Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin) header
Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin) profile picture

Washington Post Silicon Valley Correspondent. RT’s don’t mean I agree. [email protected].

San Francisco, CA
Joined October 2008
Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)Photo by Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin)
Today I got to experience a career North Star. I was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service along with my incredible Washington Post colleagues for our coverage of DOGE. Too many to name here but love you and hats off to us @jstein_star @jacobbogage @faizsays @FedGirlWaPo @MerylKornfield @Cat_Zakrzewski @hannah_natanson washingtonpost.com/business/…
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Big news in the fertility world this morning. Gameto, the pluripotent stem cell startup I wrote about in my future of fertility series last year, was acquired by Ferring (pharma co) for $1.4b! It uses stem cells to essentially regenerate dysfunctional or aging eggs in women’s ovaries. I imagine this biotech will now became a standard part of IVF care, and as I wrote last year, it also has promising implications for aging-related symptoms of menopause too. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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What I find fascinating about the reaction to our scoop today is that everyone involved - Anthropic, Cathedral, security experts, and the Trump administration - actually agrees on what needs to be done to prevent these AI-enabled agent attacks: red team for vulnerabilities all the time. And everyone thinks these sorts of attacks will only get worse. Is such a solution possible? Surely an industry is springing up around it. Small quibbles with Logan but not worth litigating here. Thnx for your response
I think this story is important because it tells us about the future of cybersecurity (and of course what we can do better at Anthropic). But some of the Washington Post story / reaction on X is wrong. A few corrections: - it didn’t take 12 hours. we saw several days of attempts. After these attempts, they exploited two 3rd party vulnerabilities, one they reported and the other we identified independently (and cut off access) - nothing came close to our most sensitive systems, like model weights or Claude conversations - this wasn't an ordinary bug bounty finding – this involved exploiting 3rd parties and accessing data. While this is unusual and out of scope of our safe harbor policy, we’re grateful these issues were found From my researcher POV, the event is important because I'm concerned this is what the future will look like. Adversaries will use whatever models/tools they can. They’ll target everything with agents 24/7. They’ll hit your dependencies. I think models ~0.5-1 generations behind the current frontier can do this. And these are the dumbest models your adversaries will ever use! So, what to do? You probably want to red team yourself all the time. Current models are *very* creative. I also think we should redesign software / systems so that you’re fundamentally less exposed. (We put out some research recently on formally verifying software and reducing attack surfaces; my mental model is basically “secure code is cheap to write now, so why not rewrite everything”)
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NEW: Come November, “the pendulum could swing — and it could be a swing blade!” Our story goes inside the frenzy of discussions at tech companies over how they might become a target if Dems retake Congress. washingtonpost.com/technolog…
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
“They’ve got a very rough couple years ahead.” Some companies in Silicon Valley, who have spent 2 years cozying up to Trump, are now panicking and calling this Democratic strategist for advice. By @pranshuverma_ and @lizzadwoskin washingtonpost.com/technolog…
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
“A senior Trump administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal proceedings, said that the Cathedral report on its access inside Anthropic had circulated within the government and raised national security concerns.
“If a bunch of kids who have just started a company can do this, then potentially, the Chinese aren’t far behind,” the official said. He added that he was taken aback by “how little time it took to get into the sensitive systems of a company that is controlling almost nuclear weapons grade material.”
EXCLUSIVE: In less than 12 hours, a group of ex-DOGE cyber researchers were able to penetrate Anthropic’s systems using AI agents — including Slack channels where the most sensitive models are discussed. This is just weeks after Anthropic whistleblower Joseph Coxon charged the company w/launching “a hubristic gamble” from a “private company’s Slack.” Read our story here (gift link): wapo.st/4smNlsC
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
The Anthropic S-1 is a great encapsulation of the split-screen moment we're in. Everything is awesome everything is terrible. You're gonna be rich you're gonna lose your job. Everyone's using it or no one's using it. It's too expensive but it's invaluable. It's a rorschach for how you feel about AI washingtonpost.com/technolog…
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EXCLUSIVE: In less than 12 hours, a group of ex-DOGE cyber researchers were able to penetrate Anthropic’s systems using AI agents — including Slack channels where the most sensitive models are discussed. This is just weeks after Anthropic whistleblower Joseph Coxon charged the company w/launching “a hubristic gamble” from a “private company’s Slack.” Read our story here (gift link): wapo.st/4smNlsC
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
"The Defector" - a 5,500-word espionage tale in today's WSJ that I can guarantee is worth your time. I spent months speaking to one of the deadliest saboteurs in recent military history, a Russian officer who helped Kyiv kill hundreds of his fellow troops wsj.com/world/russian-defect…
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
A 78-year-old Ugandan pastor the @washingtonpost wrote about in July was released today after 13 months in ICE detention. Edward Nalwamba lost 35 lbs in detention and can no longer walk unassisted. washingtonpost.com/religion/…
This is 78-year-old Pastor Edward Nalwamba. He fled persecution in Uganda for his pro-democracy beliefs and has spent decades living and preaching in America. ICE detained him for 13 months. Today, ahead of his release, our staff visited the detention facility and asked GEO staff to let him call his caretakers and provide a wheelchair to get him to his ride home. He cannot walk. GEO staff assured us they would do both. They failed to deliver on either. No phone call. No wheelchair. No human decency. There is no excuse for this cruelty. None. While we are celebrating Pastor Nalwamba’s release, we will not stop holding those responsible for this accountable. (Photo courtesy of Joy Athanasiou, attorney for Pastor Edward Nalwamba)
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
This is the level of analysis we need!
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
To be clear: Some facts are neither in dispute nor unclear. Our photographer was clearly marked as Press. She was clearly beaten. These are not partisan or risible statements, but indisputable. We urge a thorough investigation and accountability.
The Prime Minister’s Office: The facts surrounding the confrontation near Abu Falah, during which Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was allegedly assaulted, remain unclear and are under investigation. Israel unequivocally condemns violence against anyone—Jews, Arabs, Christians or journalists. Those responsible will be held accountable. But serious questions remain. Reports indicate some 200 Arabs and far-left activists confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths. Footage shows masked individuals on both sides hurling objects, amid reports of fireworks fired at Jewish youths. Other footage appears to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual. The investigation must establish the facts, including who initiated the violence. We will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonize the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. The facts must determine the conclusions. Not the headlines.
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
Latest on Heidi Levine: broken rib, four broken vertebrae, her finger was nearly cut off, multiple potential stabbing wounds. Surgery first thing in the morning.
Heidi is going to be okay, but her injuries are significantly worse than initially thought. It appears that she may have been stabbed. She’s getting ready for surgery.
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
Masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villagers on Friday, setting olive groves on fire and slinging rocks. Caught in the attack was Post photographer Heidi Levine. “They just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times,” Levine said. wapo.st/4yt6dHY
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
“Let me die,” American photojournalist Heidi Levine repeats to journalists Jasper Nathaniel as they try to outrun masked Israeli settlers who attacked her on Friday while she covered the olive harvest in the West Bank village of Abu Falah, near Ramallah. Around 80 settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters in the village, AP reported. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated six people injured in two attacks in Abu Falah. Levine, a freelancer for the Washington Post, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the settlers knocked her down and kicked her for at least 10 minutes, even after she identified herself as an American journalist. They stole her camera, phone and bag. She was eventually taken to a hospital in Ramallah. "The IDF provided cover, with tear gas and machine guns, while the settlers beat" Levine "nearly to death," Nathaniel wrote, adding that soldiers then shot a Palestinian bystander and aimed their guns at and shoved paramedics trying to treat him. AP photos and circulating videos show Israeli soldiers standing over a wounded Palestinian man after they shot him. Andrey X, an activist also at the scene, said a Palestinian man "saved our lives from the settler-terrorists who attacked the olive harvesters and journalists” armed only with a slingshot.
To be clear, the only reason I was able to reach Heidi was because young Palestinians provided cover with rocks against machine-gun- and tear-gas-wielding settlers and soldiers. It’s those kids, not the settler terrorists, who the IDF was hunting after the attack.
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Welcome to the post-DOGE economy. About 2 dozen DOGE alums have raised at least half a billion for new ventures, and some will pursue govt contracts, per our analysis. Here’s why DOGE’s unpopularity and failure to achieve its deficit cutting goals didn’t matter to investors who showered these startups with cash. W/@faizsays washingtonpost.com/technolog…
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
President Trump posted a fabricated quote from Denzel Washington on his Truth Social page, the actor’s team confirmed. In the quote, Washington purportedly says he has “never met anyone braver, smarter, or who cares more about America” than Trump. wapo.st/4esBYto
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
Bravo to the Washington Post for its new series "Fight or Fold: How American institutions are responding to President Trump’s demands." The first entry is an excellent look at trickle-down Trumpism at Florida International University. wapo.st/3UWH4Yh
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Elizabeth Dwoskin retweeted
Blockbuster story this morning by @DavidNakamura & @mradamtaylor, revealing for the first time the full extent of the Trump administration's deals with foreign governments to accept “third-country” deportations
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