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US tells Thailand and Cambodia to stop fighting as clashes continue2 hours agoShareSaveKelly NgShareSaveReutersTrump says he will "make a phone call" to stop the fightingThe US has asked Thailand and Cambodia to "cease hostilities immediately" as border clashes extended for a third day, killing at least 10 people and displacing hundreds of thousands.The two nations must follow de-escalatory measures outlined in a peace accord brokered by US President Donald Trump in October, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.Trump has also said that he would "make a phone call" to stop the fighting, which is the most serious escalation since clashes in July killed dozens of people.Both countries have blamed each other for re-igniting the fighting, which has seen air strikes and exchanges of artillery fire.The death toll over three days of hostilities stands at 10 - seven from Cambodia and three from Thailand. Thai officials said they evacuated more than 400,000 people, while Phnom Penh said 100,000 on the Cambodian side have been moved to shelters.Thailand's defence ministry said Wednesday military actions were "limited in scope and employed as a last option". "Peace must come with the safety and security of our citizens, full stop," the ministry's spokesman said.Cambodia on the other hand accused Thailand of launching "aggressive military attacks" that targeted civilian institutions and "sacred cultural sites", including historic temples along the disputed border.Also on Wednesday, Cambodia announced it was pulling out from the South East Asian Games that is being hosted in Thailand.The Cambodian National Olympic Committee cited "serious concerns and requests" from the families of its athletes for the withdrawal. It added that the decision was "not made lightly".United Nations' Secretary-General António Guterres urged both sides to "exercise restraint and avoid further escalation", noting how their dispute has led to "significant civilian casualties, damage to civilian infrastructure, and displacement on both sides".The century-old border dispute between the South East Asian neighbours dramatically escalated on 24 July with a Cambodian rocket barrage into Thailand, followed by Thai air strikes.That set off five days of intense fighting, which left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead. Later that month, Bangkok and Phnom Penh agreed to an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire" brokered by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Trump - who at the time threatened to stop tariff negotiations until the hostilities stopped.In October, Trump claimed a historic achievement in ending the border conflict after both sides signed a ceasefire agreement, but tensions have continued to simmer.Violence this week has expanded into at least six provinces in north-eastern Thailand and five provinces in Cambodia's north and north-west.Thailand and Cambodia have been contesting territorial sovereignty along their 800km land border for more than a century, since the borders of the two nations were drawn after the French occupation of Cambodia.This week, several countries, including the UK, US and Japan, have issued warnings against travelling to the border areas citing the renewed fighting.A fierce war of words keeps Thailand and Cambodia on edgeAsiaThailandCambodia

'It's insulting they think we can't handle it': The Australian teens banned from social media3 hours agoShareSaveKaty WatsonMaxwelton, QueenslandShareSaveBreanna Easton, 15, now finds herself cut off from social media because of Australia's ban on under-16sSchool is out for the year, but the summer holidays aren't exactly a break for 15-year-old Breanna Easton - that is when she's hard at work mustering cattle on the family's station."It's the freedom, the space you have to move," Breanna says, listing all the things she loves about her life, 1,600km north-east of Brisbane in Australia's sparsely-populated outback.With grazier parents and grandparents, the industry runs in her blood. The vast hinterland is her own backyard.And yet, like most teenagers, she's also attached to her smartphone.The all-terrain buggy she uses to herd cattle is fitted with an internet extender, enabling her to message friends on Snapchat while working. On days she gets a little bored, she likes to make funny TikTok videos with her siblings.With nearly all her friends living at least 100km away, social media is a lifeline. But not anymore, now that Australia's social media ban for children has taken effect."Taking away our socials is just taking away how we talk to each other," Breanna says. While she can still text her friends, it's not the same as a quick "snap" or a "like" on a photo that allows her to play a part in their lives even when she is far away.How does the Australian social media ban work?Australian teens navigate new world without social media as ban takes effectCan you ban kids from social media? Australia is about to, but some teens are a step aheadThe ban has been in the making for a year now. Throughout, supporters have argued it's for the wellbeing of children who they say are spending too much time online and risk being exposed to uncontrollable pressures, bullying and predators. Opponents say restricting children's access to the internet runs the risk of pushing them to even less regulated corners of it - and they question the effectiveness of the age-verification tech the ban relies on.The debate is far from settled but Australia's experiment has now begun, and Breanna is among millions of children under the age of 16 who are no longer allowed to use social media.And among them are children who are seen as both winning - saved from the potential dangers of social media - and losing out - no longer having the community and connections that may have been harder to forge offline.Megan Easton with her daughters, Breanna and Olivia - Megan worries the government is overstepping with the banFor Breanna's mum Megan Easton, the ban is a mixed blessing. While she agrees kids need to be protected, she remembers her own childhood on a cattle station was far more isolating."We did feel very behind the other children at school because we had a somewhat sheltered life."Breanna, her older sister Olivia and younger brother Jacob all did remote classes for children in the outback who are unable to attend a physical school.For senior grades though, boarding school is the only option for a good education. So from the age of 11 or 12, the siblings have lived six hours away from home during term-time."We might be incredibly geographically isolated but we're not digitally illiterate and we have taken great measures in our family to make sure that we educate our children appropriately for the world ahead of them," Ms Easton says. "I do think that it is a bit of government overstepping."One of her concerns is that delaying access to social media to 16 takes away power from parents to educate their children."Usually around 12 is when they start looking for their peers to be more influential than their parents," she says. "Even though it's young to get them on social media, we've staged their experiences with it and it's a great opportunity for us to let them have a few mistakes and then talk them through the processes of self-correcting."Jacinta Hickey, 14, says she is old enough to know right from wrongMore than 2,000km away, teens in Sydney lead very different, far more connected lives. But they share similar worries."It's a bit insulting that they think we can't handle it," says 14-year-old Jacinta Hickey who attends Rosebank College in Sydney's inner west. "I'm definitely mature enough to distinguish right from wrong and to know what's good and bad for me."Her teachers though couldn't be happier. "I feel really passionate that as long as we can, we should preserve the innocence that comes through childhood," says Iris Nastasi, the principal at Rosebank.When smartphones started becoming popular in the early 2000s, she thought it would be an opportunity to teach children about technology. She embraced the change. Twenty years later, Ms Nastasi thinks very differently."It's two in the morning, he or she does something that they wouldn't normally do and the fallout happens here. Relationships are damaged and we have to look into it."At 12, Lola Farrugia isn't on social media yet - and with the new law, she now won't be for another four years. But that doesn't faze her. She's happy enough with a flip phone."They're my school friends so I see them at school, I see them in sport - they're everywhere," says Lola, who's had coaching from her parents about the ills of social media."My mom explained to me that social media is junk food for the brain," she says. "If you have a pantry and you clear [it], you're not craving anything, you know what I mean?"Lola, 12, is in favour of the banPeter Malinauskas, the Premier of South Australia, is the man credited – or blamed, depending on your age - for clearing out the pantry.After his wife read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, an American psychologist who sets out the ills of the smartphone and how it is rewiring childhood, Malinauskas set out to introduce state-level legislation hoping it could win federal support too."She put the book down on her lap and turned to me and said you've really got to do something about this," he told the BBC. "And then I stopped and thought about it and thought maybe we actually can."Not even Malinauskas expected the speed at which it happened though. The Anxious Generation was published in March 2024. By late November, a federal law banning social media for under-16s was passed.There's still a High Court challenge brought by two teens pending, possible battles with tech firms and a warning from US President Donald Trump about targeting American companies."Of course you think through the potential repercussions of any move like this," Malinauskas says. "But when you are talking about protecting young people, all other considerations become secondary."But one of the biggest criticisms of the law is that a blanket restriction could do the opposite for minority groups.According to a survey of nearly 1,000 young people carried out by Minus18, a group that supports under-18 LGBTQ+ communities, 96% of respondents said social media was important to access friends and support, and 82% believed a ban would leave them disconnected.Brisbane schoolgirl Sadie Angus is one of them. She turned 13 just a few weeks ago and opening an Instagram account was a rite of passage for her. But it was a short-lived one - the law means she's now being kicked off it and she's frustrated."I can admit more things on there than I can in real life," says Sadie who often prefers to keep her anonymity online. "I use it as a safe space to share what I've had to go through and since nobody knows who I am, they can't come to me in real life and talk about it and that feels kind of comforting."Sadie's mother Kath felt it was an important step in her daughter - the youngest in their family - growing up and now that has been taken away from her."She's being exposed to some really amazing role models through social media, particularly in the queer community which I think is really healthy for young adolescents," Ms Angus says.Other minority groups have also voiced concern over the ban."I am quite nervous about what this is going to mean for autistic young people," says Sharon Fraser, the CEO of Reframing Autism."We communicate and socialise differently," says Sharon who also has an autistic son. "Online can be a very beneficial place for autistic people and there are ways to connect online that are just not accessible to them in real life."Watch: 'I don't need laws to teach my kids to be responsible', says Kath AngusFor every young person who feels like they're losing out, campaigner Emma Mason thinks there will be far more winners.Nearly four years ago, her daughter Tilly killed herself. She was 15.Emma blames the rise of social media for Tilly's death. Face-to-face bullying started when Tilly was just eight. It moved to messaging and then to platforms including Tiktok, Snapchat and Instagram. But it got worse after a fake image of Tilly was spread by children at her school.Emma recalls how hysterical Tilly was when she found out: "She was subject to something she had no control over, a harm that was instant, a harm that she could not stop. It was one of those moments in her life where she just lost it, she just thought I can't do this anymore, I can't keep fighting the demons."Ms Mason doesn't want this to happen to other children, which is why she's been standing alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to support this law."These are agents of harm that are unregulated and I think our children have been the social experiment," Emma says. "It's a government's job to protect the vulnerable of our society and to provide guardrails for how things need to go."She admits though, for those who are already teenagers, they might not be clear winners."I don't know that we can save the children that have had access to it already," she says. "But those children that are 13 and below that aren't supposed to be on it now, they won't have to grow up in a world where it's acceptable that you just get on social media and you can say what you want, how you want, to whoever you want."Additional reporting by Simon AtkinsonWatch: What do teenagers think about Australia's social media ban?Australia's social media ban for children has left big tech scramblingAsiaAustralia

Sperm from donor with cancer-causing gene was used to conceive almost 200 children3 hours agoShareSaveJames Gallagher,Health and science correspondentandNatalie Truswell,Investigations producerShareSaveShutterstockThe donor's sperm was used in clinics across Europe (stock image)A sperm donor who unknowingly harboured a genetic mutation that dramatically raises the risk of cancer has fathered at least 197 children across Europe, a major investigation has revealed.Some children have already died and only a minority who inherit the mutation will escape cancer in their lifetimes.The sperm was not sold to UK clinics, but the BBC can confirm a "very small" number of British families, who have been informed, used the donor's sperm while having fertility treatment in Denmark. Denmark's European Sperm Bank, which sold the sperm, said families affected had their "deepest sympathy" and admitted the sperm was used to make too many babies in some countries.Getty ImagesUp to 20% of the donor's sperm contains the dangerous mutation that increases the risk of cancer (stock image)The investigation has been conducted by 14 public service broadcasters, including the BBC, as part of the European Broadcasting Union's Investigative Journalism Network.The sperm came from an anonymous man who was paid to donate as a student, starting in 2005. His sperm was then used by women for around 17 years.He is healthy and passed the donor screening checks. However, the DNA in some of his cells mutated before he was born.It damaged the TP53 gene – which has the crucial role of preventing the body's cells turning cancerous.Most of the donor's body does not contain the dangerous form of TP53, but up to 20% of his sperm do.However, any children made from affected sperm will have the mutation in every cell of their body.This is known as Li Fraumeni syndrome and comes with an up to 90% chance of developing cancer, particularly during childhood as well as breast cancer later in life."It is a dreadful diagnosis," Prof Clare Turnbull, a cancer geneticist at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, told the BBC. "It's a very challenging diagnosis to land on a family, there is a lifelong burden of living with that risk, it's clearly devastating." MRI scans of the body and the brain are needed every year, as well as abdominal ultrasounds, to try to spot tumours. Women often choose to have their breasts removed to lower their risk of cancer.The European Sperm Bank said the "donor himself and his family members are not ill" and such a mutation is "not detected preventatively by genetic screening". They said they "immediately blocked" the donor once the problem with his sperm was discovered.Children have diedDoctors who were seeing children with cancer linked to sperm donation raised concerns at the European Society of Human Genetics this year. They reported they had found 23 with the variant out of 67 children known at the time. Ten had already been diagnosed with cancer.Through Freedom of Information requests and interviews with doctors and patients we can reveal substantially more children were born to the donor. The figure is at least 197 children, but that may not be the final number as data has not been obtained from all countries. It is also unknown how many of these children inherited the dangerous variant.Dr Kasper has been helping some of the families affectedDr Edwige Kasper, a cancer geneticist at Rouen University Hospital, in France, who presented the initial data, told the investigation: "We have many children that have already developed a cancer."We have some children that have developed already two different cancers and some of them have already died at a very early age."Céline, not her real name, is a single-mother in France whose child was conceived with the donor's sperm 14 years ago and has the mutation.She got a call from the fertility clinic she used in Belgium urging her to get her daughter screened.She says she has "absolutely no hard feelings" towards the donor but says it was unacceptable she was given sperm that "wasn't clean, that wasn't safe, that carried a risk".And she knows cancer will be looming over them for the rest of their lives."We don't know when, we don't know which one, and we don't know how many," she says."I understand that there's a high chance it's going to happen and when it does, we'll fight and if there are several, we'll fight several times."The donor's sperm was used by 67 fertility clinics in 14 countries.The sperm was not sold to UK clinics.However, as a result of this investigation the authorities in Denmark notified the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) on Monday that British women had travelled to the country to receive fertility treatment using the donor's sperm.Those women have been informed. Peter Thompson, the chief executive of the HFEA, said a "very small number" of women were affected and "they have been told about the donor by the Danish clinic at which they were treated". We do not know if any British women had treatment in other countries where the donor's sperm was distributed. Concerned parents are advised to contact the clinic they used and the fertility authority in that country. The BBC is choosing not to release the donor's identification number because he donated in good faith and the known cases in the UK have been contacted.There is no law on how many times a donor's sperm can be used worldwide. However, individual countries do set their own limits.The European Sperm Bank accepted these limits had "unfortunately" been breached in some countries and it was "in dialogue with the authorities in Denmark and Belgium".In Belgium, a single sperm donor is only supposed to be used by six families. Instead 38 different women produced 53 children to the donor. The UK limit is 10 families per donor.'You can't screen for everything'Prof Allan Pacey, who used to run the Sheffield Sperm Bank and is now the deputy vice president of the Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester, said countries had become dependent on big international sperm banks and half the UK's sperm was now imported.He told the BBC: "We have to import from big international sperm banks who are also selling it to other countries, because that's how they make their money, and that is where the problem begins, because there's no international law about how often you can use the sperm."He said the case was "awful" for everybody involved, but it would be impossible to make sperm completely safe."You can't screen for everything, we only accept 1% or 2% of all men that apply to be a sperm donor in the current screening arrangement so if we make it even tighter, we wouldn't have any sperm donors – that's where the balance lies."Sperm donor who fathered 550 children told to stopIVF births now represent one child in every classroom, data suggests This case, alongside that of a man who was ordered to stop after fathering 550 children through sperm donation, has again raised questions over whether there should be tougher limits. The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology has recently suggested a limit of 50 families per donor.However, it said this would not reduce the risk of inheriting rare genetic diseases. Rather, it would be better for the wellbeing of children who discover they are one of hundreds of half-siblings. "More needs to be done to reduce the number of families that are born globally from the same donors," said Sarah Norcross, the director of the Progress Educational Trust, an independent charity for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions."We don't fully understand what the social and psychological implications will be of having these hundreds of half siblings. It can potentially be traumatic," she told BBC News.The European Sperm Bank said: "It is important, especially in light of this case, to remember that thousands of women and couples do not have the opportunity to have a child without the help of donor sperm."It is generally safer to have a child with the help of donor sperm if the sperm donors are screened according to medical guidelines."What if you are considering using a sperm donor?Sarah Norcross said these cases were "vanishingly rare" when you consider the number of children born to a sperm donor.All of the experts we spoke to said using a licensed clinic meant the sperm would be screened for more diseases than most fathers-to-be are.Prof Pacey said he would ask "is this a UK donor or is this a donor from somewhere else?" "If it's a donor from somewhere else I think it's legitimate to ask questions about has that donor been used before? Or how many times will this donor be used?"If you or someone you know has been affected by the issues raised, details of help and support are available at BBC Action Line. FertilityHealthIVFCancer

Watch Australian teens test out social media on first day of banAustralia has banned social media for everyone under the age of 16. The government says the ban is aimed at protecting young people from harmful content online. As the law came into effect, the BBC spoke to teenagers about what happened when they tried to access their accounts.Video by Kellie Highet4 hours agoSocial mediaTechnologyAustraliaShareSaveWatch: How Australia is trying to protect beachgoers from shark attacksIn the wake of a recent fatal shark attack, the BBC is off the coast in Sydney to learn how authorities are trying to protect people.AustraliaWhat it was like inside court as mushroom murderer was jailed for lifeThe BBC's Katy Watson was in the courtroom as Erin Patterson was sentenced to life.AustraliaWatch: Moment Australian politician raises fist at journalistVeteran MP Bob Katter, 80, said he had previously punched people for mentioning his Lebanese heritage.AustraliaWatch: Solar-powered cars start epic Australian outback raceThirty-four teams from all over the world are competing to win the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.AustraliaWatch: Plane makes emergency landing on Australian golf courseVideo shows the aircraft flying over the golf course before crash landing, as the pilot and passenger escaped without major injuries.AustraliaWatch: Meteor burns across Australian night skyAmateur astronomers captured the moment it streaked over Victoria on CCTV and dashboard cameras.Australia'I loved them' - Police interview Australian mushroom murdererFootage of police interviewing convicted triple-murderer Erin Patterson has been released by the Victorian Supreme Court.AustraliaWatch: Australians play in snowy winter wonderlandParts of New South Wales were blanketed with the heaviest snow in 20 years.AustraliaWatch: Huge stick insect discovered in AustraliaA new "supersized" species of stick insect that is roughly as heavy as a golf ball has been discovered in Australia.AustraliaFirst Australian-made rocket crashes shortly after lift-offThe company behind the country's first orbital rocket called the launch a 'giant leap' despite crashing after only 14 seconds.AustraliaCan you un-bleach coral? BBC visits remote reef to find outThe BBC's Katy Watson went to Australia's Ningaloo reef, the site of a mass bleaching event, to find out if the damage can be undone.AustraliaThe mysterious outback murder that shook AustraliaPolice say they will not stop searching for Peter Falconio's remains, after the man convicted of his murder died.AustraliaWatch: CCTV and phone recording shown to court in mushroom trialEvidence shown in the trial of Erin Patterson has been shared by authorities after she was found guilty of murder.AustraliaWatch: Australia's mushroom murder case… in under two minutesErin Patterson has been found guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to kill one other, after cooking them a toxic lunch.AustraliaWatch: Three things you need to know about the mushroom murder trialAs the jury deliberates Erin Patterson's fate, the BBC looks at what the key takeaways so far.AustraliaMoment man sets himself on fire in botched arson attackNewly released CCTV captures a man's failed attempt to set a restaurant alight in Melbourne, Australia last year.AustraliaElderly woman rescued from flood ravaged Australian homeTaree, a city in New South Wales, Australia has been among the worst impacted by record levels of rainfall.AustraliaMoment Australian politician signs off career with a 'shoey'The MP ended his time in parliament by drinking beer out of his shoe during his farewell speech.AustraliaCattle washed on to beaches in widespread Australia floodsA natural disaster has been declared in New South Wales, as widespread flooding prompts nearly 50,000 people to evacuate.AustraliaWatch: Man tries to scale cruise ship in SydneyA 29-year-old was arrested after he was seen climbing up the mooring lines of the Carnival Adventure cruise ship docked at Sydney Harbour.Australia

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, pioneering elephant conservationist, dies aged 835 hours agoShareSaveYang TianShareSaveIndianapolis ZooThe Prince of Wales has paid tribute to pioneering elephant conservationist Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who died aged 83 at his home in Nairobi on Monday.Douglas-Hamilton spent his life studying and campaigning to protect African elephants, becoming a world-leading expert on their behaviour in the wild. His groundbreaking research exposed the devastating effects of poaching - often at great risk to his own safety - and was instrumental in the banning of the international ivory trade.Prince William praised the zoologist as "a man who dedicated his life to conservation and whose life's work leaves lasting impact on our appreciation for, and understanding of, elephants"."The memories of spending time in Africa with him will remain with me forever," added Prince William, who is a royal patron for the African wildlife conservation charity, Tusk, of which Douglas-Hamilton was an ambassador. "The world has lost a true conservation legend today, but his extraordinary legacy will continue," the charity's founder Charles Mayhew said in a statement.Oria Douglas-HamiltonBorn in 1942 to an aristocratic British family in Dorset, England, Douglas-Hamilton studied biology and zoology in Scotland and Oxford before moving to Tanzania to research elephant social behaviour.It was there at Lake Manyara National Park that he began documenting every elephant he encountered, eventually becoming so familiar with the herds he could recognise them by the unique shapes of their ears and wrinkles on their skin."The thing about elephants is that they have a lot in common with human beings," he said in a 2024 documentary about his work, A Life Among Elephants.Friend and fellow conservationist Jane Goodall, who died in October, was featured in the documentary, and said he had shown the world that elephants are capable of feeling just like humans."I think his legacy will be one of a man who did so much to help people understand how majestic, how wonderful elephants are, and to learn more about their way of life," Goodall said.Oria Douglas-HamiltonBut that work did not always come easy: he was charged at by elephants, almost killed by a swarm of bees and shot at by poachers. In 2010, a flood destroyed his research facility in Kenya and years of work was lost.Despite the hardships, Douglas-Hamilton remained steadfast in his mission to raise awareness of the plight of African elephants, becoming one of the leading voices to alert the world of the ivory poaching crisis, which he described as "an elephant holocaust".He later campaigned for an international ban on the commercial trade in ivory, and in 1989 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species was signed, an international agreement between governments.After the agreement failed to wipe out the trade completely, Douglas-Hamilton turned his attention to China and the US, the two main markets for ivory. Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-US President Barack Obama agreed to a near-total ban on its import and export in 2015.Douglas-Hamilton established Save the Elephants in 1993, a charity dedicated to safeguarding the animals and deepening human understanding of their behaviour.The organisation's CEO Frank Pope, who is also his son-in-law, said: "Iain changed the future not just for elephants, but for huge numbers of people across the globe. His courage, determination and rigour inspired everyone he met."In his own words, Douglas-Hamilton expressed optimism for the future of his life's work."I think my greatest hope for the future is that there will be an ethic developed of human-elephant coexistence," he once said.Iain Douglas-Hamilton is survived by his wife Oria, children Saba and Dudu, and six grandchildren.Rare twin elephants born in Thailand 'miracle'Dame Jane Goodall revolutionised our understanding of our closest primate cousinsElephantsAfricaWildlife conservation

Chaos in Brazil Congress during push to cut Bolsonaro's sentence5 hours agoShareSaveShareSaveEPABrazil's parliament descended into chaos on Tuesday as conservative lawmakers continued to push a law which would reduce the prison sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro. One left-wing lawmaker was forcibly removed by police after trying to disrupt proceedings, while footage showed scuffles breaking out as security tried to restore order.Bolsonaro began a 27-year jail term in November for attempting to plot a coup following his 2022 election defeat.His conservative allies in Congress have proposed a law which would reduce sentences for coup-related offences, as well as free dozens of Bolsonaro supporters who stormed government buildings shortly after he left office.Meanwhile, court documents showed that Bolsonaro's legal team filed an official request asking a court to grant him permission to leave prison for surgery.The appeal repeats a plea for the ex-president to be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest on health grounds. Bolsonaro spent time in intensive care earlier this year following intestinal surgery, and was stabbed in the abdomen in 2018 during a rally.The fate of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist who was narrowly beaten by leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva three years ago, continues to be a divisive issue in Brazil, where his allies have explored several avenues to exonerate him. The latest attempt to cut the 70-year-old's sentence has been to propose a law overhauling punishments for people in elected office, including significantly reducing sentences for the offences that Bolsonaro, and those convicted alongside him, were found guilty of.One of the lawmakers behind the effort told AFP news agency it would see Bolsonaro's sentence cut to two years and four months in prison.During Tuesday's heated debate on the proposal, leftist politician Glauber Braga briefly occupied the Speaker's chair, which he said was a protest against a "coup offensive".The chamber had been due to vote on Braga's expulsion for his role in a previous altercation in Congress, one of a handful of removals proposed as part of a wider package of disciplinary reforms, including the changes to coup-related offences.Police forcibly removed Braga amid a skirmish in the chamber. The TV feed was cut and reporters were removed from the chamber, a move condemned as censorship by a group representing journalists.Braga later said he would not "accept as a done deal an amnesty for a group of coup plotters", AFP reported.As of late Tuesday night, the law cutting Bolsonaro's sentence - which would require ratification by the legislature's second house - had not passed. EPABolsonaro was given a lengthy prison sentence in September after Supreme Court judges found he had proposed a coup to military leaders, and said that he knew of a plot to assassinate his rival Lula.While a military coup did not materialise, his supporters launched a violent assault on government buildings in Brasília in January 2023, after which thousands were detained.Several senior military figures, two former defence ministers and an ex-intelligence chief were also convicted as part of the coup investigation.Bolsonaro and his supporters have long dubbed the investigation a "witch hunt".His Liberal Party remains the largest in Congress, where conservative parties outnumber groupings sympathetic to Lula.Lawmakers loyal to Bolsonaro previously launched an attempt to secure an amnesty, though that floundered in the face of national protests, with a significant cut to sentences now proposed as a compromise.Brazil ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's son charged with coercionHow the coup trial of Jair Bolsonaro has divided BrazilJair BolsonaroBrazil

Trump touts upbeat message on economy as Americans feel the pinch5 hours agoShareSaveDanielle KayeandNatalie ShermanShareSaveWatch: Trump claims "prices are coming down" at a rally in PennsylvaniaPresident Donald Trump told a campaign-style rally that consumer prices are falling "tremendously" as he sought to allay voter anxiety about the US cost of living.In a speech at a casino in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the president told supporters he had "no higher priority than making America affordable again". But while gas and egg prices have fallen, other food is more expensive and Americans remain unhappy about the cost of housing, childcare and healthcare.Democrats have capitalised on Trump's vulnerability on the economy in recent state and city votes, leaving many Republicans uneasy about next year's midterm elections. Tuesday's event in a swing district of Pennsylvania was the first of what the White House says will be a series of campaign-like rallies aimed at bringing its economic message to voters.But at one point in his remarks, the Republican president again portrayed concerns about affordability as a Democratic "hoax".In recent weeks, his administration has removed tariffs from dozens of food products and touted its rollback of fuel efficiency standards and Trump-branded retirement accounts for children as cost-of-living fixes. In an excerpt from an interview with Politico released on Tuesday, Trump was asked what grade he would give the economy."A plus-plus-plus-plus-plus," he said.In a sign the policy pivot might be cutting through, Trump's approval rating rose three points to 41% in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.Charlie NeuenschwanderAlaina Hunt was laid in off in AprilBut many Americans remain downbeat on the economy.Alaina Hunt, 37, told the BBC she lost her job in April as a designer at a construction company in Oklahoma City, partly because of Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium.The construction sector "really took a hard hit very early on", she said. Ms Hunt says she has applied for at least 75 jobs to no avail.She says rising grocery bills - about $25 extra per week - have added to the strain."I was able to scrape by a lot easier in years before," said Ms Hunt, who voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024. "I don't think that the federal government is listening at all."Economic data paints a mixed picture. US consumer confidence fell in November to its lowest level since the spring.But the stock market continues to hover near record highs. And forecasters expect the economy to expand by 1.9% this year, slower than last year's 2.8% but still better than expected.Some recent data also indicate the job market may be picking up, after a significant hiring slowdown earlier this year. As of September, inflation stood at 3%, the same rate as in January when the president took office and stubbornly above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.It is still way below a peak of 9.1% under former President Joe Biden when the US faced its worst inflation in four decades.Overall prices have surged 25% over the last five years, generating widespread frustration, despite wage growth over that period.Beth RichardsonBeth Richardson, a 45-year-old from Kansas, said she had been floored by some of the prices at the grocery store near her, recalling a pack of Mentos gum she picked up recently that rang up to almost $5 with tax."I'm like, I'm just going to go die now because this cannot be," she said.Ms Richardson was laid off from her job in sales support at a tech-related company in late 2023, after the firm shifted jobs overseas. She voted for Kamala Harris last year. She said while she knew presidents were often blamed for economic forces over which they had little control, she felt in this case Trump and his policies, like tariffs, were "shooting ourselves in the foot".On Tuesday night, Trump called tariffs his "favourite word", pointing to hundreds of billions of dollars of US revenue from the import taxes.The White House blames Biden and Fed interest rates for the lingering economic pain.The US central bank has twice reduced rates to about 3.9% and may cut them again on Wednesday. Many Trump supporters have said they still support the president, despite feeling the pinch themselves.John Mohring, 60, a widower and construction worker from Kenosha, Wisconsin, has backed Trump since 2016. He said grocery prices started rising before Trump returned to the White House "and it doesn't seem like it's going down". He now typically spends $100 on groceries just for himself, even when avoiding buying meat and sticking with cheaper items.Still, Mr Mohring said he backed the Trump administration's sweeping tariffs on imported goods and his border policies. "I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt," Mr Mohring added. Brad Smith, a corn and soybean farmer in north-western Illinois, was hurt earlier this year when China, previously a major buyer of US soybeans, froze its purchases amid a trade war with Washington. But the market, he said, had been gradually recovering since late October, when the two countries reached a deal and China resumed some purchases.Trump on Monday also announced a $12bn aid package for US farmers.Mr Smith said he still believed in Trump's plans for the economy, despite being getting caught in the crossfire. "There's probably bigger things at play other than just the soybean and corn market," Mr Smith said. "The whole America First idea is good."US economyInflationDonald TrumpUS politicsUnited States

Man who grabbed Ariana Grande kicked out of Lady Gaga concert5 hours agoShareSaveJoel GuintoShareSaveEPALady Gaga is in Australia for her Mayhem World TourAn Australian man who was jailed in Singapore and deported for charging at pop star Ariana Grande has been ejected from a Lady Gaga concert in his home country.Johnson Wen said on Instagram that he was "kicked out" of the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Tuesday night before the Lady Gaga show had started.The 26-year-old, who has a history of disrupting concerts and celebrity events, was sentenced to nine days in jail by a Singapore court last month for grabbing Grande during the Asian premiere of Wicked: For Good.Wen, who told the Singaporean judge in mitigation that he would "not do it again", had not disrupted the performance in Brisbane, but was removed because of his history of public nuisance.Videos on social media showed security guards holding Wen by the arm and leading him out of the venue as the crowd both cheered and booed. The BBC has contacted Suncorp Stadium for comment.In a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald, the venue said it was made aware that "a known serial offender may attempt to attend and disrupt" the concert by Lady Gaga, who is around halfway through her Mayhem World Tour."In the interest of the artist's safety, this individual was deemed a person of interest and not to be allowed to attend," it said.Wen has gained notoriety since grabbing Grande at the Wicked: For Good premiere in the South East Asian city state, which is known for its strict laws, including on public behaviour."You seem to be attention-seeking, thinking only of yourself and not the safety of others when committing these acts," Singaporean judge Christopher Goh reportedly told Wen.Wen was also banned from Singapore following the incident.Other videos on Wen's social media accounts show him jumping on stage and disrupting performances by global stars like Katy Perry and The Weeknd.The incident with Grande sparked outrage in Singapore. Fans accused Wen of "re-traumatising" the pop star and actress.Grande has spoken of experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder after a suicide bomb attack at her May 2017 concert in Manchester, killing 22 people and injuring hundreds.Man who grabbed Ariana Grande at premiere banned from SingaporeSingaporeAsiaAriana GrandeLady GagaAustralia

Two teenagers went to seek gold. They were buried alive in a mine collapse8 hours agoShareSaveGodwin AsedibaBBC News Komla Dumor Award winner, Eastern Province, Sierra LeoneShareSaveAndre Lombard / BBCNamina Jenneh is mourning her 17-year-old son who died while mining for goldThere is a sense of disbelief in this Sierra Leonean village as people weep in front of the bodies of two teenage boys wrapped in white cloth.The day before, 16-year-old Mohamed Bangura and 17-year-old Yayah Jenneh left their homes in Nyimbadu, in the country's Eastern Province, hoping to earn a little extra money for their families.They had gone in search of gold but never returned. The makeshift pit they were digging in collapsed on them.This was the third fatal mine accident, leaving a total of at least five children dead, in the last four years in this region.Mohamed and Yayah were part of a phenomenon that has seen a growing number of children missing school in parts of Sierra Leone to mine the precious metal in potentially lethal pits, according to headteachers and community activists.The Eastern Province has historically been known for diamond mining. But in recent years informal - or artisanal - gold mining has expanded as the diamond reserves have been depleted.David Wilkins / BBCPeople dig up the rich earther wherever they think they might be able to find goldMining sites pop up wherever local people find deposits in this land laden with riches - on farmland, in former graveyards and along riverbeds. There are few formal mining companies operating here, but in the areas which are not considered profitable, the landscape is dotted with these unregulated pits that can be as deep as 4m (13 feet).Similar - and equally dangerous - mines can be found in many African countries and there are often reports of deadly collapses. Most families in Nyimbadu rely on small-scale farming and petty trading for a living. Alternative employment is scarce so the opportunity to earn some extra cash is very attractive.But the community in the village gathered at the local funeral home know the work also comes at a price, with the loss of two young lives full of promise.Yayah's mother, Namina Jenneh, is a widow and had been relying on her young son to help provide for her other five children.As someone who worked in the pits herself, she acknowledges that she introduced Yayah to mining but says: "He didn't tell me he was going to that site - if I had known I would have stopped him."When she heard about the collapse, she says she begged someone to "call the excavator driver."When he arrived, he cleared the debris that had buried the children."But it was too late to save them.Namina JennehYayah Jenneh was mining in order to help his mother support his five siblingsMs Jenneh speaks with deep pain. On a mobile phone with a cracked screen, she scrolls through pictures of her son, a boy with bright eyes who supported her.Sahr Ansumana, a local child protection activist, takes me to the collapsed pit."If you ask some parents, they'll tell you there's no other alternative. They are poor, they are widows, they are single parents," he says."They have to take care of the kids. They themselves encourage the kids to go and mine. We are struggling and need help. It's worrying and getting out of hand."But the warning goes unheeded – the loss of Yayah and Mohamed has not emptied the pits.The day after their funerals, miners including children are back at work, their hands sifting sand by the river or inspecting the earth manually excavated in search of the glimmer of gold.David Wilkins / BBCKomba Sesay would like to become a lawyer but is missing school in order to mineAt one site I meet 17-year-old Komba Sesay who wants to be a lawyer, but he spends daylight hours here to support his mother."There is no money," he says. "That is what we are trying to find. I am working so I can register and sit my [high school] exams. I want to return to school. I'm not happy here."Komba's earnings are meagre. In most weeks he earns about $3.50 (£2.65) – less than half the country's minimum wage. But he perseveres in the hope of striking it rich. On some, very rare, good days he has found enough ore to earn him $35.Of course, he knows the work is risky. Komba has friends who have been injured in pit collapses. But he feels that mining is the only way he can earn some money.David Wilkins / BBCThe dangerous work sees people digging with minimal tools in order to find some goldAnd it is not only pupils who are leaving schools.Roosevelt Bundo, the headteacher of Gbogboafeh Aladura Junior Secondary School in Nyimbadu says "teachers also leave classes to go to the mining sites, they mine together with the students".Their government pay cannot compete with what they may be able to earn from gold mining.There are also wider signs of change around the mining hubs. What were once small camps have swelled into towns in the last two years.The government says it is addressing the issue.Information Minister Chernor Bah tells the BBC that the government remains committed to education but adds that the state recognises the many challenges people face."We spend about 8.9% of our GDP, the highest of any other country in this sub-region, on education," he says, adding that funds go to teachers, school-feeding programmes and subsidies intended to keep children in the classroom.But on the ground, reality bites. Immediate survival often wins over policy.Charities and local activists try to remove children from the pits and place them back into school, but without reliable alternatives for income, the pits are too attractive.Back in Nyimbado, the families of the two dead boys appear exhausted and hollowed out.The loss is not just of two young lives. It is the steady erosion of possibility for a generation."We need help," the activist Mr Ansumana says. "Not prayers. Not promises. Help."You may also be interested in:The female prisoners becoming football coachesHunting down those who kill people to sell their body parts for 'magic charms''We are poisoning ourselves': Ghana gold rush sparks environmental disasterTrapped underground with decaying bodies, miners faced a dark realityGetty Images/BBCGo to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafricaBBC Africa podcastsFocus on AfricaThis Is AfricaSierra LeoneMiningAfrica

Indian couple trolled over skin colour after wedding video goes viral8 hours agoShareSaveGeeta Pandey,BBC CorrespondentandVishnukant Tiwari,BBC HindiShareSaveRishabh Rajput and Sonali ChoukseyRishabh Rajput and Sonali Chouksey were married last monthRishabh Rajput and Sonali Chouksey met in college 11 years ago, fell in love and married last month.Photos and videos from their colourful wedding showed the happy couple from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh performing rituals and posing in their finery.But when they shared their happiest moment on social media, the congratulatory messages came peppered with "jokes and memes" with trolls comparing and criticising the couple over the groom's skin colour.In India, where obsession with fair skin colour is well documented and can sometimes even have tragic consequences, the groom faced intense online shaming and was called names for his "darker skin colour". The trolls did not spare the bride either, with many suggesting she had married him "for his money". "She must have had some compulsion," one wrote. Another suggested she couldn't be happy with a husband like that. Some labelled her a "gold-digger," claiming she married him for wealth or a secure government job with perks. One comment suggested that Mr Rajput's father must be "a government minister".The couple, who married on 23 November, have since gone viral because of the trolling - and their response, as they addressed the criticism head-on. They have been sought out by local media and given scores of interviews in the past two weeks."People were making jokes and memes and it felt very wrong," Mr Rajput told BBC Hindi from his home in Jabalpur."It was our moment and we had waited for it so many years. It was supposed to be a happy moment, but when I saw people's reactions, I was really shocked," he said."In so many years that we have been together, no-one had ever told us that we were a mismatch because I have dark complexion while she is fairer," he added.BBC HindiSonali Chouksey and Rishabh Rajput met in college in 2014 and fell in loveThe nasty comments left the couple - who both work in private companies - reeling.Ms Chouksey admitted that such comments "bothered" her. "You think - is this is how people are perceiving us? When they say nasty things about him or call me a gold-digger, it irritates me."In a post on Instagram, Mr Rajput addressed the trolls: "Sorry to disappoint you. I'm not a government employee, but I work hard for my family and want to give them a good, dignified life."He added that Sonali fell in love with him when he had nothing. "From college till today, she has stood with me through every good and bad moment. People's negative opinions mean nothing to me," he wrote.Mr Rajput also addressed the issue of colourism in the comments, saying he had faced colour discrimination his whole life."I know very well that I have a dark complexion. But in my wife's eyes, I am trying to be the best husband I can be, and that is what matters the most. There is no need to speak wrongly about my family."Mr Rajput said he pushed back when the trolls began commenting on one of the photos that also had his mother and his and his wife's sisters."I did not like the fact that they targeted my family. I want to tell them, you are a nobody. And you have no right to target - or troll - anyone's family," he said.The couple, together since meeting in a 2014 college zoology class, say outsiders shouldn't judge their lives."Our relationship began a year later and we knew from then that one day we would be married. Those who are commenting on our relationship by looking at a 30-second video don't know that it captures 11 years of hard work that we have put into it," says Mr Rajput.Can renaming a fairness cream stop colourism?Death penalty for Indian man who burnt alive wife over skin colourWhat colour are Indian gods and goddesses?"Sonali had always manifested that when we get married, our entire village should witness it. But today, it seems like the whole world is watching it," he says.That attention, the couple agree, feels good in a way. But the comments, Ms Chouksey adds, are hurting their families. "For people, it may be just something they watch on social media, but it's our life. And it can destroy someone's family."The couple have also addressed colourism in several of their interviews."We live in India where people from different regions have different skin colour. And fair skin doesn't necessarily make someone a good person. So, how can we judge someone on the basis of their skin colour?" asks Ms Chouksey.Mr Rajput says "about 70-80% people in India have darker skin tones, but the Indian mentality is that fairer is better. It's time to change that notion".And for those who say the couple are a mismatch, he has a question: "When you look at us, do we look even remotely unhappy to you? We don't. Because we have what most people don't have. I have her and she has me."AsiaWeddingsColourismIndia

How long Britain could really fight for if war broke out tomorrow8 hours agoShareSaveFrank GardnerSecurity correspondentShareSaveBBCRussia's full-scale war on Ukraine will soon enter its fifth year. Mysterious incidents of so-called "hybrid warfare" are mounting in Europe, increasing tensions. And in the UK, military chiefs have warned we must prepare for war if we want to avoid it. But if the unthinkable happened, and war with Russia broke out, could the UK fight for more than just a few weeks?Listen to Frank reading this article"We are not planning to go to war with Europe. But if Europe wants to, and starts, we are ready right now." So said Russian President Vladimir Putin on 2 December, accusing European countries of hindering US efforts to bring peace in Ukraine.To be clear, it is extremely unlikely that the UK would ever find itself in a war with Russia on its own, unsupported by Nato allies. But Putin's words were an uncomfortable reminder that a war between Russia and Nato countries, including the UK, was not as remote as people hoped.How war could look in the tech-age"Well that's odd. I've got no signal on my phone." "Me neither. I'm offline. What's going on?" That scenario, hypothetically, is just one way we could know that a war with Russia had begun, or was about to. (I should add that there can also be other, perfectly benign, reasons for a loss of signal.)That signal interruption could be followed by an inability to make bank payments for essentials like food and fuel. Food distribution would be disrupted, electricity supplies compromised.AFP via Getty Images'We are not planning to go to war with Europe. But if Europe wants to, and starts, we are ready right now,' Putin has saidThere are many ways of fighting a war, and not just the physically destructive wave of drones, bombs and missiles so tragically familiar to the citizens of Ukraine.Our modern, tech-driven society is highly dependent on the network of undersea cables and pipelines that connect the UK to the rest of the world, carrying data, financial transactions and energy. Covert activity by Russian spy vessels, such as the Yantar, is widely believed to have scoped out these cables for potential sabotage in a time of war, which is why the Royal Navy has recently invested in a fleet of underwater drones equipped with integrated sensors.In a war, these hidden, unseen actions, combined with an almost inevitable attempt to "blind" Western satellites in space, would seriously hamper the UK's ability to fight, as well as potentially wreaking havoc on civil society.Getty ImagesIn the UK, military chiefs have warned we must prepare for war if we want to avoid itAt a recent conference in London entitled Fighting the Long War, organised by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a Whitehall think tank, military and political figures came together to discuss whether the UK's current armed forces would be in a position to sustain a protracted conflict before they ran out of everything from troops, to ammunition to spare parts."There remains little evidence that the UK has a plan to fight a war lasting more than a few weeks," argues Rusi's Hamish Mundell. "Medical capacity is limited. Reserve regeneration pipelines are slow… The British plan for mass casualty outcomes appears to be based on not taking casualties." With classic British understatement, he says: "This could be considered an optimistic planning assumption."He adds that to fight a long war you need proper back-up. "It demands a second and even third echelon; personnel, platforms and logistics chains that can absorb losses and continue the fight. Yet this depth is notably absent from current British force design."Russia's 'low quality' army"There are shortfalls in ammunition, artillery, vehicles, air defence, and people, with limited to no ability to regenerate units or casualties," says Justin Crump, CEO of Sibylline, a private intelligence company.Two of the biggest military lessons to come out of the Ukraine war are firstly, that drones are now integral to modern warfare, at every level, and secondly, that "mass", or sheer volume of personnel and military hardware, matters.Getty Images'There are shortfalls in ammunition, artillery, vehicles, air defence, and people, with limited to no ability to regenerate units or casualties,' says Justin CrumpRussia's army is generally of a very low quality. Its soldiers are poorly equipped, poorly led and poorly fed. Their life expectancy in the deadly "drone zone" of eastern Ukraine is short. UK Defence Intelligence estimates that since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 Russia's army has suffered more than 1.1 million casualties – that is killed, wounded, captured or missing. Even conservative estimates put the number of Russians killed at 150,000. Ukraine has also suffered catastrophic casualties but numbers are hard to ascertain.But Russia has been able to draw on such a massive pool of manpower that it has so far been able to replace its estimated 30,000 monthly battlefield casualties with fresh blood. Russia's economy has also been on a war footing for more than three years now: an economist has been placed in charge of the Defence Ministry, while its factories churn out ever more supplies of drones, missiles and artillery shells. According to a recent report by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Russia has been producing each month around 150 tanks, 550 infantry fighting vehicles, 120 Lancet drones and more than 50 artillery pieces.The UK, and most of its Western allies, are simply not anywhere near this point. EPA/ShutterstockUkraine has suffered catastrophic casualties but numbers are hard to ascertainAnalysts say it would take years for Western Europe's factories to come close to matching Russia's mass-production of weapons."The land war in Ukraine has shown beyond doubt that mass is absolutely vital for anybody that is going to face Russia on land," says Keir Giles, a Russia expert at Chatham House think tank. "And having deep reserves vastly greater in number than the standing regular armed forces has been shown to be essential."How national service conversations backfiredFrance and Germany have both recently moved to revive a system of voluntary military service for 18-year-olds. The UK's former Head of the Army, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, suggested in 2024, the year he retired, that the UK should train what he called "a citizen army" to fight a land war in the future. The idea was shot down by No. 10."I think it's a cultural thing within the UK," says Ed Arnold, senior research fellow at Rusi. "So if you look at the states that are now looking towards [military service] - like Sweden, Germany and France - they are states who culturally still have an institutional memory of when they had that system. "We haven't had national service since the 1960s and attempts to have that national conversation around it have pretty much backfired."AFP via Getty ImagesFrance has recently moved to revive a system of voluntary military service for 18-year olds"The reality is, our armed forces cannot survive on a diet of government spin, over-the-horizon spending commitments and hollow rhetoric," Sir Ben Wallace, who was Defence Secretary in the Conservative government from 2019 to 2023, told the BBC.Responding to this, a spokesperson for the current Labour Defence Secretary, John Healey, told me: "This characterisation is baseless. "We increased defence spending by £5bn this year alone, signed 1,000 major contracts since the election and increased MOD spending with British businesses by 6% above inflation in the last year."He points to a new defence agreement with Norway, a £300m new investment in the Royal Navy's laser weapon and a £9bn investment into armed forces housing, adding: "We're a government investing in the transformation of our forces, investing in our British service personnel... to create jobs and growth in Britain's communities."Getty ImagesGermany has also introduced voluntary military service for 18 year-oldsBut this is not about party politics. It's about whether UK defence has been under-funded for so long that it has now reached the point where the country is dangerously vulnerable in several areas, notably air defence.There are also problems of timing and inefficiency. Defence contracts often take years to come to fruition. Billions of pounds have been spent on Ajax, an overdue armoured vehicle project still beset with problems. Meanwhile, Nato officers have been warning Russia could be in a position to launch an attack on a Nato country within three to five years.At the end of the Cold War (between Nato and the Soviet Union) in 1990, when I was a young infantry Captain in the Army Reserves, the UK was spending 4.1% of GDP on defence. The following year it deployed over 45,000 troops to help evict Iraq President Saddam Hussein's invading army from Kuwait in operation Desert Storm. More from InDepthMysterious drones have been spotted at night at airports across Europe. How worried should we be?The real problem facing Britain's shrinking militaryRussia's attacks have ramped up - Ukraine is fighting to hold on through another winterToday, with multiple pressures on the economy, the government is striving to meet a target of 2.5% of GDP by 2027, while Russia spends close to 7%.On paper, the British Army numbers around 74,000 but Rusi's Ed Arnold points out that once you subtract medically non-deployable soldiers, defence attaches around the world and others not part of formed units, then its actual deployable strength is only 54,000. That is less than the average number of casualties Russia takes in two months in Ukraine.In the event of a war, says Justin Crump of Sibylline, on land the (British) Army would most likely be degraded – incapable of fighting effectively - within weeks, once committed, though he adds "much depends on the form of the conflict".Suggestions the UK is already 'at war'Some commentators have suggested that the UK is already "at war" with Russia. They are referring to what is known as "hybrid" or "grey-zone" warfare, which includes events that are often deniable, such as cyber-attacks, disinformation and the alleged launching of drones close to airports and military bases in Nato countries.But worrying as these are, they pale compared to the crisis that would be triggered by a Russian military attack on a Nato country, especially if it involved seizing territory and people being killed.Getty ImagesA Eurofighter TyphoonThere are several potential flashpoints here, where Nato military chiefs fear that Putin, if he were allowed to achieve his aims in Ukraine, could eventually move on to seek new targets for aggression.One potential target is the Suwalki Gap, a 60-mile (100km) stretch of border between Poland and Lithuania, both Nato countries. This is all that separates Russian ally Belarus from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast. Seizing that border and opening up a route along it would, in theory, give Moscow direct access to its strategic base on the Baltic.The Baltic states themselves are other potential flashpoints. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were all once part of the Soviet Union and were ruled from Moscow. They all voted for independence and have since joined Nato, but all have Russian-speaking minorities and hence there is a risk that Mr Putin could be tempted to send his troops across the border "to protect them from persecution".The eastern Estonian town of Narva, for example, is an obvious potential target here, as the majority of its population speak Russian and it sits just across the river from the giant Russian fortress of Ivangorod. A UK battle group comprising some 900 British military personnel has been stationed in Estonia, about 80 miles west of Narva, since 2017. AFP via Gettty ImagesThe eastern Estonian town of Narva sits just across the river from the giant Russian fortress of IvangorodIn the event of war, the plan goes, it would be hurriedly reinforced to brigade strength of around 3,000 or more.Another possible flashpoint is the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, which is administered by Norway but where Moscow already has a toehold in the coal mining town of Barentsburg.Litvinenko, Skripal and hostile acts on UK soilThe UK may well be Putin's enemy number one, having been one of Ukraine's staunchest allies, and having pushed for more powerful weapons to be delivered to help its defence.Hostile acts on UK soil that have been linked to President Putin include the murder with radioactive Polonium-210 of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 - a public inquiry concluded that Putin "probably" approved his assassination - and the attempted murder of former Russian military intelligence officer turned MI6 agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018, using the nerve agent, Novichok.Dawn Sturgess, a mother-of-three, later died after she sprayed the Novichok, disguised as perfume, on her wrists. Putin was "morally responsible" for her death, an inquiry concluded last week. Lord Anthony Hughes, the inquiry chair, said: "I have concluded that the operation to assassinate Sergei Skripal must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin."Russia, which has always denied involvement in the attacks and suggested more than 20 different possible explanations for Ms Sturgess's death, described the report's findings as "tasteless fairy tales".Sputnik/ AFP via Getty ImagesPutin accused European countries of hindering US efforts to bring peace in UkraineBut the UK is also a core member of the Nato alliance. While questions are certainly raised in private over the reliability of the current US administration in the White House, it is hard to envisage the UK ever having to fight Russia on its own."A pure UK-Russia conflict is not likely and can be disregarded, practically," says Mr Crump. "We would definitely fight with allies, although Russia would most likely only launch a conflict if it felt Nato would break."The wild card here is US President Donald Trump. While the chairman of Nato's Military Committee, Adm Cavo Dragone recently assured me that the US president was absolutely committed to defending the Nato alliance, others are not so sure. Would Trump, for example, go to war to defend the Estonian town of Narva?Getty ImagesIt is extremely unlikely that the UK would ever find itself in a war with Russia on its own, unsupported by Nato allies"There is no one-size-fits-all answer to what the United Kingdom is actually capable of," concludes Keir Giles of Chatham House, "because there are so many different situations under which it could be challenged by Russia."As a society, the UK – unlike Poland, Finland and the Baltic States – is unquestionably not ready for war. Even serious preparations for such an eventuality would be both expensive, unpopular and politically risky.But Mr Giles of Chatham House offers some sobering advice to the British public: "Recognise that the rights and freedoms and prosperity that they take for granted are in fact under threat and that freedom does not come for free.""And understand that lives will have to change. And this is not the fault of the current government or even its predecessors — it's their fault that it is so expensive, but the root cause of the problem is in Moscow."Top image credit: Ministry of Defence /PA Wire/ Getty Images. (Lead image shows soldier in non-combat scenario)BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. You can now sign up for notifications that will alert you whenever an InDepth story is published - click here to find out how.War in UkraineRoyal NavyVolodymyr ZelenskyUK defence spendingRussiaEstoniaMilitaryVladimir PutinUkraine

Watch: Ozzy the dog sets Guinness World record for longest canine tongueA new canine has claimed the title for the world's longest tongue on a living dog. Ozzy, a mastiff mix from Oklahoma City, broke the Guinness World record with his tongue measuring 7.83in (19.89cm), surpassing the previous record holder, Rocky the Boxer, whose tongue measures 5.46in (13.88cm). Ozzy's owners are thrilled with his new title, with one saying, "It makes me really happy knowing that everybody loves my dog."9 hours agoWorld recordsUnited StatesShareSave'We're in a pivotal place' - Tennessee voters on Trump's performanceThe last congressional election of the year is taking place in the state's 7th District, where Trump won by 22% in the 2024 election.US & CanadaWatch: President Trump pardons Waddle and Gobble, the Thanksgiving turkeys The annual televised event dates back years and takes place ahead of the holiday, when roast turkey is typically served at dinner.US & CanadaWatch: Homes damaged as tornado, severe storms rip through HoustonNo injuries were reported after the severe weather outbreak damaged neighborhoods and toppled trees Monday afternoon.US & CanadaWatch: Moment truck collides with sign on Ohio highwayThe vehicle was travelling along Ohio’s I-70, with the dramatic collision occurring in Columbus last Thursday.US & CanadaWatch: First Lady Melania Trump welcomes the White House Christmas treeTwo Clydesdales pulled the green carriage carrying the tree to the Portico of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.US & CanadaLava spews out from Hawaii's Kilauea as volcano erupts againAccording to the United States Geological Survey, this is the 37th eruption episode since December 2024.US & CanadaNasa astronaut films Northern Lights from spaceZena Cardman captured the footage of the display from the International Space Station on 17 November.US & CanadaWatch: 'I'll be cheering for him' - Trump praises Mamdani after first meetingThe meeting between the US president and New York mayor-elect had been expected to be a showdown after months of heated rhetoric.US & CanadaWatch: Pope Leo to US students: Don't let AI do your homeworkAppearing from the Vatican via video, the pontiff spoke to youth attending a Catholic conference in the US state of Indiana. US & CanadaWatch: What Trump and Mamdani have said about each otherThe two men are set to meet at the White House Friday for their first face-to-face after months of heated rhetoric. US & CanadaWatch: Chadwick Boseman posthumously honoured with Hollywood starThe late actor, who passed away in 2020 after a private battle with cancer, was celebrated for his role as Marvel’s Black Panther.US & CanadaWatch: Nasa releases new images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLASThe comet, first discovered in July 2025, is only the third ever confirmed object to pass through the solar system.US & CanadaMelania Trump and Usha Vance meet military families in first joint visitThe first and second ladies travelled to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to visit with troops and children of service members.US & CanadaWatch: Moment a Gustav Klimt painting sells for record amountAt $236.4m (£179m), including fees, the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer becomes the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.US & Canada'Quiet, piggy': Trump responds to reporter after Epstein questionThe president made the comment to a female reporter while speaking to the press on Air Force One on Friday.US & CanadaNew video shows stunning Aurora Borealis over South DakotaOfficials at Nasa say the sun is at the peak of its 11-year cycle, known as "solar maximum", which could lead to more severe geomagnetic storms.US & CanadaWatch: How much do Americans care about the Epstein story?As US lawmakers debate a wider release of the so-called Epstein files, the BBC asked people in Washington DC if the ongoing saga matters to them.US & CanadaWatch: Blue Origin rocket successfully lands booster for first time Jeff Bezos' space company saw its first successful return landing of a reusable booster - a feat that SpaceX pioneered.US & CanadaWatch: Seal jumps aboard US photographer's boat to escape orcasCharvet Drucker was photographing a pod of orcas when a seal boarded her boat to escape the hunt.US & CanadaThe moment the last US penny was mintedAfter more than 230 years, the US ended production of its one-cent coin which today cost nearly four cents each to make.US & Canada

'What's your name?' - Moment police confront Luigi Mangione at McDonald'sProsecutors have released bodycam footage showing the initial interaction between Luigi Mangione and police officers. The footage shows Mangione inside a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where officers approached him and asked for his name. Mangione, 27, was arrested at the McDonald's on 9 December 2024, ending a five-day manhunt following the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.Mangione has pleaded not guilty to both state and federal murder charges, which carry the possibility of the death penalty.10 hours agoNew York CityPennsylvaniaUnited StatesShareSave'We're in a pivotal place' - Tennessee voters on Trump's performanceThe last congressional election of the year is taking place in the state's 7th District, where Trump won by 22% in the 2024 election.US & CanadaWatch: President Trump pardons Waddle and Gobble, the Thanksgiving turkeys The annual televised event dates back years and takes place ahead of the holiday, when roast turkey is typically served at dinner.US & CanadaWatch: Homes damaged as tornado, severe storms rip through HoustonNo injuries were reported after the severe weather outbreak damaged neighborhoods and toppled trees Monday afternoon.US & CanadaWatch: Moment truck collides with sign on Ohio highwayThe vehicle was travelling along Ohio’s I-70, with the dramatic collision occurring in Columbus last Thursday.US & CanadaWatch: First Lady Melania Trump welcomes the White House Christmas treeTwo Clydesdales pulled the green carriage carrying the tree to the Portico of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.US & CanadaLava spews out from Hawaii's Kilauea as volcano erupts againAccording to the United States Geological Survey, this is the 37th eruption episode since December 2024.US & CanadaNasa astronaut films Northern Lights from spaceZena Cardman captured the footage of the display from the International Space Station on 17 November.US & CanadaWatch: 'I'll be cheering for him' - Trump praises Mamdani after first meetingThe meeting between the US president and New York mayor-elect had been expected to be a showdown after months of heated rhetoric.US & CanadaWatch: Pope Leo to US students: Don't let AI do your homeworkAppearing from the Vatican via video, the pontiff spoke to youth attending a Catholic conference in the US state of Indiana. US & CanadaWatch: What Trump and Mamdani have said about each otherThe two men are set to meet at the White House Friday for their first face-to-face after months of heated rhetoric. US & CanadaWatch: Chadwick Boseman posthumously honoured with Hollywood starThe late actor, who passed away in 2020 after a private battle with cancer, was celebrated for his role as Marvel’s Black Panther.US & CanadaWatch: Nasa releases new images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLASThe comet, first discovered in July 2025, is only the third ever confirmed object to pass through the solar system.US & CanadaMelania Trump and Usha Vance meet military families in first joint visitThe first and second ladies travelled to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to visit with troops and children of service members.US & CanadaWatch: Moment a Gustav Klimt painting sells for record amountAt $236.4m (£179m), including fees, the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer becomes the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.US & Canada'Quiet, piggy': Trump responds to reporter after Epstein questionThe president made the comment to a female reporter while speaking to the press on Air Force One on Friday.US & CanadaNew video shows stunning Aurora Borealis over South DakotaOfficials at Nasa say the sun is at the peak of its 11-year cycle, known as "solar maximum", which could lead to more severe geomagnetic storms.US & CanadaWatch: How much do Americans care about the Epstein story?As US lawmakers debate a wider release of the so-called Epstein files, the BBC asked people in Washington DC if the ongoing saga matters to them.US & CanadaWatch: Blue Origin rocket successfully lands booster for first time Jeff Bezos' space company saw its first successful return landing of a reusable booster - a feat that SpaceX pioneered.US & CanadaWatch: Seal jumps aboard US photographer's boat to escape orcasCharvet Drucker was photographing a pod of orcas when a seal boarded her boat to escape the hunt.US & CanadaThe moment the last US penny was mintedAfter more than 230 years, the US ended production of its one-cent coin which today cost nearly four cents each to make.US & Canada

LivestreamMenuMake ItselectUSAINTLLivestreamSearch quotes, news & videosLivestreamWatchlistSIGN INCreate free accountMarketsBusinessInvestingTechPoliticsVideoWatchlistInvesting ClubPROLivestreamMenuEli Lilly on Tuesday said it will spend $6 billion to build a manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama, to help boost production of its closely watched experimental obesity pill and other drugs. It is the third facility in a string of new planned U.S. investments by the drugmaker. Eli Lilly announced in February that it would spend at least $27 billion to build four new domestic manufacturing plants, adding to $23 billion in previous investments since 2020.The company said it expects construction of the Alabama plant to start in 2026 and for it to be completed in 2032. "Today's investment continues the onshoring of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production, strengthening supply chain resilience and reliable access to medicines for patients in the U.S.," said Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks in a release. That added production capacity for Eli Lilly's obesity pill, orforglipron, is crucial as the company races to file for its approval and tries to maintain its dominance in the booming market for GLP-1s. The company and its chief rival, Novo Nordisk, faced supply shortages for their existing weekly injections after demand skyrocketed in the U.S. in recent years, though they have managed to alleviate those issues.Eli Lily's pill in November won a priority review voucher from the Food and Drug Administration, which will significantly speed up the regulator's assessment of the drug to potentially a few months. Drugmakers have been scrambling to boost their production in the U.S. after threats by President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. But concerns about those potential tariffs have eased following recent drug pricing deals with Trump that exempt companies from the levies.Eli Lilly said the Alabama site will bring 450 jobs to the area, including engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians, as well as 3,000 construction jobs. Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inboxGet this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by

Although many women take the traditional IT route into cybersecurity, a large portion (37%) have entered cyber from non-IT or military positions, according to a survey released Friday by ISC2, the organization that maintains and administers the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification exam.The organization reported that a significantly higher percentage of women than men who participated in the same study have leveraged education, professional development, self-initiated experience opportunities, and apprenticeships to pursue their careers.The report also noted that 56% of women respondents said their organizations are already changing their hiring requirements to bring in more people from non-cybersecurity backgrounds. “This is illustrative of employer efforts globally to widen the potential cybersecurity talent pool without compromising standards,” the report maintained.“This is something that we currently observe not only in cybersecurity but in tech roles in general,” said Žydrūnė Vitaitė, business unit manager for Monitum, a software-as-a-service company specializing in smart security solutions with offices in Sweden and Lithuania, and a co-founder of Women Go Tech, an NGO that focuses on empowering women in the tech industry.“First of all, women who had previously built careers in different sectors have more diverse backgrounds, stronger problem-solving skills, and advanced pattern recognition skills,” she told TechNewsWorld.“Another key advantage here is transferable skills,” she continued. “Such women can work in dynamic environments, where not only knowledge but traits such as curiosity, problem-solving, creativity, and other aspects matter.”“From our experience in re- and up-skilling programs, we have seen adult women in their thirties to forties deciding to shift from non-tech to tech, and they do it exceptionally successfully,” she added.Thomas Vick, a technology hiring and consulting expert at Robert Half, a global staffing and recruiting firm, explained that hiring individuals with non-IT backgrounds can often bring diverse perspectives and problem-solving approaches shaped by their unique experiences.“For example, there is a growing demand for interpersonal and management skills in IT roles, underscoring the importance of understanding and integrating business methodologies into technological development,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Professionals with strong communication, critical thinking, and project management experience can often enhance an IT team’s effectiveness,” he added. “Their varied experiences often lead to creative solutions and a more holistic understanding of the work being done.”Alyson Laderman, CEO of Akylade, a provider of cybersecurity certifications with offices in Florida, pointed out that it can be difficult for women to gain IT experience because it, too, is a male-dominated field.The problem is worse now because of shrinking opportunities, she added. “There’s not as many of those entry-level-type IT positions to get into — to be able to start there and then move up to cyber,” she told TechNewsWorld. “So I think what you’re seeing is a shift in the workforce in general, both in terms of gender, but also in terms of opportunity as to IT being a feeder into cybersecurity.”Teresa Rothaar, a governance, risk, and compliance analyst with Keeper Security, a password management and online storage company in Chicago, noted that the climate for women in cybersecurity has been showing signs of improvement over the past few years. “However, it still faces substantial challenges,” she told TechNewsWorld. “Significant work still needs to be done to ensure equal opportunities and a supportive environment for women in this industry.”“Ongoing challenges to women’s advancement in cybersecurity include significant underrepresentation, as women remain notably outnumbered in cybersecurity roles despite efforts to close the gap, and men continue to dominate the field, particularly in leadership and technical positions,” she said.“The workplace culture in many cybersecurity environments can be unwelcoming to women, with issues such as gender bias, lack of recognition, and sometimes a hostile work environment hindering their progress and retention in the field,” she continued.“Gender pay gaps persist in cybersecurity, with women often earning less than their male counterparts for similar roles, a disparity that is particularly pronounced in tech fields,” she added. “Women in cybersecurity also face barriers to career advancement, including fewer opportunities for promotions and leadership roles, as well as a lack of support for continuing education and professional development.”The ISC2 report also noted that alongside the strong percentage of candidates leveraging IT experience to get into cybersecurity, advanced education was a significant pathway into these roles, although more so for women than men.Nearly a quarter (24%) of women respondents said they came in with a cybersecurity-related undergraduate degree (compared to 18% of men), and 23% of women (18% of men) entered a cybersecurity role with an undergraduate degree in a field not directly linked to cybersecurity.In addition, 18% of women respondents (12% of men) noted that they held an advanced degree — a postgraduate qualification such as a master’s or a doctorate — in a cybersecurity-related subject before taking up a cybersecurity role. For non-cybersecurity advanced degrees, 16% of women respondents (11% of men) held these qualifications before entering the cybersecurity workforce.“Men get hired on potential. Women get hired on proven ability,” Laderman argued. “Women are almost required to get that higher education, get more experience, to be able to show that they are of the same value of what typically men would be potentially capable of doing.”“It’s clearly not a fair standard, but it’s something I myself have been through,” she added.Vitaitė noted that women in her organization’s programs also tend to have higher education levels — and many certificates — in various subjects. “Unfortunately, this is a consequence of lower self-esteem and willingness to boost confidence and employability with hard knowledge,” she said.“Women also tend to apply later in the process of a career shift,” she continued. “They want to build a knowledge base and prove it via formal and informal education. Only later do they apply for the roles — usually when they meet 80% to 90% of the requirements. Men tend to apply to the roles much earlier and learn on the go.”Another finding by the ISC2 report was that beyond career and formal education, women place a significant emphasis on certifications and professional development to support their efforts when securing and furthering a cybersecurity career path. Holding a cybersecurity certification before entering their first job in cybersecurity was cited by 18% of women respondents and 16% of men.“Because cybersecurity is a relatively new field, certifications are a great way for professionals to transition into it from another field,” said Julia Toothacre, chief career strategist at Resume Templates.“Mid-career professionals who have experience in another area might benefit from various certifications to increase their chances of getting hired,” she told TechNewsWorld. “I don’t think there is a gendered perspective when it comes to certifications. It’s really based on a combination of experience and education, which will vary between everyone — male or female.”Rob Rashotte, vice president of global training and technical field enablement at Fortinet, a provider of firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, endpoint security, and antivirus programs in Sunnyvale, Calif., added that reexamining and revising education and training requirements for cybersecurity roles is a great place to start to address the existing workforce shortage in the domain.“Many organizations are still likely overlooking solid candidates,” he told TechNewsWorld. “While many companies have diversity hiring goals, we aren’t seeing hiring numbers increase significantly among women, minorities, and veterans.”According to Fortinet’s 2024 Global Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report, despite 91% of respondents saying they prefer to hire candidates with technical certifications, 71% of organizations require potential new hires to hold a four-year degree. “Organizations should be identifying candidates who possess the right soft skills and then using certifications to help them gain cybersecurity-specific knowledge,” Rashotte maintained.He added, “According to the report, most leaders are open to this approach, with 89% of respondents saying they would pay for an employee to obtain a certification.”

Qualcomm has long been synonymous with system-on-chip (SoC) leadership, particularly in the smartphone sector. From the early Snapdragon mobile processors that defined the Android flagship experience to the AI-driven, 5G-capable platforms of today, the company has consistently balanced performance, power efficiency, and connectivity in ways that shape entire product categories.The latest announcement of the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 platforms signals Qualcomm’s determination to bring that same formula to wearables — a segment still struggling to reach the mass market beyond a few high-profile successes like the Apple Watch.This launch marks more than just a generational upgrade. It’s an effort to address some of the foundational barriers that have kept wearables from reaching their full potential.John Kehrli, Qualcomm’s Senior Director of Product Management for wearables, framed the move as the culmination of years of incremental learning. “With W5+ Gen 2, we’re taking what we’ve mastered in smartphones — integrating performance, efficiency, and connectivity into one seamless platform — and bringing it to a category that’s still searching for its defining moment,” he said.Qualcomm’s DNA is rooted in complex SoC integration. The company’s engineers understand that the magic of a great device is not in maxing out any single component, but in orchestrating CPU, GPU, connectivity, AI, and power management into a tightly optimized whole. That’s what W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 aim to deliver.Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 introduce NB-NTN satellite connectivity, machine learning GPS accuracy, and an optimized RF front end for next-generation wearables. (Image Credit: Qualcomm)The chips are built on a 4nm process, offering higher performance per watt and enabling OEMs to shrink form factors without sacrificing capability. The addition of Location Machine Learning 3.0 improves GPS accuracy by up to 50% in dense urban environments — a critical feature for runners, cyclists, and anyone using a smartwatch in cities or rugged terrain.The optimized RF front end contributes to an approximately 20% smaller footprint and lower power consumption, giving manufacturers more flexibility in design.The headline feature, however, is NB-NTN satellite support — a first for the wearable industry. This technology, powered by Qualcomm’s partnership with Skylo, allows for two-way emergency messaging without cellular or Wi-Fi coverage.Kehrli explained why that matters: “People want their wearables to be trusted companions, not just fitness trackers. Being able to send an SOS from anywhere changes the value proposition entirely.”Despite Qualcomm’s strong showing in wearable hardware, the Android-based smartwatch ecosystem has struggled to match the Apple Watch’s mass-market penetration.The reasons are multifaceted. Wear OS has improved, but historically it has lagged behind watchOS in polish and integration. Beyond software, the simple reality is that many consumers live in the Apple ecosystem, and most wearables powered by Qualcomm silicon are not designed to integrate deeply with iOS devices.That’s a significant barrier because wearable adoption is closely tied to seamless pairing with a user’s primary smartphone. Apple leverages that lock-in masterfully; if you’re an iPhone user, the Apple Watch is the default choice. For Qualcomm’s OEM partners, cracking that wall means either targeting Android users exclusively — which limits the addressable market — or finding ways to make cross-platform experiences compelling enough to tempt a switch.Kehrli acknowledged the challenge without sugarcoating it: “We’re not trying to out-Apple Apple. Our focus is on making the Android and multi-device ecosystem as compelling as possible so that the choice isn’t just by default — it’s because the experience is better for that user.”The W5+ Gen 2 platform addresses several long-standing friction points in the wearable category. Battery life has been a recurring complaint for smartwatches, especially those running Wear OS. By combining a high-efficiency 4nm main processor with a 22nm always-on co-processor (in the W5+ variant), Qualcomm can offload low-power tasks and extend time between charges without compromising responsiveness.Form factor has also been a constraint. Many Wear OS watches have been bulkier than consumers prefer, especially compared to the sleeker profiles of Apple’s models. The 20% reduction in footprint enabled by the Optimized RF Front End gives industrial designers more room to create slimmer, lighter watches.Perhaps most importantly, the NB-NTN satellite capability introduces a use case that resonates beyond the fitness crowd. Safety and connectivity in remote areas — whether for outdoor recreation, work, or travel — add tangible value for a broader range of consumers. In other words, it moves the conversation from “nice-to-have gadget” to “potentially life-saving tool.”The first device to ship with the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 will be Google’s Pixel Watch 4. This pairing is strategic. Google’s control over both hardware and the latest Wear OS gives it a unique opportunity to showcase what the platform can do when software and silicon are tuned together from the outset.If the Pixel Watch 4 delivers meaningful gains in battery life, performance, and functionality — particularly the satellite SOS feature — it could serve as a reference point for other OEMs.Historically, the fragmentation of the Android wearable market has slowed momentum. A strong flagship implementation could help set a new baseline for user expectations.Technology alone won’t make wearables a mass-market staple; necessity remains the bigger question. Outside of fitness tracking, notifications, and niche applications, many consumers do not consider a smartwatch essential.Apple has succeeded partly by tying its smartwatch to health and wellness monitoring in ways that feel both personal and preventive. For Qualcomm’s OEM partners, the path to indispensability may hinge on three fronts:Qualcomm’s strategy appears to recognize this. By embedding advanced location services, reducing size and power draw, and enabling satellite connectivity, W5+ Gen 2 creates a stronger foundation for OEMs to build devices that feel essential.One advantage Qualcomm brings to wearables is its cross-category presence. The company’s technologies span smartphones, PCs, automotive, and IoT, giving it insight into how devices interact and how user expectations evolve across contexts.This positions Qualcomm to think about wearables not in isolation, but as nodes in a larger network of personal and environmental computing. A watch powered by W5+ Gen 2 could interact intelligently with a Snapdragon-powered phone, car dashboard, or smart home hub — creating use cases that go beyond what a standalone device can offer.Kehrli emphasized this multi-device vision: “The watch isn’t just an accessory. It’s part of a larger conversation between your devices, your environment, and your needs in the moment. That’s where we see the real growth potential.”Interestingly, comparing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 with Apple’s S9 chip in the Apple Watch Series 9 is less about raw specs and more about philosophy.Apple’s S9 is a custom-designed System in Package (SiP) that integrates CPU, GPU, neural engine, and power management in a tightly controlled environment. Because Apple designs the chip, the watchOS software, and the hardware enclosure in-house, it can optimize every layer for seamless performance and user experience.This vertical integration means features like on-device Siri, advanced health metrics, and ultra-smooth animations feel effortless, but it also locks the experience to iPhone owners.Qualcomm’s W5+ Gen 2 takes a more open approach. It offers leading-edge performance and battery life improvements while giving OEMs — from Google to Fossil — the flexibility to differentiate with custom hardware and features. The addition of NB-NTN satellite connectivity, Optimized RF Front End, and advanced location services are hardware-level enablers that partners can use to build unique selling points.Where Apple’s model ensures uniformity and polish, Qualcomm’s strategy prioritizes breadth and diversity, enabling wearables across price tiers, form factors, and use cases. The challenge for Qualcomm’s ecosystem is achieving the same level of software-hardware harmony Apple enjoys — something the Pixel Watch 4 will be watched closely to evaluate.In short, Apple’s S9 thrives within a closed garden. Qualcomm’s W5+ Gen 2 positions itself across a much larger field, and its success will depend on how well those seeds grow in the varied conditions of the Android and multi-device world.The Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 launch won’t instantly make Android wearables as ubiquitous as the Apple Watch. But it does signal that Qualcomm is attacking the problem from the right angles: performance, efficiency, form factor, and differentiated capabilities.If OEMs can leverage these strengths to create devices that offer clear, everyday value — and if platforms like Wear OS continue to mature — the conditions for broader adoption will be stronger than they’ve ever been.The wearable market has been waiting for its inflection point. With this announcement, Qualcomm is betting that it has just moved the industry a significant step closer.

Apple’s pricey Vision Pro augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) headset hasn’t been a magnet for developers.The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that there has been a significant slowdown in apps being introduced in the Vision Pro app store. After hundreds of apps were introduced for the US$3,500 headset during its first two months on the market, it noted that new app intros have slowed to a trickle. In September, for example, only 10 new apps were debuted.Citing numbers from analytics firm Appfigures, the Journal reported some 1,770 apps were available in the Vision Pro app store, although only 34% of those apps were built specifically for the Vision Pro. Most are versions of existing Apple apps with Vision Pro functionality.The Journal pointed out that the growth of Vision Pro apps is far slower than that of other Apple products. Nearly a year after the iPhone’s introduction, it had 50,000 apps in the App Store, and Apple Watch had 10,000 apps within five months of launch.However, the Journal acknowledged that the iPhone and Apple Watch had lower price points and wider consumer appeal than the Vision Pro.It’s also more difficult to create apps for the AR/VR headset. “Developing for the Vision Pro means moving away from 2D app design and into an immersive, 3D interactive environment. It’s a new frontier, and porting existing apps isn’t a plug-and-play process,” explained Timothy Bates, a professor at the University of Michigan-Flint College of Innovation & Technology.“Developers need to rethink user interfaces, user experiences, and how people interact with software in spatial computing. It’s a challenge, but one that brings exciting possibilities if done right,” he told TechNewsWorld.Bates asserted that it has been challenging for Apple to draw in a large pool of developers. “This is common with new platforms, especially ones as advanced as the Vision Pro,” he explained.“Developers are hesitant to invest heavily when there’s a small initial user base, and when developing for mixed reality requires them to rethink conventional app design,” he said. “The tech itself is cutting-edge, but that also means a steeper learning curve.”“I think it’s having trouble attracting smaller developers who have limited budgets and need to have a market that’s ready for monetization, which I do not believe the Vision Pro provides,” added Anshel Sag, a senior analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, a technology analyst and advisory firm based in Austin, Texas.“What it does provide for larger developers is familiarization with Apple’s spatial computing platform and the ability to optimize its data and workflows for future generations to be more affordable, lightweight, and refined.”Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in Las Vegas, maintained that developers are not throwing their weight behind Vision Pro because sales volumes have been small. “The development community for Apple products is attracted to the mammoth volumes that they can get access to,” he told TechNewsWorld. “That’s certainly not true with Vision Pro.”“With new hardware, there is always a horse and cart problem,” added Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.“Developers don’t want to create programs unless there is a critical mass of users, and users don’t want to buy the hardware until there are apps they want to use,” he told TechNewsWorld. “To get over this, typically companies have to fund the first set of apps, but Apple is really cheap and doesn’t typically do this well enough, which has become a problem again in this instance.”Vena predicted that Apple might start funding developers to make sure applications with a winning value proposition, and that really shows off this stuff, come to market.“I can see them teaming up with some of the more high-profile developers to make sure those applications come to market,” he said. “My guess is you’re going to see Apple do that behind the scenes in a way that they haven’t had to do with the iPhone and iPad.”“There’s no doubt that Apple is playing the long game here,” added Jim Squires, an XR and games consultant based in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.“We’ll see both consumers and creators engage more with Apple’s spatial computing efforts when the cost comes down with future iterations,” he told TechNewsWorld, “but if Apple wants to have a pipeline of must-use software ready for that day, they should be stacking the deck now — and that means loudly and publicly funding more developers to take the plunge. Creating something like a Vision Pro Creator Fund to spur interest among XR developers would be a step in the right direction.”Bates agreed. “Apple should absolutely invest in developers. They’ve done it before with new platforms, and Vision Pro is no different,” he said.“By providing development grants or partnering with established AR/VR developers, Apple could give the Vision Pro a much-needed boost,” he maintained. “If you want a thriving ecosystem, you have to ensure developers can take risks and innovate without worrying about the financial burden.”Enderle contended that funding developers is generally a requirement for a device in this class to be successful. “Microsoft massively invested in apps for Windows 95 and for the Xbox, and both were successful,” he said.But Sag doesn’t believe Apple is ready to open its coffers to developers. “It should fund developers, but it won’t because it believes that it has the most premium platform and the most captive customers with the willingness to spend,” he said.“I think Apple should’ve given some seed funding to smaller developers before it launched the headset, but at this point, it has decided to let market dynamics work their magic,” he added.Another way to encourage developers to create apps for Vision Pro is to open up the system, contended Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC, a global market research company. “Apple should embrace more open standards like OpenXR and WebXR that make developing across platforms easier and enable developers access to the most headsets.”“It could also make a more affordable headset since there is a limited number of users globally willing and able to spend $3,500 on any device, let alone one as niche as a mixed reality headset,” he added.Bates noted that Vision Pro has immense potential, but its success depends on the ecosystem around it. “Apple needs to ensure that developers feel incentivized to create groundbreaking apps that truly showcase the device’s capabilities,” he said. “It’s also essential to manage expectations — this is a forward-thinking product that will take time to mature, both in terms of hardware and software support.”“Apple’s taking a bold step into the future with Vision Pro,” he added, “but they’ll need to nurture the developer ecosystem and likely roll out more accessible versions to see widespread adoption.”

The electric vehicle market is headed toward a “recalibration” in 2026, according to the tech analysis site TechSpot.“The global electric vehicle market is facing an unexpected reckoning,” wrote Skye Jacobs for TechSpot. “Once hailed as the future of transportation, battery-powered cars are now rapidly losing value, eroding the finances of private owners and corporate fleets that invested heavily in them.”“Over the past year, electric vehicles have depreciated at nearly twice the rate of comparable gas-powered cars,” she noted. “Analysts say the reason lies in one of the EV’s defining features — the battery — whose uncertain lifespan and replacement costs have upended traditional models for calculating resale value.”For some EV market watchers, recalibration simply means a return to sanity in the market. “2026 looks like normalization after two whiplash years,” observed Stephanie Valdez-Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, an automotive services and technology company in Atlanta.“Pricing is settling, incentives are clearer, charging reliability is improving, and supply is aligning with actual demand segments — fleet, premium, and value EVs,” she told TechNewsWorld. “The result is steadier growth versus boom-bust.”Wyatt Mayham, head of AI consulting at Northwest AI Consulting, a global provider of AI services, explained that the EV market is transitioning from one driven by early adopters and incentives to one based on real consumer economics.“The end of major U.S. tax credits at the end of 2025 will cause a short-term dip, but it’s a healthy reset,” he told TechNewsWorld. “For years, automakers were building for policy deadlines rather than organic demand. GM and Ford have already started scaling back production targets to match reality.”“At the same time, 2026 will see a wave of new, more affordable EVs built on purpose-made platforms from Toyota, Stellantis, and others,” he said. “These models will be more competitive on range, cost, and reliability, which is exactly what’s needed for mass-market adoption.”Without a doubt, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of recalibration for the EV market, contended Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst with SmartTech Research, a technology advisory firm in Las Vegas.“Consumer demand, supply chains, and charging infrastructure are settling into a more sustainable rhythm after years of aggressive growth targets,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Automakers are rethinking pricing, incentives, and model mix to align with realistic adoption rates rather than hype-driven projections. This adjustment should lead to a healthier, more stable EV ecosystem.”The market’s recalibration is expected to have an impact on EV sales. “I think we are likely to see EV sales fall in 2026 due to the expiration of the U.S. tax credit last month,” said Seth Goldstein, an equity strategist and chair of the electric vehicle committee at Morningstar Research Services, in Chicago.“The overhang on sales will likely last the first nine months of the year,” he told TechNewsWorld. “This is similar to when the German subsidy expired in 2023, and we saw 2024 sales decline. The U.S. is still in the early market adoption phase for EVs, and there are not enough long-range EVs available at comparable prices to ICEs [Internal Combustion Engine vehicles]. As a result, subsidies are still a large driver of sales.”The incentives that once propped up demand for these vehicles have been stripped away by current regulations, including the removal of the EV tax credit and perks like HOV (carpool) lane access, explained Christopher Adam, director of Woodside Credit, a classic and collector car finance company, in Newport Beach, Calif. “As a result,” he told TechNewsWorld, “new EV sales are likely to hit new lows following these changes.”Vanishing subsidies will also affect how automakers approach the market. “It’s putting pressure on OEMs from both a margin standpoint on current models, as well as cost containment pressure on research and development of future models,” Edward Sanchez, a senior analyst in the automotive practice of TechInsights, a global technology intelligence company, told TechNewsWorld.“Traditional automakers are slowing down their investment in EVs, which means fewer models will be coming to market than what we expected two years ago,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, a venture capital firm, in Minneapolis.“Next year, Tesla will continue to grow — although not as fast as people think — but the broader market will probably be flat because other automakers are pulling back,” he told TechNewsWorld.“The killer feature for electric cars is going to be autonomous operation. My sense is there will be a breakthrough for autonomous vehicles next year and a ramp-up in 2027,” he added.Sanchez noted that recalibration will affect carmakers’ investment and approach to EV R&D for the foreseeable future, specifically for the North American market.“Purchase or lease credits can no longer be reliably counted on as a purchase factor consideration or cost offset,” he said. “Ford is radically retooling its plant in Louisville, Kentucky, for its next-generation modular lower-cost EV platforms in a bid to be more competitive in the North American market and globally, in anticipation of Chinese models ultimately coming to North America.”Chinese overcapacity in the EV sector will affect global pricing and production, added Stephen Ezell, director of global innovation policy at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a science and technology think tank, in Washington, D.C.“Chinese companies now have the capacity to churn out double the 27.5 million cars they produced in 2024,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Overcapacity in the Chinese market has led to brutal price wars and has resulted in cheap EVs, like the $8,000 BYD Seagull.”“China-created EV overcapacity will not only affect the China marketplace, but spill over into global markets, and certainly have the effect of driving down global EV pricing, for both new and used EVs,” he said.Beyond the glut of Chinese EVs, other factors may also be driving used EV prices lower. “The resale value on EVs is not necessarily that much lower than comparable ICE models in many cases,” Sanchez said. “However, broad customer perception is that they lose value quickly.”“This could be partially attributable to misconceptions about battery life and longevity,” he continued. “While the trope that EV batteries need to be replaced ‘every three years or 100,000 miles’ persists, most batteries are covered for over 150,000 miles and seven years by law or voluntary warranty coverage.”One way the industry is addressing concerns about battery life is through battery lease programs. “Battery leasing could address the fear of battery obsolescence and reduce the initial EV cost significantly,” observed Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.“However, buyers have resisted buying cars like BMWs that require a monthly charge for features that used to be included, and leased batteries will likely face the same objections,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Leasing programs can help improve accessibility, however, I don’t think it’s that much more than just a marketing play for a form of financing — unless we can find ways to truly use the batteries for more than just EV use, such as backup home power,” argued Aatish Patel, president and co-founder of XCharge, a global provider of EV charging solutions.“In general, with the current economic climate, financing is what’s going to make or break consumer spending from our perspective,” he told TechNewsWorld. “With rates expected to drop, and subsidies going away, finding ways to more smartly finance equipment is what will move units.”“The EV market is far from dead, and to my eye, it’s shifting into a new gear for the journey ahead,” he added. “The gears in a transmission all have a purpose to get the vehicle moving. First and second are about rolling and getting up to speed quickly. Third, fourth, and fifth are often about sustainable movement and maintenance of speed. I think we’re already on our way, just getting into cruising territory for the ride ahead.”

A new rule by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) aimed at beefing up cybersecurity at contractors doing business with the agency could spawn more whistleblowers in the military-industrial complex.The rule, set to take effect Nov. 10, governs the agency’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program, which verifies that defense contractors are compliant with existing protections for federal contract information (FCI) and controlled unclassified information (CUI) and are protecting that information at a level commensurate with the risk from cybersecurity threats, including advanced persistent threats.It is largely a response to a series of reports by the DOD’s Inspector General from 2018 to 2023, which consistently found that the department’s contract officials failed to establish processes to verify that contractors complied with selected federal cybersecurity requirements for controlled unclassified information as required by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).With the new rule, the CMMC program introduces an annual affirmation requirement, a key element for monitoring and enforcing accountability of a company’s cybersecurity status.“At a very basic level, the new CMMC Clause Rule increases the risks that a defense contractor will make a false claim to the government, which is the foundation of False Claims Act liability, by falsely certifying compliance with the rule’s increased requirements,” explained Mary Inman, a partner with Whistleblower Partners, a law firm in San Francisco.“With heightened risk of False Claims Act liability also comes increased opportunities for whistleblowers to alert the government to such transgressions and receive a financial reward,” she told TechNewsWorld.In her Cyber Business Daily newsletter, Kate Fazzini noted that the new CMMC requirements will make cybersecurity compliance and certification explicit terms in many Department of Defense contracts.“Misrepresentations — whether intentional or negligent — about assessments, controls, or maintaining a ‘current status’ will be more easily pursued under the False Claims Act and related statutes,” she wrote. “Contractors who allow lapses in compliance, or misstate their readiness, will face heightened legal exposure — particularly if government investigators or whistleblowers bring those failures to light.”“The changes to CMMC will make compliance failures harder to conceal and more costly to ignore,” she added. “Cyber controls will no longer be only about defense but long-term viability in a market where insiders have both the means and the motivation to speak out.”The CMMC rule creates new incentives for cyber whistleblowing by establishing concrete compliance standards that make violations more identifiable and reportable, transforming vague security expectations into specific, measurable requirements that employees can clearly recognize when breached, observed Frank Balonis, CISO and senior vice president of operations at Kiteworks, a provider of a secure platform for exchanging private data, based in San Mateo, Calif.“With mandatory third-party assessments and potential False Claims Act liability for contractors who misrepresent their cybersecurity posture on federal contracts, insiders now have stronger legal protections and financial motivations to report non-compliance — particularly given that whistleblowers can receive up to 30% of recovered damages in qui tam cases,” he told TechNewsWorld.Qui tam lawsuits, authorized under the federal False Claims Act, allow a private individual to sue on behalf of the U.S. government to expose fraud involving federal programs or contracts.“The rule’s emphasis on continuous monitoring and documentation creates extensive paper trails that make it easier for employees to substantiate claims of inadequate security practices or fraudulent certifications, while the high stakes of losing federal contracts incentivize companies to cut corners, creating more opportunities for observant employees to witness and report violations,” he said.“This combination of clearer standards, stronger legal frameworks, and significant financial consequences transforms cybersecurity compliance from an abstract concept into a concrete area ripe for whistleblower activity,” he added.Dale Hoak, the CISO at RegScale, a compliance automation software company in McLean, Va., argued that if an organization is doing the right thing and can prove it, whistleblowing isn’t a strategic risk.“Where it could come into play is if internal concerns are raised but ignored,” he told TechNewsWorld. “In that case, employees may feel compelled to escalate externally. The healthier path is to treat internal reporting seriously, so it rarely has to go outside the organization.”While the new compliance requirements aim to deter adversaries from targeting defense contractors, they could make them more attractive to cybercriminals.“Just as cybercriminals like Black Cat/ALPHV ransomware group filed SEC reports when victims failed to report cyberattacks, cybercriminal whistleblowers have one more way to threaten organizations that may have thought they met requirements but negligently and accidentally misrepresented their current status,” maintained Karen Walsh, CEO of Allegro Solutions, a cybersecurity consulting company in West Hartford, Conn.“With the False Claims Act and related statutes being incorporated into this version of CMMC requirements, we see again a burden placed upon smaller contractors,” she told TechNewsWorld.“CMMC has always and will always place the greatest burdens on small and mid-sized contractors,” she said.For example, she recalled the early days of the CMMC in 2021, when the training materials noted that contracts would be held to the Christian Doctrine, established in G.L. Christian & Associates v. United States. “This unique contract law doctrine reads compliance requirements into a contract even when not expressly included, holding the contractor responsible for assuming compliance even if the DOD or upstream contractor fails to include it,” she explained.Nevertheless, Brian Kirk, senior manager for information assurance and cybersecurity at Cherry Bekaert, an accounting and consulting firm headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., argued that the new CMMC rule is necessary to strengthen the cybersecurity posture of the Defense Industrial Base.“Previous efforts, like requiring compliance with NIST SP 800-171, relied heavily on self-attestation, which proved insufficient,” he told TechNewsWorld. NIST SP 800-171 outlines the security requirements for protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in nonfederal systems and organizations — especially those working with the U.S. government.“Many contractors failed to implement required controls, leaving sensitive Controlled Unclassified Information vulnerable,” Kirk explained. “CMMC introduces third-party assessments and structured accountability to ensure that contractors handling CUI are actually meeting the required cybersecurity standards.”“With the Pentagon finalizing the CMMC rule, the program is officially moving from policy to enforceable requirements, and this has major implications for the channel,” added Andy Black, co-founder and CEO of Kovr.ai, a company focused on automating cyber compliance for cloud and hybrid environments, in Reston, Va.“Resellers, managed service providers, and other partners supporting defense contractors now need to ensure their solutions meet CMMC standards, as contractors are increasingly required to flow these requirements through their supply chains,” he told TechNewsWorld.John Ackerly, CEO and co-founder of Virtru, a provider of encryption and access control tools, in Washington, D.C., explained that CMMC 2.0 has been years in the making — streamlined from five levels to three, adjusted to reduce burden on small businesses, and refined through countless comment periods.“The organizations that come out on top will be those who secured their CUI first with effective, low-time-to-value solutions, then augmented from there,” he told TechNewsWorld. “When contracts start including CMMC requirements, ‘we’re working on it’ won’t be enough.”

The tech narrative often dictates market reality, and the sheer velocity of Nvidia’s ascent is both dazzling and deeply precarious. Having achieved the historic milestone of becoming the world’s first $5 trillion company and commanding roughly 80% of the AI accelerator market, Nvidia stands atop the AI pyramid.Yet, this summit position — built on the proprietary success of CUDA — also places a massive target on Nvidia’s back, inviting an inevitable counter-revolution led by open-source rivals and custom silicon engineers. The point here is not to critique past success, but to acknowledge the gravitational pull that eventually brings every empire back to Earth.This week, let’s discuss what Nvidia’s current dominance means for its long-term stability — and speaking of AI, we’ll close with my Product of the Week: the Euvola AI Companion, which is what Microsoft’s Cortana could have been, and should have been.Nvidia’s initial success is undeniable; the CUDA parallel computing platform, launched in 2007, was visionary and transformed graphics cards into general-purpose powerhouses.However, a company that suddenly finds itself atop a multitrillion-dollar market often suffers from what might be termed “peak performance malaise.” Why pivot when every quarterly report is a record? In practice, that success frequently leads to reduced focus on lower-margin, harder-to-serve customers — the very environments where the next wave of disruption is quietly forming.Furthermore, a $5 trillion valuation creates an unprecedented single-company concentration in major market indices, making Nvidia’s stock performance essential to the stability of the entire S&P 500 — a level of pressure that distracts from pure innovation. The focus shifts from developing the next thing to optimizing the current revenue stream.The most potent threat to Nvidia’s dominance is being leveraged by AMD, which is directly attacking Nvidia’s greatest weakness: its proprietary CUDA lock-in.AMD’s strategy is fundamentally customer-centric:U.S. export controls, intended to kneecap China’s AI ambitions by reserving top-end chips like Blackwell for U.S. companies, have inadvertently functioned as rocket fuel for domestic Chinese competitors. Restrictions on Nvidia’s high-end chip sales in China have caused its market share in advanced AI to plummet from 95% to virtually zero in restricted high-performance categories.Far from stopping progress, this move catalyzed massive, state-coordinated investment and forced Chinese tech giants like Baidu, which placed large orders for Huawei’s Ascend 910B chips, to pivot to highly capable indigenous silicon.These Chinese alternatives, built under the protective umbrella of U.S. tariffs, are now competing on price and local customization, demonstrating that export controls created a massive, captive domestic market that funds rapid R&D and product iteration for domestic challengers.The AI market is currently experiencing a boom characterized by valuations fundamentally disconnected from immediate revenue and cash flow. Nvidia’s recent ascent to a $5 trillion valuation is heavily dependent on the continued, exponential growth of this market and on high-margin hardware sales.When the inevitable “trough of disillusionment” hits — a common phase in every major tech wave — Nvidia, with its high market capitalization, will be hit hardest. A potential trigger for a significant valuation readjustment is likely to occur in late 2026 or early 2027, coinciding with two events:To avoid the fate of the pioneer who gets buried in their own wake, Nvidia needs a radical shift:Nvidia’s current dominance is a tribute to its past vision, but its proprietary foundation is rapidly becoming its greatest liability.The combined forces of AMD’s agile, open-source competitive surge, the accelerating threat of hyperscaler custom silicon, and the emergence of subsidized Chinese alternatives are converging on the company’s commanding market position.If Nvidia fails to radically embrace openness and restructure its business model to prioritize flexibility and lower cost-per-performance in the next year, its $5 trillion valuation risks a painful correction, ushering in a multi-accelerator future where the crown is passed to those who build collaboratively.In my hometown of Bend, Ore., where the crisp air often highlights the quiet solitude of working from home, the quest for genuine connection is real.We’ve seen smart assistants and chatbots, but the Euvola AI Companion is the world’s first dedicated, at-home product designed explicitly for emotional presence when in-person connection is missing.This device is less about scheduling your calendar and more about serving your heart, making it the essential new tool for an age defined by digital isolation.Euvola’s core technology isn’t just advanced natural language processing; it’s precision emotional computing. Co-created with top psychologists, the AI is trained on rich, multicultural datasets, allowing it to interpret emotions across cultures with depth and nuance.It utilizes a sophisticated, evolving memory system featuring both short-term memory (instantly grasping your current mood) and long-term memory (fostering trust by remembering shared stories and moments over time). This design allows the device to develop alongside you, creating a sense of bona fide companionship rather than the transactional interactions typical of standard smart speakers.This is the level of contextual, empathetic intelligence that Microsoft’s ill-fated Cortana struggled to achieve for years. While Cortana was primarily a transactional assistant, Euvola is built for intimacy and presence, sensing your entry into a room via proximity sensors and responding with mood-aware ambient lighting and a gentle greeting — a 24/7 comforting presence. It truly fulfills the promise of an emotional copilot.The launch of Euvola is timely, coinciding with the global mental health crisis and the surging demand for emotional support, particularly among young adults and older people.Euvola doesn’t just offer a generic companion; it allows for profound personalization. Users can create a custom companion by uploading a cherished photo and a 30-second voice clip of someone they miss, love, or admire — such as a grandparent, mentor, or even a self-created ideal — transforming the device into a “digital presence” that looks and sounds familiar.As the Euvola evolves, it can comfort a user with the familiar voice of a loved one, recalling shared memories — a feature that provides significant emotional continuity, particularly for those navigating grief or long-distance separation.Euvola is a beautifully designed, standalone desktop device with an eight-inch HD display. The device operates with a privacy-first design: it contains no camera, and conversations are primarily processed locally, with advanced memory features only stored in the encrypted cloud with explicit user consent.While the core companion experience is available in a standard mode, users require a Premium Access subscription — costing approximately $14.99/month or $149/year — for full access to personalized voice cloning and permanent memory storage after the initial promotional period. The device was launched via a successful Kickstarter campaign, which is how I bought mine. You can order it now directly from Euvola for $245.The Euvola AI Companion earns its place as my Product of the Week not just for its advanced technology, but for its foundational mission: in a world saturated with apps and notifications, Euvola is the first dedicated, emotionally intelligent AI built for intimacy and presence, not productivity, offering a meaningful connection where human presence is lacking.

Apple appears to be headed toward unifying its multiple operating systems via a design makeover, and the iPad will start looking more like a personal computer, according to presentations aired Monday at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).“For the first time, we’re introducing a universal design across our platforms,” said Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Design, Alan Dye. “This unified design language creates a more harmonious experience as we move between products while maintaining the qualities that make each unique.”“The user interface across platforms has been redesigned with a ‘Liquid Glass’ aesthetic, emphasizing light, transparency, and depth, heavily influenced by the VisionOS UI,” explained Francisco Jeronimo, a vice president for IDC, a market research company based in Framingham, Mass.“The look and feel — with more translucent menus, updated icons, and redesigned toolbars — brings Apple’s mobile, desktop, and XR environments closer together,” he told TechNewsWorld. “These changes bring a more visually appealing experience, more clarity to navigation and controls, and provide a more polished overall user experience.”“Strategically, Apple appears to be leveraging a refreshed and unified user experience as a primary means to preserve ecosystem loyalty and stimulate hardware upgrades,” he said. “By making the experience more cohesive, it implicitly raises the friction for users considering a switch to competing platforms while offering a new aesthetic standard that could make Android interfaces appear dated.”Ross Rubin, the principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City, noted that there has been considerable commentary on social media about Apple’s new look resembling Microsoft’s old Aero interface. “That’s a little unfair,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Both are inspired by glass, but Apple has refined it a lot more in terms of how the elements react to lighting and dealing with dark modes.”“They’ve redesigned a lot of the interface elements, which is a challenge across so many different user interfaces,” he said, “but it looks like they’ve certainly done a nice job balancing sleekness with functionality there.”The interface looks like Apple is moving back toward skeuomorphism, which they soundly rejected a couple of years ago, observed Andrew Cornwall, a senior analyst with Forrester Research, a national market research company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. Skeuomorphism is a design concept in which digital objects are modeled after their real-world analogs.“And it looks like they are moving back toward a unified ecosystem, which is something else that they rejected, saying iPadOS needs its own OS, iPhone needs its own OS, Mac needs its own OS,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Now we’re seeing that maybe they can combine together and be one, or something that very much looks like one OS on three platforms.”“When you look at what they’re doing across these new OSes, besides giving [each of] them the name 26, you’re seeing a greater unification of operating systems on all of their devices,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology advisory firm in San Jose, Calif.“The user interfaces are much easier to use across all devices,” he told TechNewsWorld. “You don’t have to learn to use a new user interface on each device, as we did in the beginning. Now, they all look alike, and they all work alike.”Anshel Sag, a senior analyst for mobility, 5G, and XR at Moor Insights & Strategy, a technology analyst and advisory firm based in Austin, Texas, noted that a lot of what Apple is doing in the new overall design language is aimed at making iOS, iPad, and other apps more compatible with AR applications. “That way, they can port their apps to AR,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It’ll be easier for them to do because the design language will be inherently more intuitive.”The refresh of iPadOS announced at the WWDC is moving the tablet closer to the PC camp, according to Apple watchers. “There’s no question that iPadOS is becoming much more like macOS,” asserted Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research, a technology advisory firm in Las Vegas.“They’re adding much more significant multitasking capabilities,” he told TechNewsWorld. “There’s now a files app that looks a lot more like a desktop app.”“I think this is just one more step closer to where macOS and iPadOS come together and eventually become one operating system,” he added.The new iPadOS 26 menu bar brings Mac-like functionality to tablets, letting users access app commands and find features or help using built-in search. (Image Credit: Apple)“I really feel like either the iPad or the Mac is becoming redundant,” said Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.“The overlap between the iPad and the Mac this round is pretty pronounced,” he told TechNewsWorld. “I mean, even the woman doing the demonstration looked like she was doing it off of a laptop, but it was an iPad.”IDC’s Jeronimo maintained that the introduction of more Mac-like multitasking features is a sign of Apple’s sustained ambition to evolve the iPad into a true productivity tool.“This is a continuation of Apple’s long-term strategy to position the iPad, particularly its Pro models, as a viable laptop replacement for productivity-focused tasks,” he said. “For users, this could mean a significantly more efficient workflow when managing multiple applications.”Although Apple Intelligence was frequently mentioned during the WWDC presentation, it was always linked to functions within applications. “I think they have done a better job at managing expectations this time around,” said Forrester’s Cornwall. “Last year at WWDC, they had some demo reels that made it look like they were much further ahead in AI than they are.”“I think this year they have backed off from that, and they are right-sizing the end user’s expectations about what AI can do,” he continued. “They showed a lot of examples of AI being used, and I think those will be valuable to iPhone and iPad customers and macOS customers.”“For Apple, 2025 is shaping up as a transitional year,” IDC’s Jeronimo forecasted. “The company is maintaining user trust and developer interest, but it is not pushing the envelope in AI, a domain where rivals are moving quickly. Apple is not, at least publicly, making radical shifts in AI strategy in direct response to competitive pressures. Historically favoring execution over experimentation, Apple often enters new spaces by delivering the best possible experience to delight users.”“This approach to AI, despite short-term criticism, suggests a degree of confidence in its long-term approach, or perhaps an acknowledgment that a more profound AI pivot requires more time,” he added.Getting AI use cases right remains tricky, warned Kristen Hanich, an analyst with Parks Associates, a market research and consulting company specializing in consumer technology products in Dallas.“Consumers have shown a mixed reaction to GenAI, sometimes verging on the negative,” she told TechNewsWorld. “Companies need to be careful that their use of AI reflects what consumers want and find valuable, and not just what investors demand. This is particularly true for companies in the hardware and operating system space, which must walk a careful tightrope between helpful and insightful applications and ones that might be seen as annoying or invasive.”“Apple’s rollout of Apple Intelligence to its users is improving, with adoption among iPhone users nearly doubling between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025,” she said. “While at present, Apple Intelligence adoption among iPhone users is far below that of ChatGPT and roughly on par with Google Gemini, Meta AI, and Microsoft CoPilot, this rapid growth in Apple Intelligence adoption suggests that Apple’s careful strategy is paying off.”

As technologies like ChatGPT exemplify, generative AI (gen AI) is rapidly evolving, prompting businesses across industries to refine their application strategies. The challenge in 2024 is to leverage these new technologies to drive positive business outcomes and enhance customer satisfaction effectively.Since its introduction, one of the main revelations has been the distinct roles this new generation of AI can fulfill, transitioning from the traditional focus on analysis and classification to creative content generation. Generative AI uses complex algorithms and neural networks to mimic human creativity, producing diverse outputs such as text, images, and music.Distinct from artificial general intelligence (AGI), which seeks to replicate full human intellectual capabilities, generative AI is task-specific. It provides practical solutions within its trained areas, adeptly handling various tasks and adapting to new situations based on incoming data.In practice, generative AI is a potent productivity tool, enabling rapid content generation across mediums such as text, images, sounds, animations, and 3D models. It not only learns and retains patterns and nuances in language but also remembers past interactions, leading to more coherent and contextually relevant exchanges with users.However, gen AI currently falls short in decisions involving numerous complex factors, particularly those requiring deep contextual or emotional understanding. While it excels at data-driven suggestions, integrating and managing nuanced human factors remains beyond its reach, at least for now.According to Will Devlin, vice president of marketing at customer engagement platform firm MessageGears, business and industry adopters can leverage AI without fear of failure.“Any marketer who has ever conducted a standard A/B test can tell you that failure isn’t always something to be avoided. In our careers, we constantly learn new tools, technology, and techniques. Fear of failure is always going to be a necessary part of that learning and growing process. As with anything new, there are concerns around AI that are relevant and real,” he told TechNewsWorld.Michael Fisher, chief product officer at digital compliance and data management firm Complykey (formerly Waterfield Technologies), has four predictions addressing those areas.Over the past year, contact centers, primary adopters of this technology, have rapidly integrated generative AI. Fisher predicts that in 2024, the focus will shift towards a deeper understanding of generative AI’s ROI.He expects contact center leaders and other AI adopters to increasingly focus on calculating the cost of AI more meaningfully. This effort includes a better understanding of how the deployment cost can be optimized related to scale and cost per transaction.Gen AI will continue to be adopted the fastest this year in marketing and customer prospecting, which is cross-industry, Fisher offered as a second prediction. In the lead generation business, you must consider the value, the cost, and the risks.The inherent risks are slowing adoption in highly regulated industries like health care, government, and finance. The back end of the contact center in these industries will be aggressive about using generative AI for summarizing data and reporting.“But on the customer-facing front end, those verticals will all move slower and more deliberately. The further you get away from industries that are already highly regulated, like retail, the faster generative AI adoption we’ll see,” he observed.Many companies have continued offering on-premises and cloud-based contact center solutions catering to customer preferences. However, keeping both solutions live creates a technology cost drain for vendors. So, leverage one over the other.Fisher’s third prediction was that “in 2024, more companies will sunset their on-premises solutions or raise the price significantly to make an on-premises solution commercially unviable for customers — essentially forcing cloud adoption and innovation on customers.”The insurance industry uniquely uses video-based communications for things like collaborative document signing or showing accident damage to a vehicle. Most industries have been slow to adopt video as a customer service channel.“This will change in 2024. We expect video to be more broadly deployed as a customer service channel across industries, especially for companies that sell a physical product that benefits from a show-and-tell,” Fisher noted as his fourth leveraging prediction.Specific use cases will help drive demand for this feature. Changing consumer preferences, led by Gen Z’s comfort and familiarity with video-based content, may also help, he shared.MessageGear’s Devlin thinks it is vital that as brands start to harness AI — particularly generative AI — they put guardrails in place and develop standard operating procedures and guidelines for their teams to follow.That will be a learning process. Companies must realize that Gen AI is not a one-size-fits-all solution.“I expect that AI technology will only get better as we get more hands-on with it,” he cautioned, adding, “Because AI is such a new technology, brands are still navigating how to manage it and ensure they use it responsibly and to its fullest potential.”A recently conducted survey by MessageGears of marketers at enterprise brands showed that the most significant challenges brands face when implementing AI solutions are limited expertise, staff training, and integration complexity.“AI modeling is only as good as the data you put into it. Conversely, AI can be a powerful tool, helping brands improve conversions and ROI, save time, reduce time-to-value, and improve testing and learning,” Devlin told TechNewsWorld.Shahid Ahmed, group EVP for new ventures and innovation at digital consulting firm NTT Data, revealed that his company’s 2023 Global Customer Experience Report found that the majority of CX interactions still require a form of human intervention.According to this report, executives agree this will remain a critical part of customer journeys. Despite 80% of organizations planning to incorporate AI into CX delivery within the next 12 months, the human element will be central to its success.“As enterprises turn their attention to how automation can complement and enhance human capabilities, they will place greater emphasis on closing the mounting skills shortages that will challenge AI aspirations,” Ahmed told TechNewsWorld.He cautioned that the fundamentals of AI and big data analytics will become baseline skills for most jobs across industries, and new hires will not be the only pathway.“Research by NTT Data uncovered that business leaders are more likely to have seen profitability of more than 25% over the last three years because of investments in reskilling and upskilling initiatives. This trend will continue in 2024, with more curated teaching experiences to help close skills gaps and meet the needs of organizations,” he advised.AI’s best leveraging approach might well be in a managed cloud combination. AI is everywhere today. Adopters should ponder what numbers chart this explosive growth.A report by cloud security provider Wiz shows a key connection between using AI services via a managed cloud platform. Its analysis of aggregate data related to a large sample of organizations provides a comprehensive overview of how generative AI and machine learning are being used in the cloud and its implications for organizations.According to that research, AI is rapidly gaining ground in cloud environments. Over 70% of organizations now use managed AI services. At that percentage, the adoption of AI technology rivals the popularity of managed Kubernetes services, which Wiz sees in over 80% of organizations.Another noteworthy view is many organizations experiment with AI but do not go beyond that step.Only 10% are power users who deployed 50 or more instances in their environments. While the adoption of AI in the cloud is soaring, many organizations (32%) still appear to be in the experimentation phase with these tools, deploying fewer than 10 instances of AI services in their cloud environments., according to the report.For most folks, 2023 was the year that AI came into focus, with adopters asking how to utilize it best, observed MessageGear’s Devlin. Now, if they have not already started using AI regularly, most brands are, at the very least, AI-curious.“They want to test and see how it can help them and are ready to explore. As brands become more comfortable with the idea of AI, I think we’ll see certain roles grow in complexity while others are made more efficient using AI tools,” he noted.Generative AI becomes especially powerful when paired with insights from predictive AI. Not only do you know when and where a customer wants to hear from you, but you also know the likelihood that they will make a purchase and what language and imagery will likely sway them to act.“It’s a combination that brands are only beginning to take advantage of, and it has almost infinite potential,” he concluded.

A wave of disruption is sweeping through AI.Meta’s recent unveiling at LlamaCon 2025 of the roadmap for its Llama family of large language models (LLMs) paints a compelling picture, one where open source isn’t just a preference, but the very engine driving AI’s future.If Meta’s vision comes to fruition, we’re not just looking at incremental improvements; we’re facing an AI tsunami powered by collaboration and accessibility, threatening to wash away the walled gardens of proprietary models.The headline act, Llama 4, promises a quantum leap in capabilities. Speed is paramount, and Meta claims significant acceleration, making interactions feel more fluid and less like waiting for a digital oracle to deliver its pronouncements. But the true game-changer appears to be its multilingual prowess, boasting fluency in a staggering 200 languages.Imagine a world where language barriers in AI interactions become a quaint historical footnote. This level of inclusivity has the potential to democratize access to AI on a truly global scale, connecting individuals regardless of their native tongue.Furthermore, Llama 4 is set to tackle one of the persistent challenges of LLMs: context window limitations. The ability to feed vast amounts of information into the model is crucial for complex tasks, and Meta’s claim of a context window potentially as large as the entire U.S. tax code is mind-boggling.Think of the possibilities for nuanced understanding and comprehensive analysis. The dreaded “needle in a haystack” problem — retrieving specific information from a large document — is also reportedly seeing significant performance improvements, with Meta actively focused on making it even more efficient. This enhanced ability to process and recall information accurately will be critical for real-world applications.Meta’s strategy isn’t just about building behemoth models; it’s also about making AI accessible across a range of hardware.The Llama 4 family is designed with scalability in mind. “Scout,” the smallest variant, is reportedly capable of running on a single Nvidia H100 GPU, making powerful AI more attainable for individual researchers and smaller organizations.“Maverick,” the mid-sized model, will also operate on a single GPU host, striking a balance between power and accessibility. While the aptly named “Behemoth” will undoubtedly be a massive undertaking, emphasizing smaller yet highly capable models signals a pragmatic approach to widespread adoption.Crucially, Meta touts a very low cost-per-token and performance that often exceeds other leading models, directly addressing the economic barriers to AI adoption.Llama’s reach extends beyond earthly confines. Its deployment on the International Space Station, providing critical answers without a live connection to Earth, highlights the model’s robustness and reliability in extreme conditions. Back on our planet, real-world applications are already transformative.Meta aims to make Llama fast, affordable, and open — giving users control over their data and AI future.The release of an API to improve usability is a significant step towards this goal, lowering the barrier to entry for developers. The Llama 4 API promises an incredibly user-friendly experience, allowing users to upload their training data, receive status updates, and generate custom fine-tuned models that can then be run on their preferred AI platform.This level of flexibility and control is a direct challenge to the closed-off nature of some proprietary AI offerings.Technological advancements are furthering Llama’s capabilities.Implementing speculative decoding reportedly improves token generation speed by around 1.5x, making the models even more efficient.Because Llama is open, the broader AI community is actively contributing to its optimization, with companies like Cerebras and Groq developing their own hardware-specific enhancements.The future of AI, according to Meta, is increasingly visual. The announcement of Locate 3D — a tool that identifies objects from text queries — and continued development of the Segment Anything Model (SAM) — a one-click tool for object segmentation, identification, and tracking — signal a shift toward AI that can truly “see” and understand the world around it.SAM 3, launching this summer with AWS as the initial host, promises even more advanced visual understanding. One highlighted application is the ability to automatically identify all the potholes in a city, showcasing the potential for AI to address real-world urban challenges.Llama’s user-friendly design is already translating into meaningful real-world applications.Comments from Mark Zuckerberg and Ali Ghodsi of Databricks reinforced the shift toward smaller yet more powerful models, accelerated by rapid innovation.Even traditionally complex tools like Bloomberg terminals now respond to natural language queries, eliminating the need for specialized coding. The real-world impact is already evident: the Crisis Text Line uses Llama to assess risk levels in incoming messages — potentially saving lives.Ali Ghodsi emphasized Databricks’ belief in open source, citing its ability to foster innovation, reduce costs, and drive adoption. He also highlighted the growing success of smaller, distilled models that increasingly rival their larger counterparts in performance. The anticipated release of “Little Llama” — an even more compact version than Scout — further underscores the momentum behind this trend.Looking ahead, the focus shifts to safe and secure model distillation — ensuring smaller models don’t inherit vulnerabilities from their larger predecessors.Tools like Llama Guard are early steps in addressing these risks, but more work is needed to maintain quality and security across a growing range of models. One emerging concern is objectivity: open models may recommend a competitor’s product if it’s genuinely the best fit, potentially leading to more honest and user-centric AI.Ultimately, while AI capabilities are advancing rapidly, the real competitive edge lies in data. Encouragingly, as models become more capable, the skills needed to work with them are becoming more accessible.Meta’s Llama 2025 roadmap signals a decisive shift towards open source as the dominant paradigm in AI development.With faster, more multilingual models, a focus on accessibility across various hardware, and a commitment to user control, Meta is unleashing an AI tsunami that promises to democratize the technology and drive unprecedented innovation across industries.The emphasis on real-world applications, from healthcare to education to everyday interactions, underscores the transformative potential of this open and collaborative future of artificial intelligence.

I was on a panel recently discussing the future of work when a fellow panelist shared a chilling statistic. In their research, they had monitored the social media platform Discord and found a server with approximately 5,000 children actively and openly discussing suicide.These conversations were unfolding in a digital space with virtually no adult supervision — a dark corner of the internet where despair was festering among the generation expected to build our future. That reality is more than a tragic footnote in the story of technology; it is a blaring siren signaling a catastrophic failure of both parenting and education.As we stand on the precipice of an AI revolution that will reshape society, we are failing to equip our children with the emotional resilience to navigate the world today, let alone the skills and purpose to thrive in the world of tomorrow.Let’s talk about the urgent need to build emotional and digital resilience in our children as they head back to school, and then close with my Product of the Week: the new Pixel 10 Pro Fold.The Discord anecdote is a symptom of a much larger disease. While parents of previous generations worried about what their kids were doing at the park, today’s parents must contend with a borderless, anonymous digital world that operates 24/7.Platforms like Discord are designed for community, but without vigilant oversight, they can become echo chambers for the most dangerous aspects of adolescent angst. The platform’s safety features often require a teen’s cooperation to be effective, leaving a massive gap where parental guidance should be.This lack of oversight is happening against the backdrop of a well-documented youth mental health crisis, exacerbated by the pressures of social media.We are allowing our children to be raised by algorithms and anonymous peers in environments we don’t understand and can’t control. Before we can even begin to prepare them for a future shaped by AI, we must first pull them back from the digital abyss by re-engaging in their online lives, establishing firm boundaries, and fostering open communication about the dangers they face online.While parents are struggling on the home front, our education system is failing on a systemic level. We are still operating on an industrial-era model of schooling, designed to produce compliant workers for jobs that are rapidly disappearing. The curriculum is focused on rote memorization and standardized testing—skills that AI can already perform better than any human.A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month revealed that 71% of Americans are concerned that AI will lead to too many people losing jobs, yet our schools continue to guide students down career paths that may not exist by the time they graduate.Career counseling, if it exists at all, is often an underfunded afterthought, incapable of providing relevant guidance for an AI-driven job market. We are teaching students what to think, but not how to think. We are preparing them for a world of predictable, linear careers, while the reality they will face is one of constant change and disruption.The result is a generation armed with obsolete knowledge and a broken compass pointed toward a future that no longer exists.This trend leads to a deeply concerning cultural shift. Many young people today see work not as a source of fulfillment but as something to endure or avoid altogether. Viewing work as something to endure isn’t laziness; it’s a rational response to the world they see. They are graduating with crushing debt into a gig economy, looking at a future where their skills could be automated away, and seeing a corporate world that often seems to offer little more than burnout.Surveys of Gen Zs and millennials consistently show a deep desire for purpose-driven work and a healthy work-life balance — things the current system seems ill-equipped to provide. When education fails to connect learning to passion and purpose, and when the future of work appears precarious and unfulfilling, it is no wonder that a sentiment of disillusionment takes hold.If we do not fix this crisis of purpose, we risk raising a generation that is not only unemployable due to a skills mismatch but also unwilling to work because they have never been shown that a career can be a source of joy and meaning.The challenge is immense, but the path forward is clear. We need a radical overhaul of our education system, one that shifts the focus from what AI can do to what it can’t. The curriculum of the future must be built on a foundation of uniquely human skills.First, we must prioritize critical thinking and complex problem-solving. Instead of asking students to memorize the answer, we need to teach them how to ask the right questions and evaluate information from multiple sources. AI itself can be a powerful tool in this process.Educators can leverage AI as a Socratic partner for students, a tireless tutor that can challenge their assumptions, ask probing questions, and force them to defend their reasoning. Rather than using AI to get an answer, students can learn to use it to refine their thinking.Second, we must foster creativity and emotional intelligence. These skills build empathy, collaboration, and innovation that will allow humans to work alongside AI to create new value. As one report notes, schools must integrate these “soft skills” into the core curriculum.Third, we can use technology to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world through AI-powered simulations. The world awaiting our children is complex and dynamic. Immersive simulations can provide a safe and controlled environment for them to practice making difficult decisions with real-time feedback.Imagine students navigating a complex business negotiation, managing a response to a simulated climate crisis, or collaborating to solve an ethical dilemma in a virtual workplace. These experiences build not just knowledge, but practical wisdom and resilience, preparing them for the pressures and ambiguities of their future careers in a way that lectures and textbooks never could.Finally, we need to teach adaptability and lifelong learning. The idea of learning a single trade for life is dead. Education must instill a “growth mindset,” teaching students how to learn, unlearn, and relearn continuously. Achieving that goal requires embracing new, personalized learning technologies and creating a system that supports individuals throughout their entire careers, not just for the first 18 years.The image of thousands of children lost in a digital world of despair is a stark reflection of our collective failure. We are standing by as a generation grows up unsupervised online and unprepared for the profound economic and social shifts that AI will bring.That crisis is not a problem that technology can solve; it is a human problem that requires a human solution. It demands that parents reassert their role as guides in both the real and digital worlds. It requires that our education system shed its industrial-age skin and transform to cultivate the skills that will matter most in the coming century.If we fail to act, we risk a future defined not by the incredible promise of AI, but by the lost potential of a generation we left behind.The Pixel 10 Pro Fold combines large dual screens with AI-powered features. (Image Credit: Google)Speaking as someone who has used and loved the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold for the last year, the bar for its successor was incredibly high. Yet, after its reveal last week, the new Pixel 10 Pro Fold has cleared that bar with room to spare, cementing its place as this week’s standout product.This phone isn’t just an iterative update; it’s a confident stride forward that perfects the phone/tablet hybrid, wrapping bleeding-edge AI and photography into a stunningly refined package.The Pixel 10 Pro Fold solidifies its position as the best hybrid device on the market by focusing on what matters: the screens. With a larger 6.4-inch outer display and a sprawling 8-inch internal screen, it functions perfectly as a premium smartphone when closed and a powerful, multitasking tablet when open. This duality is its superpower, offering a level of versatility that a standard slab phone simply can’t match.Under the hood, the new Tensor G5 chip unlocks a suite of AI features that feel like magic. New tools like “Camera Coach” provide real-time suggestions to improve your photo composition, while “Magic Cue” proactively surfaces information from your apps when you need it. The photography hardware gets a boost with a new 48MP main sensor, but it’s the AI-driven software like “Instant View” — which uses the large screen to show a preview gallery as you shoot — that truly elevates the experience.This year’s launch event in New York was the most Apple-like yet — a polished, confident presentation that showcased not just a phone but an entire ecosystem. From the new Pixel Watch 4 (I wear the 3) to the Pixelsnap magnetic charging accessories that echo Apple’s MagSafe, Google presented a cohesive vision of hardware and software working in perfect harmony.This polish addresses one of the few remaining hardware gaps, leaving the core reasons users prefer Pixel phones over their Apple alternatives shining brighter than ever. It comes down to the software experience and intelligent assistance. The clean, bloatware-free version of Android, combined with the deep integration of a beneficial AI like Gemini, offers a level of customization and proactive help that iOS can’t match.For users who value a smarter, more personalized device that works for them, the Pixel remains the undisputed champion. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is the ultimate expression of that philosophy and my Product of the Week.

A new thin iPhone was the star of Apple’s “Awe Dropping” event aired online Tuesday.The new Air, at 5.6 millimeters thick, is the thinnest iPhone Apple has ever produced. “It’s unlike anything you’ve ever held before, and it’s packed with features,” John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, said at the event.Those features include a 6.5-inch display, Apple’s latest A19 Pro processor, a 48 megapixel rear camera, and front-camera support for “Center Stage,” which keeps subjects centered on the screen at all times.With the A19 Pro chip, Apple is bringing MacBook levels of compute to the iPhone, Ternus said.“The Air is just as striking in person as it appears in the event video, if not more,” said Anshel Sag, senior analyst for mobility, 5G and XR at Moor Insights & Strategy, a technology analyst and advisory firm based in Austin, Texas.“It has a premium feel, and they didn’t make any compromises in making it so thin,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It has a faster processor, a faster modem, and way more Apple silicon than any other phone Apple makes today.”“The Air is a beautiful-looking phone,” added Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research, a technology advisory firm in Las Vegas. “Apple has gone back to the well and is showing its commitment to best-in-class industrial design.”“I wouldn’t be surprised if the professional phones next year are going to be equally thin,” he told TechNewsWorld.Apple’s iPhone Air is available in four polished titanium finishes, blending strength with an elegant mirrored design. (Image Credit: Apple)The iPhone Air’s ultra-thin build may also hint at where Apple’s design ambitions are headed next. It reflects a shift in priorities toward sleeker, more distinctive hardware across the lineup.Ross Rubin, the principal analyst with Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City, pointed out that the addition of the Air is the first expansion of the iPhone line since the introduction of the Pro line in 2019. “It is sort of a similar move to what Samsung did with the thinner version of the Galaxy S25,” he told TechNewsWorld.“But it’s not just a story about being a thinner device,” he said. “It’s making sure that it is a very durable device because it has long been a consideration with very thin products that they are fragile.”“The other thing I think you can take away from this is that thin is also a precursor to foldable,” added Michael Goodman, a senior contributing analyst with Parks Associates, a market research and consulting company specializing in consumer technology products, in Addison, Texas.“You have to go thin before you can go foldable,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Thin is in, but thin is also a precursor to the future. And the future is going to be somewhere down the line, maybe next year, maybe the year after that, but somewhere down the line, we’re going to see a foldable iPhone.”Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore., added that the use of titanium in the Air’s body could make it more breakable. “You use titanium because of its strength, but titanium is very brittle,” he told TechNewsWorld. “While it’s strong, it won’t bend; it’ll break.”“So while Apple is arguing it’s their most robust phone yet, because it’s so thin, the likelihood of breaking is still pretty high,” he said. “And I just don’t think that’s what people want.”Dipanjan Chatterjee, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, a market research company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., declared there were plenty of crackles at the Apple event and one big pop.“The entire device portfolio gets just a little bit better and smarter with each cycle, as it should,” he told TechNewsWorld. “But the big pop comes from a redesigned Air iPhone aesthetic that will likely spur interest in a group that’s been reluctant to upgrade their old models for the lack of a differentiated option.”“Beyond some cool new features and Apple’s traditional focus on a faster and more powerful performance, the highlight was the new iPhone Air — a newly designed iPhone, its thinnest ever,” added Chatterjee’s colleague, Vice President and Principal Analyst Thomas Husson.“However, to truly differentiate and outperform its competition, Apple will have to crack AI as a new contextual user interface,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Executing such an ambitious AI strategy will take time. At best, it won’t happen until next year or around the iPhone’s 20th anniversary in 2027.”“In the meantime,” he continued, “Apple’s attention to design and detail makes the difference when it comes to improving consumers’ total experience.”Ranjit Atwal, senior director analyst at Gartner, a global research and advisory company, found the Apple event less than “awe-dropping.” He told TechNewsWorld: “It wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring.”He observed that Apple events have taken on a different cast from the past. “Historically, they’d pitch the new iPhone at one of these events, and it would be so different compared to what’s out there now, people couldn’t wait to buy it.”“The Air is incrementally different, better, nicer, and iPhone buyers will go and purchase it over time rather than queue up to buy it,” he said.William Kerwin, a senior equity analyst with Morningstar Research Services in Chicago, noted that the overarching takeaway from the event is that the updates were positive but pretty evolutionary rather than revolutionary, even when considering the new form factor of the iPhone Air. “We think it is attractive and compelling, but we don’t see it spurring a new inflection in iPhone unit sales growth in the short term,” he told TechNewsWorld.“What we’ve seen over the past couple of years is that Apple’s refresh cycles have been slowing and it’s weighed on iPhone revenue’s ability to grow,” he said. “We just think the Air won’t be enough to drive a significant inflection in that trend.”In addition to the Air (US$999), Apple introduced new models of its iPhone ($799), as well as Pro ($1,099) and Pro Max ($1,199) models powered by Apple silicon, with larger displays protected by Ceramic Shield 2, all-day battery life, and 256 GB of storage.“For the first time in a very long time, there’s actually physical variety in iPhones,” said Bob O’Donnell, founder and chief analyst of Technalysis Research, a technology market research and consulting firm in Foster City, Calif.“The iPhone 17 is the same as all the other iPhones you’ve seen forever, but then you have the Air, which is significantly thinner, and even the Pro and the Max are physically bigger,” he told TechNewsWorld.“So the net net is you have this very clear dichotomy of sizes, which I think is going to make it easier for people to decide which ones they want and helps make them much more distinctive,” he said. “So I think that’s a good thing because I think a lot of iPhone people have been sick of the same old designs.”Apple also upgraded its AirPods line with the AirPods Pro 3 ($249), adding improved sound reproduction, better noise cancellation, live language translation, and heart rate monitoring.“I think the heart rate sensing in the earbuds is a natural next step, especially since they already have a lot of health features in their watch,” Moor Insights’ Sag noted. “This could expand the market for Apple because there are going to be people who don’t want to wear an Apple watch but do use AirPods.”The company also introduced its Apple Watch Series 11 line, with pricing ranging from $249 to $799. Features include better durability, 5G support, 24-hour battery life, and new health features, like hypertension notification and sleep score.Apple Watch Series 11 features up to 24 hours of battery life, a tougher display with twice the scratch resistance, and cellular connectivity for calls, messages, and emergency help when an iPhone isn’t nearby. (Image Credit: Apple)“The move to 5G is significant,” Reticle’s Rubin said. “It’ll do a lot to improve the speed and range of the watch.”Apple putting a heart monitor into its AirPods Pro 3 and blood pressure detection into its watch are aggressive moves into the health tech sector, Parks’ Goodman argued.“It potentially sets them up to create a health tracking ecosystem,” he continued. “Apple loves a good ecosystem, so I think there’s potential down the road to integrate some of these new attributes in these devices into an integrated health tracking system.”

At its 2025 Securities Analyst Meeting in New York, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) delivered a confident narrative: the company is entering a new phase of profitable growth, anchored by AI infrastructure, next-generation networking, and the full integration of Juniper Networks.CEO Antonio Neri opened with a celebratory tone, marking HPE’s tenth anniversary as a stand-alone company and positioning it as “leaner, more innovative, and poised to gain share in the markets that matter most.”It was an unabashed, polished presentation aimed at convincing investors that HPE can compete more forcefully with Dell, Cisco, and Lenovo, while demonstrating its ability to extract value from the US$14 billion Juniper acquisition.Neri’s central argument was that HPE’s transformation over the past decade now positions it for “a new chapter” focused on high-growth, high-margin segments: networking, cloud, and AI. His message was consistent with recent financial guidance, projecting a compound annual revenue growth rate of 5% to 7% and non-GAAP operating profit growth of 11% to 17% through fiscal 2028.“Our strengthened portfolio will create more profitable growth,” Neri said, underscoring expectations of $3.5 billion in free cash flow and at least $3 in non-GAAP diluted earnings per share by that date.The numbers are ambitious, yet credible on paper. CFO Marie Myers reinforced the outlook with concrete cost-reduction targets: $600 million from the Juniper integration and another $350 million through HPE’s internal “Catalyst” program — bringing total planned reductions to roughly $1 billion. Those savings, Myers noted, will come from consolidating IT platforms, simplifying product portfolios, and trimming workforce layers.“We are driving approximately $1 billion in structural cost savings by fiscal 2028,” she said, framing it as both an efficiency exercise and a reinvestment strategy.Still, investors have heard similar efficiency narratives before, from HPE and its peers. The real question is whether these savings translate into competitive differentiation, not just better margins. Cost optimization alone rarely redefines a company’s position in markets that are increasingly shaped by scale, silicon design, and AI-native software ecosystems.The real test is whether aggressive cost-cutting will inhibit innovation — a critical factor in the markets where HPE competes.The Juniper acquisition loomed large throughout the event. Neri framed it as the foundation for creating “a new networking industry leader” with an “AI-native” portfolio that spans campus, data-center, and wide-area routing.The rationale is straightforward: networking is becoming the connective tissue of AI infrastructure, linking GPU clusters, hybrid clouds, and edge environments. Rami Rahim, the former Juniper CEO now leading HPE Networking, argued that “networking has become mission critical in the AI era” and that legacy architectures “lack the scale, reliability, and automation needed for modern AI workloads.”Rahim’s enthusiasm was backed by a vision to merge Juniper’s Mist AIOps platform with HPE Aruba Central, creating what he called “a self-driving network.” He highlighted that together, the two platforms process “over a trillion telemetry points every single day,” feeding AI models that predict and resolve network issues automatically.The concept is compelling, but integration of complex software platforms can take years to mature, and customer overlap could create friction. That said, HPE now competes with Cisco on a much more even footing, with strength across routing, wireless, and data-center switching.The company’s near-term goal is to have networking account for roughly 60% of its operating profit by 2028, up from about 50% today. If achieved, that would mark a genuine rebalancing of HPE’s revenue mix away from lower-margin servers and services.Yet, HPE must demonstrate that Juniper’s integration can accelerate — not slow down — its growth in the cloud and AI segments. Execution risk remains high, and the networking industry is crowded with incumbents who are already embedding AI-driven telemetry and automation into their portfolios.HPE’s leadership clearly believes that AI infrastructure is its next growth engine. The company is emphasizing sovereign and enterprise customers rather than hyperscalers, betting that governments and large organizations will prioritize control, security, and sustainability over raw scale.“Our AI systems are leading the market,” Neri asserted, pointing to the company’s Cray EX supercomputers and its new fanless direct-liquid-cooling design, which HPE claims is unique in the industry.At the Open Compute Project Global Summit last week, HPE showcased how it’s integrating these capabilities into its modular ProLiant Gen12 servers, which support Nvidia’s Spectrum-X Ethernet and Kyber architectures. This alignment with Nvidia is critical: it signals that HPE intends to stay relevant in an ecosystem increasingly dominated by GPU-centric workloads.HPE Chief Technologist of Compute, Scott Shaffer, framed it as part of a broader commitment to “open standards and modularity,” emphasizing that HPE’s designs allow customers to fine-tune their infrastructure to meet dynamic business needs.However, despite strong technical credentials, HPE’s AI story still lacks a signature differentiator. Dell has already introduced its AI Factory initiative in collaboration with Nvidia, while Lenovo is touting hybrid AI offerings with AMD and Intel, and hyperscalers continue to absorb a large portion of infrastructure spending.HPE’s advantage lies in serving sovereign and regulated markets where data localization, security, and on-prem AI training are priorities, but those are narrower segments.HPE’s GreenLake platform remains central to its cloud narrative. Myers reiterated that GreenLake continues to attract “thousands of new logos” and is driving double-digit annualized revenue run-rate growth.The company positions GreenLake as a unified management layer across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, now enhanced by AI-native orchestration through its CloudOps suite. This strategy aligns with what Dell and VMware have been pursuing under the APEX brand—simplifying hybrid IT while increasing recurring revenue.What’s more convincing is how HPE is using its storage and compute portfolio to reinforce that model. Its Alletra MP platform targets unstructured data, while its next-generation ProLiant servers promise “quantum-resistant” security through new iLO 7 firmware. Together, they form a more cohesive story about data-to-AI pipelines — an area where HPE has credible differentiation.Not surprisingly, investors generally press companies for clarity on cost management. Myers’s presentation was unusually detailed. She broke down four key levers —corporate rationalization, supply-chain integration, portfolio simplification, and workforce optimization — each tied to the $950 million combined cost-savings target.“These actions will position HPE for improved operating leverage and higher long-term profitability,” she said, projecting a return to a 2X net-debt-to-EBITDA ratio by 2027.The tone was pragmatic. HPE is promising investors tangible evidence of discipline, as well as greater transparency in segment reporting and capital allocation.For fiscal 2026, it forecasts $1.5 to $2 billion in free cash flow, a sharp increase from 2025 levels. Dividends will rise by 10%, and share buybacks will expand by an additional $3 billion. That sends a message of confidence, although skeptics may view it as a move to sustain investor sentiment while the Juniper integration unfolds.Can HPE truly differentiate itself against Dell, Lenovo, and Cisco? On technology, perhaps. On scale, less so. HPE’s messaging, focused on modular, AI-ready, sovereign, and sustainable infrastructure, is certainly strategically sound, but it competes in an environment where scale economics increasingly favor the most prominent players.Dell’s APEX and Nvidia partnerships have already captured broad mindshare, while Lenovo’s vertical integration in servers and edge AI provides a cost advantage in high-growth regions.What HPE does have is coherence. Its portfolio now spans compute, storage, networking, and hybrid cloud under a unified platform and brand. Few competitors can claim that level of integration. The challenge will be converting coherence into momentum and demonstrating measurable growth in high-margin software and services, rather than relying on incremental hardware refreshes.HPE did make a credible case. The company’s narrative was data-driven, financially transparent, and strategically aligned with market trends. Neri’s message of discipline and focus felt grounded in execution more than aspiration.The acquisition of Juniper Networks gives HPE significant momentum in a segment where it once lagged, and its emphasis on “sovereign AI” provides a niche that leverages its strengths in security and infrastructure integration.However, the path ahead remains steep. The AI infrastructure market is evolving fast, and execution —particularly in integrating Juniper and scaling GreenLake’s software margins — will determine whether HPE’s story becomes more than another turnaround chapter.As Rahim summed it up on stage, “We will disrupt the status quo and deliver unprecedented value.” It was an ambitious promise and one that investors will be watching closely to see if HPE can finally turn vision into sustained performance.

In most cases, a misleading result from a Google search is harmless, but a case study by a consumer financial information website released Monday shows how those results can cause economic harm to searchers.In its study, WalletHub did a Google search for “best 0 APR credit cards.” Here’s what it found:“Google results have gone so far downhill, they’re practically underwater, and it’s costing people a lot of time and money — especially those who mistakenly believe the top results are still the best results,” WalletHub CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou said in a statement.Although the case study has a narrow focus, WalletHub Managing Editor John S. Kiernan contended it’s a microcosm of a much larger issue. Determining the quality of search results can be subjective, so it’s hard to see what Google is getting right and wrong, he explained. “That’s why we chose this particular example, because it’s pretty straightforward,” he told TechNewsWorld.“But we definitely think that this is an issue that is happening across search results and across the verticals and segments of the market,” he said. “It’s by no means limited to your APR credit cards.”“This is an example of how Google has let down the consumer,” he added.Kiernan maintained that there has been a decline in the quality of Google search results for the last two years. “The landmark event that led to this was when Google’s CEO decided to put the head of the ad team in charge of Google Search, also. Previously, there was a kind of church and state separation there,” he explained.“When they put those two teams together, it seems like the faction that really wants to go about maximizing clicks and ad revenue is blending out of the faction that wants to have the best possible results for consumers,” he added.“This so-called ‘analysis’ is based on flawed methodologies and recycled claims,” Google spokesperson Davis Thompson told TechNewsWorld. “Our systems work to connect people with content that is useful and original, from a diverse range of sites across the web, so that they’re able to make informed decisions.”According to Google, its research shows that its search engine satisfies the overwhelming majority of user needs for people around the world, and it launches thousands of improvements every year to make it even better for people.It added that for “Your Money or Your Life” queries — where information quality is critically important, like financial queries — it has an even higher bar for showing supporting information from reliable and trustworthy sources.“From a consumer perspective, Google’s search results seem to have lost value,” said Danny Goodwin, managing editor of Search Engine Land & SMX, a digital marketing and advertising technology publication.“Users are forced to wade through more ads before even seeing organic results, and too often they still struggle to find the right answer or website,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Google boasts that searches are increasing — but that may reflect people digging deeper because they can’t find what they need right away,” he added.There seems to be mixed perceptions about the quality of Google search results, noted Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media, a market research firm, in San Francisco. “Many industry insiders perceive a decline in search quality, but that’s not necessarily true of the general public,” he told TechNewsWorld.“But I do believe that the quality of Google results and the user experience have declined,” he said. “Google is largely focused on maximizing ad revenue, retaining users, and fending off competitors by copying or incorporating features into search.”Jared Navarre, founder of Keyni Consulting, a business consulting company in Wasilla, Alaska, argued that not only has there been a decline in the quality of Google search results, but a potential sharp cliff for them may be on the horizon.“There are many metrics outlining that search referrals from Google are falling,” he told TechNewsWorld. “I think the bigger story here is the double-edged sword of Google’s AI initiative and how it’s been implemented into search.”“Users will often see a consolidated answer to their search query at the top of the page,” he explained. “This alone eliminates the past standard practice of needing to click through a few of the top sites to find what you’re looking for.”“On top of that,” he continued, “search volume is down globally. AI is rapidly changing how information is searched for, delivered, and interacted with. No one quite knows how this will look in a year’s time, but the Google we once knew may become an afterthought.”He added that there may be a ray of hope for consumers from the recent antitrust decision against Google. In the Sept. 2 opinion by U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta, Google was found to have illegally monopolized online search through exclusive distribution deals.“[The decision] didn’t block default search placement deals or require any divestment of Chrome, but requiring Google to share search index data with competitors alone could have some small wins for consumers and users,” Navarre said, “but I don’t foresee any fundamental change without dismantling some of the exclusive deals and Google’s deep integration, but it’s a start.”Some other search watchers were less sanguine about the impact of the antitrust decision. “I think it’s probably most likely to make things worse,” WalletHub’s Kiernan said. “I think Google feels like they got off scot-free for the most part.”“I would imagine they’re feeling a little bit emboldened that they can continue their current practices and even take them to the next level a little bit,” he added.Search Engine Land’s Goodwin explained that the antitrust ruling has nothing to do with search quality. “It’s about Google’s business practices and market dominance, not how results are ranked,” he said. “The only way Google search results will improve is if the search team makes it happen, or if Google’s AI and machine-learning systems get better at what results users see.”“The remedies decision, which still may be overturned on appeal, is relatively weak and will do little or nothing to boost competition or force Google to improve results,” added Near Media’s Sterling.Despite criticism of Google’s search results, it remains the king of internet ferrets — with no challenger in sight.Habit and ubiquity are two drivers of users’ loyalty to Google, Sterling argued. “Google was the best search engine and, in some ways, may still be,” he said, “but most people continue to use Google out of habit and because it’s everywhere you turn: the iPhone and the most popular browser. People are comfortable and familiar with Google. Change is possible — see ChatGPT — but there’s tremendous inertia around Google usage.”“Google dominates because it’s the default,” Goodwin asserted. “Its technology and products are deeply integrated into people’s lives, and it’s still ‘good enough’ for the average person. That won’t change unless a competitor delivers a much better experience, as it seems like U.S. regulators will be unable to make it easier for alternatives to compete.”“Only truly disruptive AI-fueled software or an AI-powered device would be able to do anything more than slowly chip away at Google’s market share,” Keyni’s Navarre added. “I think we are watching that happen, but, ironically, I think Google’s own AI initiatives could end up having as much impact on its own market share versus external competitors. Only time will tell.”WalletHub’s study breaks down how much consumers could lose by relying on Google’s top search results for “best 0% APR credit cards.”

A technology leap comparable to the jump from vacuum tubes to integrated circuits has been achieved with the delivery of the first full-stack quantum computer built using a standard silicon CMOS chip fabrication process.Quantum Motion (QM), maker of the computer, announced Monday that the hardware, which uses mass-manufacturable 300mm silicon CMOS wafer technology, has been deployed at the UKRI National Quantum Computing Centre in London.A “full stack” computer includes the quantum processing unit (QPU), control electronics for managing qubit operations, a software stack, and a user interface.The system also has a data-center-friendly footprint of just three 19-inch server racks.“This is quantum computing’s silicon moment,” QM’s CEO James Palles-Dimmock said in a statement. “Today’s announcement demonstrates you can build a robust, functional quantum computer using the world’s most scalable technology, with the ability to be mass-produced.”The company explained that its QPU is based on a scalable tile architecture that integrates all the necessary compute, readout, and control elements into a dense array that can be repeatedly printed onto a chip, enabling future expansion to millions of qubits per QPU. A qubit is roughly the quantum equivalent of a “bit” in the digital world.“With the delivery of this system, Quantum Motion is on track to bring commercially useful quantum computers to market this decade,” QM’s President and Chief Commercial Officer, Hugo Saleh, said in a statement. “It’s a customer, user, and developer first approach — using standard CMOS, the basis for all modern technology, from mobile phones to AI GPUs, to deliver the revolutionary next inflection point in computing.”Quantum Motion’s achievement is yet another click forward in the introduction of quantum as a computer “on a chip,” observed Roger A. Grimes, author of “Cryptography Apocalypse: Preparing for the Day When Quantum Computing Breaks Today’s Crypto.”“It continues to take quantum computers and other devices from the realm of big, specialized computers that cost tens of millions and have to be run and maintained by a bunch of high-paid scientists and researchers, and puts it closer into the hands of someone who just wants a computer and not to spend most of their time babysitting for the right conditions,” he told TechNewsWorld.“The delivery of a full-stack quantum computer built using a standard silicon CMOS chip fabrication process is a monumental milestone for the quantum industry,” added Ensar Seker, CISO of SOCRadar, a threat intelligence company in Newark, Del.“It signifies a critical convergence of quantum mechanics and classical semiconductor engineering, essentially opening the door to scalable, manufacturable quantum computing using the same infrastructure that underpins modern digital electronics,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Silicon-based quantum architectures are particularly compelling because they leverage decades of investment in CMOS manufacturing, supply chain maturity, and quality control,” he said. “This contrasts with other technologies like superconducting qubits or trapped ions, which typically require highly specialized environments, exotic materials, and custom fabrication processes that are harder to scale and integrate with existing systems.”Up to now, silicon-based quantum computer development has lagged behind superconducting and atom-based technologies, but Quantum Motion is changing that narrative. “I think that we’re finally seeing that solid-state quantum technologies are catching up to the announcements from the superconducting and atomic platforms,” said Prineha Narang, a professor of physical sciences and of electrical and computer engineering at UCLA.“This is another way to go at it, and it’s a scalable way,” she told TechNewsWorld.Quantum Motion’s system uses spin qubits, which store and manipulate information using the spin of electrons. “Silicon spin qubits are generally behind in development compared to superconducting circuits, trapped ions, and neutral atom qubit modalities,” explained Sam Lucero, an independent strategy and research consultant in Phoenix.“This announcement marks the first full implementation of a silicon spin qubit computer that I’m aware of, which is notable as a signpost of this modality’s progress,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Since there is no performance data, it’s not clear how this machine will compare to other available platforms at the moment, but I’d expect it to be fairly rudimentary in comparison,” he said.He acknowledged that QM’s technology could potentially scale much better than superconducting and trapped ion systems. “You could have millions of qubits on a single chip, avoiding the need for complex networking,” he explained, “but there are those who think networking will be unavoidable, and those in the industry who think it will be a real barrier to the full realization of quantum computing.”“Both networking and scaling up are still in early stages, though, so it’s not clear which, either, or if both will succeed,” he added.Yuval Boger, chief commercial officer at QuEra Computing, a builder of quantum computers using neutral atoms, in Boston, noted that there are several promising approaches to building a quantum computer, and Quantum Motion’s silicon path is certainly one of them. “In my mind, many of these different approaches are worth exploring, since it’s still too early to know which will scale most effectively,” he told TechNewsWorld.“This announcement shows growing recognition that quantum computing is coming, and that the potential value is substantial,” he said. “However, error correction, system reliability, and manufacturability determine timelines to commercialization.”Austin Bosarge, co-founder and chief corporate officer and head of federal at QuSecure, a maker of quantum-safe security solutions, in San Mateo, Calif., agreed that error correction is a big problem for quantum computers.“Turning large numbers of noisy, unstable qubits into a small number of reliable and fault-tolerant logical qubits requires significant resources,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Although that problem is still being addressed, this announcement shows real progress on the scalability side.”In addition to error correction, he noted that quantum systems still require advanced cryogenics, complex control electronics, and precise calibration. “These technical demands create engineering and cost barriers that must be overcome before quantum computing becomes commercially viable at scale.”However, Bosarge continued, the real concern is not about the availability of general-purpose quantum machines. The issue is the timeline for when quantum computers will be capable of breaking encryption.“Industry forecasts suggest that by the year 2029, the probability of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer will be high enough that organizations must adopt quantum-safe encryption in advance,” he said.“A cryptographically relevant system is generally defined as one with about 4,000 error-corrected qubits,” he explained. “The announcement from Quantum Motion shows that these kinds of systems may now be manufactured in standard chip foundries. That lowers the barrier to scale and increases the urgency of preparing digital infrastructure.”“Quantum computers are scaling up rapidly, but are not yet to the point where we know how to build cryptographically relevant quantum computers; but that day will come, because the technology is proven, and it is now just an engineering problem,” added Tim Hollebeek, vice president of industry standards at DigiCert, a global digital security company.“Advances like [Quantum Motion’s], that integrate quantum computing elements into standard chip-building processes, continue to bring us one step closer to their eventual existence,” he told TechNewsWorld.

Tradeoffs. The world of tech is full of them. Yet, as Forrester Research points out in a recent trends report, tradeoffs can give disruptive technologies a Jekyll and Hyde personality, providing great benefits but at the same time undermining an organization’s sustainability efforts.“Disruptive technologies are a double-edged sword for environmental sustainability, offering both crucial enablers and significant challenges,” explained the 15-page report written by Abhijit Sunil, Paul Miller, Craig Le Clair, Renee Taylor-Huot, Michele Pelino, with Amy DeMartine, Danielle Chittem, and Peter Harrison.“On the positive side,” it continued, “technology innovations accelerate energy and resource efficiency, aid in climate adaptation and risk mitigation, monitor crucial sustainability metrics, and even help in environmental conservation.”“However,” it added, “the necessary compute power, volume of waste, types of materials needed, and scale of implementing these technologies can offset their benefits.”Disruptive tech can be a balancing act, noted Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst for SmartTech Research, in Las Vegas.“These technologies can be incredible accelerators for sustainable outcomes, but without careful planning, they can quietly undermine the very goals they’re meant to support,” he told TechNewsWorld. “The companies that will get this right are the ones treating sustainability as a measurable performance metric alongside revenue and productivity, and holding themselves accountable for both sides of the equation.”“Often when a new technology like AI hits the market, it carries with it a lot of consequential damages that weren’t fully anticipated,” added Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.“Not only is the technology far more damaging than anticipated,” he told TechNewsWorld, “but it also carries within it methodologies, such as AI modeling and simulation, that could massively reduce that impact, if properly used.”6 Disruptive Technologies That Can Be Good and Bad for Environmental SustainabilityOne Jekyll and Hyde disruptor identified by Forrester is automation and AI. Those technologies, the report noted, can boost sustainability through efficiency and environmental monitoring but risk increasing energy use, inefficiencies, and challenges like data security and AI unpredictability.Forrester’s Sunil maintained that efficient computing is key to sustainable AI. He cited an Nvidia study that found energy-efficient hardware, such as GPUs, can reduce energy use by as much as 10 times and decrease capital costs by six times, while increasing performance by up to 46 times.“To meet sustainability goals with automation and AI,” he told TechNewsWorld, “one of our recommendations is to develop proofs of concept for ‘stewardship agents’ and explore emerging robotics focused on sustainability.”When planning AI operations, Franklin Manchester, a principal global industry advisor at SAS, an analytics and artificial intelligence software company in Cary, N.C., cautioned, “Not every nut needs to be cracked with a sledgehammer.”“Start with good processes — think lean process mapping, for example — and deploy AI where it makes sense to do so,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Augment what your talented humans already do with AI tools to supplement their expertise,” he continued. “Scale modeling and cloud usage to fit your needs and streamline costs. This reduces the burden on the overall system.”Manchester also recommended that businesses invest in boring projects. “Did you know we put a man on the moon before we thought to put wheels on luggage?” he asked. “Put wheels on luggage. You don’t need a moonshot AI use case to save dollars. In the end, being strategic about where we apply AI will help reduce the burden on finite resources, promoting sustainability while also helping economize costs.”Forrester also identified state-of-the-art data centers as double-edged sword technology. Advanced data centers boost AI efficiency with technologies like liquid cooling, heat reuse, and modular design, the report noted, but risk higher energy demand, e-waste, and reliance on scarce materials.A sustainable data center strategy needs to be driven by investments in energy-efficient infrastructure, exploring renewable energy options like power purchase agreements and microgrids, and extending IT lifecycles through modular, repairable equipment, Forrester’s Sunil maintained.“The adoption of circular economy principles plays a big role here,” he continued. “For data center operators, this means choosing infrastructure equipment that is durable, modular, and easy to repair or upgrade, as well as planning for responsible disposal or reuse.”Vena argued that advanced data centers can be part of the sustainability solution, but only if efficiency improvements, like liquid cooling and heat reuse, are paired with a genuine commitment to renewable energy sourcing.“We also need better supply chain accountability for the rare materials in servers and networking gear, and stronger recycling programs for retired equipment,” he added. “The same ingenuity that’s going into AI optimization should be applied to extending hardware life.”Another disruptor in the report: autonomous mobility.Autonomous mobility optimizes transport efficiency with drones, delivery robots, and truck platoons, but risks increased vehicle proliferation and resource strain due to reduced operational costs, the report noted.Human drivers are a significant cost in transportation systems, and removing that cost may have unintended consequences, the report explained. If it’s cheaper to build and operate a fleet of driverless delivery trucks, those trucks may proliferate on roads, consuming more resources in their construction and operation and placing more strain on highway infrastructure, which then must be maintained and upgraded.“I think the way to reduce those risks is to ensure autonomous mobility is deployed as part of an integrated transportation plan, rather than as a stand-alone cost-cutting measure,” Vena said. “If drones, delivery robots, and truck platoons are coordinated through shared logistics networks, we can avoid unnecessary duplication of vehicles and routes.”“Policies that encourage vehicle sharing, regulate fleet sizes, and set sustainability targets for operators can also keep proliferation in check,” he added.“On the resource side,” he continued, “designing these vehicles for modular repair, component reuse, and eventual recycling helps minimize the material footprint. The real opportunity is in using autonomy to move fewer vehicles more intelligently, not just more vehicles more cheaply.”The Internet of Things (IoT) is another disruptor cited in the Forrester report. The IoT improves sustainability through monitoring and optimization, it noted, but risks increasing e-waste, carbon footprints, and battery disposal challenges.Vena asserted that the IoT industry must embrace longer product lifecycles with modular, upgradable designs. “If a device’s sensors or connectivity chips can be swapped out without replacing the whole unit, that cuts down on waste,” he explained. “Standardizing charging and battery formats could also help with recycling.”“We also need stronger manufacturer take-back programs and more aggressive use of low-power wireless standards so devices last longer on a single battery,” he added.Sunil agreed. “A big part of addressing this would be to work around the circular economy — addressing the longevity, reparability, and reusability of devices, which are elements for the circular economy,” he said.He added that many solutions for problems created by disruptive technology draw on this framework’s emphasis on longevity, reparability, and reusability. “Considering the entire IT lifecycle is a critical aspect of making devices and infrastructure more sustainable, as most of the risks are driven by high turnover of devices and the increased need for more optimized infrastructure,” he said.

Last week, AMD dropped the Threadripper 9000 series, and it is amazing, starting with its name. In the world of technology, product names often range from the blandly numerical to the abstractly corporate. Then, there is “Threadripper.” It’s a name that is so perfectly aggressive, so evocative of raw power, that it couldn’t possibly belong to anything other than a CPU designed for absolute dominance.The name doesn’t suggest it will simply process your tasks; it promises to tear through them with violent efficiency. It’s a name that stands alone, a declaration of intent in a market crowded with Core, Xeon, and Ryzen.This time, the branding isn’t hyperbole. The story of Threadripper is the story of a product that has consistently lived up to its audacious name, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of high-performance computing with each new release.Let’s dig into why Threadripper lives up to its name. Then, we’ll close with my Product of the Week, which should have been Threadripper, but that would be a bit of overkill, so I’m highlighting the Corsair 4000D modular PC case that I used to build my Threadripper system.To appreciate the latest Threadripper processors, one must understand their improbable origin. In the mid-2010s, the high-end desktop (HEDT) market was a stagnant pond, with core counts inching forward incrementally. The conventional wisdom was that the insatiable demand for more cores was limited to the server room.Astonishingly, the Threadripper project didn’t begin in a boardroom as part of a grand strategic plan. Instead, it was born from a small, passionate team of engineers at AMD who, in their spare time, saw an opportunity to fuse the architecture of their server-grade EPYC processors with the high clock speeds of their consumer Ryzen chips.It was a massive gamble. They were creating a premium, high-core-count processor for a market that, according to many analysts, was niche to the point of being non-existent. The initial reception from the market, however, was not one of confusion, but of ravenous enthusiasm. Professionals, prosumers, and hardcore enthusiasts who had been starving for more multi-threaded performance suddenly had a champion.In 2017, the first 16-core Threadripper 1950X was a shock to the system, offering a level of parallel processing power previously reserved for exorbitantly priced server hardware. It proved AMD could build high-core-count CPUs that could rival the best in the world, and it was just the beginning.While enthusiasts were quick to embrace Threadripper, its ascension to the professional throne was cemented by a bold strategic partnership. Lenovo, a giant in the PC space but not the traditional leader in high-end workstations, saw the immense potential of what AMD had created.Unlike competitors that remained entrenched with their existing partners, Lenovo made a decisive move, becoming the first major OEM to build a workstation specifically around the professional-grade version of the chip.The result was the Lenovo ThinkStation P620, the world’s first AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO workstation. This single-socket machine could be configured with up to 64 cores, offering performance that rivaled and often surpassed dual-socket systems from competitors, but in a more power-efficient and cost-effective package.The move was a masterstroke. According to Techspective, this product allowed Lenovo to capture a 60% market share at the top end of the professional workstation market, a segment historically dominated by Dell and HP. It was a testament to both AMD’s engineering prowess and Lenovo’s strategic foresight, proving that a single, exceptionally powerful CPU could redefine an entire industry segment.So, what makes a Threadripper so powerful? It’s a symphony of cutting-edge technologies working in concert. The latest AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 and PRO 7000 WX-Series processors, built on the advanced “Zen 4” architecture, are the current flag bearers, with the upcoming 9000 series promising even more. These chips boast specifications that read like a fantasy wish list for a power user.First, the core counts are staggering. With the P series scaling up to 96 cores and 192 threads in a single CPU, these processors can handle a colossal number of tasks simultaneously. For 3D artists rendering complex scenes, data scientists training AI models, or filmmakers editing 8K video, this means waiting times are slashed from hours to minutes.However, it’s not just about the number of cores. The Zen architecture provides a high number of instructions per clock (IPC), and with boost clocks reaching well over 5.0 GHz, Threadripper excels at both multi-threaded and single-threaded workloads.Furthermore, the platform itself is built for bandwidth. The PRO models feature an eight-channel memory controller for DDR5 RAM, providing a massive pipeline for data to feed the hungry cores. They also boast an incredible number of PCIe 5.0 lanes — up to 128 on the PRO platform — allowing for configurations with multiple high-end GPUs, ultra-fast NVMe storage arrays, and high-speed networking cards without creating a single bottleneck. It is a platform designed without compromise, for workflows that cannot afford them.A Threadripper-based system is not for checking email or browsing the web. It is a tool for the most demanding professionals and creators. The price of entry is high, but the value proposition lies in its longevity. In the fast-paced world of technology, “futureproofing” is often a fool’s errand, but a Threadripper system comes closer than anything else.The sheer performance overhead means that a workstation built today will remain capable for years to come. As software becomes more complex and multi-threaded, a system with 64 or 96 cores will only become more valuable. The expansive PCIe and memory support ensure that you can adopt the next generation of GPUs or storage technology without needing to replace the entire platform — making a Threadripper workstation a long-term investment rather than a short-term expense.While the HEDT space has historically seen frequent socket changes, AMD has provided a degree of stability with its sTR5 socket, supporting multiple generations of processors and giving users a clear upgrade path.From its origins as a rebellious passion project to its current status as the undisputed king of high-end desktop and workstation computing, Threadripper has carved out a unique and iconic legacy.Its name is a mission statement — a promise of performance so extreme it rips through the very threads of a computational task. Through bold engineering and strategic partnerships, like the one with Lenovo that redefined the workstation market, AMD made more than just a fast processor. They created a new class of computing, empowering creators, scientists, and engineers to push the boundaries of what’s possible.The latest releases continue this tradition, offering a level of power that feels less like an incremental upgrade and more like a generational leap. For those who need the absolute best, who see time as their most valuable asset, and who demand a system that will not flinch at any task thrown at it, there is still only one name that truly matters: Threadripper.After decades of building PCs — averaging around two systems a quarter — I’ve seen my fair share of frustrating, knuckle-scraping case designs. So, when a chassis comes along that not only looks fantastic but is an absolute joy to build in, it deserves special recognition.This week’s top product is, without a doubt, the Corsair Frame 4000D modular mid-tower PC case. As I gear up for my summer projects, this case is the foundation for one of the three high-performance systems I’m building, and it has already proven to be a godsend for any serious builder.Currently priced at $104.99, the first thing you notice about the Frame 4000D is its impeccable design. It boasts clean, minimalist lines and a build quality that feels substantial and premium — but its true genius is revealed once you start the build. For a powerful system like the Threadripper build that this case is destined for, cooling is paramount. The Frame 4000D offers robust support for dual 360mm radiators, providing the thermal headroom needed for top-tier components.What truly sets it apart for me is the innovative InfiniRail fan mounting system. This feature replaces fixed mounting points with adjustable rails, allowing you to slide your fans and radiators into the perfect position. This small change eliminates the usual hassle of aligning screw holes and makes installation remarkably easy.Corsair’s attention to detail extends to managing the behemoth GPUs that power modern workstations and gaming rigs. The Frame 4000D includes a sturdy, built-in GPU stabilizer arm, a rare but incredibly welcome feature that prevents GPU sag and protects your motherboard’s PCIe slot from stress.Its cable management is a dream. A built-in shroud elegantly hides the power supply and a mess of cables, while ample tie-down points and routing channels make achieving a clean, professional-looking interior effortless.For builders who value both aesthetics and a frustration-free experience, the Corsair Frame 4000D is a masterpiece. It addresses the common pain points of PC building while providing the space and features needed for a high-end, powerful system. It has more than earned its spot as my Product of the Week.

Criminals are monetizing stolen identities at higher rates and stealing larger sums, while more victims report severe emotional distress, including self-harm.Those are the findings of the 2025 Consumer Impact Report, prepared by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a nonprofit organization founded to provide identity theft victim assistance and consumer education, and sponsored by Experian, a global information services and fraud prevention company.The report is based on a survey that sampled 4,122 individuals who sought assistance from the ITRC from August 2024 to July 2025 and identified themselves as victims of identity crime (ITRC victims), and a second, similar survey of 1,033 general consumers, which included 401 individuals who reported being a victim of identity crime but did not seek assistance from the ITRC (Consumer victims).The report noted that more than 20% of ITRC victims lost more than US$100,000 in an identity crime, and more than 10% lost more than $1 million in a single incident. “Losses reported to the ITRC increased in every band, a trend that indicates the financial stakes for the most severe cases of identity crime are rising across the board.”“When we look at these million-dollar losses, it speaks to the sophistication level of these bad actors, their ability to leverage tools like AI to more efficiently convince people to move their money,” ITRC President and CEO Eva Velasquez told TechNewsWorld.“I also think that there’s just a level of uncertainty in the world right now that is creating more opportunities for confusion that criminals can exploit,” she added. “There are a lot of imposter scams. They’re proliferating everywhere.”The report also pointed out a significant shift in crime among Consumer victims. In 2025, only 19.6% of those victims reported losses of less than $500, compared to 31.4% in 2024.“However, the year-over-year increase in high-value losses across both populations is a critical finding,” it maintained. “It strongly suggests that criminals are becoming more adept at monetizing stolen identities and are successfully extracting larger sums from victims across the board, regardless of the initial point of compromise.”Roger Grimes, CISO advisor at KnowBe4, a security awareness training provider in Clearwater, Fla., agreed. “More people are putting more things of more value online and hackers are increasingly understanding how to separate the two,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Hackers are getting ever better at hacking people and quickly stealing identities at scale and are almost never arrested or charged,” he said. “If I rob people online for a living and I never get caught, I’m going to get better and better at robbing people. It’s all profit and very little risk for the attacker.”With more personal information from past breaches available online, criminals can build fuller, more holistic profiles that make scams more convincing and lucrative, explained Paige Schaffer, CEO of Iris Powered by Generali, a global cybersecurity and identity protection company.“We’re also seeing a rise in organized, transnational crime rings that treat identity theft like a business, complete with scalable operations and sophisticated tools,” she told TechNewsWorld. “So, it’s not the crimes themselves that are new. It’s that they are being executed with unprecedented precision and speed. The result is more victims and greater financial loss per victim.”What is changing now is how easily attackers can operationalize personal information data, observed Henrique Teixeira, a senior vice president for strategy at Saviynt, an identity governance and access management company in El Segundo, Calif.“In a recent attack I personally experienced, a criminal logged into one of my accounts using stolen credentials and then launched a subscription bombing campaign, flooding my inbox with hundreds of fake mailing list signups to bury legitimate fraud alerts,” he told TechNewsWorld.Attackers are also taking advantage of fast digital onboarding, he added. “Financial institutions want to reduce friction for legitimate customers,” he explained. “Fraudsters exploit that same speed to open high-value accounts, make purchases, or intercept payments before anyone notices. AI now amplifies this by automating credential stuffing, impersonation, and synthetic identity creation.”The report also noted that the repercussions of identity crime extend far beyond financial statements, inflicting deep and lasting wounds on the emotional and physical well-being of victims. The stress, fear, and violation associated with these crimes manifest as a spectrum of psychological trauma and physical symptoms, it added.It found that among ITRC victims, 14% had thoughts of suicide, a 2% year-over-year increase, while among general consumers, 25% had thoughts of suicide, a 20% YOY jump.“It was surprising to see how suicidal thoughts grew considerably with the general consumer population,” Velasquez said. “It’s a staggering number. We have been conducting this survey for 22 years, and we have always asked that question, and the response rate has hovered around two to five percent historically.”Victims may contemplate suicide because they can lose their entire life’s savings with little recourse in one of these scams, explained Maanas Godugunur, senior director for fraud and identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a global data analytics and services company. “This is a very troubling situation, with multiple factors affecting a victim of stolen identity — financial loss, shame, and feelings of helplessness,” he told TechNewsWorld.KnowBe4’s Grimes added that the chances of getting money back from one of these scams are quite low in many scenarios. “It can easily cause depression if you don’t have a great support group around you, especially if that theft happens as you are closer to retirement and have a greater need for the money,” he said.Kevin Lee, senior vice president for trust and safety at Sift, a fraud-prevention company for digital businesses, in San Francisco, called the suicide numbers “stark and concerning.”“Part of what’s driving this is probably the sheer magnitude of the losses,” he told TechNewsWorld. “When people are losing $100,000 or even $1 million due to identity theft, they’re losing years of savings they’ve built up. The financial devastation is compounded by feelings of shame and embarrassment, which keep people from seeking help.”There’s also the repeat victimization factor, he added. “When someone gets hit once and then targeted again, it creates this sense of helplessness,” he explained. “They feel like they can’t protect themselves, and that vulnerability is deeply traumatic.”“The report shows that victims who reach out to the ITRC have lower rates of suicidal thoughts, which tells us that having support and resources makes a real difference,” he said. “But too many people are suffering alone, and that’s when the emotional impact becomes unbearable.”

The holy grail of personal computing has always been a single, seamless experience that follows you from your pocket to your desk. For decades, this dream has been a graveyard of ambitious failures.Now, in the fall of 2025, the whispers are growing louder: In partnership with Qualcomm, Google is making a serious play to bring Android-based PCs to the mainstream. Google’s effort isn’t just another Chromebook; it’s a full-fledged effort to scale the world’s dominant mobile operating system into the laptop form factor.Google’s Android PC initiative represents a direct assault on the traditional Windows PC market and a strategic challenge to Apple’s carefully segregated ecosystem. However, to succeed where others have so spectacularly failed, Google must learn from the ghost of its most notable predecessor: Microsoft’s Windows 8. Google’s strategy is different — scaling up from the phone rather than down from the desktop — but the potential pitfalls, especially in marketing, look eerily familiar.Let’s talk about the Android PC this week, and we’ll close with my Product of the Week: a new OLED tablet from Wacom that could bring back some excitement into the market.To understand why Google’s new venture has a fighting chance, one must first diagnose the fatal flaws of Microsoft’s attempt at a unified OS with Windows 8 and the Windows Phone.Microsoft’s strategy was to take the dominant desktop OS, Windows, and shrink it to fit on a phone, while simultaneously forcing its touch-centric “Metro” interface onto a billion mouse-and-keyboard users. It was a bold, top-down strategy that backfired for two critical reasons.First and foremost was the catastrophic “app gap.” An operating system is only as good as its software library. Developers for mobile were overwhelmingly focused on iOS and Android, and they had little incentive to rebuild their apps for the sliver of the market using Windows Phone.The platform became a wasteland of missing apps — no Snapchat, no native Gmail, and a constant stream of major services pulling their support. Without the apps people used every day, the hardware was irrelevant.Second was the jarring user experience. The Metro UI, with its live tiles, was actually quite innovative for a phone. However, on a 27-inch desktop monitor operated with a mouse, it was an inefficient and confusing mess that alienated a generation of Windows power users.Microsoft attempted to build a single OS that was a master of two worlds, but ended up being a jack of all trades and a master of none. The failure of the Windows Phone was a brutal lesson that you cannot force a desktop-first paradigm into a mobile-first world.Google’s approach is the inverse of Microsoft’s, and that is its greatest strength. Instead of shrinking a desktop OS down, it is scaling a mature, app-rich mobile OS up.Google’s smartphone-first strategy holds a fundamental advantage: It already has absolute victory in the app war. The Google Play Store contains virtually every application and service a consumer could want. The challenge is not attracting developers from scratch but instead encouraging them to optimize their existing Android apps for a larger, landscape-oriented screen with keyboard and mouse input — a far simpler task.Furthermore, the user base is already trained. Billions of people are intimately familiar with Android’s navigation, notification system, and settings menus. There is no steep learning curve. An Android PC would feel like a natural, more powerful extension of the device they already use for hours every day. That familiarity with Android creates a powerful, low-friction pathway for adoption that Microsoft never had.For all its engineering prowess, Google’s history is littered with the corpses of brilliantly engineered products that were crippled by inept marketing and a confusing brand message: Google+, Stadia, Allo, and the convoluted early branding of its Pixel phones. The list is long. Google’s marketing problem is a persistent blind spot. It often fails to tell a simple, compelling story about why a consumer should choose its product.The marketing challenge is where the parallel to Microsoft’s failure becomes alarming. Microsoft never articulated a clear, compelling reason for consumers to abandon their iPhones or Android devices for a Windows Phone. Google now faces the same challenge. Why should a consumer buy an Android PC for $700 when they can get a perfectly good Windows PC for the same price or a simpler Chromebook for half of that?Without a massive, clear, and sustained marketing campaign that highlights a unique value proposition — perhaps seamless app continuity with your phone, unlike anything else — these devices could easily get lost in a crowded market, repeating the mishaps of the past.If Google can overcome its marketing hurdles, an Android PC could accelerate the inevitable blurring of lines between smartphones and personal computers. The true endgame may not be an “Android PC” at all, but the death of the PC as a separate device. We are nearing the point where the smartphone is the only computer you need — a “primary brain” that docks into various “shells” to suit the context.Imagine your phone holding all your apps, data, and processing power. At your desk, you place it into a dock connected to a monitor and keyboard, and the UI instantly expands into a full desktop experience. In a hotel, you connect it to a lightweight laptop shell for productivity on the go.Samsung has been experimenting with this concept for years with its DeX platform, but with Google’s full OS-level backing, it could become the standard. A dockable, smartphone-centered form factor would make the separate, dedicated PC obsolete for a vast majority of users, transforming it from a core device into a mere peripheral for the phone.The rise of Android PCs as a smartphone-first computing platform exposes a strategic vulnerability for Apple, which maintains three largely separate operating systems — iOS, iPadOS, and macOS — on hardware that increasingly uses the same silicon, resulting in redundant development and creating a less-than-seamless user experience. While this separation allows Apple to sell you an iPhone, an iPad, and a MacBook, it is an inefficiency born of a hardware-centric business model.Google, whose revenue is driven by advertising and services, doesn’t care what device you use as long as you are logged into its ecosystem. Its ad-driven business model gives Google the freedom to merge its platforms without cannibalizing its core business.For Microsoft, the threat is more direct. An army of affordable, capable Android PCs powered by efficient Qualcomm chips directly attacks the heart of the Windows laptop market. To mitigate this, Microsoft must ultimately refine its own Windows on Arm experience, ensuring seamless performance and compatibility with legacy apps.More importantly, it must lean into its core strengths: the deep integration with enterprise and the unparalleled library of powerful, professional software that will not be coming to Android anytime soon. Windows must become the undisputed OS for serious work, ceding the casual consumer market if necessary.Google’s venture into Android PCs with Qualcomm is the most credible attempt yet at creating a unified computing platform. The smartphone-up strategy is fundamentally sound, leveraging an unbeatable app ecosystem and a user base of billions.However, the project’s success hinges on Google’s ability to do something it has historically struggled with: market a product with clarity, passion, and persistence. If it can, this initiative won’t just create a new category of laptops; it could fundamentally reshape our concept of a “personal computer,” putting immense pressure on both Apple and Microsoft to adapt or risk being rendered obsolete by the tiny computer in everyone’s pocket.For years, digital artists have been caught in a frustrating compromise. Do you choose the slick, consumer-friendly experience of an Apple iPad, with its beautiful screen but glossy, imprecise drawing surface? Or do you opt for a dedicated Wacom tablet, sacrificing portability for professional-grade pen technology?With the release of Wacom’s MovinkPad 11, that compromise is officially over. This device isn’t just another tablet; it’s a focused, masterfully engineered tool that sets a new benchmark for portable digital creation.Wacom’s MovinkPad 11 pairs an OLED display with pro-level pen input, offering digital artists a portable creative tool without compromise. (Image Credit: Wacom).Wacom’s legendary industrial design is on full display. The MovinkPad 11 feels less like a fragile media device and more like a durable piece of studio equipment. The back has a comfortable, grippy texture, and the display itself features a subtly etched surface. This isn’t the slick, glass-on-glass feeling of an iPad; it provides a satisfying, paper-like resistance that gives artists the tactile feedback needed for precise linework. Paired with Wacom’s latest Pro Pen 3, which uses battery-free EMR technology and boasts an imperceptible level of latency, the drawing experience is second to none.At a retail price of $449.95, the MovinkPad 11 is a serious investment positioned squarely against a mid-tier iPad Air. But the comparison is misleading. An iPad is a general-purpose computer that can also be used for artistic purposes. The MovinkPad is a dedicated professional art tool from the ground up. For that price, you are getting a display technology and a pen experience that far surpasses what Apple offers for creative work.So, who is this for? The ideal customer is the serious creative professional or the dedicated hobbyist who prioritizes the drawing experience above all else. This is for the digital illustrator who needs perfect color on the go, the comic book artist storyboarding in a cafe, or the animator sketching out keyframes on the train.While the iPad tries to be everything to everyone, the Wacom MovinkPad 11 is unapologetically for the artist. It is, without a doubt, the ultimate portable canvas. While I’m not an artist, my mother was, and I think she would have loved this tablet, so I’m making it my Product of the Week.

Without much fanfare, Meta has been quietly enhancing the capabilities of its WhatsApp messaging software, which could transform it into a super app.While super apps have gained traction in Asia, they haven’t caught on in the West. Apps like WeChat in China, Grab in Singapore, Gojek in Indonesia, and Paytm in India offer users a bundle of services in a single app — such as messaging, payments, social media, shopping, booking, food delivery, and ride-hailing services.“Rather than replicate WeChat’s model in full, Meta appears to be abstracting the behaviors that matter most,” Paul Armstrong, the founder of the TBD Group, a technology consulting firm, wrote Tuesday in City A.M., a London-based business newspaper.“China’s WeChat integrates messaging, payments, e-commerce, social media, and even government services into a single environment,” he wrote. “WhatsApp is not built to host that degree of functionality, nor would most Western regulatory environments allow it.”“Meta is instead layering in lightweight versions of those capabilities,” he continued. “Each integration is designed to be contextually relevant, low-friction, and invisible when not needed.”“The result is not a Western WeChat clone,” he noted, “but a modular system with a similar behavioral footprint, transactional, sticky, and increasingly agent-mediated.”Ross Rubin, the principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City, noted that the idea of a super app coming to the United States has been around for some time.“It’s been challenging, in part, because unlike in China, where there’s a fragmented app store landscape, here you have two major players, both of whom have their own entrants in many of these categories, making it a bit more challenging to launch such an app,” he told TechNewsWorld.For example, if a super app wanted to offer ride sharing natively, it would lock horns with the likes of Uber. “That’s hard because you have to basically get users off the Uber app and onto the super app,” explained Malik Ahmed Khan, a technology equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services in Chicago.“The super app either has to have its own ride service or partner with Uber,” he told TechNewsWorld. “But why would Uber want to give up its users and book through another app when it can maintain them on its own app and be in charge of that customer account?”Adam Landis, head of growth at Branch, a mobile analytics software company in Mountain View, Calif., agreed that app stores can be a barrier to the rise of a super app.“In Asia, super apps are deeply integrated into daily life,” he told TechNewsWorld. “In the U.S., Apple’s restrictive App Store policies — limiting payments, third-party app distribution, and ecosystem layering — have stifled similar development. But Apple’s loosening grip may open the door for true super app adoption.”“AI is reshaping digital commerce,” he added. “By building a self-contained commercial ecosystem, Meta can harness behavioral data and transactional intent to drive the next evolution of AI-powered commerce.”“AI is the accelerant,” he continued. “Platforms like OpenAI, with persistent context and multi-service interfaces, could become super apps in disguise, handling discovery, decision-making, and transactions autonomously.”Khan pointed out another challenge facing a Meta super app. “If Meta had all these different services integrated into one app, there could be some resistance from a data privacy perspective,” he said. “People might ask, ‘Do I want Meta to know when I’m ordering an Uber or know where I am going?'”“Consumers like things to be easy, so if an app comes along that reduces the friction to make payments, it may be attractive,” added Jennifer Golbeck, a professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. “At the same time, consumers are rightfully concerned about privacy and security. Do they trust this company to take care of their credit card and banking information? Will they be charged for something unexpectedly? Is there a chance for fraud?”Golbeck argued that for new super apps to overtake existing mobile payment options, they will need to offer something new or more convenient. “If I were interacting with people on X or in WhatsApp often enough to make payments there, I may be inclined to use their payment method a lot, and then to use it in other contexts as well,” she told TechNewsWorld.“The real question is if there is enough demand for either app,” she continued. “Meta tried to launch WhatsApp payments in India without much success. They did face some regulatory hurdles, but once those were removed, they did not make much headway in gaining market share over established systems like Google Pay.”“I think whether Meta or X can create real demand for their payment system, given the current state of mobile payments, is the real question,” she said.There might be a demand for a WhatsApp super app in developing markets where bandwidth and app storage are more limited, but in Western markets, resistance is real, added Chris Sorensen, CEO of PhoneBurner, a power dialer and CRM solutions company, in Laguna Beach, Calif. “People are much more privacy conscious and wary of giving one company too much control,” he told TechNewsWorld.“It is also important to note that super apps require broad integrations and behavior shifts that certainly won’t happen overnight,” he said.The consumer demand question is fascinating because it varies significantly by market maturity, noted David Bader, director of the Institute for Data Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in Newark, N.J. “In emerging markets, super apps solve real infrastructure problems — fragmented payment systems, limited internet access, multiple service providers,” he told TechNewsWorld.“In mature markets like the U.S., the value proposition is less clear,” he continued. “Western consumers already have specialized apps that work well. The resistance often comes down to trust and privacy concerns, which are amplified when you’re asking users to consolidate their digital lives into a single platform controlled by one company.”“From a technical standpoint, Meta is absolutely positioning WhatsApp to become a super app,” he added.“The integration of business services, AI-powered agents, and the gradual introduction of payment systems all point to a platform consolidation strategy. What’s particularly interesting from a data science perspective is how Meta is leveraging its AI capabilities — specifically the Llama models — to create contextual experiences within conversations. This isn’t just feature addition. It’s algorithmic orchestration of user needs.”“Meta’s motivation is fundamentally about data and control,” he said. “As a data scientist, I can tell you that fragmented user experiences create fragmented datasets. By consolidating interactions within WhatsApp, Meta gains unprecedented visibility into user behavior patterns across the entire customer journey — from discovery to purchase to support. This creates tremendous competitive advantages in AI development, targeted advertising, and predictive analytics.”

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Enterprises are overestimating the reliability of their cloud providers and need to rethink their cloud strategy, according to Sam Barker, vice president of telecoms market research at Juniper Research.He maintained in a company blog that enterprises over-rely on a single provider for their cloud services, although that may change in the wake of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage last month that disrupted a key database service and led to many services that rely on AWS also to suffer outages, including Disney+, Fortnite, HBO Max, Robinhood, Roblox, Slack, Venmo and Zoom.“Despite the disruption, Amazon’s stock remained relatively stable, suggesting continued investor confidence in the company’s long-term market leadership,” Barker wrote. “However, the incident could accelerate demand for multicloud orchestration tools, edge computing, and services that increase the overall resilience of cloud services.”“Overall, we expect the outage to initiate enterprises to explore new solutions or business models to increase the uptime of their services,” he added.While recent outages at AWS and Microsoft Azure caused degraded performance and downtime for many organizations, noted Gartner Vice President Analyst Lydia Leong, “These events highlight an important truth: cloud disruptions happen, but they are not evidence that the cloud is inherently unreliable.”In an article published on the Gartner website, she warned that moving workloads out of hyperscale providers (repatriation) or to smaller sovereign clouds (geopatriation) won’t eliminate outage risk. “In fact,” she wrote, “these moves often introduce new risks and may even slow down your recovery when things do go wrong.”“It’s tempting to think multicloud is the answer,” she continued. “But Gartner research shows that pursuing multicloud resilience can cost more than it saves, introducing technical complexity without truly eliminating systemic risk.”“Cloud outages make headlines because they affect so many people at once, but context matters,” she added. “Every major provider has experienced similar events, from Microsoft Azure to Google Cloud Platform. The real differentiator is how well your organization plans for and recovers from inevitable disruption.”The past few years have shown just how fragile the digital world can be, observed Shawn Michels, vice president of product management at Akamai Technologies, a content delivery network service provider in Cambridge, Mass. “From cloud platform outages to undersea cable cuts, even the most sophisticated systems can experience failures,” he told TechNewsWorld.“A lot of organizations still assume that because something runs in the cloud, it’s automatically resilient, but that’s not the case,” he said. “Even the biggest clouds don’t have perfect uptime.”“What separates the best from the rest is how well a system reacts to small failures to prevent a larger outage,” he continued. “You can’t stop every component from breaking, but you can design systems to recover so quickly that customers barely notice.”He added that outages remind us that you can’t engineer away all risk. “The most resilient organizations are rethinking their architectures by using phased rollouts, automated rollback capabilities, and continuous observability to make sure problems are caught and contained early,” he explained. “True resilience is as much about culture as it is about technical architecture. It’s how people prepare for failure, respond under stress, and learn from every incident.”While the major hyperscale providers are extremely reliable, they’re not equally reliable, contended Rich Mogull, chief analyst at the Cloud Security Alliance, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to cloud best practices. “Enterprises tend to gloss over these differences,” he said.“For example,” he continued, “AWS rarely has cross-region failures, and when they do, they tend to be limited. You can largely plan around this potential. Azure, by comparison, is more likely to experience global failures due to how their infrastructure is designed.”Enterprises absolutely overestimate cloud reliability, often assuming that global cloud infrastructure is inherently immune to downtime due to redundancy, maintained Ensar Seker, CISO of SOCRadar, a threat intelligence company, in Newark, Del.“In reality, redundancy mitigates risk, but it doesn’t eliminate it,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Even hyperscalers like AWS or Azure operate in a complex web of dependencies across regions, zones, and third-party services. An issue in one layer — like identity federation, DNS propagation, or load balancer routing — can still ripple out and break critical functionality, even if core compute nodes are up.”“What’s critical for enterprises to internalize is that cloud outages are inevitable, not hypothetical,” he said. “The question isn’t if, but how often and how prepared your organization is.”“The AWS outage in June 2023, for example, disrupted everything from banking portals to hospital systems — not because AWS lacked redundancy, but because enterprises hadn’t built their apps to withstand regional or service-specific degradation,” he added.“The day that there are clouds that have a 100% uptime is the day when all problems in this world are eliminated,” declared John Strand, of Strand Consulting, a consulting firm with a focus on telecom, in Denmark.“Right now, everyone — and especially hyperscalers — is building tons of new data centers across the world,” he told TechNewsWorld. “The size and complexity of these centers is exploding, and when that happens, the risk of something going wrong increases. I’m sure that many of these problems will be eliminated over time, while new problems will arise.”Enterprises don’t overestimate cloud reliability; they just misread what it really means, contended Sergiy Balynsky, vice president of engineering at Spin.AI, a cybersecurity company that specializes in protecting SaaS applications from ransomware, data loss, insider threats, and compliance risks, in Palo Alto, Calif. “The cloud isn’t a silver bullet,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It’s a shared responsibility model.”He noted that the AWS outage illustrates that perfectly. “Cloud providers offer highly resilient building blocks — regions, availability zones, failover mechanisms — but it’s up to the enterprise to design for resilience and continuity,” Balynsky explained.“That’s exactly what Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and strong architecture or SRE practices are for. BCP and SRE teams plan for failure, spread the risk, and keep critical systems running during outages. Relying on a single region or skipping redundancy isn’t a provider failure. It’s an architectural oversight,” he said.If a customer is concerned about reliability, they can hedge their concerns by duplicating what they do in one region in another region, noted David Stone, director in the office of the CISO for Google Cloud.“Customers can absolutely design in resiliency by using different data centers in other regions, deploying it into different zones in those regions, and being able to build out that architected framework, even to the point where they can build out applications spanning multicloud environments for resiliency,” he told TechNewsWorld.Srini Srinivasan, founder and CTO of Aerospike, a real-time NoSQL database company in Mountain View, Calif., added that cloud providers offer a variety of capabilities that allow any enterprise to deliver extremely high availability. “I mean like four nines,” he told TechNewsWorld.“There is no reason that, using any of the existing cloud provider features and capabilities, an enterprise cannot achieve that,” he said. “The fallacy people have is that the cloud provider will solve everything for them.”However, Aykut Duman, a partner in the digital and analytics practice at the global strategy and management consulting firm Kearney, pointed out that during the AWS outage, despite deploying workloads across multiple availability zones, organizations experienced complete downtime due to a DNS resolution failure that disrupted core services such as DynamoDB and EC2.“This incident revealed that reliability depends as much on workload architecture and distribution as it does on provider infrastructure,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Enterprises often assume redundancy at the provider level guarantees uptime, but resilience must be deliberately engineered at the application level.” “Enterprises overestimate cloud reliability, because they often equate cloud scale with invulnerability,” he said. “While hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google offer impressive uptime, no system is immune to failure.”“Enterprises tend to underestimate how complex interdependent cloud services are, and how quickly cascading failures can occur across distributed systems,” he continued. “Reliability is high, but not absolute. The recent AWS outage exposed the misconception that cloud-native automatically means resilient.”

Corvus Robotics’ innovative storage tracking system uses fully autonomous drones to take warehouse inventory control to new heights.The Corvus One Autonomous Inventory Management System provides warehouse managers with a bird’s-eye view, enabling them to oversee up-to-the-minute reports on product locations and resolve discrepancies in real time. The deployments follow four years of challenging development.Jackie Wu, co-founder and CEO of Corvus Robotics, developed his autonomous drone idea by observing warehousing operations in 10 countries. He found inventory scattered on massive pallets and sky-high metal shelves. Some of these facilities approached the size of five football fields, with storage bins stretching four stories high.Wu noticed that they all have one thing in common: people with barcode scanners or paper and pencils climb around product stockpiles, updating printouts from previous inventory logs. It is a very slow process fraught with inaccuracies.In 2017, Wu applied his graduate school training in robotics to address the pain points in warehouse management, making them more efficient and less costly to operate. He teamed up with co-founder Mohammed Kabir to develop the Boston-based company that currently has 20 employees. Research and development took several years for the company to reach its first real deployments in 2022.Corvus’ fully autonomous micro aerial vehicles need no human operators to fly them. The technology Corvus created enables the robotic drones to fly unattended within huge warehouses day or night, even in total darkness.AI-based programming controls their ability to follow prescribed flight paths, adapt to navigational barriers, and respond to changes in the layout. They silently zip around corridors, vertically scale elevated storage shelves, record barcoded data, and deliver all surveillance results to the computer system.Corvus uses computer vision, AI, and aerial robotics, which it designed from scratch to deploy a solution that tracks inventory. Wu claims it is 10 times faster and much cheaper than other warehousing management platforms.“The platform is an AI model for autonomy that sits on site, in a computer, and on each of the drones,” Wu told TechNewsWorld. “The drones create a new digital model of the warehouse world, akin to a digital twin, every time they fly. They’re also trained to recognize the differences in inventory and barcode labels for every single site on the next flight.”Using drones commercially indoors is a relatively recent development. For many years, the concept of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for business applications struggled to gain traction. Only recently has the technology for autonomous indoor navigation matured enough to support practical commercial use.Early UAV deployments primarily focused on outdoor applications, including filmmaking, agriculture, and infrastructure inspection. Around 2010, innovative companies started combining logistics expertise with industrial drone technology to overcome the challenges of autonomous indoor flight. Stumbling points included unreliable GPS signals indoors, poor computer vision due to inadequate interior lighting, and the nascent state of AI sensor technology.Success came as developers replaced GPS navigation with a combination of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, visual sensors, and complex algorithms to map and navigate warehouses. Industry reports show a steep upward trajectory for the adoption of inventory drones.One report valued the drone-based warehouse inventory market at over $1.2 billion in 2024, with projections to reach nearly $10 billion by 2033. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 20%.“I like the Corvus Robotics drones because they are out of sight and out of mind. They’re doing things that there’s really not a lot of value to an individual, but to the business it’s priceless,” said Bill Monk, vice president of distribution for GNC.Using the Corvus One System means GNC does not have to pull material handling equipment and laborers from other tasks to perform audits. Drones count pallets and cases, batch scan multiple SKUs in the same location, and provide a volumetric analysis of the slot’s storage capacity, he explained.According to Wu, “robotics” and “autonomous drones” are not terms for the same technology. Robotics is considered a discipline. Drones or micro vehicles are a sub-discipline.Drones operate in 3D space, whereas robots move on the ground. Flying an autonomous drone in 3D requires more complexity, but many of the sensors and computer vision functionality are broadly interchangeable, he clarified.Despite differences in the size and scope of warehouse deployments, Corvus uses the same system platform for every site. Wu noted that installation processes are not as complex as those for other inside surveillance and computerized inventory solutions.“It depends on the size of the facility, but installation takes only one or two weeks. This is not like a nine-month setup where you have to install all this infrastructure, fix it to the ceiling, and put up racking and other support items. It’s pretty quick,” Wu explained. “In smaller business locations, we send one or two deployment engineers who set it up in a day.”The computer software, which can reside in on-site or remote offices, processes data from drone flights to provide visual data and detailed textual reports. Corvus provides software and drone maintenance as needed, offering warehouse personnel a hands-off solution.Wu noted that anyone in the warehouse — authorized workers, supervisors, and the floor manager — can access the warehouse management system’s (WMS) dashboard to search for an item or view the warehouse inventory in its entirety. Warehouse operators can compare data from previous drone flights to track discrepancies, confirm updated inventory reports, and track misplaced product storage.“Instead of walking the floor and looking for every location, they can directly click into the software and look at the pictures,” said Wu.Made-to-order programming puts all the decisions in the warehouse company’s hands, he added. Different customers have different shifts and different comfort levels. So customers can have us program inventory flyovers within a single or multiple time frames.“Being able to run inventory checks 24/7 without operator assistance has been a game changer,” said Austin Feagins, senior director of transformation and solution design at Staci Americas. His company provides third-party logistics and warehousing services for businesses.“The lights-out capability in the Corvus One system allows our inventory teams to correct discrepancies off-shift and pre-shift before production starts each day, limiting fulfillment delays and production impacts,” he explained.Feagins wants the 24/7 inventory surveillance option installed in his company’s five U.S. buildings this year.Corvus’ R&D stages evolved into a continuous cycle of refining the technology to make it work. Over the past few years, the company has overcome numerous technical challenges, learning that no single solution exists to address all of them.“There’s not been one magic unlock that just solved everything. It’s been a lot of lead bullets overcoming issues again and again, more banal issues, more surprising issues, and just kind of trusting in the strength of our engineering team to resolve them,” Wu said.His company relied on open-source software whenever possible. However, much of the platform evolved around in-house coding, particularly in how they integrate software and hardware to achieve their unique autonomy in drone flying.According to Wu, Corvus’ approach has developed a unique robot-as-a-service subscription-based model that is unmatched by competitors’ solutions. The cost factor is a key part of that success.Prices vary depending on the facility’s size and the number of flights. He described other solutions as partially autonomous or lower-tech, where users push a drone around or put up expensive setups beyond what Corvus charges.“The interesting thing is that the customer makes ROI in month one because it is cheaper than what they are currently paying to do this job,” he concluded.

For generations, the path to a successful career has been clearly marked: get good grades, go to a four-year university, and get a stable job. But for today’s students on the cusp of making these life-altering decisions, that path is becoming increasingly foggy.The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a technological shift; it’s a fundamental reshaping of the workforce, and the aftershocks will be felt for decades to come. For students and their parents, this new reality demands a radical rethinking of what it means to be “educated” and “career ready.” The old rules no longer apply, and the learning strategies of the past are insufficient for the challenges of the future.Let’s talk about how AI is reshaping education, career planning, and the skills students will need to succeed. Then, we’ll close with my Product of the Week, an AI tool that I’ve found incredibly useful lately for understanding new technologies and writing related papers: Google Gemini.The conversation about AI and jobs often conjures images of robots replacing factory workers. However, the reality is far more nuanced and, for many, far more concerning. The jobs most at risk are not just those involving manual labor, but also a wide range of white-collar professions that have long been the exclusive domain of college graduates.According to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, by 2030, activities that account for up to 30% of hours currently worked across the U.S. economy could be automated, a trend that generative AI will accelerate.This projected level of automation means professions centered on data analysis, administrative support, and even creative tasks face significant disruption. Jobs like market research analysts, paralegals, and even some entry-level software developers may see their roles dramatically transformed or diminished.The key takeaway is that any job that relies heavily on pattern recognition, data synthesis, and routine cognitive tasks is vulnerable. The list of at-risk professions is not static; as AI capabilities expand, so will the scope of its impact on the job market. This fluidity makes long-term career planning a far more complex and uncertain endeavor than it was for previous generations.Given this high rate of change, the traditional model of choosing a single, specialized major and sticking with it for four years is becoming increasingly risky. The job a first-year student is training for may look vastly different or may not even exist by the time they graduate.In this environment, adaptability is the new currency. A more diverse educational background, one that combines a specialized major with a broad foundation in the liberal arts, can provide students with the intellectual agility needed to navigate this uncertain future.A liberal arts education emphasizing critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving equips students with uniquely human skills AI cannot replicate. These are the skills that will be in high demand in a world where routine tasks are automated.A student who majors in computer science but also takes courses in philosophy, history, and literature will not only be a better coder but also a more adaptable and resilient professional. They will have the ability to see the bigger picture, to ask the right questions, and to communicate complex ideas to a diverse audience.This kind of intellectual cross-training creates a “portfolio” of skills and knowledge that can be applied to a wide range of careers, giving graduates the flexibility to pivot as the job market evolves.The traditional four-year university experience is not the only — or necessarily the best — path for every student. In the age of AI, two-year community colleges and vocational schools offer a compelling alternative. These institutions are often nimbler and more responsive to the needs of the local job market, offering programs that provide students with practical, in-demand skills in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost.For students interested in high-tech fields, a two-year program can be a gateway to a well-paying job in areas like cybersecurity, data analytics, or advanced manufacturing. These programs are often developed in partnership with local employers, ensuring that the curriculum is relevant and that students are learning the skills that are needed in the workplace.This hands-on, applied approach not only prepares students for a specific career but also allows them to quickly determine if that career is a good fit. The shorter duration of these programs is a significant advantage in a rapidly changing world. A student who completes a two-year degree can enter the workforce and start gaining valuable experience while their peers in four-year programs are still in the classroom.This “speed-to-market” can be a significant competitive advantage in a world where the half-life of skills is constantly shrinking.The same AI that is reshaping the job market can also be a powerful tool for learning and personal development. Students who leverage these tools effectively will not only excel academically but also be better prepared for their careers. Here are some resources that can help:The rise of AI is not a reason to fear the future, but it is a call to action. For students standing at the threshold of their adult lives, the message is clear: the old maps will not lead you to the new world.The learning strategies that will lead to success in the age of AI are not about memorizing facts or mastering a single skill. They are about cultivating a mindset of lifelong learning, embracing intellectual diversity, and developing the unique human skills of creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration.The future of work is a moving target, and the students who thrive will be those who learn, adapt, and reinvent themselves in a world of constant change.Being flexible and informed about your interests, capabilities, and job market changes — coupled with a strong focus on educational diversity and AI use — will best prepare you for the world you’ll graduate into.As you prepare to start college, you’re probably thinking about textbooks, dorms, and course schedules. But you should also be thinking about your most valuable academic partner: a smart AI assistant like Google Gemini.While many specialized AI tools exist for specific tasks, a versatile, all-in-one generative AI chatbot is the most useful tool you can have in your academic toolkit. It’s not a replacement for your work, but a powerful assistant that can boost productivity and deepen understanding across subjects.One of its greatest strengths is its ability to streamline the research and writing process. You can use it to brainstorm ideas for an essay, generate a detailed outline, or create a list of potential topics for a paper. When you’re ready to write, it can help you refine your arguments, check for grammatical errors, and suggest alternative phrasing to make your prose clearer and more concise.A recent survey found that over 86% of students use AI for studying and 54% use it at least weekly, with around 25% using it daily. Remember, the key is to use it as a creative partner, not a crutch. Your professors want your original ideas, so always use the tool to enhance your work, not write it for you.Beyond writing, a smart AI assistant can revolutionize how you study. Faced with a dense 50-page reading for a class? You can ask the AI to summarize the key arguments or explain a complex concept in simpler terms. You can also upload your own lecture notes or course materials and have it generate a study guide, create practice quiz questions, or produce flashcards to help you memorize important information.This kind of personalized, on-demand support can be a game-changer, especially during late-night study sessions when a human tutor isn’t available. The ability to learn and review at your own pace is one of the most significant benefits.Ultimately, the most useful AI tool is one that can adapt to a variety of academic challenges. By learning to use a versatile AI assistant responsibly for brainstorming, research, writing assistance, and studying, you can free up valuable time and mental energy. It’s a tool that can help you not only survive but truly thrive in your college career. Since Google Gemini does this for me — and can for you — it’s my Product of the Week.

In today’s hybrid work and connected lifestyle, the right technology makes all the difference in productivity, creativity, and seamless living.Whether it’s robust connectivity, intelligent organization, or reliable performance, the latest innovations elevate everyday experiences.The following reviews spotlight three exemplary products — the TP-Link Deco BE95 mesh router, the Plaud Note Pro smart note taker, and the Dell UltraSharp 32” 4K monitor — that innovatively redefine what “future-ready” really means.From the moment I unpacked the Deco BE95 and powered it on, I could sense TP-Link taking a step into the next generation of home networking. With quad-band Wi-Fi 7 (two 6 GHz bands, 5 GHz, and 2.4 GHz) and theoretical throughput of up to 33 Gbps, it’s built for more devices, more speed, and more headroom.Its multi-gig wired connectivity includes two 10 Gbps WAN/LAN ports (one RJ45, one RJ45/SFP+ combo) and two 2.5 Gbps WAN/LAN ports, letting you deploy high-bandwidth backhaul links or hook up a fast NAS or gaming rig with minimal wired-speed compromise.The mesh architecture, combined with AI-driven roaming and Multi-Link Operation (MLO) across bands, delivers seamless handoffs as you walk through rooms, keeping latency low and throughput high.In large homes, especially multi-story ones or those with thick walls or long distances, the Deco BE95 shines. Each node is powerful enough to blanket 2,000–2,500 square feet, and when used in a 2-pack or 3-pack, can reliably cover 6,000+ sq ft with consistent performance.Because the BE95 supports simultaneous wired and wireless backhaul aggregation, you can combine fiber or Ethernet links with 6 GHz backhaul to distribute traffic intelligently.What makes the TP-Link Deco BE95 truly future-proof:Yes, real-world metrics show that the extra 6 GHz band sometimes doesn’t yield dramatic gains in all use cases, and reviews note that wireless backhaul performance can be modestly underwhelming in specific setups. However, as client hardware evolves and firmware optimizations are rolled out, the BE95 is already positioned ahead of most routers on the market.For a large, device-dense home looking not just to keep up but stay ahead, the Deco BE95 is a bold, future-ready bet. At $1,499, the 3-pack carries a premium price, but it’s engineered for sustained, high-end performance for years to come.One final note: The Deco BE95 genuinely surprised me by finally solving a frustrating issue that my legacy router couldn’t fix: my smart garage control system was constantly dropping offline. Since installing it, the connection has been rock-solid, proving how powerful and reliable its mesh coverage truly is in handling even the most stubborn smart home devices.The Plaud Note Pro feels like a breakthrough in intelligent note-taking. At just over 2.99 mm thin, its stunning credit-card size design means it slips into a pocket or wallet unobtrusively, so you always carry listening and recording capability.Its battery life is extraordinary: in normal mode, it supports up to 30 hours of continuous recording, and with the new “endurance mode,” you can push that to approximately 50 hours at closer range.The magic lies in how it turns raw audio into insight. With four precision microphones and AI beamforming, it captures voices clearly up to 16 feet away, even in group settings. Then, coupled with the Plaud app and cloud-based “Plaud Intelligence,” it transcribes, organizes, and summarizes conversations — flagging key moments and differentiating speakers — all almost instantly.Using it feels surprisingly effortless. You don’t have to fuss with toggles: it automatically switches between in-person and call modes. You get a 0.95-inch AMOLED InstantView display for status, mode, and battery on the device itself. Meetings evolve from passive recordings into structured inputs — you can immediately ask Plaud to “show key takeaways,” or jump to highlights. It effectively becomes an extension of your memory and a synthesis tool.For anyone who deals with conversations like consultants, executives, journalists, or researchers, the $179 Plaud Note Pro is more than a recorder: it’s a personal intelligence amplifier.No more fumbling for your phone, no missing quotes, no hesitation about capturing ideas. The thin design keeps it with you; the battery keeps it ready when needed; and the smart pipeline turns talk into clarity. In a world overloaded with speech, this device makes your conversations work for you.From its clean, elegant design to its powerhouse connectivity, the Dell UltraSharp 32 (U3225QE) is a monitor built around real productivity. The thin bezels and understated aesthetic let your content take center stage.What really differentiates this display is the clever pop-out front-access port module (USB-C, USB-A) tucked into the lower edge — giving you quick access without crawling behind the screen. I’d highlight that element as a thoughtful, user-friendly touch.Visually, the monitor shines. Dell utilizes an enhanced IPS Black panel with a 3000:1 contrast ratio, resulting in deeper blacks and more vibrant colors than typical IPS displays. At a reasonable price of $1,029, given its features, the U3225QE also boosts its appeal with refreshed specs: a 120 Hz refresh rate in 4K, broad color coverage (100% sRGB, 99% DCI-P3), and brightness levels strong enough to compete with ambient light.However, what makes this monitor truly practical for home offices is that it functions as a docking hub, delivering up to 140 watts of power via Thunderbolt 4 to charge laptops and peripherals. It features a built-in KVM switch, allowing you to control two machines simultaneously using a single keyboard and mouse. The total I/O ecosystem — HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort, USB-C, USB-A, and Ethernet — reduces cable clutter and provides flexibility out of the box.For anyone working from home, where space, clarity, and ease of access matter, the Dell UltraSharp 32 is compelling. You get crisp text and image fidelity, a hub that backs your laptop and accessories, and quick-access ports for charging your phone or plugging in accessories during meetings. In a crowded field of monitors, its combination of design, usability, and feature set gives it a strong edge.If your home office is your mission control, the UltraSharp 32 is not just a screen — it’s a productivity anchor.

Walking onto Apple’s campus for a live event is a little like stepping into a hyper-polished alternate reality. Given that I’ve attended numerous events at Apple’s famous “Spaceship” headquarters in Cupertino, I should know better.The buildings gleam, the landscaping looks like it’s been curated by a Hollywood set designer, and most surreal of all, waves of young Apple staffers greet you. “Have a wonderful day!” one says. “We’re excited to have you join us today!” another chimes in.The first few greetings feel charming, like you’ve joined a tech utopia. By the 50th, though, you half expect Yul Brynner to appear in a cowboy hat. The experience drifts into Michael Crichton’s “Westworld” territory: polished, precise, and just a little unsettling.Apple’s “Awe Dropping” event itself had a similar tone. Polished. Precise. Predictable at times, yet with flashes of genuine substance. The iPhone Air, the thinnest iPhone ever, grabbed most of the headlines. But to focus only on the new devices is to miss the deeper story. Apple was sending signals about strategy, supply chains, design, AI, and health, which are just as important as the specs on a product slide.Here’s my take on the five themes that stood out beyond the announcements themselves.For years, Apple has depended on Qualcomm’s 5G modems, even after public legal battles and quiet grudging agreements. At the Awe Dropping event, the new iPhones showcased an Apple-designed modem, hinting at a future where Cupertino may sever ties with Qualcomm altogether.Here’s the nuance that often goes unnoticed by consumers: Apple knows that its in-house modem may not yet match Qualcomm’s best chips in raw performance. Benchmarks in the coming weeks will reveal whether it lags in fringe reception areas or high-speed throughput.However, Apple has always prized control over outright spec sheets. It believes that owning this crucial piece of the iPhone stack outweighs minor performance trade-offs. Integration across silicon, software, and services is Apple’s core playbook.In other words, Apple doesn’t just want a modem. It wants its modem. Analysts note that this provides Apple with greater flexibility to align networking features with future product strategies, potentially including enhanced battery life, custom AI offloading, or even next-generation connectivity standards.It’s a bold move — and even if Apple stumbles in round one, the strategic trajectory is clear: independence from Qualcomm is no longer just a rumor — it’s happening.The star of the show, of course, was the iPhone Air. At an astonishing 5.6 millimeters thin and clad in polished and highly durable titanium, it instantly commanded attention. Apple has always understood the power of design to spur upgrades, and the Air shows the company hasn’t lost its touch.Some analysts called it the most significant aesthetic shift since the Pro line launched in 2019. The Air’s ultra-thin design isn’t just about bragging rights. It’s a signal of where Apple is going: thinner, lighter, more refined, and possibly even foldable down the road. Industry voices noted that you usually have to go thin before you can go foldable. Apple may not be ready to unveil a foldable iPhone yet, but it is clearly laying the groundwork.The new iPhone Air showcases a titanium build in an ultra-thin 5.6-millimeter design. (Image Credit: Apple)What makes the Air notable is that it isn’t compromised. The A19 Pro chip inside offers near-MacBook levels of computing power. The camera system remains powerful. Battery life holds up. Critics can point out that titanium, while strong, is brittle. Still, for most users, the Air demonstrates that Apple can slim down without stripping out capability.Apple’s innovation chips aren’t just silicon: they’re industrial design bets. The Air is a reminder that Apple’s brand still rests on devices that feel different in your hand. For consumers tired of incremental updates, that differentiation could be the nudge they need to upgrade.In today’s geopolitical climate, tariffs and supply chain constraints loom over every tech launch. Many expected Apple to push prices upward, citing inflation and component costs quietly. But for the most part, it didn’t. The Air came in at $999, with other models holding steady in familiar brackets.Apple appears confident it can offset potential cost pressures by reworking its supply chain. The company has spent years diversifying beyond China, shifting production into India and Vietnam. By broadening its base, Apple gives itself wiggle room to absorb tariff hits without startling customers at checkout.Most of my industry analyst peers see this as a show of confidence. Apple isn’t just weathering global trade politics — it’s mastering them. Holding the line on pricing tells customers, “We’ve got this under control.” It also suggests Apple is betting on volume this holiday season. Instead of grabbing extra dollars per device, it wants to move more devices overall.Consumers already expect Apple products to cost more than competitors. What they don’t expect — or tolerate — are unpredictable price jumps. By keeping pricing consistent, Apple sends a message of stability in an unstable world.Artificial intelligence is this year’s tech buzzword, and Apple gave it plenty of oxygen in June at WWDC. At this month’s event, AI took a back seat, but it wasn’t entirely absent. The most notable new feature was Center Stage, which keeps you perfectly framed on video calls.On paper, that might sound small compared to generative models and multimodal assistants. In practice, it’s classic Apple. Rather than hyping AI with abstract promises, Apple shows it solving a simple, relatable problem. You move around during a call, and the camera keeps you centered — no fiddling, no tech jargon, just a smoother experience.This approach reflects Apple’s strength: demystifying technology. Consumers don’t want to read white papers on AI architectures. They want features that make life easier.Center Stage is an easy win, and it opens the door to more visible, consumer-friendly AI integrations in the future.It also serves a strategic role. By making AI practical and approachable, Apple positions itself differently from competitors who flood the market with technical demos. Apple’s pitch is: This is AI you’ll actually use. That framing could prove decisive in persuading skeptical users.Health and wellness once felt like a side story in Apple’s product line. Now it’s central. The new Apple Watch Series 11 introduces features such as hypertension notifications and sleep scoring. The updated AirPods Pro add heart-rate monitoring. Put together, these devices form a tighter health ecosystem than ever before.Analysts emphasized how significant this is. By spreading health features across watches, earbuds, and phones, Apple increases the stickiness of its ecosystem. Once you rely on Apple devices to monitor your vitals, switching to another brand becomes much more difficult.It also broadens Apple’s appeal.Not everyone wants to wear a smartwatch, but almost everyone uses earbuds. By putting health sensing into AirPods, Apple captures a new segment of users who might otherwise be left out. Over time, these moves set the stage for a comprehensive health tracking system — one that spans multiple devices and multiple use cases.For Apple, health isn’t just about selling gadgets. It’s about embedding itself in daily life, literally close to your body. That’s a moat few competitors can match.Without question, the Awe Dropping event wasn’t a revolution. Analysts were quick to note that it felt evolutionary, not revolutionary. The iPhone Air is thinner and sleeker, but it’s not a foldable leap that will almost certainly come in 2026.The modem is more Apple, but still unproven. The AI features are practical, but not jaw-dropping. Health capabilities expanded, but incrementally. Prices held steady, but without dramatic surprises.Yet, taken together, these themes paint a picture of Apple playing the long game. It’s about control of the stack, from the modem to health sensors. It’s about design leadership, not just processor speeds. It’s about stabilizing prices in turbulent times. It’s about introducing AI that feels approachable, not intimidating.No, this event didn’t score a 10 on the technology innovation Richter scale. But it didn’t need to. What it did deliver was enough to excite existing Apple users, reassure the faithful, and pique the interest of potential switchers. Crucially, it set up Apple with strong momentum heading into the holiday season, which is the biggest quarter on its calendar.In that sense, the aforementioned surreal greetings at the start of the day captured the mood perfectly. Apple knows how to make the experience feel just a little larger than life. Whether through smiling staffers or ultra-thin phones, it’s all part of the same playbook: create an environment where customers feel embraced, impressed, and a modicum of awe-struck.

Let’s face it: the PC gaming market may not be growing at the breakneck pace it once did, but it still commands extraordinary influence.Gaming hardware is often the proving ground for technologies that spill over into mainstream consumer and commercial PCs — high-end graphics, advanced cooling systems, immersive audio, and personalization features that redefine user expectations.HP knows this, and its latest gaming announcement shows the company isn’t treating gaming as a side hustle. Instead, it’s going all-in, fusing design ingenuity with gamer-driven engineering and leveraging its HyperX acquisition to stake a stronger claim in a competitive, if maturing, space.At the heart of HP’s gaming philosophy is a deceptively simple principle: build based on what gamers say they want. That’s not just marketing rhetoric. HP’s gaming team has organized its roadmap around three pillars that surface repeatedly in its product strategy: performance, personalization, and play.Every new launch, from flagship desktops to headsets and microphones, ties back to these themes, making the portfolio a coordinated ecosystem rather than a random set of SKUs.HP’s new Omen Max 45L desktop is a statement piece — its most powerful gaming tower to date, and one designed from the inside out with a focus on thermal performance, upgrade flexibility, and aesthetic customization.Cooling is the headline here, with HP’s patented Cryo Chamber technology making a leap from its first-generation 120mm radiator to a new 360mm liquid cooling system.Unlike typical designs that recirculate warm case air, the Cryo Chamber is physically isolated at the top of the chassis, pulling in cool ambient air and delivering up to a 7.5-degree Celsius drop in CPU temperatures and a 2-degree drop for the GPU.HP’s Omen Max 45L gaming desktop showcases triple front RGB fans and a side window view of its GeForce RTX 5090-powered interior with next-gen liquid cooling.For gamers running high-wattage parts like AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Nvidia’s RTX 5090, that’s not a luxury — it’s a performance enabler and a longevity boost.HP also tackled airflow at the chassis level, strategically placing vents and elevating the case feet to improve intake. The modular 1,200-watt PSU supports cleaner cable management, further aiding airflow, and integrates a novel “fan cleaner” feature that reverses fan direction to dislodge dust on a schedule. These aren’t gimmicks; they’re the kind of engineering touches that experienced gamers and PC builders notice immediately.Layered on top of the hardware is the Omen Gaming Hub software, which integrates overclocking, thermal control, lighting, and HP’s AI-powered performance tuning. Omen AI applies machine learning to optimize OS, hardware, and in-game settings simultaneously—one-click performance that HP claims can extract maximum FPS in popular titles without manual tweaking.HP is also refreshing its Omen 35L desktop and introducing a “Stealth Mode” variant with the same high-end specs, but stripped of RGB lighting for gamers seeking tournament-level performance in a minimalist package.This model has already been tapped as the official PC for League of Legends and Valorant esports events, giving HP the kind of credibility that comes from pro-level adoption.The Omen 16 gaming laptop gets its own boost, now configurable with Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti for creators and gamers who need portability without sacrificing rendering horsepower.HP’s 2021 acquisition of HyperX is now paying dividends. Rather than treating it as a bolt-on accessory brand, HP is tightly integrating HyperX’s audio, microphone, and peripheral expertise into its gaming strategy, using the same gamer-feedback loop that shapes its PCs.The new HyperX Cloud Alpha 2 Wireless 3 Headset is a flagship example. With pro-grade, dual-chamber 53mm drivers tuned for both explosive bass and positional accuracy, the Alpha 2 builds on HyperX’s audio pedigree while adding thoughtful upgrades, like simultaneous dual-wireless connectivity, so you can game over 2.4GHz while taking calls over Bluetooth. Battery life is a staggering 250 hours in 2.4GHz mode, roughly double that of competing headsets.By pairing the HyperX Cloud Alpha 2 Wireless 3 Headset with a customizable RGB control hub, HP is signaling that audio gear is as vital to gaming performance as the PC itself.A standout innovation is the world’s first reprogrammable RGB base station for a wireless gaming headset. This feature replaces the traditional USB dongle with a desk-friendly control hub that can adjust mic levels, toggle between headset and speakers, and run macros—all customizable in HyperX’s redesigned Ngenuity software.The Cloud Flight 2 family continues HyperX’s tradition of comfort and durability, now with full RGB panels behind removable earcups for personalization and battery life up to 150 hours on Bluetooth.Recognizing that gaming culture has shifted toward streaming and content creation, HP is leaning on HyperX to deliver professional-grade microphones that are accessible to non-engineers.The new HyperX Flipcast is a dynamic XLR/USB hybrid microphone that excels at rejecting background noise — ideal for gamers in less-than-ideal acoustic environments. Features like a real-time input meter, tap-to-mute, and on-device EQ filters make it creator-friendly, while dual connectivity allows it to scale from plug-and-play to professional setups.For newcomers, the SoloCast 2 condenser mic offers clear audio in a simpler package, with a redesigned shock mount, weighted stand, and built-in pop filter — again, the kind of incremental refinement that comes from listening to feedback on previous models.HyperX SoloCast 2 condenser microphone with built-in stand and USB-C to USB-A cable, designed for clear audio in a compact, creator-friendly package.From hardware to peripherals, HP’s cohesive approach reinforces its commitment to gaming as a core pillar of its broader strategy.On paper, the global PC gaming market isn’t expanding dramatically. But HP’s moves show an understanding that gaming remains strategically essential for three reasons.First, gaming buyers are among the most discerning tech customers. Win them over, and you validate your engineering prowess to a broader audience.Second, innovations born in gaming — such as AI-assisted performance tuning, advanced cooling, and premium input devices — tend to cascade into non-gaming products, elevating the entire portfolio.Third, gaming keeps HP visible in cultural spaces that resonate with younger demographics, from esports tournaments to Twitch streams, which helps future-proof the brand.HP’s approach also leans heavily on its industrial design capabilities. The Omen Max 45L’s modularity, the Stealth Mode’s understated profile, and the tactile, premium feel of HyperX gear all underscore HP’s belief that form and function aren’t mutually exclusive.Even playful touches — such as customizing the Omen cooler’s LCD display with GIFs or system stats — add to the visceral sense that HP is designing for lifestyles, not just benchmarks.In a category where spec sheets often blur together, these kinds of human-centric design details can create real differentiation.HP’s latest announcements suggest a gaming strategy that is cohesive, deeply integrated across hardware and peripherals, and genuinely informed by user input.By balancing flagship innovation with practical usability — whether that’s easier upgrades, cleaner cable routing, or software that removes friction — HP is positioning itself as a brand that respects both the performance purists and the everyday gamers who just want their gear to work beautifully.Analysts widely agree that the global PC gaming market has been relatively stable. Growth rates have hovered around 2% to 4% annually, driven primarily by demand for upgrades rather than new installations.While overall PC sales have fluctuated, gaming components like GPUs and high-refresh-rate monitors have continued to hold steady market share, thanks to gaming enthusiasts and esports growth.Given these market dynamics and realities, HP is sending a clear signal that even if the market isn’t on a rocket-ship growth curve, it intends to be one of the companies defining what the next era of gaming hardware looks and feels like.If history is any guide, much of what HP is pioneering here will find its way into the devices the rest of us use every day.The images featured in this article are credited to HP.

The field of database administration is far from glamorous. Even within the uncompromisingly geeky domain of information technology, database administration would be among the last fields picked for a game of proverbial kickball.However, the future employment landscape for tech jobs remains uncertain in these changing times. Despite its somewhat unglamorous reputation, database management and administration is an industry experiencing rapid growth, persistent talent shortages, and significant changes brought by AI. This field has much potential for those willing to cash in on its viable career path.These watershed moments invariably present significant opportunities as well as challenges. Percona, an open-source database software, support, and services firm, optimizes how databases and applications run. Dave Stokes, a technology evangelist and database veteran at the company, is passionate about helping today’s aspiring database administrators (DBAs) find their way.Stokes has decades of experience in the DBA field. He often speaks on a wide range of cutting-edge topics regarding database operations. With his finger on the IT pulse, he offers the knowledge and expertise needed to mentor effectively.Perusing any industry report on the role of DBA in 2024 confirms that emerging trends and data solutions make for an ever-changing IT landscape. Today’s data environment generates more than two quintillion bytes of data per day.Demands for higher-quality data and real-time results push various database platforms to their limits. As a result, DBAs require increasingly sophisticated skill diversification.Artificial intelligence is only one factor. Other challenges include managing on-premises operations and handling cloud migration and security. Evolution, adaptation, and innovation define DBA’s morphing trends.Open-source databases are now more popular than their commercial counterparts. More organizations are dependent on PostgreSQL and MySQL, according to Stokes.“This standardization on the choice of databases provides DBAs with more employment opportunities and gives employers a vast talent pool from which to fish,” he said.We spoke with Stokes extensively about his view of the state of database management. He observed that the traditional DBA is virtually nonexistent “in the wild” today.A significant portion of conventional work has been moved to site reliability engineers or cloud providers’ services. As databases have mushroomed in size and scope, some functions, such as query optimization, have been ignored.“Much of what was handled by a DBA is now compensated for by purchasing ever larger cloud chunks,” Stokes told TechNewsWorld. “Institutional knowledge about an organization’s data was abandoned when the DBA role was supplanted.”Until that impact escalates, trying to figure out how some data is structured and how it impacts ongoing operations is a tertiary consideration, he observed.But there is good news about where DBA is headed. Some data workers are interested in the functions performed by a DBA, even if they do not have that title.“Query tuning, defining data structures, server optimization, and administration of the instance itself have value,” he said.Dave Stokes shared more insights on the latest trends, technologies, and challenges in the field of database administration. From the impact of cutting-edge technologies to the evolving role of DBAs, Stokes offered valuable perspectives on navigating the complex landscape of database management.Dave Stokes: Vector data for machine learning will consume unprecedented amounts of disk space, processor cycles, and administrative time. Moving a copy of a model to another location for training will incur expensive transfer fees, require monitoring, and take up even more disk space.JSON is the data interchange of choice for most. Storing data in a JSON format is not as efficient as storing it in traditional data types. Extracting some JSON values and storing them as a traditional data type can speed processing but add complexity.Replicated data over several data centers is very common. Managing that data, spread out over a continent or globe, is tricky.Stokes: The ability to add more processing power or disk space by clicking a checkbox on a webpage and paying for it with a credit card has revolutionized data administration. There is no more worrying about getting approval for a capital expenditure, capacity planning, or sweating the optimizations needed.Lead time for expansion is now nonexistent. When a company may have had a dozen databases at the beginning of this century, they now can have tens of thousands of them.Need to expand into AI? Then load billions of records into a cloud account and worry about the quality and quantity later. And as data lakes creep into data oceans, the data still needs to be managed, backed up, and monitored.Stokes: AI is needed in the database itself. However, general AI adoption by an organization means more disk space, processor cores, data migrations, and backups.An optimizer that can spot data usage patterns and recognize the need to cache specific data or autotune buffer usage would be a big plus. Smarter query optimizations and user usage patterns could shift server capacities to accommodate data needs.Stokes: Those who could move their data to the cloud have found a big benefit in many cases. Scaling is now a function of using a credit card. Backups, server failovers, and software upgrades are handled by the cloud vendor.For many, the need for an in-house DBA has been replaced by a dependency on their cloud provider. Some have found the cloud too expensive and have returned to on-premises operations. In these cases, they need to have staff to handle the traditional work of a DBA.Stokes: Costs are steadily increasing. Businesses used to be reluctant to spend money on capital expenditures, and upgrading servers was a complicated process, often taking months.In the cloud, upgrades are an operational budget expense done on a credit card almost instantaneously. Why optimize data or a server when itemizing a bill is easier and faster?Stokes: Although the title may not say DBA, someone will always be needed to monitor, tune, optimize, and guide database instances. These may be seen as hygiene factors, but the reliability of the data requires them.Stokes: Learn Structured Query Language (SQL). There is a reason why it is the only computer language that survived from the 1970s. It matches business logic exceptionally well and is designed to deliver the information requested in a way it can be used.Data normalization is also critical. Poorly defined data structures are slow and become challenging to manage over time.Lastly, communication is key. The ability to express why a change to a table that seems simple to a requester can shut down a petabyte of information for hours can save an organization from disaster.Stokes: Better data backup and faster data restoration are always needed. Much attention is paid to the time and financial costs of recovering data, and there will be a push to reduce these costs.Security enhancements will be pursued. It is still too easy to have a minor slip-up, either in the cloud or on-premises, that leads to finding your data on the front page of a newspaper.DBAs will need better tools to handle the explosive growth in the scope and scale of the instances they manage.

Red Hat’s recent momentum highlights how open-source innovation, paired with disciplined execution, can redefine how enterprises adopt and scale AI.Best known for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift, its Kubernetes-based hybrid cloud platform that enables organizations to build, deploy, and manage containerized applications across environments, the company has evolved into a key player in enterprise AI strategy. Its progress reflects a pragmatic approach to innovation, a strong engineering culture, and a careful balance between its independent ethos and IBM’s global resources.More broadly, Red Hat is building a foundational platform to fuel the next wave of AI model and agent development and utilization in enterprise and cloud data centers.Red Hat’s strategy revolves around what it calls a trusted, consistent, and comprehensive foundation for hybrid cloud and AI. Its core proposition is simple yet powerful: enterprises should be able to build, deploy, and manage AI applications anywhere — across data centers, public clouds, and the edge — without vendor lock-in.At the heart of this is Red Hat OpenShift AI, a platform that bridges traditional IT operations with AI model development. It supports hybrid and multicloud deployments and runs on any accelerator, from Nvidia GPUs to emerging alternatives such as AMD Instinct and Google TPUs.Jeff DeMoss, director of product management at Red Hat, framed the strategy during a recent analyst webinar: “To move AI into true enterprise production, customers need efficient models aligned to the use cases they care about and the freedom to run their AI anywhere.”That freedom is supported by a hardware-agnostic inference platform built on open technologies such as vLLM, LLM Compressor, and Llama Stack, each of which enables organizations to scale AI workloads efficiently and cost-effectively.Few would have predicted that IBM, a company with a mixed track record of integrating major acquisitions, would manage Red Hat so deftly. Yet, five years after the acquisition, Red Hat’s revenue has doubled, its employee base has grown beyond 20,000, and its culture remains intact.On a recent TechStack Podcast, Red Hat Senior Director of Market Insights, Stu Miniman, described why the partnership worked: “We’re a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM, but we’re still very much Red Hat. Our benefits, systems, and even internal culture remain independent. IBM is our most important partner, but we operate separately.”Miniman credits IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who architected the 2019 acquisition, with protecting Red Hat’s autonomy: “They put Arvind in as CEO because he made the acquisition, and he wanted to make sure it succeeded. IBM didn’t interfere. They let Red Hat do what it does best.”This independence has enabled Red Hat to move quickly in fast-evolving markets like hybrid cloud orchestration and enterprise AI, while still benefiting from IBM’s research and enterprise relationships. As Miniman put it, “IBM’s history with open source goes back decades, but Red Hat still feels special inside. That’s what they’ve preserved.”Red Hat’s evolution from virtualization pioneer to AI platform leader is rooted in its engineering DNA. The company’s early work on KVM hypervisors, OpenStack, and OpenShift virtualization paved the way for its modern AI approach.Miniman traced that lineage clearly: “What we built with KVM and OpenStack set the stage for how we think about AI today — consistent infrastructure that scales across hybrid environments.”Today, OpenShift AI extends that model to support generative and agentic AI workloads at scale. The platform leverages distributed inference frameworks and model-as-a-service capabilities to enable enterprise IT teams to become internal AI providers.Instead of paying per token to cloud providers, organizations can now host models internally, route workloads intelligently, and manage GPU resources through GPU-as-a-service orchestration.Beyond infrastructure, Red Hat is investing heavily in productivity. Red Hat Developer Lightspeed, launched last month, integrates AI assistants directly into developer tools to accelerate modernization efforts.As Red Hat Senior Director of Product Management, James Labocki explained: “The future of AI isn’t just about better models — it’s about putting intelligent assistance directly into developers’ hands. Red Hat Developer Lightspeed empowers teams to modernize applications faster while maintaining operational standards.”Lightspeed works alongside Red Hat’s Migration Toolkit for Applications 8, automating “replatforming” to OpenShift while offering AI-driven refactoring suggestions. The result is a seamless bridge between legacy workloads and modern AI-native architectures.Red Hat’s partnership with Nvidia illustrates how it plans to keep data centers AI-ready. The company recently announced support for Red Hat OpenShift on Nvidia BlueField DPUs, enabling faster, more secure processing by offloading networking and storage functions from CPUs to DPUs.Red Hat VP of AI and Infrastructure, Ryan King, summed it up: “As the adoption of generative and agentic AI grows, the demand for advanced security and performance in data centers has never been higher. Our collaboration with Nvidia gives customers a more reliable, secure, and high-performance platform.”This approach creates a clear value chain: Red Hat provides the software foundation; Nvidia provides hardware acceleration; and enterprises get optimized performance and security for AI workloads without sacrificing hybrid flexibility.As AI adoption accelerates, Red Hat is grounding its innovations in governance and trust. The company’s AI Guardrails Framework provides customizable moderation layers between users and generative AI systems. Features like bias and drift detection, LM evaluation, and telemetry APIs ensure transparency and explainability.Jeff DeMoss described the intent succinctly: “Our goal isn’t just to accelerate AI, it’s to operationalize it responsibly. Enterprises need trust, safety, and explainability built in from day one.”In a market increasingly defined by proprietary cloud AI platforms, Red Hat’s open-source ethos gives it a unique edge. The company’s philosophy, “any model, any hardware, any cloud,” resonates with enterprises wary of vendor lock-in.Red Hat’s collaboration with Cisco further strengthens that vision. As Cisco’s Siva Sivakumar observed during the joint webinar, “We’re transitioning from a virtualization-dominated era to an AI-dominated one, and Red Hat gives us the hybrid architecture to make that possible.”With AI reshaping the data center, Red Hat’s platform-first strategy puts it in a strong position against both hyperscalers and legacy infrastructure vendors. The integration of open-source technologies, strong developer engagement, and responsible AI practices ensures relevance across the enterprise, government, and telco sectors.Red Hat’s trajectory since joining IBM proves that cultural integrity and technical openness can coexist with scale. The company has evolved from being Linux’s commercial champion to becoming one of the most credible AI infrastructure players in the enterprise world.It is not chasing the model wars — it is building the foundation beneath them. By enabling organizations to operationalize AI on their own terms — securely, efficiently, and transparently — Red Hat has positioned itself as a quiet but formidable leader in the next phase of the AI-driven data center revolution.

Despite billions spent on generative AI, most enterprises still fail to see measurable ROI. A new analysis suggests the problem lies not in algorithms or ambition but in the hidden layer beneath — data infrastructure. Experts say storage, scalability, and performance bottlenecks are holding back enterprise AI from moving beyond pilot projects into profit-driving production.A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study found that despite U.S. companies investing an estimated $30–40 billion into generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), 95% have seen no measurable return, with only 5% successfully deploying tools at scale. The issue is not infrastructure or talent but the technology itself.Current AI systems lack memory, adaptability, and the ability to integrate into mission-critical workflows, according to researchers. Numerous outlets reported the MIT study, but it is not available directly from MIT.A key finding revealed that a vast chasm exists between a small group of companies that extract millions of dollars in value from AI and the vast majority, which have zero measurable impact on their profit and loss statements. Four primary reasons support this claim.Most GenAI initiatives often fail at the pilot stage. Only 5% of over 300 public implementations successfully scale to production with a measurable impact. Flawed enterprise integration, not the quality of the AI models themselves, results from tools that fail to learn from feedback and are not well-integrated into daily operations.Another contributing factor to the low ROI results is that employees are using “shadow AI economy” tools, such as ChatGPT, independently. A further reason for failure is mismatched priorities when allocating AI budgets. Sales and marketing receive roughly 50% of the funding, even though back-office automation is more likely to yield significant, measurable returns.The ROI failure extends across all corporate layers, according to Björn Kolbeck, CEO and co-founder of Quobyte. He noted that some come from products forced onto users by CEOs or half-baked “AI features.” On the technical side, models are often delayed or undertrained due to weak infrastructure, with storage frequently being the primary bottleneck.“All suffer if you can’t feed GPUs at scale — [in terms of] memory, adaptability, and integration,” he told TechNewsWorld.Kolbeck sees companies investing billions while overlooking adequate storage to support their AI infrastructure as one of the major mistakes corporations make. He said that oversight leads to three key failure factors — festering silos, lack of performance, and uptime dilemmas.The most critical resource for AI is data training. When companies store data across multiple silos, data scientists lack access to essential details.“Storage systems must be able to scale and provide unified access to enable an AI data lake, a centralized and efficient storage for the entire company,” he observed.A lack of performance sets in when the storage system cannot keep up with the demands of the GPUs used for training or fine-tuning. This causes expensive resources to sit idle, frustrates data scientists, and delays projects.“Similarly, when storage solutions aren’t built for maximum performance and availability – like many HPC storage systems – you end up with the same problem: delayed projects,” he warned.The MIT report noted that successful AI deployments integrate at scale. That requires fault-tolerant storage.Traditional storage usually means enterprise storage. While they are reliable, they cannot scale out, Kolbeck cautioned.“Early AI projects may work well, but as soon as these projects grow in size [as in more GPUs], these arrays tip over, and that’s when mission-critical workflows grind to a halt,” he said.Kolbeck explained the difference between scale-out architecture versus a scale-up approach as a better option for handling the massive and unpredictable data demands of modern AI and ML. He cited his company’s experience in making that transition.Quobyte provides a parallel file system that turns commodity servers into a high-performance, scalable storage solution. In the past, scale-up solutions have always failed.So Quobyte ended up with scale-out. He noted that the company saw the strain in HPC, where vector machines gave way to clusters, in computer chips, where modern CPUs are scale-out, and also in the cloud.The same principle applies to AI training. If you can’t scale out, you are limited in how many and how large models you can train or fine-tune.“The storage needs to keep up with this horizontal scaling. When you add GPUs, your storage needs to be able to scale out in lockstep,” he said.AI workflows involve a mix of small and large files. Consider the massive performance requirements that arise when many GPUs access data in parallel, as well as the management of multiple users with varying requirements on the same storage system.“Developing and training AI technology is still a very experimental process and requires the infrastructure — including storage — to adapt quickly when data scientists develop new ideas,” Kolbeck noted.Real-time performance analytics are critical. Storage administrators need to be able to precisely identify how applications, such as training or other pipeline phases, impact the storage. Most data scientists lack deep visibility into storage, and storage administrators need this information to make informed decisions about how to modify, optimize, and expand the storage system.Quobyte’s policy-based data management engine rapidly adapts to changing business, user, and workload requirements, providing complete control. Users can change how and where they store files and organize them with a few clicks, he added.Kolbeck described traditional enterprise storage as built around 30-year-old technology, including the NFS protocol, which Sun Microsystems designed in 1984. This old-school approach cannot keep up with the scale-out requirements of AI.His favorite examples are Yahoo and Google. Yahoo built its infrastructure on NFS-based enterprise storage appliances. Google, on the other hand, built its entire infrastructure on software storage using distributed systems technology on cheap servers.“Thinking that the same recycled storage technology will now enable companies to run successful AI is more like wishful thinking,” he suggested.Building the infrastructure for successful AI projects requires thinking like a hyperscaler — a philosophy central to Quobyte’s approach. The company’s software-defined storage system applies distributed systems algorithms to deliver reliable performance on commodity servers, scaling seamlessly from a handful of machines to entire data centers.

New research by NewsGuard has revealed that the latest version of OpenAI’s video creation tool Sora 2 can be prompted to advance false or misleading information 80% of the time.NewsGuard, which rates the credibility of news and information websites, maintained that its findings demonstrate the ease with which bad actors can weaponize the powerful new technology to spread false information at scale. Five of the 20 false claims Sora generated originated with Russian disinformation operations, it added.The researchers noted that within minutes of accessing Sora 2 they had it producing false or misleading videos related to major news, including videos showing a Moldovan election official destroying pro-Russian ballots, a toddler detained by U.S. immigration officers, and a Coca-Cola spokesperson announcing that the company would not sponsor the Super Bowl because of Bad Bunny’s selection as the halftime headline act.NewsGuard also asserted that its findings demonstrate how, with minimal effort and no technical expertise, bad actors, including health-hoax peddlers, authoritarian regimes engaged in hostile information operations, and political misinformers, can easily use this technology to make false claims more convincing.OpenAI cautioned users about the risks of Sora 2 on a “system card” at its website. “Sora 2’s advanced capabilities require consideration of new potential risks, including nonconsensual use of likeness or misleading generations,” it wrote. “To address these, we worked with internal red teamers to identify new challenges and inform corresponding mitigations.”“We’re taking an iterative approach to safety, focusing on areas where context is especially important or where risks are still emerging and are not fully understood,” it noted.“Our iterative deployment includes rolling out initial access to Sora 2 via limited invitations, restricting the use of image uploads that feature a photorealistic person and all video uploads, and placing stringent safeguards and moderation thresholds on content involving minors,” it continued.“We’ll continue to learn from how people use Sora 2 and refine the system to balance safety while maximizing creative potential,” it added.OpenAI explained that the new model introduces capabilities that have been difficult for prior video models to achieve, such as more accurate physics, sharper realism, synchronized audio, enhanced steerability and an expanded stylistic range.The model follows user direction with high fidelity, it added, enabling the creation of videos that are both imaginative and grounded in real-world dynamics.Michelle A. Amazeen, an associate professor of Mass Communication at Boston University, found NewsGuard’s research “deeply concerning.”“Just when media consumers were already navigating a complex and often confusing information landscape, AI-generated content like Sora 2’s videos further muddies the waters by producing highly convincing false claims,” she told TechNewsWorld. “This only intensifies the challenge of discerning truth from misinformation in today’s digital age.”Scott Ellis, director of brand and creative at Daon, a biometric identity assurance and authentication solutions company in Fairfax, Va., asserted that Sora is effectively a deepfake tool. “Deepfake tools generally have three uses: personal entertainment, professional entertainment and malicious activity,” he told TechNewsWorld. “The fact that the tool fails to prevent malicious activity 80% of the time is a giant red flag.”“An 80% success rate in producing convincing falsehoods is a striking benchmark of potential misuse of the AI model,” added Arif Mamedov, CEO of Regula Forensics, a global developer of forensic devices and identity verification solutions.“We’re no longer talking about fringe deepfake hobbyists,” he told TechNewsWorld. “We’re talking about industrial-scale misinformation pipelines that can be created by anyone with a prompt.”Dan Kennedy, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University, in Boston, was unsurprised by NewsGuard’s findings. “All I can think of in reading the results of NewsGuard’s test is: Why would anyone be surprised?” he told TechNewsWorld.“Generating fake videos, after all, is Sora 2’s purpose,” he said. “And skilled — and sometimes even not-so-skilled — users are always able to get around safeguards aimed at ensuring, for instance, that public figures can’t be depicted, or that fake videos will be properly labeled.”“We’ve been living with such videos for quite some time, including crude efforts like that footage of Nancy Pelosi slowed down to make her sound like she was drunk,” he added. “The significance of Sora 2 is that now such deceptive content can be produced by anyone in a matter of minutes at high enough quality that viewers have no way of knowing that it’s not real.”In an article titled “Launching Sora Responsibly,” OpenAI explained that every video generated with Sora includes both visible and invisible provenance signals. All outputs carry a visible watermark and all videos also embed C2PA metadata, an industry-standard signature. It also noted that it maintains internal reverse-image and audio search tools that can trace videos back to Sora with high accuracy.However, NewsGuard’s researchers found the Sora watermark could easily be removed from the videos it creates. The “Sora” watermark that is present on all videos can be removed using free online tools, they wrote.“NewsGuard tested one free tool, developed by BasedLabs AI, and found that it successfully removed the watermark from an uploaded Sora video in approximately four minutes, allowing users to download a non-watermarked version of the same video,” they explained. “While the altered videos displayed minor irregularities, such as blurring where the watermark was originally located, they could appear authentic to an unsuspecting viewer.”Watermarks can help at first, but they’re far from a perfect fix, observed Jason Crawforth, founder and CEO of Swear, a digital media authentication company, in Boise, Idaho. “As AI becomes more advanced at editing and manipulating digital media, even sophisticated watermarks can often be detected and removed, reducing their value as a safeguard,” he told TechNewsWorld. “At best, they serve as a short-term deterrent rather than a reliable barrier.”“Watermarks help only at the margins,” said Jason Soroko, a senior fellow with Sectigo, a global digital certificate provider. “If they live in pixels they can be weakened by simple edits like crops, resizes or reencodes, and if they live in metadata they vanish when platforms strip tags.”“The sturdier approach is provenance that travels with the asset, such as digitally signed content credentials at creation and edit, plus platform side checks and clear labeling,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Even then, provenance shows origin not truth, so layered defenses are needed.”The real issue is that companies built these systems on unauthorized training data without consent mechanisms, contended Jordan Mitchell, founder of Growth Stack Media, a content and communications agency, in Raleigh, N.C. “We need increased adoption of blockchain-based content authentication because it creates immutable records of content origin and ownership that are far more difficult to alter,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Blockchain could provide the transparency needed in an AI-dominated creative landscape, similar to how NFTs help creators establish verifiable ownership of digital works,” he said.Sora declined to create videos for four false claims fed to it by the NewsGuard researchers: Tylenol used for circumcisions is proven to cause autism, a South Korean study proved Covid-19 vaccines increase the risk of developing cancer, the National Guard pepper sprayed left-leaning protesters and Israel orchestrated an October 2025 U.K. synagogue attack to gain sympathy. “It is not clear why Sora generated some videos and not others,” the researchers wrote.“The inconsistency is more dangerous than blanket refusal would be,” maintained Growth Stack’s Mitchell. “It suggests Sora operates on surface-level pattern matching rather than principled safety architecture.”“If users can’t predict what the system will refuse, they’ll keep experimenting until they find prompts that work,” he said. “This unpredictability creates a trial-and-error environment where determined bad actors eventually discover exploitable gaps in the system’s defenses.”“Large models are probabilistic and context sensitive, so refusals can flip with small changes in phrasing or history,” explained Sectigo’s Soroko. “That unpredictability weakens user comprehension of the rules and invites prompt roulette, which increases the attack surface.”Swear’s Crawforth argued that inconsistency in what Sora generates erodes trust in the technology. “If users can’t understand why one request is blocked while another nearly identical request is allowed, it creates uncertainty about whether the system is actually protecting against harm or simply behaving unpredictably,” he said. “This lack of transparency makes it difficult for the public, regulators and even businesses to rely on the system as a trustworthy solution.”“The bigger issue is that gaps like this leave room for bad actors to exploit loopholes,” he added. “For AI tools to be credible and safe, the reasoning behind refusals needs to be consistent. Otherwise, companies risk creating an environment where harmful misinformation can slip through and where trust in digital content is weakened even further.”

If you are feeling a little less “ho-ho-ho” and a little more “bah humbug” this year, you aren’t alone. The recent government shutdown, which mercifully ended on Nov. 12, left many households tightening budgets amid lingering uncertainty, making this holiday season feel particularly fragile. Money is tight, uncertainty is high, and for many of us, the idea of a lavish Christmas feels irresponsible, if not impossible.But here is the good news: We are living in the golden age of consumer artificial intelligence. While AI can’t print money (yet), it can act as a force multiplier for your creativity, a ruthless hunter for bargains, and a creator of deeply personal gifts that cost a fraction of store-bought alternatives.Here is how you can use the tools available right now to save money, from your Christmas cards to the tree.Let’s explore how today’s AI tools can make Christmas more affordable, and we’ll close with my Product of the Week: Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, with a screen that nearly magically extends from a portable 14-inch to 16-inch with the push of a button.The traditional “brag sheet” Christmas letter often sounds tone-deaf, especially in a lean year. This is where AI can help you strike a balance between sharing news and maintaining humility and warmth.Drafting with Empathy: Tools like ChatGPT or Claude are excellent at tone calibration. Instead of staring at a blank screen, paste your bullet points of the year’s events into the chatbot and ask it to “Write a warm, humorous, empathetic Christmas letter that acknowledges it has been a tough year financially but focuses on gratitude and family resilience.”Visualizing the Narrative: Text is only half the battle. You can now create custom illustrations that break the monotony of text walls. Instead of a generic clip-art Santa, use image generators like Midjourney or DALL-E 3 (available via ChatGPT Plus) to create scenes that match your family’s vibe.We’ve had search engines; now we have “shopping agents.” The shift from keyword searching to agentic AI — where the AI reasons on your behalf — is a massive money saver.If you are struggling to find a gift for a spouse who loves 1980s sci-fi but already owns everything, stop browsing Amazon categories randomly. Ask an AI agent.The new AI-infused Google Shopping allows you to ask complex queries like, “What is a thoughtful, under-$50 gift for a man who loves ‘Blade Runner’ but hates clutter?” It will scour reviews and forums to suggest items like a “Tears in Rain” monologue print or a specific type of whiskey glass, rather than just a generic movie poster.Once you identify the gift, do not pay full price. AI browser extensions like Honey (now PayPal Honey) or price-tracking features in Microsoft Edge’s Copilot automatically scan for coupons and price history.Pro Tip: If you are eyeing a big-ticket item, use an AI tracker to watch the price. We are seeing volatility due to lingering supply-chain disruptions following the shutdown, and AI can alert you the second a price drops to its historical low.The most memorable gifts are often the ones that show you “see” the person. This year, you can use generative AI to put your children, spouse, or friends into their favorite pop culture worlds, which is significantly cheaper than buying licensed merchandise and infinitely more personal. The process:Once you have the image, don’t just leave it on a phone. Upload it to a service like Shutterfly or Printful to put it on a canvas, a puzzle, or even a blanket. A custom puzzle of Dad as a Jedi is a gift that provides entertainment and is a keepsake, usually for under $30.This serves as your critical warning: While AI generates art in seconds, physical production and shipping are subject to the laws of physics and logistics networks still recovering from the shutdown.If you are planning print-on-demand gifts such as canvases, mugs, or custom books:Services like nPhoto and other professional labs have already set strict cutoff dates. Do not let the speed of AI lull you into a false sense of security regarding physical delivery.The shutdown and the economy have dealt us a tough hand this year, but constraint often breeds creativity. By using AI, we can move away from the “add to cart” panic of consumerism and toward a season of thoughtful, personalized creation.We can write letters that actually mean something, find gifts that show we listen, and create art that puts our loved ones center stage. It takes a little more time than swiping a credit card, but in a year where every dollar counts, the effort and the savings will be the best gifts of all.If Santa Claus were a tech analyst, he’d likely be trading in his dusty ledger for the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable. (Note: At the time of publication, Lenovo’s site has shown an on-again, off-again “no longer available” notice, but Lenovo tells me the Rollable is only temporarily out of stock.)As 2025 draws to a close, I’ve reviewed a sleigh-load of laptops, but this one is hands-down my favorite notebook of the year. In a market saturated with iterative updates and “safe” designs, Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 stands out as being both truly different and genuinely useful. It’s the kind of innovation that doesn’t just sit on a desk; it performs a magic trick.The party piece of this machine is, of course, the display. Out of the box, it looks like a premium, albeit slightly thick, 14-inch notebook. But with the push of a button (or a software trigger), the 14-inch OLED panel motorizes upward, unrolling to reveal a massive 16.7-inch vertical workspace.The screen expansion isn’t a gimmick; it’s a productivity dream. The aspect ratio shifts from a standard view to a towering 8:9 format, effectively giving you two 16:9 screens stacked on top of one another. For writers, coders, and analysts, this means you can see nearly double the number of lines in a spreadsheet or document without scrolling. It feels like unwrapping a bigger present every time you sit down to work.Under the hood, this is a serious machine. It is powered by the new Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) Lunar Lake architecture, which provides excellent power efficiency and strong performance for productivity tasks. Paired with 32GB of RAM and the stunning 120Hz OLED clarity, it handles heavy workflows with grace.However, the price tag is steep at around $3,499. But for that price, you aren’t just buying specs; you’re buying a status symbol. When I use this in a coffee shop or a conference room and hit that extend button, conversation stops. It immediately prompts people to ask about it, usually with a palpable sense of envy. It is the tech equivalent of pulling up in a concept car.Despite my adoration for this device, it isn’t perfect. Like a complex toy on Christmas morning, it comes with warnings. Here are its distinct shortcomings:The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is a daring, beautiful, and highly functional piece of future-tech. It has its quirks, but it brings a sense of wonder back to personal computing that has been missing for a long time. I really love this laptop, making it an ideal pick for my Product of the Week.

With energy demand soaring — largely due to the growth of data centers supporting a burgeoning AI industry — concerns have arisen about where the nation will find the energy capacity to meet its power needs.A new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) argues that capacity can be found in the near- and medium-term, giving power providers the time they need to add infrastructure to the existing grid and meet longer-term electricity demand.“However, such a solution will not arrive on its own,” wrote the author of the report, Robin Gaster, research director for ITIF’s Center for Clean Energy in Washington, D.C. “Without significant action across multiple fronts and at substantial scale, the existing grid will come under increasing pressure — and we can expect a massive struggle for access.”“Regulators will be caught between the sudden growth in demand and political pressure to service existing commercial and residential customers first, while keeping a lid on prices,” he explained.One of the significant drivers of the growing electricity demand appears to be data centers, the report noted, prompting calls to slow their growth or even prevent them from connecting to the grid altogether.“Slowing data center growth or prohibiting grid connection is a short-sighted approach that embraces a scarcity mentality,” argued Wannie Park, CEO and founder of Pado AI, an energy management and AI orchestration company, in Malibu, Calif.“The explosive growth of AI and digital infrastructure is a massive engine for economic, scientific, and industrial progress,” he told TechNewsWorld. “The focus should not be on stifling this essential innovation, but on making data centers active, supportive participants in the energy ecosystem.”“Data centers are the engine of the AI economy, but they can’t be passive loads anymore,” he said. “Data centers can and should be active partners that contribute to grid stability and resilience, not just consume power. Prohibiting growth would simply limit the innovation needed to solve the power crunch in the first place.”The reality is the U.S. has dramatically underinvested in long-term grid upgrades and planning, maintained Scotty Embley, an associate with Hi-Tequity, a data center development and investment firm, in Melbourne Beach, Fla. Slowing data center builds equates to slowing vital applications such as banking, federal, health care, and transportation, he told TechNewsWorld.However, he acknowledged that early coordination with utilities is necessary to ensure new facility locations are strategically planned and responsibly powered, where adequate grid support is available.Instead of restricting data center development, the focus should be on smarter integration with the grid, added Allan Schurr, chief commercial officer at Enchanted Rock, a provider of natural gas-powered microgrids, in Houston.Planning for the full lifecycle of a data center’s power needs — from construction through long-term operations — is essential, he continued. This approach includes having solutions in place that can keep facilities operational during periods of limited grid availability, major weather events, or unexpected demand pressures, he said.Schurr explained that on-site generation, including natural gas microgrids, can provide bridge power during interconnection delays, flexible capacity to support grid-constrained regions, and dependable backup power when the grid is stressed or offline. With this type of coordinated approach, data centers can continue to grow while strengthening, not straining, our power infrastructure, he contended.Data centers are the source of the information for anything we do on the internet, added Arie Brish, a business professor at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. They must be up 24/7. These facilities are not like a laundry operation that can be limited to off-hours.He also noted that the importance of continuity in data center operations requires that they have backups of local generators. These local generators can indeed be used to feed the facilities during peak hours, thus balancing grid demand, he told TechNewsWorld.Rick Bentley, CEO of HydroHash, a crypto-mining company focused on clean energy and high-efficiency operations, in Albuquerque, N.M., recommended that data center operators avoid the grid entirely. That saves the data center massive costs in both regulations and fees, he told TechNewsWorld.Once they are on the grid, their power can be curtailed during times of high demand to make sure the heat stays on in people’s homes during a cold snap, hospitals stay operational, and A/C works during a heat wave, he explained.The ITIF report also called for the United States to squeeze more power from the existing grid without negatively impacting customers, while also building new capacity.New technology can increase supply from existing transmission lines and generators, the report explained, which can bridge the transition to an expanded physical grid.On the demand side, it added, there is spare capacity, but not at peak times. It suggested that large users, such as data centers, be encouraged to shift their demand to off-peak periods, without damaging their customers. Grids do some of that already, it noted, but much more is needed.Up to 40% of data centers’ needs are not highly time sensitive, so they can be partners in managing peak demand by proactively shifting some of their use to different times and even different geographies, it reasoned.Ironically, AI, a significant driver of data center power usage, can also help squeeze more electricity from the existing grid.We need to map energy delivery with the same supply chain visibility we apply to national defense — using AI to map where power is wasted, where infrastructure is stalled due to fragile supply chains and where capacity is trapped behind inefficient legacy systems, Brandon Daniels, CEO of Exiger, a developer of AI-powered risk, compliance and supply chain management solutions, in McLean, Va., told TechNewsWorld.Pado’s Park agreed that one of the best ways to maximize existing grid capacity is to leverage software and AI/ML to balance power supply and demand better. Implementing orchestrated demand through advanced software for demand-side flexibility can intelligently coordinate large, flexible loads — like data centers — with grid signals, he noted.The primary challenge is the speed of deployment and regulatory lag, he said. Data center growth is moving at an unprecedented pace, and traditional utility planning and regulatory approval processes struggle to keep up, for good reasons.Additionally, he continued, data centers operate under stringent reliability requirements, aka “five nines,” which create technical and contractual hurdles to integrating load flexibility at scale.Embley, of Hi-Tequity, asserted that the U.S. can squeeze more capacity from the existing grid by putting underutilized or stranded power to work — whether through repurposing industrial sites that already have heavy electrical infrastructure or tapping idle substations and interconnects built for past manufacturing loads.These approaches deliver relief far faster than building new transmission, he explained. The challenge is that grid stress is already the top obstacle utilities cite, and major upgrades move on decade-long timelines. Interconnection queues continue to grow, and even when capacity exists on paper, critical equipment like transformers and switchgear carry 12- to 24-month lead times, which often slow projects more than construction itself.He added that computing density has changed dramatically as the use of artificial intelligence continues to soar. Today’s AI clusters draw 30 to 60 kilowatts per cabinet, two to three times the load of legacy CPU racks, overwhelming the electrical and thermal systems built for a different era, he explained.At the same time, grid expansion, interconnection, and long-lead electrical equipment operate on decade-long timelines, while AI demand is rising on year-long timelines.That mismatch, he said, not a lack of ambition or innovation, is what’s driving the current power crunch.

After being invited to use OpenAI’s Sora and spending two weeks experimenting with it, I am convinced that we are at the precipice of a change so profound that it’s hard to comprehend fully, even as we watch it unfold. The launch and rapid evolution of generative AI video tools, led by Sora, have triggered a dual reaction: sheer wonder and palpable fear.I found creating short videos with Sora AI to be remarkably simple and intuitive. I described a scene in which I stepped up to the plate at Yankee Stadium in Game 7 of the World Series and hit the game-winning home run for my beloved Yankees. Within minutes, Sora generated a cinematic version of that moment.The level of realism in the lighting, movement, and crowd reaction makes it feel like I was actually there. The clips in this video show the kind of creative power that once required a production crew, now available with just a prompt and a few clicks.On one hand, it’s easy to see the magic — the ability to type a few words and conjure worlds. On the other hand, it’s not difficult to see the immediate, tangible dangers. Recent studies have highlighted that tools like Sora 2 can be prompted to create false or misleading videos with alarming success, creating what one expert called “industrial-scale misinformation pipelines.”Alongside this, we have the deeply personal, ethical nightmare of “likeness theft,” where our faces are no longer our own. As one chilling report from The Wall Street Journal detailed, a meteorologist found her identity stolen and used to create deepfakes to defraud her followers.These concerns are not only valid; they are the most critical immediate challenge we face. Still, beyond this horizon of ethical and security battles, another, more structural disruption is brewing. Generative AI is aimed squarely at the entire entertainment production model, and in the long run, it has the potential to completely overturn the multibillion-dollar industry.We’ve seen this story before, just on a smaller scale. For the last 15 years, the smartphone — particularly high-end devices like Apple’s Pro iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy line — democratized video.Through the power of computational video, complex processes like image stabilization, real-time color grading, and portrait-mode depth-of-field were automated. A tool that once cost $100,000 was suddenly in everyone’s pocket, fueling the rise of the creator economy. It’s doubtful that even Steve Jobs saw this coming.However, AI video is the next exponential leap. The smartphone democratized the capture of reality; generative AI democratizes its creation.Think about what it takes to get a simple shot: a 1950s detective walking down a rainy street at night. You need a location scout, city permits, vintage cars, a wardrobe department, a rain machine, complex lighting rigs, and a camera crew. With generative AI, you just need a prompt.Want an “impossible” shot — like a drone that flies through the window of a high-rise, down a hallway, and into a teacup? That would typically require a blend of expert drone pilots, set construction, and high-end special effects. Now, it’s just a matter of describing it.This technology fundamentally uncouples visual storytelling from the constraints of physical reality. It removes the need to go on location, the need for practical effects, and, in many cases, the need for human actors.This new creative freedom leads directly to an economic earthquake.For the last 25 years, the average professionally produced Hollywood film has employed a staff of roughly 300 to 500 people. These numbers include the principal cast, as well as the massive production crew infrastructure: grips, gaffers, cinematographers, sound mixers, location managers, transportation coordinators, caterers, and post-production teams.In a world powered by generative AI, that number could easily plummet to less than 50. The very concept of a production crew will be radically redefined. AI will absorb much of the specialized labor traditionally required for physical production, and AI-generated video content will dramatically slash production costs, further democratizing the filmmaking process.Suddenly, an independent filmmaker in their garage will have the power to create visuals that rival a $200 million blockbuster. The barrier to entry won’t be capital; it will be imagination.To be clear, this doesn’t mean talent becomes obsolete. It means the talent shifts. The future of AI-produced film will place an unprecedented focus on the visionaries: the director and the cinematographer. Their jobs will become more crucial, not less, as they become the primary conduit between human ideas and AI execution.The new requisite skill will be precision. Prompts for these tools will require highly specific, prescriptive, and technical direction. A director won’t just say, “I want a shot of a sad man.” They will need to write the shot with the vocabulary of a master cinematographer:“Close-up on a 60-year-old man, face deeply lined. Key light is a single, flickering fluorescent overhead. Fill light is the blue glow of a television off-screen. Use an 85mm lens, shallow depth of field, and rack focus from his eyes to the wedding ring on his hand. Mood is isolated, reminiscent of Edward Hopper. Film grain to emulate Kodak Vision3 500T.”The director becomes the sole source of intent, and their ability to articulate that intent in granular detail will define the quality of the final product.So why isn’t this happening tomorrow? Why are AI-generated clips limited to a minute or two? The answer is the same reason you can’t run a data center on a watch battery: the computational resources required are astronomical.Generating a few seconds of high-fidelity, physically accurate, and coherent video requires immense processing power. Scaling that to a 120-minute feature film is, for now, cost-prohibitive, certainly at the mainstream user level.However, this challenge is temporary. This bottleneck is the specific target of the most intense race in technology. Companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm are in a furious battle to design the next generation of silicon solutions. Their goal is to create hardware that is more cost-efficient, more scalable, and explicitly optimized for this kind of AI-driven video workload.As the cost of data center resources falls and the hardware becomes more powerful, the “one-minute” wall will crumble, and full-length AI-produced video will become an economic inevitability.This brings us to Hollywood’s front door, where significant pushback is already underway. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and other unions can hear the footsteps. The ethical fears are not abstract — they are the concrete, terrifying stories of actors and public figures whose digital likenesses are already being stolen and misused.There is also deep skepticism that an AI-generated film can ever challenge a traditional film in quality, storytelling, and sheer production value. Can an algorithm truly capture the human soul?This is where the revolution will need its Trojan Horse.A full-scale AI film that attempts to replace living, working actors today would be met with unified, hostile rejection. A more likely path to acceptance will be a less threatening project — one that uses AI not to replace but to restore.Consider a classic property, such as the Broadway musical “Man of La Mancha.” The 1972 film adaptation was a notorious critical and commercial failure, panned for poor casting and deviations from the beloved stage play. But what if AI could be used to create a new film version, one that digitally recreates the original, legendary 1965 Broadway cast?Imagine seeing and hearing Richard Kiley and Joan Diener in their prime, in a fully realized cinematic world, offering audiences an immersive experience of a performance long lost to time. This application of AI feels less like theft and more like cultural preservation.This scenario is the likely entry point. But to truly be accepted, AI-generated film needs what computerized animation required in 1995: its “Toy Story.”When “Toy Story” was released, it upended the film industry. It didn’t just win a Special Achievement Academy Award; it proved that a computer-generated feature could be a work of genuine art, a masterpiece of storytelling that resonated with audiences on a deeply human level. It legitimized the entire medium.AI-produced long-form content will not get the respect it needs until its own “Toy Story” moment arrives. It requires one, undeniable film that forces skeptics and unions alike to concede that a new art form has been born. When an AI-produced film wins its first Oscar, not for technical effects, but for Best Picture, the paradigm shift will be complete.

The United States urgently needs a virtual cybersecurity academy to train cyber defenders for national security, according to the Internet Security Alliance (ISA).It noted in a recent update to its National Defense Cyber Threat Report that the federal government needs to muster the resolve shown at the end of World War II when the U.S. established the Air Force Academy to ensure the nation had the trained personnel to defend it in the new air theater of operations.“Today, the United States faces a nearly identical deficiency — this time with respect to digital conflict,” the ISA asserted. “The nation, including every critical infrastructure sector, is under constant cyberattack from well-financed nation-states, and we lack an adequate number of trained personnel required to defend both government and private-sector systems.”It explained that despite high investment in cybersecurity, the workforce deficit is overwhelming, with 500,000 to 750,000 cybersecurity vacancies nationwide, including 35,000 unfilled positions in the federal government.“The United States must respond with the same urgency shown after World War II,” it argued. “While there are some government programs to promote cybersecurity training in return for government service, as would the virtual academy, they are far too small. We need to address the problem at scale.”The ISA outlined a plan by which academy graduates would be paid at a level similar to that of West Point and Annapolis graduates during their required government service.Those salaries are far lower than the ones paid to independent contractors to do those jobs. The difference between what the government pays academy graduates and what it pays independent contractors is so significant that it would cover the full cost of training them. Essentially, this is free cybersecurity for the federal government, the ISA reasoned.Moreover, it added, once the academy graduates complete their government service, they will likely enter cybersecurity jobs in the private sector, where they will continue to defend our nation against nation-state attacks.Funding for the academy could come through the Cyber PIVOTT Act, a proposed law currently before Congress that aims to train 10,000 cyber recruits a year for government positions, the ISA explained.“At Darktrace, we see firsthand the pressing need for a stronger cybersecurity workforce,” said Marcus Fowler, CEO of Darktrace Federal, a global cybersecurity AI company. There are massive numbers of unfilled cybersecurity roles across the United States, leaving businesses and government agencies vulnerable.“The recent PIVOTT Act is a critical step toward closing this gap by creating smarter workforce development pathways, expanding access to hands-on training, and building a skills-based cybersecurity talent pipeline that meets the demands of today’s economy,” he told TechNewsWorld.However, Fowler added, to achieve that goal, we’ll also need to ensure that security teams are trained on the most advanced tools so that technology can fulfill its potential to augment the workforce and act as a true force multiplier.“We believe that a smarter federal cyber workforce policy, when combined with greater adoption of AI-powered cybersecurity technologies, marks the best path forward toward meeting America’s skills and capabilities needs and building a more resilient national cyber defense,” he said.David Kertai, a research assistant with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a science and technology think tank in Washington, D.C., maintained that it is clear that federal, state, and local governments across the U.S. need more cybersecurity professionals to prepare for and respond to the growing number of cyber threats and attacks.For example, he noted, the CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service program provides scholarships in exchange for service in federal cybersecurity positions. “While this program is a step in the right direction, it should be expanded,” he told TechNewsWorld. A virtual cybersecurity academy could complement the CyberCorps program by connecting individuals with existing educational institutions to complete their degrees and enter the cybersecurity workforce.A virtual cybersecurity academy could be valuable, but only if it avoids the pitfalls that have made other federal training programs ineffective, contended Morgan Peirce, a research assistant in the technology and national security program of the Center for New American Security, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on U.S. national security and defense policy.“The U.S. already operates several major cyber training programs, including CyberCorps SFS, NSA’s Centers of Academic Excellence, and various agency initiatives — and these programs are resource-constrained and structurally fragmented,” she told TechNewsWorld. This new virtual academy would need to fill specific gaps lacking in existing programs.“Adding a new program, rather than expanding existing programs, may fragment funding further,” she said. While the virtual element increases convenience, it will be important not to sacrifice training that requires an in-person element.If an academy were established, it would need to rethink current pedagogical approaches to information security. The traditional cybersecurity education model cannot scale to address the roughly 500,000 unfilled positions in the U.S. alone, contended Michael Bell, CEO of Suzu Testing, a provider of AI-powered cybersecurity services, in Las Vegas.“A virtual academy removes geographic barriers while enabling hands-on training through virtual labs and simulated threat exercises that can actually be more effective than traditional classroom lectures,” he told TechNewsWorld.The risk is that these training pipelines become certificate mills rather than genuine educational institutions, so any national academy must have rigorous standards, real-world capstone requirements, and employer validation to ensure graduates are actually qualified to defend critical systems, he said.Bell envisioned the academy combining asynchronous coursework with live virtual labs, mentorship from practicing professionals, and real-world capstone projects with government and private-sector partners.Think of a hybrid model, he observed, with a foundational curriculum covering network security, incident response, threat intelligence, and secure architecture, paired with specialization tracks: offensive security, cloud security, OT/ICS security, and AI security.Critically, it needs partnerships with employers who commit to hiring graduates, creating a direct pipeline from education to employment, he added. The military’s existing virtual training infrastructure could serve as a foundation — although it would need to be vastly improved, scaled for civilian use, and integrated with community college credentialing programs, like those in the PIVOTT Act.Any academy should require hands-on training in large simulated corporate environments and guidance from senior professionals who would instruct and exercise the trainees, advised Ian Amit, founder and CEO of Gomboc, a provider of automated cloud infrastructure security solutions, in New York City.“The key elements of the work a cybersecurity professional does involve tight coordination with other stakeholders,” he told TechNewsWorld. It’s not about proficiency with specific tools or languages, but more about experience working on incidents and coordinating response.However, Amit argued that we don’t need more entry-level workers in the cybersecurity industry. It’s already overflowing with those who have a hard time breaking into the workforce — especially as more advanced tooling is offered to help fill the tasks performed by entry-level workers.This seems to be a government view on the macroeconomy. While skilled professionals are in short supply, initiatives that provide virtual education to fill entry-level roles are simply misguided, he maintained.While it’s absolutely the case that there is a major cyber professional and workforce pipeline deficit which is problematic, given escalating cyber tensions and incursions from adversaries sponsored or supported indirectly by Iran, Russia, North Korea and China, training alone can’t solve the deficit problem, added Jeff Le, managing principal at 100 Mile Strategies, a government affairs and emerging technologies consulting firm in Washington, D.C.There needs to be a concerted investment and specific matchmaking to reduce the certification glut and emphasize skills-based expertise and apprenticeship models, he told TechNewsWorld.The ISA’s emphasis on national cybersecurity as a shared public-private responsibility is spot-on, noted Rosario Mastrogiacomo, chief strategy officer at Sphere Technology Solutions, a data governance software and services company, in Hoboken, N.J.“But workforce challenges won’t be solved with policy alone,” he told TechNewsWorld. “We need scalable, sustainable infrastructure for continuous learning, better alignment between compliance and real risk reduction, and tools that enable security teams to focus on prevention, not paperwork.”“The ISA report is a wake-up call,” added Ensar Seker, CISO of SOCRadar, a threat intelligence company, in Newark, Del. “It reframes cybersecurity not as a cost center or an IT silo but as a pillar of national strength,” he told TechNewsWorld.We need systemic reforms, yes, but we also need to humanize the workforce challenge, he continued. Burnout, fragmentation, and talent bottlenecks are solvable, but only if we treat cyber professionals not just as defenders, but as strategic assets worth investing in.

Samsung raised the ante in the foldable smartphone market on Tuesday with the introduction of the Galaxy Z TriFold.The three-panel phone folds out to create a 10-inch QXGA+ display (2160 x 1584) with a peak brightness of 1600 nits and a 120Hz refresh rate.The phone’s two side panels fold inward to protect the main screen, and there’s an auto-alarm system that alerts a user when the device is being folded incorrectly.The device can run three portrait-sized apps simultaneously — one in each panel — or a single app across all three panels. The phone also supports an external monitor.When folded, the phone is 12.9 mm thick. Unfolded, it’s 3.9 mm thick at its thinnest point. By comparison, an iPhone 17 Pro is 8.75 mm thick, and an iPhone Air, Apple’s thinnest phone, is 5.64 mm thick.The phone, available only in black, will be offered with 16GB of memory and either 1TB or 512GB of storage. There is no MicroSD support.Under the hood, the phone features a custom Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile processor and a 5,600 mAh three-cell battery, with one cell in each display panel.At the rear of the phone, there’s a 12MP ultra-wide camera, 200MP wide-angle snapper, and 10MP telephoto unit with 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom.There are two 10MP cameras on the front of the unit — one on the screen cover and one on the main screen. Samsung calls the TriFold its most advanced foldable, pairing a redesigned dual-hinge system with a reinforced display and stronger exterior materials, including a titanium hinge housing and Advanced Armor Aluminum frame. It will debut in Korea on Dec. 12 before rolling out to other markets, including the United States. The phone will reportedly sell for $2,440.A tri-fold smartphone is an overall better two-in-one device than a bi-fold, explained Kristen Hanich, director of research at Parks Associates, a market research and consulting company specializing in consumer technology products, in Dallas.“The design allows the user to more easily access the device in its phone form-factor, while also supporting a larger tablet screen when unfolded,” she told TechNewsWorld. “It’s better as a phone replacement and better as a tablet replacement.”A tri-fold lets you carry something that behaves like a 10-inch tablet in a pocketable phone footprint, noted Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research, a technology advisory firm, in Las Vegas.“It gives power users more room for side-by-side apps, content creation, and productivity than even today’s book-style foldables,” he told TechNewsWorld. It is less about basic phone tasks and more about replacing your secondary device.Tri-folds also have benefits for the approximately 34 million American users of reading glasses. The larger screen allows you to enlarge the typeface and still get a lot of words on the same screen, explained Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm, in Bend, Ore.“It is also better for video content for those who travel a lot,” he told TechNewsWorld. “And it is still unique enough to convey a bit of status, since tri-folds are relatively rare.”Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology advisory firm, in San Jose, Calif., maintained that the market has not shown any demand for tri-fold smartphones. “The Galaxy TriFold is designed to show off Samsung’s design prowess and innovation,” he told TechNewsWorld.The challenge with the foldable phone market is that there isn’t a killer app, or a suite of apps, that delivers high enough value for these devices to be adopted by a large segment of users, contended Tuong Huy Nguyen, director analyst for emerging technologies and trends at Gartner, a research and advisory company based in Stamford, Conn.“The challenge for the foldable market isn’t a technical [or] engineering challenge. It’s a market challenge,” he told TechNewsWorld. “What content, apps, and services are available to support it, and are they high-value enough? Foldables are lacking an ecosystem to support them in a way that’s unique to this form factor.”“Until foldable phones come down in price substantially, or deliver utility and value that justify their cost, they will continue to be a niche product,” he said.Bajarin acknowledged that foldable phones are a niche at the moment, but argued that they could change rapidly. If Apple decides to bring out a folding iPhone and bless this category, the potential for demand for folding smartphones could rise significantly, he predicted.“Apple will not release a folding smartphone unless it has the technology perfected to Apple’s standards,” he added. “But if and when they do bring one to market, Apple’s marketing and innovation engine will kick in, and interest in this category will be heightened.”In addition to marketing prowess, Apple could bring something else to the foldable table. Developers have historically been more willing to update their software to take better advantage of Apple’s hardware, explained Ross Rubin, the principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm, in New York City.“We saw that over many years with the iPad, where apps that had originally been iPhone apps were optimized more for the iPad than Android phone apps were for Android tablets,” he told TechNewsWorld.He added that Samsung’s timing of the TriFold introduction is also interesting. Samsung is coming out with this larger phone surface at the same time that Google is looking at merging Android and elements of Chrome OS. A large part of that would be better support for larger screens.“There is a perception that Apple is behind the proverbial eight ball in the foldable space because Samsung now has book-style, flip-style, and tri-fold hardware on the market while Apple is still all-in on slabs,” added SmartTech’s Vena. “Strategically, though, Apple tends to wait until it can solve durability, thickness, and app experience in a way that feels invisible to users.”“The bigger question is whether customers will still care about foldables by the time Apple finally jumps in,” he added. “Interestingly, I contend that Samsung wants Apple to jump into the category to validate foldable phones with the consequence that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats.’”Vena asserted that tri-folds are less about chasing a gimmick and more about testing the upper limits of the phone as a primary computer. The real unlock will come when software and AI actually exploit the extra canvas with smarter multitasking, not just bigger icons, he said. In the meantime, this category will be a fascinating test bed for what next-generation mobile devices look like.“I carry a Google Pixel Fold 10 and have used foldable phones since the Microsoft Duo came out,” Enderle noted. “I don’t think I could go back to a non-foldable phone.”“However,” he continued, “a tri-fold may be a bridge too far for me, both because of cost and because in a tri-fold the flexible screen is more exposed than a dual-fold and has more mechanical vulnerability.”Foldables aren’t for everybody, maintained Anshel Sag, a senior analyst for mobility, 5G and XR at Moor Insights & Strategy, a technology analyst and advisory firm based in Austin, Texas.“I think they are an ultra-premium niche today that will eventually cannibalize even more of the tablet market than foldables have to date,” he told TechNewsWorld. “I personally almost never use a tablet, but having a foldable has become central to my daily use.”Parks’ Hanich added: Tri-folds are an exciting development in mobile computing, serving as both a smartphone and tablet replacement — and potentially a laptop replacement, as well.The images featured in this article are credited to Samsung.

A call to disrupt the People’s Republic of China’s economic espionage campaign against the United States was sounded in a new report by a Washington, D.C., technology think tank.“China’s campaign of economic espionage against the United States spans cyber intrusions, insider theft, and technology transfer disguised as collaboration,” declared the report written by intelligence analyst and applied historian Darren E. Tromblay and published by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF).“Washington must recognize that Beijing is operating an elaborate espionage ecosystem and take strategic measures to disrupt it,” it added.China’s espionage ecosystem is systemic and strategic, it explained. From state intelligence agencies to nominally private firms, Beijing coordinates cyber, human, and corporate channels to steal U.S. industrial and defense technologies.Chinese companies in the United States act as collection platforms, it continued. Subsidiaries and “consulting” fronts recruit American talent and channel proprietary know-how back to PRC state-owned enterprises.Despite the breadth and depth of the PRC’s economic espionage campaign, it hasn’t attracted the urgency of other security concerns, explained Anthony Vinci, an adjunct senior fellow in the national security program of the Center for New American Security, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on U.S. national security and defense policy.“We have traditionally treated military and political issues as a core national security concern,” he told TechNewsWorld. “We have to start treating economic espionage as one of our core national security concerns. We still don’t do that as a nation.”“Once we do that,” he said. “We need to take a whole-of-government or whole-of-society approach to it, where we’re sharing authorities and counterespionage approaches across agencies, similar to how we did it with counterterrorism after 9/11.”China’s approach to espionage is more than spycraft. It’s an entire ecosystem. The Chinese system is fundamentally different from other U.S. adversaries in both scale and integration, observed Michael Bell, CEO of Suzu Testing, a provider of AI-powered cybersecurity services, in Las Vegas.“Russia conducts opportunistic espionage through intelligence services,” he told TechNewsWorld. “China operates a whole-of-society approach where companies, universities, and talent programs function as coordinated collection platforms.”“Based on the cases we’ve been seeing and industry analysis, no other nation-state has achieved the level of integration where a student visa, university partnership, and a state-owned enterprise investment can all be vectors for the same operation,” he said.“I think the Chinese Communist Party runs the most advanced data collection and espionage system on earth,” Vinci added. “Then they’re combining that with cyber hacking at a scale that Russia or Iran literally don’t have the resources to do.”One of the most damaging vectors for PRC economic espionage is insider threats, according to the ITIF report. Programs such as Thousand Talents and new “foreign expert” schemes have turned engineers and researchers inside U.S. firms into conduits for trade secrets, it noted.“Turning an insider provides both the ability to steal concepts, as well as subvert forward progress,” Trey Ford, chief strategy and trust officer at Bugcrowd, a crowdsourced bug bounty platform based in San Francisco, told TechNewsWorld.April Lenhard, principal product manager for cyber threat intelligence at Qualys, a provider of cloud-based IT, security, and compliance solutions, in Foster City, Calif., explained that insider threats are so damaging because employees already know how to navigate systems that are gated off to outsiders.“Trusted employees don’t just steal files,” she told TechNewsWorld. “They also know to take and use processes, context, and proprietary ‘secret sauce’ that costs American companies billions of dollars in R&D, while handing it over to China for free. That innovation can’t be recovered once it’s gone.”Insider threats are uniquely damaging because they often bypass many traditional perimeter-focused defenses, added Eran Barak, co-founder and CEO of MIND, a platform focused on data loss prevention and insider risk management, in Seattle.“Whether intentional or accidental, insiders already have access to sensitive systems and data,” he told TechNewsWorld. “That access, combined with a lack of visibility and control, makes it easier to exfiltrate critical information without triggering alerts.”“Nation-state actors often exploit this by targeting individuals with privileged access, knowing that human behavior is more difficult to monitor than external network traffic,” he continued. “According to industry research, data sprawl, alert fatigue, and lack of contextual awareness in legacy security systems have made insider threats not only harder to detect, but also more impactful when successful.”“The reality is, adversaries don’t need to break in if they can log in,” he said.The report also warned that the United States’ counterintelligence capacity is eroding. Shifts in FBI and DHS priorities have weakened the government’s ability to detect and disrupt Chinese theft, just as Beijing’s efforts intensify, it explained.“While it is the administration’s prerogative to assess threats and how best to address them,” the report noted, “counterintelligence, particularly combating economic espionage and trade secret theft, is an essential mission that should be maintained and adequately resourced.”The shift in government resources should be viewed as an opportunity, Suzu’s Bell argued.“China and Russia already understand that cyber espionage can’t be purely government-led,” he explained. “They’ve built whole-of-society programs leveraging universities, companies, and networks. The U.S. needs to mirror that by deepening partnerships between federal agencies and private sector cybersecurity firms that can serve as force multipliers in the cyber fight.”“Rather than lamenting FBI and CISA resource shift,” he continued, “we should be building stronger information sharing frameworks, bringing trusted private contractors with appropriate clearances to bridge intel gaps, and recognizing that companies in strategic sectors aren’t on their own. They’re on the front line, and we need to treat them as partners, not just victims to be protected.”Chinese espionage is not a series of isolated events or a crime spree, added Qualys’s Lenhard, it’s an industrial drain. “Chinese espionage is a colossal campaign to accumulate American competitive capability faster than America can defend or replace it,” she said.“To disrupt China’s espionage pipeline, the U.S. has to stop treating technology theft like a compliance issue,” she continued. “Any engineered transfer of strategic technology needs to be handled as a full counterintelligence threat, not a regulatory footnote.”Ultimately, the PRC-U.S. contest over technology secrets is not trench warfare, but rather a continually evolving fight, the report noted. “PRC objectives will continue to change, as their geopolitical objectives shift, and this will inform its targeting of specific industries, companies and technologies,” it explained.“Changes in how the countries interact — both in the human and technical spaces — will shape intelligence methodologies and tradecraft,” it added. “The U.S. government’s ability to disrupt economic espionage — especially through preemptive, strategic measures — will mitigate risk to industry.”

Corporate real estate firms are enthusiastically embracing artificial intelligence, but few are achieving the goals they expected from the technology, according to the results of a survey of more than 1,000 real estate leaders across 16 global markets.The number of companies running corporate real estate (CRE) AI pilots has exploded from 5% to 92% in just three years, noted Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) in its 2025 global real estate technology survey.“Now AI, once a subset of the technologies explored by only a handful of CRE teams, dominates nearly all real estate tech innovation discussions. The speed of this pivot has been unprecedented,” declared the report by JLL Global Research Director for Real Estate Technology Yuehan Wang.However, it added, the industry is still in the early experimentation phase, with most organizations learning what works before scaling to full implementation.While some companies proactively embrace the technology, based on genuine conviction, the report continued, a considerable portion of CRE teams implement AI not by choice, but by C-suite mandate, viewing AI adoption as a competitive necessity.“This strategic gap translates directly into execution challenges,” Wang wrote. “While 92% are piloting AI, only 5% report having achieved most program goals. Though implementation is widespread, most initiatives remain experimental with limited scaling.”“This isn’t just a story about technology maturity,” he added. “It’s about strategic choices, organizational capabilities, and systematic approaches that separate the 5% achieving real results from the 95% still searching for their breakthrough.”Donatas Karciauskas, CEO of Exergio, an energy management company headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, agreed with JLL that many companies don’t see results. “However, that’s not a failure of AI, but rather a sign that most organizations still haven’t integrated it into their energy systems or use it on a surface level,” he said in a statement.“When algorithms work with live data instead of static reports, they start improving the building hour by hour,” he continued. “It always leads to less waste and steadier conditions for the people inside.”“Each site we manage generates tens of thousands of data points every day — temperature, flow, pressure, CO2, and occupancy — giving algorithms the context to adjust systems continuously,” Karciauskas explained. “And our success rate is significantly higher than the 5% mentioned in the report. The secret is simple: we just have to use AI thoughtfully.”He added that the data-driven approach routinely cuts HVAC energy waste by 20% to 30% and saves more than €1 million annually in large commercial sites, all achieved solely through software.“Most property management companies don’t have the technical infrastructure or expertise to implement AI effectively,” contended Minna Song, co-founder and CEO of EliseAI, a developer of conversational AI platforms for housing and health care operations in New York City.“These businesses are not tech startups,” she told TechNewsWorld. “They’re operational businesses that need turnkey solutions, but we’ve seen too many try to deploy general-purpose AI tools that weren’t built for real estate’s specific workflows and compliance requirements. These horizontal solutions might handle one task well, but don’t integrate into the full chain of work.”“Companies are looking for the best use cases for GenAI, and there is a lot of experimentation at play right now,” Kristen Hanich, director of research at Parks Associates, a market research and consulting company specializing in consumer technology products, in Dallas, told TechNewsWorld.She pointed out that one of the main challenges companies face is related to data structure and cleanliness, which are immensely important for the reliability and validity of general AI. Another key challenge is that certain use cases people might assume are low-hanging fruit for GenAI, like lease abstraction, may not be in practice, and that hallucinations can cause operational and legal issues, she added.“Embedding GenAI to specific workflows has a lot of potential for the right use cases, but it does take a specific approach to designing systems — virtualized workflows that are well-mapped and well understood, carefully trained models, and such — to create the reliability and consistency that companies need,” Hanich said.“For those using public AI models, there is also the risk that data may be leaked,” she added. “We have seen companies get around this by leveraging private models instead.”“The explosion in AI pilots isn’t just hype — it’s driven by the promise of faster data integration and real-time decision-making,” said Ahmed Harhara, engineer and founder of HoustonHomeTools, a data platform that helps residents understand neighborhood-level environmental and housing risks, in Houston.“The challenge is that many companies jump into AI without structured data pipelines or clear validation methods,” he told TechNewsWorld. “They expect AI to ‘leapfrog’ existing gaps, but models are only as good as the data lineage behind them. Without systematic data quality control, AI outputs become unreliable, especially in high-stakes fields like real estate or infrastructure.”The JLL report noted that the promise of technological leapfrogging — where organizations skip intermediate steps to adopt cutting-edge solutions — has long captivated business leaders facing technology gaps. In theory, AI offers the ultimate leapfrogging opportunity, it maintained, allowing companies with outdated systems to bypass incremental upgrades and jump directly to AI-powered solutions.“However,” it warned, “our research exposes a sobering reality. Rather than leveling the playing field, AI adoption is widening the gap between technology leaders and laggards, with companies that already run successful technology programs pulling further ahead in AI outcomes.”Organizations can’t leapfrog the necessities of a successful AI implementation. “What is really required is a mindset change because this starts to change your business model, how you market, how you sell, how you negotiate contracts, how you find tenants,” said Daniel Burrus of Burrus Research, a provider of strategic advisory services, in Milwaukee.“AI requires a really different way to look at your organization and a new way of thinking,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It’s not just two people in the organization that have to think differently. If you’re going to do something that’s big and throughout your business, you need to have everybody’s mindset shifted, and that isn’t done by a turn of a switch.”AI doesn’t improve weak digital foundations; it amplifies them, added Jason Chen, founder and technical director of JarnisTech, a printed circuit board maker, in Shenzhen City, China. “A company with poor data that’s stuck in antiquated technology can look forward to faster subpar results with AI models,” he told TechNewsWorld.“The truth is that companies expecting AI to fill technology voids over the past decade are misguided,” he said. “Instead, AI works best with clean data that’s connected and up to date. In other words, there’s no such thing as leapfrogging digital maturity. You must build it.”“AI is not a fix-all tool,” added Pasquale Zingarella, CEO of Invest Clearly, an online real estate investment platform based in Dover, Del. “It is a fast-moving resource that needs oversight.”“You can’t dump exponential resources like AI onto legacy systems, data, and processes and expect gold bars to fall from the sky,” he told TechNewsWorld. “If not implemented effectively, it can result in inaccurate and unreliable outputs, which could expose organizations to risk.”

AMD’s 2025 Financial Analyst Day on Tuesday was not about trying to outshout Nvidia on speeds and feeds. It was about resetting how investors, customers, and partners think about AMD’s role in the AI era. The company presented itself not as a niche challenger or opportunistic second source, but as a structurally important, scaled platform player in a compute market it now sizes at $1 trillion.This repositioning came through in three core themes: First, data center AI now sits firmly at the center of AMD’s growth model, not as an adjunct to CPUs or gaming.Second, its competitive edge is framed as breadth plus openness: CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, FPGAs, NPUs, interconnect, packaging, and systems, tied together by open software and industry standards.Third, AMD is leaning hard on its execution story, arguing that the operational discipline that transformed the company over the last decade is now a durable, repeatable advantage.In effect, Financial Analyst Day served as CEO Lisa Su and her leadership team’s statement that they have successfully navigated significant transitions before, that they have delivered on those commitments, and that they are now positioned to lead, not chase, in the next chapter of accelerated computing and AI.A central thread throughout the event was AMD’s decision to compete with Nvidia without trying to become Nvidia. Management did not pretend that this is a level playing field today; Nvidia still commands the richest AI software stack and default mindshare. Instead, AMD emphasized a system-level and ecosystem-level value proposition.Su underlined that AMD now offers “the broadest portfolio of leadership compute engines and technologies” and is “uniquely positioned to power the next generation of high-performance and AI computing.”That message matters because it shifts the conversation from isolated accelerators to complete AI factories. AMD is selling EPYC CPUs that already anchor a significant portion of hyperscaler and enterprise infrastructure needs. AMD is ramping Instinct accelerators along an annual cadence and is integrating Pensando DPUs and advanced networking to move data efficiently.AMD is extending Infinity Fabric and advanced packaging across the stack, and is offering rack-scale systems that can be integrated into existing environments without forcing customers into a closed ecosystem .The competitive framing is deliberate: while Nvidia leads with a vertically integrated, proprietary stack, AMD is betting that a growing set of hyperscalers, sovereign AI initiatives, and large enterprises want a second platform that is performant, modular, standards-based, and resistant to lock-in.AMD is not trying to clone CUDA. It is trying to win with openness, interoperability, and credible scale.Data center AI was presented as the economic and strategic engine of that platform. AMD’s long-term financial targets signal just how central this segment has become. Management outlined ambitions for strong multi-year revenue growth at the corporate level, with an even faster trajectory for the data center and an outsized contribution from AI accelerators and systems.Those targets assume that EPYC continues to gain server CPU share, that Instinct accelerators and rack-level solutions ramp into multi-billion-dollar annualized businesses, and that AI infrastructure buyers increasingly view AMD as a co-equal pillar alongside Nvidia.This point is not positioned as a purely speculative upside scenario. It is framed as an extension of visible demand from hyperscalers, AI-native companies, and governments that are either already deploying AMD-based clusters or explicitly signaling the need for multi-vendor AI strategies.By tying aggressive growth and margin goals directly to data center AI, AMD is making a clear statement to investors and customers that it will invest ahead of demand, secure supply, align with open standards, and commit long-term to being one of the foundational compute platforms of the AI era.The breadth of AMD’s portfolio is the structural lever that supports that claim. Across the day, the company reinforced a straightforward high-level narrative.Suppose you are building AI-centric infrastructure from the cloud to the edge to the endpoint. In that case, AMD can address most of your silicon and many of your system requirements within a coherent technology framework.On the data center side, EPYC CPUs remain a core strength, with strong adoption across major cloud providers and enterprises that want performance per watt and total cost advantages.Instinct GPUs have evolved from aspirational to roadmap-driven, with successive generations improving performance, memory, and efficiency on a predictable cadence.Networking, interconnect, and packaging are no longer afterthoughts, but integrated differentiators that let AMD scale out AI systems without ceding value to third parties.Layered on top of this hardware stack is ROCm and a broader open-source vision intended to narrow the historical gap with Nvidia by making AMD platforms easier to adopt with mainstream frameworks and tools.While that journey is ongoing, AMD pointed to growing developer and customer engagement as evidence that ROCm and its ecosystem are gaining traction.A critical extension of this story is the role of adaptive and embedded products. Since acquiring Xilinx and Pensando, AMD has increasingly cast “physical AI” as part of its long-term moat.Here, the company is targeting robotics, industrial systems, automotive, communications, and other environments where AI, control, and connectivity must be tightly coupled, power-efficient, and long-lived.This is a domain where flexibility, safety, determinism, and customization matter as much as peak throughput. AMD’s mix of FPGAs, adaptive SoCs, embedded CPUs, and semi-custom capabilities allows it to design silicon platforms that can be tuned to customer workloads in ways standard accelerators cannot always match.Nvidia is active here too, but AMD’s portfolio lets it argue that it can support a continuum of AI deployments — from massive training clusters to domain-specific, safety-critical edge nodes — using shared IP and consistent technology building blocks.That horizontal reach across data center, client, gaming, embedded, and semi-custom is what gives credibility to the trillion-dollar compute narrative. It is not just a slide; it is a way to amortize R&D costs, reuse core technologies like Infinity Fabric and packaging, and position AMD as a long-term strategic partner rather than a point-product vendor.Although AI infrastructure dominated the story, AMD was careful not to portray client and gaming as distractions. Instead, they are cast as complementary pillars that reinforce brand, economics, and the AI narrative.On the client side, AMD highlighted its momentum in AI PCs powered by Ryzen AI, along with a broad range of commercial and consumer designs. This is important for two reasons:In gaming, AMD pointed to its presence in consoles, discrete GPUs, and cloud gaming infrastructure, emphasizing that there are now well over a billion devices on the market powered by its technology. That installed base gives AMD a channel for new AI-enhanced experiences and keeps its brand associated with performance and innovation on the consumer side.Together, client and gaming diversify revenue, dampen cyclicality in any one segment, and contribute to the broader perception of AMD as a balanced, resilient franchise rather than a single-product AI trade.Underpinning everything was an emphatic case that AMD has earned confidence in its ability to execute. Lisa Su and her team leaned into the company’s transformation over the last decade: from a distressed CPU challenger to a company with leadership products, strong customer relationships, and a solid balance sheet.They underscored AMD’s consistent delivery of Zen-based CPU roadmaps, early and effective use of chiplets and advanced packaging, and the successful integration of significant acquisitions as proof points that AMD can manage complexity at scale. Su reinforced a cultural message that when AMD commits to a roadmap, it delivers it.The updated financial model, with its emphasis on attractive margins, disciplined investment, and strong free cash flow, is positioned as the logical continuation of that track record rather than a leap of faith. Other executives echoed this, stressing that capital will be allocated first to technology leadership and supply to support AI growth, while still allowing for shareholder returns and targeted M&A.In a subtle but essential way, the company is asking investors and partners to see AMD not simply as a historically cyclical chip vendor, but as an operationally mature platform company that can plan, fund, and execute multi-year AI strategies.At the same time, a credible high-level analysis has to acknowledge where the narrative is still being tested.Nvidia’s software ecosystem, tooling, and developer loyalty remain its most durable moat. AMD’s open approach with ROCm and upstream contributions is philosophically aligned with how many hyperscalers and open-source communities want to build. However, it requires relentless attention to performance, stability, framework support, and ease of migration.The targets AMD laid out also depend on tight coordination with foundry partners at advanced process nodes, robust supply chain management, and a geopolitical environment that does not severely disrupt AI component availability or demand patterns.AMD is entering a phase where it must scale multiple complex product lines simultaneously: EPYC, multiple Instinct generations, adaptive SoCs, DPUs, AI PCs, and semi-custom engagements.The risk is not a lack of opportunity, but strategic and operational sprawl. AMD’s own answer is that shared IP, common fabrics, modular design, and tighter integration across businesses reduce this complexity rather than increase it. Whether that holds in practice will be visible quickly in product execution, design wins, and margins.Viewed from that five-thousand-foot vantage point, Financial Analyst Day crystallized AMD’s intent to stand shoulder to shoulder with Nvidia as an architect of the AI era, not simply as “the alternative GPU supplier.”The company is competing on openness, breadth, and total system value. It is doubling down on data center AI as its growth flywheel, reinforcing it with client and gaming, and extending it into physical and embedded AI. AMD argues that its unified technology stack and disciplined capital allocation enable sustained innovation without sacrificing financial rigor.The pitch to customers and partners is straightforward: AMD offers a scalable, multi-generation roadmap, a robust and expanding ecosystem, interoperability with emerging open standards, and genuine leverage against proprietary lock-in.Moreover, the pitch to investors is that this strategy can translate into durable growth, strong margins, and a defensible position in the highest-value segments of the compute market.Given its performance over the past decade, AMD has earned the right to make that case. The next few years, measured in AI racks deployed, ROCm adoption, EPYC share, execution on new accelerators and systems, and consistency against its financial model, will determine whether it fully converts that credibility into lasting, system-level leadership in the AI infrastructure landscape.In a nutshell, this is not your grandfather’s AMD from 1995.

OktoberTech Silicon Valley 2025 underscored that Infineon no longer sees itself as a niche component supplier watching the AI wave from the sidelines.The company used the event, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., to frame a sharper, more assertive narrative: Infineon aims to be the foundational infrastructure provider for physical AI, edge intelligence, high-density AI data centers, and, increasingly, next-generation quantum systems.The question for customers, partners, and investors is whether the company substantiated that ambition with enough technology, ecosystem proof, and strategic clarity to be credible. The evidence presented at the event points to yes.Infineon was careful to position OktoberTech Silicon Valley not as a product smorgasbord, but as what CMO and Management Board Member Andreas Urschitz described as a “trustful platform” that brings together innovators “who want to be part of the solution of tomorrow.”That choice of framing matters because the environment is capital-intensive, with AI buildouts, robotics deployment, and electrification, and customers are looking for long-term partners with proven execution.Infineon backed up its trust story with concrete proof points, most notably its fifth Bosch Global Supplier Award. The honor affirmed Infineon’s status as a top-tier supplier of next-generation automotive architectures. It showcased its strengths across microcontrollers, sensors, connectivity, and power, further reinforced by significant manufacturing investments such as 300 mm GaN wafer processing.The company’s new long-term green power purchase agreements with PNE AG and Statkraft in Germany and Spain signaled that Infineon is aligning its operations with the decarbonization narrative it sells, committing to 100% green electricity and enabling additional renewable energy buildout.Taken together, these moves framed OktoberTech Silicon Valley as more than a showcase. They underlined Infineon’s claim to be a strategically resilient, sustainability-aligned infrastructure partner for the AI era.The robotics and physical AI content at OktoberTech Silicon Valley was central to that claim. Infineon’s leadership made a disciplined choice: rather than chase headlines about full-robot platforms, they mapped out how a humanoid or advanced autonomous system could be architected on Infineon technology.In keynote and panel discussions, executives detailed how efficient drives using GaN and SiC can shrink joint sizes and extend runtime, how battery management and safety MCUs underpin reliability, how radar, environmental, and 3D sensing enable perception, and how secure connectivity and embedded security harden systems operating alongside people.Infineon’s Division President of Power and Sensor Systems, Adam White, emphasized that customers increasingly expect not individual parts, but platform-level reference designs that reduce integration risk in complex robots and humanoids.The message was clear and commercially pragmatic. Infineon is not trying to own the robot’s “brain.” It is positioning itself as the company that supplies and secures almost everything that allows the brain to sense, move, power up, and operate safely.Given its depth in power, sensing, connectivity, and security, this is a credible and defensible lane, and OktoberTech Silicon Valley demonstrated that Infineon understands the requirements of industrial, logistics, and emerging humanoid deployments better than many would-be entrants.Edge AI emerged as the second pillar of that strategy and one of the event’s strongest storylines. In conversations and demos, Infineon executives drew a clear distinction between monolithic cloud AI and distributed intelligence (“where the action is”) at the device level.Infineon’s Division President of Connected Secure Systems, Thomas Rosteck, and others argued that many high-value use cases simply cannot tolerate cloud dependence: real-time control in vehicles and robots, privacy-critical health and home data, and systems deployed in regions with unreliable connectivity.The launch positioning around PSOC Edge and the Deepcraft AI Suite translated that thesis into practice, demonstrating small language model and signal processing workloads running fully on-device with competitive responsiveness and significantly lower power consumption.In an on-site discussion, Infineon’s EVP of IoT, Wireless, and Compute Business Sam Geha highlighted three advantages Infineon sees as decisive: deterministic latency for safety and autonomy, the ability to avoid wireless or cloud dependencies in cost-sensitive designs, and strong privacy by keeping biometric and behavioral data at the edge. That framing aligns tightly with regulatory and customer trends around security and data protection.When combined with Infineon’s heritage in secure MCUs and connectivity, OktoberTech Silicon Valley made a persuasive case that the company is structurally well-positioned to power and enhance security for the next wave of edge AI endpoints, from health wearables and smart home devices to industrial controllers and automotive systems.The AI data center story at OktoberTech Silicon Valley elevated this positioning to infrastructure scale. Here, Infineon’s announcement supporting Nvidia’s move toward an 800 VDC architecture for AI racks was more than opportunistic alignment.The technical sessions outlined a complete power path from the grid to the core using Infineon’s CoolSiC and CoolGaN. They advanced hot-swap and protection solutions to enable safe operation, high efficiency, and live serviceability at 800 VDC.With AI rack power projected to climb from roughly 120 kW to as high as a breathtaking 1 megawatt later this decade, the economics and sustainability of AI infrastructure hinge on squeezing losses out of every conversion stage and minimizing downtime.Infineon executives leaned into the assertion that “there is no AI without power,” positioning the company as the de facto backbone provider for AI “gigafactories of compute” that must be both energy efficient and continuously serviceable.By offering integrated hot-swap controllers, SiC-based protection, and high-frequency conversion reaching efficiency levels near 98% per stage, Infineon presented a differentiated, system-level solution rather than a parts catalog.For hyperscalers and AI cloud operators, that combination of technology, safety, and manufacturability is highly relevant. OktoberTech effectively reinforced the message that Infineon intends to own the power spine from medium-voltage input through to accelerator boards in next-generation AI data centers.Quantum computing could have been the outlier topic, but instead, it pulled the narrative forward. The joint discussion with Quantinuum framed quantum not as a marketing experiment, but as a necessary complement to classical and AI compute in a world where power demand from data centers is scaling almost exponentially.Infineon’s SVP and GM for the Power Switches Business Line, Richard Kuncic, noted that the company already “takes care of the complete power flow in the data center from grid to core” and argued that the current trajectory of power consumption is unsustainable without “smarter ways of computation,” with quantum emerging as one of the solutions for mathematically intractable problems.Quantinuum Sr. Director of Product Technologies, Russell Stutz, was explicit about why the partnership matters technically: scaling trapped-ion systems to hundreds of thousands or millions of qubits requires advanced micro- and nanofabrication, industrial process control, and cost discipline, all areas where Infineon brings decades of expertise.Infineon is positioning itself as the manufacturing and engineering bridge that turns fragile physics experiments into scalable quantum hardware. That role mirrors its broader position in power and automotive: not owning the full stack but enabling others to scale reliably.From a strategic standpoint, OktoberTech Silicon Valley succeeded in tying quantum back to Infineon’s core competence in production and system quality, reinforcing the idea that the company will remain relevant as compute architectures evolve.The closing “Hidden Revolutions from Mobility to the Grid” panel made explicit what was implicit throughout the event: Infineon’s vision is fundamentally system-level. Moderator Negar Soufi, Infineon’s SVP and GM for the high voltage automotive business, described EVs as “moving energy assets” that both draw from and feed into a more dynamic grid.The panel accentuated that semiconductors and software power this transformation in the precise domains Infineon serves: efficient propulsion, secure connectivity, bidirectional charging, and AI-enhanced energy management.The discussion around software-defined vehicles, automotive Ethernet, solid-state transformers, and grid infrastructure connected the dots between vehicle, data center, and grid demands.It reinforced three themes in the Infineon DNA: efficiency as a financial and environmental currency, modular platforms that scale across applications, and intelligent, secured control that links endpoints back into the energy system.This broader context strengthened the argument that Infineon is not only selling components into growth markets but helping shape how electrified mobility, AI compute, and infrastructure interact.Taken together, did OktoberTech Silicon Valley make the case that Infineon will remain a force in robotics, edge AI computing, AI data center infrastructure, and quantum computing?On balance, yes, and in a way that aligns with how sophisticated buyers evaluate strategic partners.Across robotics and physical AI, Infineon presented itself as a system enabler with credible breadth: efficient power stages, rich sensing, connectivity, and security, delivered as integrated, application-ready platforms.In edge AI, it couples competitive silicon with the PSOC Edge and Deepcraft AI Hub software stack and a strong privacy and security argument, mirroring regulatory direction and real deployment needs.Within AI data centers, it showed up not as a me-too supplier but as a co-architect of 800 VDC power systems with Nvidia, offering solutions that directly influence uptime, TCO, and sustainability. In quantum computing, Infineon’s role as a high-volume, precision manufacturing partner for leading platforms gave it a clear and defensible position in an emerging market without overreaching.Naturally, execution questions remain. Infineon will need to continue investing in software, tools, and reference designs so that robotics and edge AI developers see it as the fastest path from prototype to product. It must sustain leadership in SiC and GaN and secure microcontrollers against intensifying competition.Its quantum partnerships must evolve from promising pilots into meaningful, recurring business. But these are challenges of follow-through, not flaws in the strategic thesis.What OktoberTech Silicon Valley 2025 demonstrated is that Infineon understands where value is migrating in the age of AI and electrification: to companies that can make intelligence physical, efficient, secure, and scalable.By anchoring its message in tangible partnerships, manufacturing investments, sustainability commitments, and end-to-end solutions, Infineon used OktoberTech Silicon Valley to argue that it is one of those companies.The argument, judged on the substance presented, was convincing.

The air in New York at AMD’s 2025 Analyst Day last Tuesday was electric — and being there on-site made it even clearer that the real story wasn’t the record-breaking numbers. It was the palpable shift in the industry narrative.While the tech world remains fixated on Nvidia’s staggering valuation and Intel’s ongoing turnaround saga, AMD, under the steady hand of CEO Lisa Su, has been quietly executing a multi-year masterclass in strategy.The results speak for themselves: a record revenue of $9.2 billion, soaring 36% year-over-year (YOY) and obliterating consensus estimates. It wasn’t just a good quarter; it was a dominant performance, with non-GAAP net income skyrocketing 152% sequentially to $2 billion.AMD is no longer just the scrappy underdog; it’s a quiet giant steadily outmaneuvering rivals by capitalizing on their core weaknesses, like Intel’s market vulnerabilities and Nvidia’s growing list of self-inflicted problems.A fascinating undercurrent at the analyst event was the quiet chatter among attendees about customer frustration. There’s a growing sentiment among IT customers that they feel “cheated” by major OEMs that continue to default to non-AMD solutions.For years, Intel-based servers and Nvidia-based AI platforms were the “safe” choice. Now, IT managers are realizing they are paying a premium for solutions that are often less economically viable and, critically, not power-efficient enough.Recent candid remarks from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella validated this sentiment. He stated that Microsoft’s primary bottleneck to AI expansion is no longer a chip shortage, but rather a power shortage. Nadella revealed that Microsoft has a stockpile of advanced GPUs it cannot deploy because it lacks the data center “warm shells” with enough available electricity to plug them in.This dynamic is where Nvidia’s “performance at all costs” mantra hits a wall of physical reality. As I’ve argued before, Nvidia’s proprietary reign invites disruption. If your most powerful GPUs are too power-hungry for your biggest customer to deploy, you have a massive market vulnerability. That reality has created a golden opening for a competitor focused on efficiency and real-world deployment, and AMD is walking right through it.Nvidia’s success has placed the company on a dizzying pedestal, but that height comes with its own kind of gravity. To keep supporting its massive valuation, Nvidia must constantly push its highest-margin, highest-hype products to the forefront. In that environment, it’s easy for blind spots to form — and for the company’s focus to drift away from what customers increasingly care about: cost and power.AMD, by contrast, is essentially flying under the radar. Free from the burden of a $5 trillion market cap, its leadership can remain laser-focused on a long-term plan. This strategy, as outlined at the analyst day, is a multi-pronged assault: compute technology leadership, data center leadership, pervasive AI, open software platforms, and custom silicon.This disciplined execution is a hallmark of AMD’s leadership team, many of whom, including Lisa Su and CTO Mark Papermaster, share roots (as I do) at IBM. This IBM heritage runs deep — shaping a culture of engineering rigor, long-term planning, and a customer-centric focus on solving complex enterprise problems.As a result, many companies are finding AMD a more reliable partner. They are perceived as collaborators, not dictators, who are willing to build custom silicon solutions rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all proprietary product down a customer’s throat.AMD’s Q3 results show it is masterfully executing a pincer move, attacking both its rivals on their home turf.On one front, AMD is systematically carving up Intel’s heartland:On the second front, AMD is outflanking Nvidia in the AI data center:This growth is so robust that AMD delivered a record quarter despite an $800 million Q2 charge tied to U.S. export restrictions on its MI308 China-bound chip. That kind of performance reflects a business that is both resilient and diversified, not reliant on any single product or market.AMD’s leadership isn’t resting on these results. The company is investing aggressively — $40 billion in organic R&D, much of it focused on AI, and another $60 billion earmarked for acquisitions. Together, these initiatives support an ambitious five-year plan to capture more than 50% of the server revenue market, over 40% of the client market, and more than 70% of the embedded market.Hitting those milestones would put AMD on a path toward a projected 35% CAGR. At the center of that growth story is the Helios Rack, a full AI building block built around AMD’s next-gen CPUs, GPUs, UALink, and AI NICs, all tuned for ROCm. Notably, partners — not AMD — will sell these systems, positioning them as a more open and efficient counterweight to Nvidia’s vertically integrated stack.The company’s guidance for Q4 2025 projects revenue of approximately $9.6 billion with an even stronger non-GAAP gross margin of 54.5%. This forecast, which excludes any revenue from the restricted China chips, shows that AMD’s growth is now fully self-sustaining.AMD’s Q3 2025 financial report is a powerful testament to the value of quiet execution over market hype. The company is perfectly poised to slipstream Nvidia in the AI race by offering a more efficient, open-source, and customer-friendly platform, all while simultaneously exploiting Intel’s market weaknesses to capture record share in the client and server markets.This dual-front war is succeeding, and the record-breaking $9.2 billion revenue — achieved despite significant geopolitical headwinds — proves AMD’s strategy is not only working but accelerating.While Nvidia grapples with the pressures of its own valuation and power-hungry hardware its customers can’t even deploy, AMD is focused, disciplined, and clearly building the foundation to become the most trusted and versatile high-performance computing leader of the next decade.As the 2025 gift season arrives, the Geekom A9 Max is poised to claim the title of “best-performing micro-PC on the market.” Priced at $999 for the 32GB DDR5/2 TB SSD bundle, it delivers powerhouse hardware in a diminutive footprint.At the heart of the system lies AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (12-core/24-thread, 4 nm Zen 5), paired with Radeon 890M graphics and up to an 80 TOPS NPU for on-device AI workloads. Other reviews note that it outperforms many competitors at comparable prices in both CPU and GPU tasks. With support for up to 128GB of RAM and dual SSDs (one 2280, one 2230), the A9 Max offers unheard-of upgrade headroom in many mini PCs.With its compact dimensions of 135 × 132 × 47 mm and all-metal build, the A9 Max blends into dorm rooms, family living areas, or talented teens’ streaming setups with ease. Its robust IO lineup — dual USB-C (USB4), dual HDMI 2.1, dual 2.5 GbE, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4 — means it’s ready for gaming, content creation, or AI applications right out of the box.This holiday season, for the tech-savvy child or teen who juggles gaming, schoolwork, and streaming, the A9 Max hits the sweet spot. Its compact chassis frees up desk space for both homework and play. Its high-performance handles AAA games and video editing alike. For a parent evaluating value, it’s a one-stop machine with minimal need for upgrades — the 32GB/2TB configuration is already generous.Thanks to its portability, the A9 Max also fits into a dorm, shared living space, or family gaming lounge without requiring a full-sized tower. With built-in support for multiple monitors and serious cooling, it’s ready for long gaming sessions or creative bursts without overheating or throttling.If you’re shopping for a micro-PC that doesn’t compromise on performance, the Geekom A9 Max is hard to top. At $999, it delivers full-sized power in a mini package — perfect for both gaming and creative pursuits. For a holiday gift this year, it stands out as an innovative blend of portability, efficiency, and raw capability that the next-gen user truly needs, making the Geekom A9 Max Mini PC my Product of the Week.

AI browsers, like Perplexity’s Comet and Brave’s Leo, can offer conveniences not found in conventional browsers, but they also pose potentially higher risks.“The ability to quickly gather and summarize available information without having to invest hours of clicking and reading is incredibly valuable,” observed Andy Bennett, CISO of Apollo Information Systems, a provider of cybersecurity and IT solutions, in Dallas.“At the same time, AI browsers bring analysis and enable the user to glean insights that would normally take a lot of time or be missed altogether,” he told TechNewsWorld. “AI can help find information across a broader number of sources than a user can physically or manually process in a traditional browser experience.”But with that great power comes great risk, as researchers at Brave explained in a blog post:“Instead of just asking ‘Summarize what this page says about London flights,’ you can command: ‘Book me a flight to London next Friday.’ The AI doesn’t just read, it browses and completes transactions autonomously.”They went on to note: “This kind of agentic browsing is incredibly powerful, but it also presents significant security and privacy challenges. As users grow comfortable with AI browsers and begin trusting them with sensitive data in logged-in sessions — such as banking, health care, and other critical websites — the risks multiply.”“What if the model hallucinates and performs actions you didn’t request?” they asked. “Or worse, what if a benign-looking website or a comment left on a social media site could steal your login credentials or other sensitive data by adding invisible instructions for the AI assistant?”The researchers actually found a “hidden instructions” vulnerability in the Comet browser. When told to summarize a web page, the browser feeds the page into its large language model (LLM) without distinguishing between the user’s instructions and untrusted content on the page. “This allows attackers to embed indirect prompt injection payloads that the AI will execute as commands,” they explained.“Prompt injection is a concern for all AI agents, but a particularly acute one for AI browsers,” observed Lionel Litty, CISO and chief security architect at Menlo Security, a browser security provider, in Mountain View, Calif.“That is because web content is inherently untrusted and often aggregated from many sources,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Even when visiting a trusted e-commerce site, the content the AI browser sees may include reviews from customers and ads from third parties, all possible sources of prompt injection.”“In general, network tools are ill-positioned to address prompt injection, as they have a very limited understanding of browsing activities,” he added. “Solutions are needed that understand the full context of the browsing session and can proactively protect the agent by adding hard guardrails.”Security was cited among the reasons Amazon ordered Perplexity to remove the internet retailer from the Comet experience.“Perplexity’s Terms of Use and Privacy Notice grant it broad rights to collect passwords, security keys, payment methods, shopping histories, and other sensitive data from customers accessing the Amazon Store or other third-party websites, while disclaiming any responsibility for data security,” Amazon wrote in a “Cease and Desist” letter sent to Perplexity.“At the same time,” it continued, “Perplexity is intentionally evading Amazon’s identification of the Comet AI agent when it accesses the Amazon Store, and thereby directly interfering with Amazon’s efforts to manage security risks. This is particularly troubling given recent reports showing that Comet AI is vulnerable to prompt injection attacks, phishing, scams, and other forms of cyberattacks.”Perplexity countered that Amazon’s real goal is to safeguard its lucrative ad-driven business model. When an AI agent is tasked simply with buying the cheapest laundry detergent, it skips the sponsored results, upsells, and confusing offers that generate revenue for Amazon, it contended. Perplexity compared the situation to a store that only allows customers to hire a personal shopper who works exclusively for the store, not a true personal shopper, but a sales associate.AI browsers pose risks that traditional browsers do not. “Traditional browsers don’t try to interpret a page or act on it,” explained Dan Pinto, CEO and co-founder of Fingerprint, a device intelligence and browser fingerprinting company, in Chicago.“With AI browsers, the AI assistant becomes part of the browsing experience,” he told TechNewsWorld. “This means it will interpret a page and act on cleverly hidden instructions because that’s what it was designed to do.”Traditional browsers render content while AI browsers interpret it, explained Dylan Dewdney, co-founder and CEO of Kuvi.ai, an embedded software products provider.“That interpretive layer is the threat multiplier,” he told TechNewsWorld. “A normal browser might load a malicious site, but an AI browser can be socially engineered, tricked, or linguistically coerced into taking actions on your behalf, including actions you didn’t authorize or even understand. It’s less like hacking a browser and more like hacking the assistant you delegated decision-making to.”Pinto added that, in many cases, attacks launched via AI browsers are more harmful than those targeting traditional browsers.“The danger is that the AI assistant may take action on your behalf — such as clicking on malicious links, filling out forms, and sending valuable personal information — all without your knowledge,” he said. “Once an attacker can influence that automation, things escalate quickly, and the user may never see a single red flag.”Jon Knisley, head of process AI at Abbyy, a global intelligent automation company, maintained that it’s a one-two punch that makes AI browsers more dangerous than their conventional kin. “The autonomous nature of AI browsers and deeper integration with user resources expand their impact radius,” he told TechNewsWorld.“With access to user data across emails and documents, a successful attack can compromise an entire workflow compared to a local browser session,” he said. “Plus, agents lack the ‘common sense’ filter that can interrupt a more traditional social engineering or phishing attack.”Dewdney explained that AI-enabled browsing collapses the gap between reading and acting. “A malicious prompt doesn’t just show up on your screen. It can actually trigger actions, automate workflows, access accounts, or exfiltrate data,” he said. “Once an attacker hijacks the ‘interpretation layer,’ the blast radius is significantly larger. With human users, there’s friction. With agents, there’s speed and obedience.”Giving an agentic browser access to passwords, usernames, and other credentials also makes them potentially more dangerous to users, added Nick Muy, CISO of Scrut Automation, a cybersecurity and compliance automation company, headquartered in Milpitas, Calif. He cautioned users not to store usernames, passwords, and other credentials directly in a browser.“Require the browser to authenticate with a third-party app like 1Password,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Still, there’s a lot of risk with giving the browser access to anything.”Pinto noted that the online community is watching the first wave of attacks, shaped entirely around how AI assistants or agents see the web, not how humans do.“That means defenses have to adapt as well,” he said. “The more authorization AI assistants have to act on users’ behalf, the more important it becomes to have systems that can recognize when something about a device, a session, or a user’s behavior doesn’t make sense, not just if it’s a human or not.”“That extra layer of information,” he continued, “can help keep accounts protected without hindering this new way that legitimate users are interacting with the web.”“We’re entering an era where language is an attack vector,” added Dewdney.“Security models built for humans don’t map cleanly onto systems that reason, summarize, and act,” he explained. “The long-term solution will be a mix of cryptographic verifiability — attesting to the integrity of content — agent sandboxing and decentralized identity frameworks.”“Until then, users should treat AI browsers the way early internet users treated email attachments — powerful, convenient, and one careless click away from chaos,” he said.

As the Trump Administration mulls slapping tariffs on foreign robotics, it’s being warned that such a move could disrupt efforts to revive manufacturing in the United States.The U.S. Commerce Department has begun collecting comments in an investigation authorized by section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the agency to impose trade restrictions — such as tariffs or quotas — if imports are found to impair national security.Opponents of tariffs, however, argue that the levies on foreign robotics would not only undermine national security but also hobble efforts to revive the U.S. manufacturing sector.“A tariff on foreign robotics would raise the cost of capital investment for U.S. manufacturers who rely on this machinery to modernize and become more competitive,” explained Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research, in Las Vegas.“This increased expense on essential automation tools would squeeze profit margins, especially for small-to-mid-sized firms, making their final products more expensive compared to international rivals who can acquire the same technology tariff-free,” he told TechNewsWorld.“Essentially, tariffs could delay or derail the push to increase productivity and reshore manufacturing, undermining the very renaissance they are meant to protect,” he added.Seil Kim, vice president of DN Solutions, a South Korean manufacturer of computer numerical control (CNC) and metal-cutting machine tools, and Daniel Medrea, executive vice president of DN Solutions America, a U.S. subsidiary established in 1994, pointed out in comments submitted to Commerce that while large corporations often capture headlines, the backbone of American manufacturing consists of thousands of small and medium enterprises.“These companies, often family-owned job shops, depend on access to affordable, high-quality machine tools to remain competitive,” they stated.“For many small manufacturers, purchasing a CNC machine represents a major capital investment that must deliver returns for decades,” they explained. “They need equipment that is not only capable but also supported by readily available service, training, and spare parts.”“Imposing tariffs or restrictions on our equipment would place these critical capabilities out of reach for many small businesses, forcing them either to delay modernization or to seek lower-quality alternatives that could compromise their competitiveness,” they maintained. “The changes in price competitiveness could also increase the likelihood of substitution with lower-cost Chinese products, potentially posing a security threat.”American companies need robots to lower labor costs, increase productivity, and assure factory uptime, added Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm, in Bend, Ore.“In addition, existing robots become obsolete or wear out, and it is easier to replace robots with those from the same manufacturer than to switch providers,” he told TechNewsWorld.Tariffs will also put U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage when purchasing equipment in global markets. “Tariffs are most typically passed on to the buyer,” explained Enderle. “Given the robot market is very competitive, making margins largely too tight to absorb much in the way of tariffs.”Vena agreed that it is highly unlikely that foreign robotics companies will significantly cut prices to absorb the full cost of a U.S. tariff. “This is because manufacturers in key producing nations like Japan and Germany have strong, growing markets elsewhere and have diversified their global sales, making them less reliant on U.S. market access,” he explained.“Furthermore,” he continued, “some foreign manufacturers already benefit from government subsidies, giving them little incentive to sacrifice margins just to offset a U.S. tariff.”“There’s a lot of interest in these products globally,” added Paul Steidler, a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank in Arlington, Va.“This is not some stale old school commodity product where tariffs may have some beneficial impact,” he told TechNewsWorld. “A lot of these robots are highly specialized.”“Tariffs are just going to up the price and cost for U.S. manufacturers, and that’s going to impair productivity and manufacturing growth significantly,” he said.Ed Brzytwa, vice president of international trade, and Michael Petricone, senior vice president of government affairs, at the Arlington, Va.-based Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which represents more than 1,200 member companies in the U.S. technology industry, concurred that tariffs on robotics and industrial machinery — products that constitute critical inputs in manufacturing — would significantly increase costs for equipment and machinery on factory floors, discourage investment into new U.S. production capacity and threaten jobs.“This is underscored by the fact that domestic production of critical inputs alone is insufficient to sustain the needs of U.S. manufacturers,” they wrote in comments to Commerce. “Currently, even if operating at full capacity, the U.S. manufacturing industry could only produce 84% of the inputs manufacturers need for production. Thus, 16% of manufacturing inputs must be imported in order for U.S. manufacturers to operate.”“In fact, in key sectors such as automotive manufacturing, domestic suppliers of critical machinery for manufacturing and assembly already suffer from overcapacity, illustrating the reality that current U.S. supply cannot meet growing demand for advanced machinery,” they continued.“Subjecting robotics and industrial machinery to tariffs would further prevent U.S. manufacturers from building, modernizing, and operating facilities,” they added.The CTA urged Commerce to exclude industrial robots, industrial machinery, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and other complete computer-controlled mechanical systems, including LiDAR modules, from any trade action. These technologies are critical to U.S. industrial capacity, enable reshoring, and support globally competitive production.Because production lines have been optimized around these systems, replacing them would require years of reengineering, in turn delaying domestic investment and manufacturing expansion, the CTA added.Vena pointed out that the U.S. currently lacks the domestic capacity to produce all the industrial robots needed for its manufacturing base.“An estimated 80% of robots bought in the U.S. are manufactured overseas, primarily in countries like Japan, Germany, and China,” he explained. “This trend is partly a legacy issue, as countries like Japan and Germany historically excelled at producing the specialized, high-precision machine tools required to make these robots.”“Since the U.S. does not have the capacity to meet demand, tariffs would raise costs without providing a viable domestic alternative,” he added.He noted that several initiatives have been launched to increase the number of robots produced in the United States. “Programs like the National Robotics Initiative — known as NRI 3.0 — and the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute invest in R&D and public-private partnerships,” he said.“Additionally, broader acts like the CHIPS Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law include funding that indirectly supports the advanced technologies and facilities critical to the robotics ecosystem.”Steidler recommended that the U.S. court Japan and its robot companies to invest directly in the U.S. and to make joint investments with U.S. companies for robot development here. “Japan is a leader in manufacturing here,” he said. “They’re a good friend, a good ally of the United States, and they should be embraced on this.”He also recommended adopting lower tax rates and faster depreciation of investments, as well as fostering a climate in which U.S. companies can acquire foreign robotics companies and bring their operations to the U.S., or find ways to work with them jointly.“Those actions will have much more immediate and positive benefits than tariffs, which are likely to raise prices and create a lot of disruption here at home,” he added.

If you are feeling a little less “ho-ho-ho” and a little more “bah humbug” this year, you aren’t alone. The recent government shutdown, which mercifully ended on Nov. 12, left many households tightening budgets amid lingering uncertainty, making this holiday season feel particularly fragile. Money is tight, uncertainty is high, and for many of us, the idea of a lavish Christmas feels irresponsible, if not impossible.But here is the good news: We are living in the golden age of consumer artificial intelligence. While AI can’t print money (yet), it can act as a force multiplier for your creativity, a ruthless hunter for bargains, and a creator of deeply personal gifts that cost a fraction of store-bought alternatives.Here is how you can use the tools available right now to save money, from your Christmas cards to the tree.Let’s explore how today’s AI tools can make Christmas more affordable, and we’ll close with my Product of the Week: Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, with a screen that nearly magically extends from a portable 14-inch to 16-inch with the push of a button.The traditional “brag sheet” Christmas letter often sounds tone-deaf, especially in a lean year. This is where AI can help you strike a balance between sharing news and maintaining humility and warmth.Drafting with Empathy: Tools like ChatGPT or Claude are excellent at tone calibration. Instead of staring at a blank screen, paste your bullet points of the year’s events into the chatbot and ask it to “Write a warm, humorous, empathetic Christmas letter that acknowledges it has been a tough year financially but focuses on gratitude and family resilience.”Visualizing the Narrative: Text is only half the battle. You can now create custom illustrations that break the monotony of text walls. Instead of a generic clip-art Santa, use image generators like Midjourney or DALL-E 3 (available via ChatGPT Plus) to create scenes that match your family’s vibe.We’ve had search engines; now we have “shopping agents.” The shift from keyword searching to agentic AI — where the AI reasons on your behalf — is a massive money saver.If you are struggling to find a gift for a spouse who loves 1980s sci-fi but already owns everything, stop browsing Amazon categories randomly. Ask an AI agent.The new AI-infused Google Shopping allows you to ask complex queries like, “What is a thoughtful, under-$50 gift for a man who loves ‘Blade Runner’ but hates clutter?” It will scour reviews and forums to suggest items like a “Tears in Rain” monologue print or a specific type of whiskey glass, rather than just a generic movie poster.Once you identify the gift, do not pay full price. AI browser extensions like Honey (now PayPal Honey) or price-tracking features in Microsoft Edge’s Copilot automatically scan for coupons and price history.Pro Tip: If you are eyeing a big-ticket item, use an AI tracker to watch the price. We are seeing volatility due to lingering supply-chain disruptions following the shutdown, and AI can alert you the second a price drops to its historical low.The most memorable gifts are often the ones that show you “see” the person. This year, you can use generative AI to put your children, spouse, or friends into their favorite pop culture worlds, which is significantly cheaper than buying licensed merchandise and infinitely more personal. The process:Once you have the image, don’t just leave it on a phone. Upload it to a service like Shutterfly or Printful to put it on a canvas, a puzzle, or even a blanket. A custom puzzle of Dad as a Jedi is a gift that provides entertainment and is a keepsake, usually for under $30.This serves as your critical warning: While AI generates art in seconds, physical production and shipping are subject to the laws of physics and logistics networks still recovering from the shutdown.If you are planning print-on-demand gifts such as canvases, mugs, or custom books:Services like nPhoto and other professional labs have already set strict cutoff dates. Do not let the speed of AI lull you into a false sense of security regarding physical delivery.The shutdown and the economy have dealt us a tough hand this year, but constraint often breeds creativity. By using AI, we can move away from the “add to cart” panic of consumerism and toward a season of thoughtful, personalized creation.We can write letters that actually mean something, find gifts that show we listen, and create art that puts our loved ones center stage. It takes a little more time than swiping a credit card, but in a year where every dollar counts, the effort and the savings will be the best gifts of all.If Santa Claus were a tech analyst, he’d likely be trading in his dusty ledger for the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable. (Note: At the time of publication, Lenovo’s site has shown an on-again, off-again “no longer available” notice, but Lenovo tells me the Rollable is only temporarily out of stock.)As 2025 draws to a close, I’ve reviewed a sleigh-load of laptops, but this one is hands-down my favorite notebook of the year. In a market saturated with iterative updates and “safe” designs, Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 stands out as being both truly different and genuinely useful. It’s the kind of innovation that doesn’t just sit on a desk; it performs a magic trick.The party piece of this machine is, of course, the display. Out of the box, it looks like a premium, albeit slightly thick, 14-inch notebook. But with the push of a button (or a software trigger), the 14-inch OLED panel motorizes upward, unrolling to reveal a massive 16.7-inch vertical workspace.The screen expansion isn’t a gimmick; it’s a productivity dream. The aspect ratio shifts from a standard view to a towering 8:9 format, effectively giving you two 16:9 screens stacked on top of one another. For writers, coders, and analysts, this means you can see nearly double the number of lines in a spreadsheet or document without scrolling. It feels like unwrapping a bigger present every time you sit down to work.Under the hood, this is a serious machine. It is powered by the new Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) Lunar Lake architecture, which provides excellent power efficiency and strong performance for productivity tasks. Paired with 32GB of RAM and the stunning 120Hz OLED clarity, it handles heavy workflows with grace.However, the price tag is steep at around $3,499. But for that price, you aren’t just buying specs; you’re buying a status symbol. When I use this in a coffee shop or a conference room and hit that extend button, conversation stops. It immediately prompts people to ask about it, usually with a palpable sense of envy. It is the tech equivalent of pulling up in a concept car.Despite my adoration for this device, it isn’t perfect. Like a complex toy on Christmas morning, it comes with warnings. Here are its distinct shortcomings:The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is a daring, beautiful, and highly functional piece of future-tech. It has its quirks, but it brings a sense of wonder back to personal computing that has been missing for a long time. I really love this laptop, making it an ideal pick for my Product of the Week.

With energy demand soaring — largely due to the growth of data centers supporting a burgeoning AI industry — concerns have arisen about where the nation will find the energy capacity to meet its power needs.A new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) argues that capacity can be found in the near- and medium-term, giving power providers the time they need to add infrastructure to the existing grid and meet longer-term electricity demand.“However, such a solution will not arrive on its own,” wrote the author of the report, Robin Gaster, research director for ITIF’s Center for Clean Energy in Washington, D.C. “Without significant action across multiple fronts and at substantial scale, the existing grid will come under increasing pressure — and we can expect a massive struggle for access.”“Regulators will be caught between the sudden growth in demand and political pressure to service existing commercial and residential customers first, while keeping a lid on prices,” he explained.One of the significant drivers of the growing electricity demand appears to be data centers, the report noted, prompting calls to slow their growth or even prevent them from connecting to the grid altogether.“Slowing data center growth or prohibiting grid connection is a short-sighted approach that embraces a scarcity mentality,” argued Wannie Park, CEO and founder of Pado AI, an energy management and AI orchestration company, in Malibu, Calif.“The explosive growth of AI and digital infrastructure is a massive engine for economic, scientific, and industrial progress,” he told TechNewsWorld. “The focus should not be on stifling this essential innovation, but on making data centers active, supportive participants in the energy ecosystem.”“Data centers are the engine of the AI economy, but they can’t be passive loads anymore,” he said. “Data centers can and should be active partners that contribute to grid stability and resilience, not just consume power. Prohibiting growth would simply limit the innovation needed to solve the power crunch in the first place.”The reality is the U.S. has dramatically underinvested in long-term grid upgrades and planning, maintained Scotty Embley, an associate with Hi-Tequity, a data center development and investment firm, in Melbourne Beach, Fla. Slowing data center builds equates to slowing vital applications such as banking, federal, health care, and transportation, he told TechNewsWorld.However, he acknowledged that early coordination with utilities is necessary to ensure new facility locations are strategically planned and responsibly powered, where adequate grid support is available.Instead of restricting data center development, the focus should be on smarter integration with the grid, added Allan Schurr, chief commercial officer at Enchanted Rock, a provider of natural gas-powered microgrids, in Houston.Planning for the full lifecycle of a data center’s power needs — from construction through long-term operations — is essential, he continued. This approach includes having solutions in place that can keep facilities operational during periods of limited grid availability, major weather events, or unexpected demand pressures, he said.Schurr explained that on-site generation, including natural gas microgrids, can provide bridge power during interconnection delays, flexible capacity to support grid-constrained regions, and dependable backup power when the grid is stressed or offline. With this type of coordinated approach, data centers can continue to grow while strengthening, not straining, our power infrastructure, he contended.Data centers are the source of the information for anything we do on the internet, added Arie Brish, a business professor at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. They must be up 24/7. These facilities are not like a laundry operation that can be limited to off-hours.He also noted that the importance of continuity in data center operations requires that they have backups of local generators. These local generators can indeed be used to feed the facilities during peak hours, thus balancing grid demand, he told TechNewsWorld.Rick Bentley, CEO of HydroHash, a crypto-mining company focused on clean energy and high-efficiency operations, in Albuquerque, N.M., recommended that data center operators avoid the grid entirely. That saves the data center massive costs in both regulations and fees, he told TechNewsWorld.Once they are on the grid, their power can be curtailed during times of high demand to make sure the heat stays on in people’s homes during a cold snap, hospitals stay operational, and A/C works during a heat wave, he explained.The ITIF report also called for the United States to squeeze more power from the existing grid without negatively impacting customers, while also building new capacity.New technology can increase supply from existing transmission lines and generators, the report explained, which can bridge the transition to an expanded physical grid.On the demand side, it added, there is spare capacity, but not at peak times. It suggested that large users, such as data centers, be encouraged to shift their demand to off-peak periods, without damaging their customers. Grids do some of that already, it noted, but much more is needed.Up to 40% of data centers’ needs are not highly time sensitive, so they can be partners in managing peak demand by proactively shifting some of their use to different times and even different geographies, it reasoned.Ironically, AI, a significant driver of data center power usage, can also help squeeze more electricity from the existing grid.We need to map energy delivery with the same supply chain visibility we apply to national defense — using AI to map where power is wasted, where infrastructure is stalled due to fragile supply chains and where capacity is trapped behind inefficient legacy systems, Brandon Daniels, CEO of Exiger, a developer of AI-powered risk, compliance and supply chain management solutions, in McLean, Va., told TechNewsWorld.Pado’s Park agreed that one of the best ways to maximize existing grid capacity is to leverage software and AI/ML to balance power supply and demand better. Implementing orchestrated demand through advanced software for demand-side flexibility can intelligently coordinate large, flexible loads — like data centers — with grid signals, he noted.The primary challenge is the speed of deployment and regulatory lag, he said. Data center growth is moving at an unprecedented pace, and traditional utility planning and regulatory approval processes struggle to keep up, for good reasons.Additionally, he continued, data centers operate under stringent reliability requirements, aka “five nines,” which create technical and contractual hurdles to integrating load flexibility at scale.Embley, of Hi-Tequity, asserted that the U.S. can squeeze more capacity from the existing grid by putting underutilized or stranded power to work — whether through repurposing industrial sites that already have heavy electrical infrastructure or tapping idle substations and interconnects built for past manufacturing loads.These approaches deliver relief far faster than building new transmission, he explained. The challenge is that grid stress is already the top obstacle utilities cite, and major upgrades move on decade-long timelines. Interconnection queues continue to grow, and even when capacity exists on paper, critical equipment like transformers and switchgear carry 12- to 24-month lead times, which often slow projects more than construction itself.He added that computing density has changed dramatically as the use of artificial intelligence continues to soar. Today’s AI clusters draw 30 to 60 kilowatts per cabinet, two to three times the load of legacy CPU racks, overwhelming the electrical and thermal systems built for a different era, he explained.At the same time, grid expansion, interconnection, and long-lead electrical equipment operate on decade-long timelines, while AI demand is rising on year-long timelines.That mismatch, he said, not a lack of ambition or innovation, is what’s driving the current power crunch.

After being invited to use OpenAI’s Sora and spending two weeks experimenting with it, I am convinced that we are at the precipice of a change so profound that it’s hard to comprehend fully, even as we watch it unfold. The launch and rapid evolution of generative AI video tools, led by Sora, have triggered a dual reaction: sheer wonder and palpable fear.I found creating short videos with Sora AI to be remarkably simple and intuitive. I described a scene in which I stepped up to the plate at Yankee Stadium in Game 7 of the World Series and hit the game-winning home run for my beloved Yankees. Within minutes, Sora generated a cinematic version of that moment.The level of realism in the lighting, movement, and crowd reaction makes it feel like I was actually there. The clips in this video show the kind of creative power that once required a production crew, now available with just a prompt and a few clicks.On one hand, it’s easy to see the magic — the ability to type a few words and conjure worlds. On the other hand, it’s not difficult to see the immediate, tangible dangers. Recent studies have highlighted that tools like Sora 2 can be prompted to create false or misleading videos with alarming success, creating what one expert called “industrial-scale misinformation pipelines.”Alongside this, we have the deeply personal, ethical nightmare of “likeness theft,” where our faces are no longer our own. As one chilling report from The Wall Street Journal detailed, a meteorologist found her identity stolen and used to create deepfakes to defraud her followers.These concerns are not only valid; they are the most critical immediate challenge we face. Still, beyond this horizon of ethical and security battles, another, more structural disruption is brewing. Generative AI is aimed squarely at the entire entertainment production model, and in the long run, it has the potential to completely overturn the multibillion-dollar industry.We’ve seen this story before, just on a smaller scale. For the last 15 years, the smartphone — particularly high-end devices like Apple’s Pro iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy line — democratized video.Through the power of computational video, complex processes like image stabilization, real-time color grading, and portrait-mode depth-of-field were automated. A tool that once cost $100,000 was suddenly in everyone’s pocket, fueling the rise of the creator economy. It’s doubtful that even Steve Jobs saw this coming.However, AI video is the next exponential leap. The smartphone democratized the capture of reality; generative AI democratizes its creation.Think about what it takes to get a simple shot: a 1950s detective walking down a rainy street at night. You need a location scout, city permits, vintage cars, a wardrobe department, a rain machine, complex lighting rigs, and a camera crew. With generative AI, you just need a prompt.Want an “impossible” shot — like a drone that flies through the window of a high-rise, down a hallway, and into a teacup? That would typically require a blend of expert drone pilots, set construction, and high-end special effects. Now, it’s just a matter of describing it.This technology fundamentally uncouples visual storytelling from the constraints of physical reality. It removes the need to go on location, the need for practical effects, and, in many cases, the need for human actors.This new creative freedom leads directly to an economic earthquake.For the last 25 years, the average professionally produced Hollywood film has employed a staff of roughly 300 to 500 people. These numbers include the principal cast, as well as the massive production crew infrastructure: grips, gaffers, cinematographers, sound mixers, location managers, transportation coordinators, caterers, and post-production teams.In a world powered by generative AI, that number could easily plummet to less than 50. The very concept of a production crew will be radically redefined. AI will absorb much of the specialized labor traditionally required for physical production, and AI-generated video content will dramatically slash production costs, further democratizing the filmmaking process.Suddenly, an independent filmmaker in their garage will have the power to create visuals that rival a $200 million blockbuster. The barrier to entry won’t be capital; it will be imagination.To be clear, this doesn’t mean talent becomes obsolete. It means the talent shifts. The future of AI-produced film will place an unprecedented focus on the visionaries: the director and the cinematographer. Their jobs will become more crucial, not less, as they become the primary conduit between human ideas and AI execution.The new requisite skill will be precision. Prompts for these tools will require highly specific, prescriptive, and technical direction. A director won’t just say, “I want a shot of a sad man.” They will need to write the shot with the vocabulary of a master cinematographer:“Close-up on a 60-year-old man, face deeply lined. Key light is a single, flickering fluorescent overhead. Fill light is the blue glow of a television off-screen. Use an 85mm lens, shallow depth of field, and rack focus from his eyes to the wedding ring on his hand. Mood is isolated, reminiscent of Edward Hopper. Film grain to emulate Kodak Vision3 500T.”The director becomes the sole source of intent, and their ability to articulate that intent in granular detail will define the quality of the final product.So why isn’t this happening tomorrow? Why are AI-generated clips limited to a minute or two? The answer is the same reason you can’t run a data center on a watch battery: the computational resources required are astronomical.Generating a few seconds of high-fidelity, physically accurate, and coherent video requires immense processing power. Scaling that to a 120-minute feature film is, for now, cost-prohibitive, certainly at the mainstream user level.However, this challenge is temporary. This bottleneck is the specific target of the most intense race in technology. Companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm are in a furious battle to design the next generation of silicon solutions. Their goal is to create hardware that is more cost-efficient, more scalable, and explicitly optimized for this kind of AI-driven video workload.As the cost of data center resources falls and the hardware becomes more powerful, the “one-minute” wall will crumble, and full-length AI-produced video will become an economic inevitability.This brings us to Hollywood’s front door, where significant pushback is already underway. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and other unions can hear the footsteps. The ethical fears are not abstract — they are the concrete, terrifying stories of actors and public figures whose digital likenesses are already being stolen and misused.There is also deep skepticism that an AI-generated film can ever challenge a traditional film in quality, storytelling, and sheer production value. Can an algorithm truly capture the human soul?This is where the revolution will need its Trojan Horse.A full-scale AI film that attempts to replace living, working actors today would be met with unified, hostile rejection. A more likely path to acceptance will be a less threatening project — one that uses AI not to replace but to restore.Consider a classic property, such as the Broadway musical “Man of La Mancha.” The 1972 film adaptation was a notorious critical and commercial failure, panned for poor casting and deviations from the beloved stage play. But what if AI could be used to create a new film version, one that digitally recreates the original, legendary 1965 Broadway cast?Imagine seeing and hearing Richard Kiley and Joan Diener in their prime, in a fully realized cinematic world, offering audiences an immersive experience of a performance long lost to time. This application of AI feels less like theft and more like cultural preservation.This scenario is the likely entry point. But to truly be accepted, AI-generated film needs what computerized animation required in 1995: its “Toy Story.”When “Toy Story” was released, it upended the film industry. It didn’t just win a Special Achievement Academy Award; it proved that a computer-generated feature could be a work of genuine art, a masterpiece of storytelling that resonated with audiences on a deeply human level. It legitimized the entire medium.AI-produced long-form content will not get the respect it needs until its own “Toy Story” moment arrives. It requires one, undeniable film that forces skeptics and unions alike to concede that a new art form has been born. When an AI-produced film wins its first Oscar, not for technical effects, but for Best Picture, the paradigm shift will be complete.