Daily AI Briefing

Vanderbilt hit by cyberattack

Vanderbilt is investigating a cybersecurity incident that knocked out campus networks and forced the university to lock down many of its systems. The ransomware group BYOD claims it stole more than one million Social Security numbers and other records, but Vanderbilt hasn’t confirmed whether any data was taken.

The university says it’s working with government agencies and restoring services cautiously, starting with payroll, admissions and course registration. Full recovery could take several weeks, Vanderbilt said. Wi-Fi is back. Plenty else isn’t. Classes were set to continue as scheduled and Vanderbilt Health wasn’t affected, the Nashville Banner reported.

Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia

Jensen Huang is out. Nvidia announced that Huang resigned as CEO, with CFO Colette Kress stepping in as interim chief while the board hunts for a successor. Harvey C. Jones becomes the company’s first board chair, and Nvidia says operations and product plans are still on schedule.

The exit follows reports of Huang’s relationships with a company executive and with a woman U.S. officials suspect of ties to Chinese intelligence, all while chip shipments to China were already under scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal first reported the board was weighing his future, and Huang has since agreed to testify to Congress behind closed doors by Thanksgiving.

Nvidia sits at the center of the AI-chip world, so this one will ripple for a while. More reading:

• New York Times: Jensen Huang’s Affairs That Upended Nvidia: Timeline of Events
• TechCrunch: Five Ways Jensen Huang’s Ouster From Nvidia Could Damage the AI Industry
• Wall Street Journal: Nvidia Board Must Craft Epic Job Description for New CEO