"

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the balloon was being used by the Chinese government "to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States."

That Chinese spy balloon floating over the continental U.S. "generated deep concern," reports the New York Times — "in part because it came on the heels of a classified report to Congress that outlined incidents of American adversaries potentially using advanced technology to spy on the country.

"The classified report to Congress last month discussed at least two incidents of a rival power conducting aerial surveillance with what appeared to be unknown cutting-edge technology, according to U.S. officials." While the report did not attribute the incidents to any country, two American officials familiar with the research said the surveillance probably was conducted by China.

The report on what the intelligence agencies call unidentified aerial phenomena focused on several incidents believed to be surveillance. Some of those incidents have involved balloons, while others have involved quadcopter drones.... U.S. defense officials believe China is conducting surveillance of military training grounds and exercises as part of an effort to better understand how America trains its pilots and undertakes complex military operations. The sites where unusual surveillance has occurred include a military base in the United States and a base overseas, officials said. The classified report mentioned Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan as sites where foreign surveillance was believed to have occurred, but did not explicitly say China had been behind the actions, a U.S. official said.

Since 2021, the Pentagon has examined 366 incidents that were initially unexplained and said 163 were balloons. A handful of those incidents involved advanced surveillance balloons, according to a U.S. official, but none of them were conducting persistent reconnaissance of the U.S. military bases. (However, spy balloons that the U.S. government immediately identifies are not included in the unidentified aerial phenomenon tracking, according to two U.S. officials.) Because spy balloons are relatively basic collection devices and other balloons have not lingered long over U.S. territory, they previously have not generated much concern with the Pentagon or intelligence agencies, according to two officials.

The surveillance incidents involving advanced technology and described in the classified report were potentially more troubling, involving behaviors and characteristics that could not be explained. Officials said that further investigation was needed but that the incidents could potentially indicate the use of technology that was not fully understood or publicly identified. Of the 171 reports that have not been attributed to balloons, drones or airborne trash, some "appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis."