AI Clones: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
AI cloning technology is moving from consented digital twins for CEOs and politicians to non‑consensual replicas of coworkers, bosses, and even ex‑partners. While leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman experiment with authorized avatars, fraudsters have already used voice clones to steal roughly $236,000 from a UK energy firm and $25 million in Hong Kong. Open‑source projects such as China‑originated Colleague Skill let employees upload emails and chat logs to build boss‑bots without permission, and the spin‑off Ex‑Partner Skill creates AI simulations of former lovers or deceased relatives. The surge raises urgent questions about consent, privacy, and regulatory oversight across the AI industry.
Edge Browser Leaves Passwords Exposed in Plain Text, Says Researcher
A Norwegian researcher discovered that Microsoft Edge’s password manager decrypts and stores saved passwords in plain text within the browser’s process memory, even after the browser is closed and reopened. Microsoft responded that this design balances performance and security, claiming...
AI-Led Job Cuts Don’t Always Mean Stronger ROI — Gartner
Gartner’s survey of 350 global leaders using AI agents reveals that 80% have cut staff, some by as much as 20%, yet those reductions show no link to higher return on AI investment. The firm stresses that ROI is driven...
Stealthy Malware Abuses Microsoft Phone Link to Siphon SMS OTPs From Enterprise PCs
Security researchers at Cisco Talos have uncovered a new malware campaign that leverages Microsoft’s Phone Link (formerly Your Phone) to intercept SMS‑based one‑time passwords from enterprise Windows PCs. The remote‑access trojan, dubbed CloudZ, works with a custom Pheno plugin to...
Microsoft, Google Push AI Agent Governance Into Enterprise IT Mainstream
Microsoft and Google have launched enterprise‑focused AI governance tools—Microsoft’s Agent 365, now generally available, and Google’s AI Control Center for Workspace. Both solutions let IT and security teams discover, monitor, and secure AI agents that operate across SaaS, cloud, and...
Start Small, but Start Now: How to Bring AI Into Your Small Business
A recent ASUS survey shows two‑thirds of small and medium businesses view AI as a generational shift. ASUS advises a three‑step rollout: audit existing AI tools, select a high‑impact workflow to automate, and equip staff with AI‑optimized PCs. Gartner forecasts...
Apple Is Preparing to Spend, but Not Necessarily on AI
Apple has abandoned its long‑standing net‑cash‑neutral goal, freeing cash for large‑scale investments or acquisitions. The appointment of hardware‑focused John Ternus as CEO signals a strategic pivot toward expanding services, with Apple Pay highlighted as a priority. Analysts see the cash...
AI Chatbots Need ‘Deception Mode’
Researchers at NYU presented at CHI'26 that users rate AI chatbot answers higher when responses are delayed, interpreting latency as deliberation. The study of 240 adults showed preference for 2‑second and 9‑second delays, with mixed feelings about 20‑second waits. Authors...
AI Venture Funding to Shoot up This Year as Bubble Looms
Venture capital poured a record $300 billion into 6,000 AI startups in Q1 2026, eclipsing 2025 levels. Major rounds included OpenAI’s $122 billion funding at an $852 billion valuation, X.AI’s $20 billion Series E, and Anthropic’s $30 billion raise. Nvidia deepened its involvement by investing in OpenAI,...
EU Lawmakers Fail to Agree on Watered-Down AI Act, Talks Pushed to May
EU lawmakers and member states failed to reach a compromise on a softened AI Act, leaving a key exemption for AI in already‑regulated products unresolved. The 12‑hour trilogue ended without an agreement, pushing the next round of talks to May....
AWS Unveils Trio of Key AI Strategy Announcements
AWS announced an expanded partnership with OpenAI, making the latest models and Codex available on Amazon Bedrock and introducing Managed Agents for cloud environments. It also launched Amazon Quick, a desktop AI assistant that personalizes workplace interactions, and broadened Amazon...
Why Simplicity Is the Silent Driver of Hybrid Workplace Success
Hybrid workplaces succeed when meeting room technology is invisible and consistent. The Flemish Government’s Brussels hub standardized ClickShare across more than 1,000 rooms, allowing employees to start collaborations without training. This uniform experience cuts setup time, boosts adoption, and lowers...
How Collaboration Technology Defines the Next Phase of Hybrid Work
Hybrid work is prompting a shift from fragmented tools to integrated collaboration environments. Meeting rooms are being treated as managed IT assets, with utilization and uptime metrics driving proactive support. Artificial intelligence has moved from novelty to necessity, delivering automatic...
Microsoft, OpenAI Change Contract Terms — Again
Microsoft and OpenAI announced a revised partnership that drops the exclusivity clause and changes revenue‑sharing terms. OpenAI can now deliver its models on any cloud, while Microsoft retains a non‑exclusive license to the IP through 2032 and will no longer...
Germany’s Sovereign AI Hope Changes Hands
Germany’s Aleph Alpha, once touted as the nation’s sovereign AI champion, is poised to merge with Canada’s Cohere pending shareholder approval. The deal combines Aleph Alpha’s deep research pedigree with Cohere’s global AI infrastructure and market reach. Together, they aim...
Former OpenAI Research Scientist Launches New AI Model for Tencent
Tencent has unveiled the Hy3 version of its Hunyuan AI model, the first major update since hiring former OpenAI researcher Yao Shunyu. The preview‑stage model claims stronger complex reasoning and coding abilities. Tencent says it will double its AI investment...
Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday Release for April Is a Whopper
Microsoft’s April Patch Tuesday is the largest on record, delivering 165 updates that address roughly 340 unique CVEs, including two zero‑day vulnerabilities—one of which is already being exploited in the wild. The Readiness team recommends “Patch Now” for all major...
IPv6 May Briefly Have Accounted for More than Half of Internet Traffic
IPv6 briefly surpassed the 50 % threshold of global internet traffic on March 28, according to Google data, marking a historic moment for the protocol. Cloudflare’s adoption radar recorded a high of 43 % IPv6 traffic, while APNIC Labs reported 43.13 % of worldwide...
UK Wants to Build Sovereign AI — with Just 0.08% of OpenAI’s Market Cap
The UK government announced a new Sovereign AI fund with up to £500 million (about $675 million) to back domestic AI startups. The programme can invest up to £20 million per company, provide 1 million GPU‑hours, and fast‑track visas for talent. At roughly 0.08%...
AI Is Finally Delivering Productivity — for Remote Employees
AI’s impact on productivity remains ambiguous, with surveys showing half of U.S. workers using AI but allocating only four percent of their day to it. Federal Reserve data indicates a modest 5.4% hour reduction for AI users, equating to a...
Anthropic’s Latest Model Is Deliberately Less Powerful than Mythos (and That’s the Point)
Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.7, a deliberately less powerful upgrade to Opus 4.6 that prioritizes safety over raw capability. The model adds stronger coding assistance, tripled vision resolution, better memory across sessions, and enhanced financial‑analysis output. Anthropic positions Opus 4.7...
Google Should Share Search Data to Break Its Monopoly, European Commission Suggests
The European Commission has asked Google to share its search ranking, query, click and view data with third‑party engines such as Qwant, Mojeek, Ecosia and metaGer to meet the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Google counters that the move would breach...
Microsoft to Cut Windows 365 Price for SMBs
Microsoft announced a permanent 20% price reduction for its Windows 365 Business subscription, effective May 1, 2026 for new customers and at renewal for existing users. The cut follows a promotional discount introduced last October and coincides with a new on‑demand start...
Can Microsoft Really Meet Its Carbon-Negative Goal by 2030?
Microsoft pledged in 2020 to be carbon‑negative by 2030, but rapid AI‑driven data‑center growth is straining that goal. The company announced a 2025 milestone, claiming 100% renewable electricity matching, yet the achievement relies heavily on carbon offsets rather than direct...
Adobe Summit 2026: How Adobe Hopes to Redesign Marketing and Creativity with AI
Adobe’s annual Summit kicks off in Las Vegas on April 20, 2026, with a parallel virtual stream, marking a pivotal moment as CEO Shantanu Narayen announces his departure after 18 years. The event will spotlight Adobe’s response to the surge...
Microsoft Adds Hidden Feature Flags to Windows Insider Builds
Microsoft is quietly adding a new "Feature Flags" setting to upcoming Windows Insider builds, allowing participants to manually toggle experimental features. Until now, Insiders relied on random assignments via the Controlled Feature Rollout program or third‑party tools like ViVeTool. The...
Meta Moves Fast Toward a World Where AI Builds the Software
Meta has launched a new Applied AI (AAI) engineering organization and is forcibly reassigning its top software engineers to the unit. AAI’s long‑term goal is to have autonomous AI agents handle the majority of building, testing and shipping Meta’s products,...
This Problem Might Not Need a Solution: Customer-Service Bots that Code for Free
A new wave of "token freeloaders" is siphoning free compute from AI‑powered customer‑service bots by posing complex queries that consume large language‑model tokens. CIO.com outlines mitigation tactics such as capping token usage per answer and adding AI‑driven validation, but each...
Chrome, Vivaldi, and the Challenge of Changing Browsers
Longtime Chrome user JR Raphael switched to Vivaldi after discovering its extensive customization and privacy tools. While Chrome still commands roughly three‑quarters of the desktop market in early 2026, the author found Vivaldi’s Android app painless to adopt and its...
Apple Worst, Asus Best for Laptop Repairability
The US PIRG Education Fund’s fifth Failing to Fix survey ranks Asus as the most repairable laptop brand, though its score slipped from the previous year, while Apple earned the lowest C‑minus rating. Dell, HP and Lenovo sit in the middle...
It’s iPhone Speculation Time: Flips, Flaps — and Fold
Apple’s rumored iPhone Fold is back in the spotlight as Nikkei warns of engineering snags that could push launch to 2027, while Bloomberg‑cited analyst Mark Gurman insists the device remains on track for a September debut alongside the Pro models....
Z.ai Unveils GLM-5.1, Enabling AI Coding Agents to Run Autonomously for Hours
Chinese AI firm Z.ai released GLM-5.1, an open‑source coding model designed for autonomous, long‑running software‑engineering agents. The model sustained performance over 600 iterations and 6,000 tool calls, achieving 21,500 queries per second—six times faster than its best single‑session result. Benchmark...
A Core Infrastructure Engineer Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges in Insider Attack
Core infrastructure engineer Daniel Rhyne pleaded guilty to a $750,000 bitcoin extortion scheme after using ordinary admin tools to shut down his former employer's network. He opened unauthorized RDP sessions, deleted admin accounts, altered passwords, and scheduled tasks on the...
As Cheap PCs Vanish, Enterprises Might Still Find Value in Upgrades
Cheap PCs are disappearing, prompting Dell and HP to launch new business machines built on Intel’s Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 processors. Benchmarks claim up to 80% graphics improvement, 34% faster productivity, and four‑times AI performance, while battery life stretches to...
Beware of Headlines Touting Impossible AI Benefits, Analysts Warn
Researchers at Tufts University and a Vienna lab demonstrated that a neuro‑symbolic, rule‑based approach can train a robot‑manipulation model using dramatically less energy than a comparable vision‑language‑action neural model. Media outlets amplified the finding with headlines claiming a "100× power...
Now that We Have the MacBook Neo, Could Apple Make a Mac Neo Desktop?
The MacBook Neo’s launch has sparked speculation that Apple could introduce a low‑cost desktop dubbed the “Mac Neo,” potentially priced around $399—well below the current $599 Mac mini. The imagined device would be a compact silver box with a few...
Cyber Criminals Too Are Working From Home… Your Home
The FBI has issued formal guidance warning that cyber‑criminals are exploiting residential proxies by hijacking home IoT devices, smartphones and routers. A January incident revealed nine million Android phones were co‑opted into a proxy network, and recent research uncovered vulnerable...
Storage Vendor Offers a Real Guarantee — but Check Out Those Fine-Print Exceptions
Scality announced a $100,000 cyber guarantee for its Artesca storage line, promising payment if an external attack destroys or encrypts data. The company markets the guarantee as simple and accessible, but the fine‑print limits coverage to external incidents, requires a...
It’s an AI Boom, Not a Bubble…, but Is that True at Microsoft?
Recent Menlo Ventures research shows AI enterprise spending surged to $13.8 billion in 2025, a six‑fold increase from 2023, indicating a shift from pilot projects to core business execution. Adoption now spans coding, sales, HR and verticals, with 76% of solutions...
OpenAI Robotics Chief Quits over Pentagon Deal
OpenAI’s head of robotics, Caitlin Kalinowski, resigned citing inadequate safeguards in the company’s new Pentagon contract. She warned that the agreement lacked sufficient deliberation on domestic surveillance and autonomous weapon controls. OpenAI later revised the deal to ban domestic surveillance...
Gov’t IT Spending Seen as Key to Building Europe’s Tech Ecosystem
European public‑sector IT spending is pivoting away from U.S. vendors as governments seek digital sovereignty. Germany, Denmark and France are replacing Microsoft Office, Windows, Teams and Zoom with open‑source or home‑grown alternatives, citing cost savings and strategic independence. The German...
What Is Digital Employee Experience — and Why Is It More Important than Ever?
Digital employee experience (DEX) measures how workers interact with the myriad digital tools they rely on, from devices to cloud services. By aggregating telemetry, sentiment data, and AI‑driven analytics, DEX platforms identify and remediate digital friction that hampers productivity. Gartner...
Anthropic Buys Vercept, Deepening Push Into AI Task Automation
Anthropic announced the acquisition of Seattle‑based AI startup Vercept, adding cloud‑based agents that can control remote MacBooks to its portfolio. The move follows Anthropic’s earlier purchase of coding‑agent engine Bun, signaling a broader push into AI‑driven task automation beyond chat....
Windows 11: A Guide to the Updates
Microsoft’s Windows 11 25H2 update consolidates a year’s worth of incremental features and security patches, delivering enhancements such as AI‑driven File Explorer actions, Quick Machine Recovery, and enterprise‑grade Wi‑Fi 7 support. Recent out‑of‑band builds address critical bugs, from Remote Desktop sign‑in...
New Phishing Campaign Tricks Employees Into Bypassing Microsoft 365 MFA
A new phishing campaign is leveraging the OAuth 2.0 device authorization grant to sidestep Microsoft 365 multi‑factor authentication. Attackers send emails that appear to reference payments, bonuses or voicemails, then direct recipients to a genuine Microsoft login page where a...