Journals

Jessica Traynor / The Guardian: A look at the data center economy of Ireland, which had 82 data centers in 2023, amid concerns about rolling blackouts due to pressure on the electrical grid  —  Datacentres are part of Ireland’s vision… Read More »A look at the data center economy of Ireland, which had 82 data centers in 2023, amid concerns about rolling blackouts due to pressure on the electrical grid (Jessica Traynor/The Guardian)

Michael Crider / PCWorld: SPEC invalidates 2,600 benchmark results for some Intel Xeon CPUs, saying their compiler artificially inflated the results of its benchmark by as much as 9%  —  SPEC says Intel’s Xeon processors were using a compiler that… Read More »SPEC invalidates 2,600 benchmark results for some Intel Xeon CPUs, saying their compiler artificially inflated the results of its benchmark by as much as 9% (Michael Crider/PCWorld)

Telegraph: Sources: UK chip designer Graphcore explores a sale to foreign owners in a deal that could be worth $500M+; rumoured buyers include OpenAI, SoftBank, and Arm  —  Graphcore in talks with major tech companies after struggling to cash in… Read More »Sources: UK chip designer Graphcore explores a sale to foreign owners in a deal that could be worth $500M+; rumoured buyers include OpenAI, SoftBank, and Arm (Telegraph)

Washington Post: How tech workers, spurred by geopolitical threats, are embracing battlefield tech; PitchBook: VCs invested $108B in defense tech companies between 2021 and 2023  —  After a decade of building the future, tech’s new guard is going back to… Read More »How tech workers, spurred by geopolitical threats, are embracing battlefield tech; PitchBook: VCs invested $108B in defense tech companies between 2021 and 2023 (Washington Post)

Bloomberg: Sources: the UK, the US, and other allies are working to provide Ukraine with thousands of new AI-enabled drones that could swarm Russian targets simultaneously  —  – Technology could help Ukraine overwhelm some Russian targets  — Germany’s Scholz calls… Read More »Sources: the UK, the US, and other allies are working to provide Ukraine with thousands of new AI-enabled drones that could swarm Russian targets simultaneously (Bloomberg)

Maxwell Zeff / Gizmodo: Despite Google and OpenAI’s promises, Gemini and ChatGPT appear to have almost no safeguards against creating AI disinfo for the 2024 US presidential election  —  Google and OpenAI’s chatbots have almost no safeguards against creating AI… Read More »Despite Google and OpenAI’s promises, Gemini and ChatGPT appear to have almost no safeguards against creating AI disinfo for the 2024 US presidential election (Maxwell Zeff/Gizmodo)

Alex Heath / The Verge: Q&A with Figma CEO Dylan Field on managing the company after the failed sale to Adobe, maintaining culture, using the $1B breakup fee, expansion plans, and more  —  Figma has a billion dollars and big… Read More »Q&A with Figma CEO Dylan Field on managing the company after the failed sale to Adobe, maintaining culture, using the $1B breakup fee, expansion plans, and more (Alex Heath/The Verge)

Dell Cameron / Wired: Sources: FISA’s Section 702 bill was shelved over a rule that would end the government’s ability to pay US firms for information rather than serving a warrant  —  A surprise disclosure of a national security threat… Read More »Sources: FISA’s Section 702 bill was shelved over a rule that would end the government’s ability to pay US firms for information rather than serving a warrant (Dell Cameron/Wired)

Menaka Doshi / Bloomberg: A look at the global outreach of India’s UPI, which has expanded to seven Asian countries and now allows Indian tourists to buy tickets at the Eiffel Tower  —  UPI’s Global Ambitions  —  Seven countries and… Read More »A look at the global outreach of India’s UPI, which has expanded to seven Asian countries and now allows Indian tourists to buy tickets at the Eiffel Tower (Menaka Doshi/Bloomberg)

Adi Robertson / The Verge: Apple’s Vision Pro could become a valuable multiuser device, but it undermines that fantasy at every turn through its single-user setup and more  —  Shortly before The Verge published its review of the Apple Vision… Read More »Apple’s Vision Pro could become a valuable multiuser device, but it undermines that fantasy at every turn through its single-user setup and more (Adi Robertson/The Verge)