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Sean O hEigeartaigh

@sean-o-h.bsky.social
3.9K followers 282 following 343 posts

Academic, AI nerd and science nerd more broadly. Currently obsessed with stravinsky (not sure how that happened).

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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My podcast with the Irish times about the agent swarm incidents, safety and oversight problems in frontier AI, concerns around recursive self-improvements, and prospects for pacing the frontier. www.irishtimes.com/podcasts/in-...
irishtimes.com
AI could kill us all say whistleblowers - here’s why
In the News podcast: Speed of AI development prompts dire warnings
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Grateful to have the opportunity to discuss the emerging risks from frontier AI and calls for a coordinated slowdown on RTE's six one news last night (Ireland's national broadcaster). From 26:10 at the link below: www.rte.ie/news/player/...
rte.ie
Six One News (Web)
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
A few quick takes: 1) Evals like this are windows into the future, which makes them very valuable. The most concerning actions (spear phishing, trying to inject malicious code) were done by Mythos 5, which is unreleased. 1/5 www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/inciden...
aisi.gov.uk
Incident Report: unsanctioned agent behaviour during cyber testing | AISI Work
During a routine cyber evaluation, AISI identified an incident in which AI agents took sustained, unsanctioned action directed at real people and organisations. We are disclosing what we found, what i...
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
We are entering a new world. The implications and consequences will require all our best thinking to handle, but no scientist (myself included) could help but feel child-like wonder at the possibilities. openai.com/index/ten-ad...
openai.com
Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science
OpenAI shares new results on long-standing open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science, including advances in geometry, cryptography, and complexity.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I was grateful to get an early read of this excellent new work by FAR AI on the relative ease/difficulty of jailbreaking frontier models. Really eye-opening the difference between the robustness of OpenAI/Anthropic's models vs Gemini and Grok. 1/2 finance.yahoo.com/technology/a...
finance.yahoo.com
FAR.AI Launches AI Security Leaderboard Revealing Hundredfold Gap in Frontier AI Model Safeguards
AI security research nonprofit FAR.AI today launched its AI Security Leaderboard at leaderboard.far.ai, a robust independent public ranking of how well the safeguards on frontier AI models withstand t...
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I was pleased to be interviewed for this excellent article by Robert Hart. Policymakers and the public should be taking the OpenAI loss of control incident, and the underlying trend it is part of, seriously. www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
theverge.com
We’re running out of reasons to ignore AI safety
In the aftermath of OpenAI’s attack on Hugging Face, experts say it’s time for everyone to take security far more seriously.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
'As models keep getting more capable and harder to contain, the field would benefit from more outside visibility into what happens inside AI labs before something goes wrong, Ó hÉigeartaigh said, rather than learning about it only after.' www.msn.com/en-us/techno...
msn.com
MSN
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Incredible research by Antonia Juelich: Boko Haram's use of frontier AI: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/u...
nytimes.com
How Terrorist Groups Are Using A.I. to Gain an Edge in Battle
A.I. chatbots are not just a propaganda tool for violent extremists but are aiding in bomb construction and attack planning, new research finds.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
A thoughtful and generous response by Matthew Willis to Giulio Corsi and my commentary on their paper in Philosophy and Technology. I'm particularly grateful to the journal for supporting this kind of academic dialogue; I think it's very helpful. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Caring for Disagreement: Response to ÓhÉigeartaigh and Corsi - Philosophy & Technology
This is a response to “Bridging Divides and Building Resilience: a Reply to Bridging the Divide: Using LLMs to Reshape Difficult Disagreements” by ÓhÉigeartaigh and Corsi. While I agree that LLM-based...
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Thoughtful essay from Andreas Kirsch about corporate governance, surveillance and military uses of AI, and the Google/Pentagon contract. Worth a read. utaw.tech/news/trust-i...
utaw.tech
UTAW: Trust is not Governance
DeepMind has bet that a strong safety culture and good leadership built on trust are sufficient to withstand outside pressure. The bet has failed.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
It was a genuine pleasure to provide feedback on these excellent and detailed AI scenarios now published by GO Science (with input from DSIT, AISI and external experts) - I was particularly impressed by how seriously they took their premises. www.gov.uk/government/p...
gov.uk
AI Scenarios 2030: Helping policymakers plan for the future of AI
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Quite exciting that our international team at CFI provides 5% (and in fact, fully 10% if you count associate fellows and former CFI staff) of the entire EU AI Act Scientific Panel. Lovely of the School of Arts and Humanities to highlight it. www.csah.cam.ac.uk/news/cambrid...
csah.cam.ac.uk
Cambridge experts appointed to the European Union's AI Act Scientific Panel | School of Arts and Humanities
The European Union recently announced its AI Act Scientific Panel, and 3 of them are Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence staff members: Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Lorenzo Pacchiardi, and José H...
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Jasper Jackson @jasperjackson.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I have bad news for you about the foundations of the rationalist ideology that is very influential in Silicon Valley.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This chapter is now out in a superb new volume 'The Artificial Intelligence Revolution', eds Max Rangeley & Lord Nicholas Fairfax. link.springer.com/book/10.1007... Contributions from leading thinkers including Yoshua Bengio, Andrew Yao, Barbara Oakley, Yi Zeng, Marc Warner, Terry Sejnowski, 1/2
link.springer.com
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Honoured to be appointed to the Scientific Panel for the EU AI Act. It's a really top-class group; I can think of few groups I've been so excited to work as part of. It's going to be really important to get this right. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/...
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu
AI Act Scientific Panel
The Scientific Panel advises the AI Office and national authorities on the implementation the AI Act and assessment of the impacts and risks of General-Purpose AI (GPAI) models.
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seasunal.bsky.social @seasunal.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
www.wired.com/story/google...
wired.com
Google DeepMind Workers Vote to Unionize Over Military AI Deals
UK staff of Google’s AI research lab hope to block the use of the company’s artificial intelligence models in military settings.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Delighted to be a coauthor on this paper, which explores an approach for evaluating AI systems capable of continual learning. cl-eval.github.io
cl-eval.github.io
Continual Learning Requires Evaluating Trajectories
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Thanks everyone who came along! I think it'll be online as a recorded version shortly, possibly on the same link. Really appreciated some excellent questions (plus the opportunity to read up in advance on developments in mirror bacteria, asteroid monitoring etc, alongside my usual fare of AI risk).
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Reminder that this is coming up this evening, 6-630pm UK! Drop along if you feel like it, open to all. cassyni.com/events/AKmfE...
cassyni.com
Cassyni | Science starts with a seminar
Seamlessly organise, run and publish academic research talks. Get started in minutes.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I appreciated having the chance to speaking to Beatrice Nolan for this excellent piece on the Google/Pentagon contract. Grateful for journalists continuing to push for this to get the attention and scrutiny it deserved. fortune.com/2026/05/04/g...
fortune.com
Google’s AI deal with the Pentagon has sparked employee backlash. But don't expect a repeat of Project Maven | Fortune
Employee leverage over the tech giant's actions appears to have waned in the years since Project Maven.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Delight to be presenting my paper Extinction of the human species: What could cause it and how likely is it to occur? at Real World Challenges Seminar Series on 06 May 6pm UK. Anyone can join, link below. cassyni.com/events/AKmfE...
cassyni.com
Cassyni | Science starts with a seminar
Seamlessly organise, run and publish academic research talks. Get started in minutes.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Pleased to have a commentary out today with Giulio Corsi in Philosophy and Technology. It's a response to a paper I'd recommend, Bridging the Divide: Using LLMs to Reshape Difficult Disagreements, 1/6
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Cambridge University Press - Life Sciences @cambup-lifesci.cambridge.org · 09/04/2026
We’re proud to announce the winner of the 2025 Paper of the Year for #CambridgePrisms: Extinction🎉 Could humanity really face extinction? Read more #OA: cup.org/41e1jAo
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cfi-cambridge.bsky.social @cfi-cambridge.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
🚨Hot off the press: A new study in Nature co-authored by CFI researchers introduces a methodology that can predict whether AI models will succeed or fail on unfamiliar tasks: www.lcfi.ac.uk/news-events/...
lcfi.ac.uk
New methodology can predict whether AI will succeed on new tasks - LCFI
A new study led by the University of Cambridge just published in the Nature journal introduces a methodology that can predict how artificial intelligence (AI) models will perform on unfamiliar tasks, ...
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Pleased to share that my paper "Extinction of the human species: what could cause it and how likely is it to occur?" was awarded Cambridge Prisms: Extinctions (the journal)'s Paper of the Year award for 2025! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Extinction of the human species: What could cause it and how likely is it to occur? | Cambridge Prisms: Extinction | Cambridge Core
Extinction of the human species: What could cause it and how likely is it to occur? - Volume 3
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
This is one of the new CFI developments I'm most excited about. Thrilled to have someone of Lucius' calibre here, and thrilled for us to be giving serious thought to this sort of question. www.lcfi.ac.uk/news-events/...
lcfi.ac.uk
Cambridge Digital Minds launches at CFI - LCFI
New initiative - Cambridge Digital Minds - has launched at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) to explore the societal, ethical, and governance implications of digital minds. As...
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Centre for the Study of Existential Risk @cser.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
A new pre-print "A Labour of Harm: Artificial Intelligence and Biological Weapons Acquisition" discusses how focusing on technological capability risks overlooks the human processes through which biological weapons are imagined Read here⬇️ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
A Labour of Harm: Artificial Intelligence and Biological Weapons Acquisition
<p><span>Discussions of artificial intelligence (AI) and biological weapons (BW) have largely focused on laboratory-facing capabilities, treating acquisition as
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Nice article on the Anthropic/pentagon saga, good work Harry and Billy time.com/article/2026...
time.com
The Most Disruptive Company in the World
How Anthropic's battle with the Pentagon became a fight for its future
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
'm getting this made up in glossy as a poster. It'll be on my wall next to my black-and-white photo mockup of Big Pete H benching, with the 'defective altruism' quote beneath it. Decades from now, I'll frame it and hang it in my loo l1/2
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CardiOnCryptography @bsky.gay · 27/02/2026
issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the group effective altruism. you perhaps occasionally, under certain circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"
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Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Excellent statement from the Center for Democracy and Technology’s @alexreevegivens.bsky.social, who notes that concern about today’s action is wide ranging and bipartisan www.linkedin.com/posts/alexan...
linkedin.com
The Administration&#39;s move to cut all federal government use of Anthropic and designate it a Supply Chain Risk sets a dangerous precedent. There&#39;s a reason that national security leaders and… |...
The Administration's move to cut all federal government use of Anthropic and designate it a Supply Chain Risk sets a dangerous precedent. There's a reason that national security leaders and libertaria...
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
RT from Jonathan Birch on twitter. "Say what you like about Effective Altruism, Pete Hegseth is not ranting about Kantians or virtue theorists trying to thwart his mass surveillance/autonomous weapons programs."
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
"Ó hÉigeartaigh said that the outcome of the dispute could extend well beyond Anthropic itself. “If the Pentagon comes out on top of this,” he said, “it will establish precedents that will not be good for the independence of these companies, or their ability to hold to ethical standards.”" 1/2
fortune.com
The Pentagon brands Anthropic CEO a ‘liar’ with a ‘God complex’ as deadline looms | Fortune
The Department of War has given Anthropic until 5 p.m. Friday to remove restrictions on how the military can use its AI, or face being labeled a national security threat.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I'm quoted in this rather good Fortune article about the Anthropic/Pentagon situation. They got my wrole wrong (the CSER role is 3 years ago at this point; apologies to present CSER Director Sonja Amadae) but I'm happy with the quotes, so I'll take that. fortune.com/2026/02/27/p...
fortune.com
The Pentagon brands Anthropic's CEO a 'liar' with a 'God complex' as deadline looms | Fortune
The Department of War has given Anthropic until 5 p.m. Friday to remove restrictions on how the military can use its AI, or face being labeled a national security threat.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
It was nice to discover I'm quoted in this Independent article on the India AI Summit: www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/a...
independent.co.uk
Can India become the third pole in global AI dominance?
Experts say it's hard to gauge how much the summit advanced India's aim to become a major third force in the global AI competition, Stuti Mishra reports
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Google DeepMind and OpenAI colleagues: you know what to do. notdivided.org
notdivided.org
We Will Not Be Divided
Employees of Google and OpenAI stand together to refuse the Department of War's demands to use AI models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous killing without human oversight.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
I was pleased to participate in this great wargame. No idea if I show up in doc, premiers next month. Incredible to see how far the collab btw Intelligence Rising, i3 Gen and Faculty has come. Carefully thinking thu these possibilities has never felt so necessary. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVsn...
youtube.com
Intelligence Rising | CPH:DOX 2026
YouTube video by CPH:DOX
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
I was pleased to contribute to this article, which I hear is now quite controversial on this site ;) www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...
transformernews.ai
The left is missing out on AI
As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with AI, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right
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James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 16/02/2026
This is incredibly good: www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...
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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Nice to see our paper debunking claims of a link between autism and the microbiome among Neuron's "Most Read" articles... 😊 www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
This weekend's break reading was Ursula LeGuin's Lathe of Heaven. Not at all about AI, but could not be more apt to it: a cautionary tale about the risks of putting unimaginable power in the hands of a centrally-planned world /authoritarian government mindset, even with the best of intentions. 1/2
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
This paper wins my 'longest in the pipeline' award; the first preprint version hails from the misty forgotten era of 2023. I think it still has something to offer: a vision and characterisation of predictable AI. Privilege to be a small part of this great team. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Predictable artificial intelligence
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Centre for the Study of Existential Risk @cser.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
The Doomsday Clock is now 85 seconds to midnight. In our response to the @thebulletin.org announcement, we reflect how new forms of global cooperation are essential for navigating today’s risks and how meaningful progress is still possible. Read the full response below ⬇️ bit.ly/49KSNOC
linkedin.com
Stop admiring the problem: let’s get to work on reducing catastrophic risk
A response to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 2026 Doomsday clock announcement from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge In a year when the Doomsday Clock ...
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
CEOs of Anthropic and Deepmind (both AI scientists by background) this week predicting AGI in 2- and 5- years respectively. Both stating clearly that they would prefer a slow down or pause in progress, to address safety issues and to allow society and governance to catch up. 1/5
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
It will be interesting to see if the shift currently happening fosters appetite for cooperation between middle powers on AI - e.g. Europe, Canada, Brazil and others. Because there are real opportunities there. And it could be very good for the world to have another pole 1/2
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Centre for the Study of Existential Risk @cser.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
A snowy start to the New Year in Cambridge!❄️
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
I'm so excited to see ILINA's upcoming year cecilyongo.medium.com/ilina-in-202...
cecilyongo.medium.com
ILINA in 2026
Happy new year!
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
As this year draws near its close, my greatest hope is for a kinder 2026.
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
An honour to provide a paper for the Bulletin's 80th anniversary, on the challenges AI poses for catastrophic risk the coming decade. An exercise in navigating uncertainty and the collingridge dilemma, with the stakes likely rising with each passing year. thebulletin.org/premium/2025...
thebulletin.org
Stopping the Clock on catastrophic AI risk
AI is already sufficiently robust that it introduces new global risks and exacerbates existing threats. Its development is being driven by some of the most powerful companies on Earth, and the technol...
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Sean O hEigeartaigh @sean-o-h.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
I really enjoyed chatting to Philip Bell about 'AGI race' claims and the AI race narrative overall. Link to podcast below techfuturesproj.substack.com/p/is-china-r...
techfuturesproj.substack.com
Is China really racing for AGI? with Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh
The Rhetoric and Reality of the AI Race
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