Month: March 2025

Is this a problem? Yes, sometimes it is. The exercise of power without transparency is always problematic, and there’s a reason why democratic countries have laws requiring that important communications be documented and preserved. The latest “Signal Chat” is probably illegal for several reasons, at least on paper, and it would be in Sweden, too.

At the same time, it should be remembered that it is not the group chat technology itself that is the culprit here. Technology has just made it much easier to achieve what used to be done in other forums. In the same way that group chats between classmates have replaced phone chains, chatting with those in power is essentially a modern version of the old gentlemen’s clubs — now in your pocket. And technology or not, it is still possible for people in power to meet over lunch without any transparency.

However, group chat as a phenomenon remains interesting and I think that when future sociologists study how society and people’s social interaction and decision-making changed with digitalization, group chats will actually play a central role.

Google has built its AI infrastructure on its homegrown TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) — custom-built chips tuned to run Gemini. The TPUs are different from GPUs, which can run a wide range of AI, graphics and scientific applications.

The problems with surging demand are a reminder for enterprises to secure stable computing capacity to prevent AI downtimes, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research. “The shift to images, video, agents…, it’s going to drive the demand for more AI compute resources for the foreseeable future,” he said.

OpenAI and Google are widely used by individuals and enterprises. Typically, it takes time for the hardware to catch up to efficiently operate new AI software, and unintended interruptions can affect productivity of companies, analysts said.

Apple will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) online from June 9-13, with a small number of developers and students invited to attend in person for the keynote and state of the union announcements at Apple Park.

As it has been since the Covid-19 pandemic, WWDC will be an online event. That’s great for developers, as it gives everyone more equal access to the tools, developer contacts and advice offered to attendees. Apple says the event will give developers unique access to Apple experts, and insight into new tools, frameworks, and features, which is what this show is normally about.

“We’re excited to mark another incredible year of WWDC with our global developer community,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. “We can’t wait to share the latest tools and technologies that will empower developers and help them continue to innovate.”

Researchers at the University of Cambridge, together with the Alan Turing Institute, Microsoft Research, and the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, have developed a new AI-based weather forecasting system — Aardvark Weather — that could revolutionize the field of meteorology.

Aardvark Weather can apparently provide weather forecasts that are tens of times more accurate, while requiring dramatically less computing power than modern systems. “Aardvark is thousands of times faster than all previous methods of weather forecasting,” Professor Richard Turner of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research, said in a statement.

The AI system achieved this by replacing the entire process of weather forecasting with a single machine-learning model; it can take in observations from satellites, weather stations and other sensors and then generate both global and local forecasts.

The Adobe Express Agent is different, as it takes cues from a Word or PowerPoint document and can understand user intent, allowing it to create “something that’s more visual here to express ideas,” Cattell said in an interview.

“You can draw the context from what’s in the document to help you generate something that’s more germane,” Cattell said.

Once users request an image, the agent relies on Adobe’s Firefly text-to-image and text-to-design generative AI model to create content. For example, users might have a concept of a social media post or an ad campaign, which can be described to the Adobe Express Agent.

EliteBook 8 AI PCs

The EliteBook 8 series offers neural processing unit (NPU) options capable of up to 50 trillion operations per second (TOPS), qualifying some models to be designated Copilot+ PCs and, HP said, providing up to 224% better power efficiency and 43X faster AI image generation than previous generations without NPUs. The series offers up to 64GB DDR5 memory, up to 2TB of storage, and, as with all of HP’s PCs, endpoint security is built in.

McElroy pointed to “new levels of serviceability and intentional design,” as the mobile devices are modular. “Once the bottom cover is removed, vertical components such as battery, fans, storage or other key elements can be much more easily removed than in previous traditional designs,” he explained, to make it easier for enterprise IT to maintain the devices.

HP’s desktop series, EliteDesk 8, is now AI-powered as well, and the company also said it is the world’s first business desktop PC portfolio to protect against quantum computer hacks.

The result is that if you want to send a secure RCS message between Android devices, you need to use Google’s own Messages app at both ends; it implements E2EE using the well-worn Signal protocol. Similarly, Apple adopted RCS in iMessage last year, but with a proprietary implementation of E2EE.

In short, it’s a confusing jumble. This is one reason why alternatives such as WhatsApp and Signal, both of which also use the Signal protocol, have become so popular; you get E2EE out of the box without compatibility worries, and they allow groups of up to 1,024 members.

Having a single protocol, MLS, covering E2EE changes the story. Now RCS with MLS can offer a range of advanced features including large groups, which are critical for businesses which need many-to-many communication. Right now, if even one user in a group is using an RCS app without compatible E2EE, the security of the whole group chat can be compromised. MLS gives every app maker one IETF standard to aim for.

Many enterprise IT executives work for multinationals. Even if their operations are solely in the US, they likely have operations and partners in other countries. That means that enterprises already have to deal with many AI compliance rules — especially in Australia, the EU, the UK, Canada and Japan — some of which are contradictory.

Valente said that despite OpenAI’s statement stressing simplicity, “It could create more complexity. Simplicity would be global cooperation. Enterprise IT leaders are asking, ‘What does this mean for the customers I already have in regions with very different requirements?’”

Reece Hayden, lead AI analyst with ABI Research, applauded that OpenAI also talked about supporting infrastructure issues such as modernizing the US energy grids. “Those kinds of points have been overshadowed” by efficiency and security details.

Still, the testers were able to bypass those safeguards, prompting the magazine to call for tighter standards. “We argue that the nascent voice-cloning industry should adopt norms and standards to mitigate the risk of fraud,” Consumer Reports said.

GenAI tools have made voice-cloning a possibility, and it is increasingly being used for fraud.

Scammers use the tools as a form of social engineering to cheat victims out of money or to spread misinformation. In many cases, they create realistic audio of a close relative or friend in trouble and deceive callers to fraudulently send money or to divulge sensitive information.

The jobs report shows a market trying to balance itself amid falling consumer confidence and ongoing economic uncertaintyr\, according to Ger Doyle, US country manager for staffing firm ManpowerGroup. While the labor market remains resilient, job seekers face challenges, and signs of cooling indicate cautious employer behavior.

“This year, our real-time data shows that demand is down 6%,” Doyle said in a statement. “We’re also seeing month-over-month declines in areas tied to consumer confidence and goods production — particularly with retail managers, where demand has dropped 16% — and in wholesale and manufacturing, down 20%. These declines are noticeable and indicate that the pace of hiring has slowed.”

Employment by tech sector companies declined by a net 11,514 positions in February, with tech services and tech manufacturing accounting for most of the retreat. At the same time, tech employment across all industry sectors increased by an estimated 177,000 for February, according to CompTIA’s analysis.