A hot potato: With the current demand for graphics cards combined with the low stock levels, it seems people will pay almost anything for an RTX 5000-series GPU. There appears to be no limit to what consumers will accept, as illustrated by the $3,719 Asus RTX 5090 cards that came into stock at Micro Center but were sold out just hours later. Third-party manufacturers have been pushing the prices of their Blackwell cards higher and higher recently, making a mockery of Nvidia's MSRPs.Earlier this month, Asus, which is already well-known for its expensive models, raised the prices of its RTX 5090 and AMD RX 9070 cards. The cost of a ROG Astra LC (Liquid Cooled) RTX 5090 was raised to $3,409 on the company's online store.That amount of money is quite ridiculous, more so when you consider the RTX 5090's $1,999 MSRP.A redditor called pagusas posted an image of a display at Micro Center Dallas filled with RTX 5090 Astral LC cards, explaining that "tons" had arrived that day. It initially seemed that with a selling price of $3,720, people just weren't willing to pay that much money. One commentator confirmed that the cards were also in stock at Houston Micro Center at the same price.Pagusas writes that there were also "tons" of RTX 5080s in stock at Dallas Micro Center.Microcenter Dallas got tons of 5090 Astral Liquid's in todaybyu/pagusas innvidiaHowever, a quick search of the stock levels at the Dallas and Houston stores shows all the cards are now sold out. The only RTX 5090 GPU at Dallas is inside a $4,899 laptop, while Houston also has a $5,499 pre-built PC with one of the cards. It's a similar situation with the RTX 5080s. // Related StoriesDespite coming close to $4,000 at the store, the RTX 5090 Astral LC is still obviously more expensive on eBay. The auction site's listings range from around $4,300 to a ridiculous $6,250. It's these prices, and the fact some people must be buying them from resellers, that are exacerbating the problem, making the cards all the more appealing to scalpers.Asus isn't the only company guilty of pushing up the prices of its Blackwell cards. MSI did the same thing earlier this year, adding hundreds of dollars to the prices in some cases.Earlier this week, Zotac joined the others in hiking its RTX 5090 prices, with two of its models increasing a whopping $500. The company no longer lists any cards at MSRP, either.While companies are quick to point at tariffs on Chinese imports, increased manufacturing costs, and other reasons out of their control for why the cards are so expensive, many argue they are charging these prices simply because they know people will pay them.

Big quote: Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has cast doubt on the effectiveness of TSMC's $100 billion investment in U.S. chip manufacturing, claiming that it will not restore American leadership in the semiconductor industry. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Gelsinger emphasized the critical role of research and development in maintaining semiconductor leadership. "If you don't have R&D in the U.S., you will not have semiconductor leadership in the U.S.," he told the publication. Gelsinger pointed out that TSMC's core research and development activities remain concentrated in Taiwan, with no announced plans to relocate these operations to the United States.While acknowledging that TSMC's investment will increase U.S. semiconductor production capacity, Gelsinger argued that manufacturing alone is insufficient to regain technological leadership. "Unless you're designing the next-generation transistor technology in the U.S., you do not have leadership in the U.S.," he said.Gelsinger conceded that President Donald Trump's tariff threats had been "incrementally beneficial" in incentivizing companies like TSMC to establish facilities on American soil. However, he maintained that this alone would not address the fundamental issue of technological leadership.The former Intel chief's comments come in the wake of TSMC's plans to invest an additional $100 billion in the United States, bringing the total planned U.S. investment to $165 billion. This expansion includes constructing three new fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a major R&D center in Arizona. According to TSMC CEO C.C. Wei, the investment is expected to create tens of thousands of high-paying, high-tech jobs and drive more than $200 billion in indirect economic output across the United States over the next decade.Despite the massive scale of TSMC's investment, Gelsinger's critique highlights a crucial distinction between manufacturing capacity and technological innovation. TSMC has indicated that its U.S. development will focus on refining existing processes while its core research and development will remain in Taiwan. This arrangement, according to Gelsinger, perpetuates U.S. dependence on foreign-developed technologies. // Related StoriesGelsinger's remarks reflect broader concerns about the U.S. semiconductor industry's ability to compete globally. Despite massive investments and government support through initiatives like the CHIPS Act, questions persist over whether these efforts will be sufficient to close the gap with industry leaders.In addition to his critique of TSMC's investment, Gelsinger touched on other industry developments. He dismissed the achievements of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek as "good engineering" but lacking "major breakthroughs."He also emphasized the need for new technologies to drastically reduce the cost of AI inference, arguing that current AI solutions are "much too expensive" for widespread deployment.Gelsinger's comments come as he transitions to a new role as a general partner at Playground Global, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm specializing in deep tech investments. His departure from Intel in December 2024 marked the end of a tenure characterized by ambitious plans to revitalize the company's manufacturing capabilities and challenge TSMC's market dominance.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsAtomfallBatman: Arkham KnightTunicXbox isnt letting March run out without giving Game Pass subscribers one last batch of titles fresh to the service. April will be a huge month for upcoming Xbox Series X games, kicking things off with South of Midnight early andClair Obscur: Expedition 33 both arriving on Game Pass day one. But before we get too caught up in the future, lets focus on the here and now. We have one big day one addition that will be of interest to Falloutfans, plus two other games arriving in Core that everyone should play. Dont let this weekend go to waste and check out these Game Pass hits.Atomfall has more differences to a Falloutgame than it might look, but bugs arent one of them. Thats an annoyance for certain, but not enough to pass on the entire experience. You are let loose in a quarantine zone in an alternate history version of 1957 where the real-life Windscale fire was far worse than it was in reality. This game is brutal in almost every way, but also incredibly flexible. Quests are referred to as Investigations, meaning you have to do a lot of the legwork figuring out where to go and how you want to solve them. It has moments of brilliance with its almost immersive sim-like design, but dont expect a polished shooter or RPG.Recommended VideosAtomfallis available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.RelatedThe Batman universe has been in a rough spot for almost a decade. Arkham Knightswas mediocre at best, and the less said aboutSuicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, the better. With nothing to look forward to in the near future, why not give the Caped Crusaders last truly great game another shot? Batman: Arkham Knight got some flak when it came out for how often it asks the player to use the Batmobile, but it isnt nearly as bad as some would have you believe. This version of Gotham is oozing with atmosphere, with plenty of action and detective work, and a captivating main plot even if the twist is a little obvious. Despite turning 10 years old this year, Batman: Arkham Knight still holds up as the best Batman game ever made.Batman: Arkham Knight is available now on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.Not everyone has an entire weekend to sink into a huge open-world game or hardcore RPG, so lets round out our selection with Tunic.Now also part of Core, this isometric indie game is the best Zelda-like you can find on Xbox. You play as a little fox character exploring a world, collecting weapons and items, and exploring dungeons. Besides being just a solid game, what is interesting about Tunic is that one of the main collectibles is instruction manual pages for the game itself, only they are in a fake language you cant read. This gives you just enough clues to know that there are mechanics in the game that exist, but leave it to you to fully experiment to figure out how to use them.Tunicis available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.Editors Recommendations

A striking new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a rare object called an Einstein ring. This shows what appears to be a ring-shaped object in the sky, but is actually created by two separate galaxies and the epic forces of gravity.Theres a useful astronomical phenomenon called gravitational lensing, in which a large object like a galaxy or a cluster of galaxies has so much mass that it actually bends spacetime. If a massive object sits in front of a more distant object, as seen from Earth, the massive object can act like a magnifying glass, letting us see the very distant object in more detail than would normally be possible. This is a relatively common finding in astronomical images, and is one way that scientists are able to study extremely distant galaxies.Recommended VideosMost often, these lensed objects appear curved or distorted by the gravitational forces acting on spacetime. But occasionally, the objects line up in such a way that the distant object appears as an almost perfect circle: this is then called an Einstein ring.Please enable Javascript to view this contentWhen the lensed object and the lensing object line up just so, the result is the distinctive Einstein ring shape, which appears as a full circle (as seen here) or a partial circle of light around the lensing object, depending on the precision of the alignment, Webb scientists explain. Objects like these are the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see.The galaxy which is close to us and is seen the center of this image is an elliptical galaxy (meaning it is smooth with a bright core) that is part of a cluster called SMACSJ0028.2-7537, while the more distant background galaxy that is stretched into the ring shape is a spiral galaxy (like our Milky Way). Even though this galaxy has been tugged into what looks like a circle shape, you can still see the hints of its spiral arms at the top and bottom of the image.The image was created using data from both James Webbs NIRCam instrument and also the Hubble Space Telescopes Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys instruments, showing how effective these two telescopes can be when they work together.Editors Recommendations

Science Fiction & Fantasy: The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

A one-volume roundup of the work of The Master of Suspense collects decades of plot twists, deceptive doubles andof coursemurders.

Andrew Cunningham and Lee Hutchinson have spent decades of their lives with Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time books, and they previously brought that knowledge to bear as they recapped each first season episode and second season episode of Amazon's WoT TV series. Now we're back in the saddle for season 3along with insights, jokes, and the occasional wild theory.These recaps won't cover every element of every episode, but they will contain major spoilers for the show and the book series. We'll do our best to not spoil major future events from the books, but there's always the danger that something might slip out. If you want to stay completely unspoiled and haven't read the books, these recaps aren't for you.New episodes of The Wheel of Time season three will be posted for Amazon Prime subscribers every Thursday. This write-up covers episode five, "Tel'Aran'Rhiod," which was released on March 27.Andrew: Three seasons in I think we have discerned a pattern to the Wheel of Time's portrayal of the Pattern: a mid-season peak in episode four, followed by a handful of more table-setting-y episodes that run up to a big finale. And so it is in Tel'aran'rhiod, which is a not-entirely-unwelcome slowdown after last week's intense character-defining journey into Rhuidean.The show introduces or expands a bunch of book plotlines as it hops between perspectives this week. Which are you the most interested in picking apart, Lee? Anything the show is tending to here that you wish we were skipping? "Let it go, let it goooooo..." A Sea Folk Windfinder, doing her thing. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios "Let it go, let it goooooo..." A Sea Folk Windfinder, doing her thing. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Lee: Yes, this was a good old-fashioned move-the-pieces-into-place episode, and you gotta have at least one or two of those. I think, if I were coming into this having not read the books, the most puzzling bits might have been whats going on in the White Tower this episode, with the who-is-the-darkfriend hide-n-seek game the Aes Sedai are playing. And it turns out that in spite of the Sisters best attempts at a fake-out, Shohreh Aghdashloos Elaida is in fact not it. (And Elaida gets the crap stabbed out of her by another Gray Man for her troubles, too. Ouch. Fortunately, healing is nearby. Nobody has to die in this show unless the plot really demands it.)I was a little taken aback at the casualness with which Elaida takes livesher execution of Black Ajah sister Amico Nagoyin was pretty off-handed. I dont recall her being quite that blas about death in the books, but it has been a while. Regardless, while shes not capital-E EEEEEVIL, shes clearly not a good person.We do get our first glimpse of the Sea Folk, though it felt a bit ham-fistedlike they spent both more time than they needed to tee them up, and much less time than was needed to actually establish WTF this new group of people is. (Though I guess the name Sea Folk is pretty explanatoryit does what it says on the tin, as it were.) My eyes see Elaida Sedai, but my ears and heart hear Chrisjen Avasarala saying "Sometimes I fing hate being right." My eyes see Elaida Sedai, but my ears and heart hear Chrisjen Avasarala saying "Sometimes I fing hate being right." Andrew: Our first glimpse of show-Elaida is an advisor to a new queen who casually murders her former political opponents, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that she just straight-up executes someone she thinks is of no further use. The show is also happy to just quickly kill tertiary or... sextiary (??) characters to streamline the story. There are lots of those to go around in the books.There's a lot of Aiel and Sea Folk stuff where the show is just kind of asking you to take things at face value, even if book-readers are aware of more depth. One of the big running plotlines in the book is that the White Tower has weakened itself by being too doctrinaire about the way it absorbs the channelers of other cultures, totally taking them away from their families and societies and subjecting them to all kinds of weird inflexible discipline. This is why there are so many Aiel and Sea Folk channelers running around that the White Tower doesn't know about, and the show has nodded toward it but hasn't had a lot of room to communicate the significance of it.Lee: Thats a point that Alanna Sedai comments on in this episode, and the reason shes in the Two Rivers: The Tower has been too selective, too closed-minded, andsomewhat ironicallytoo parochial in its approach to accepting and training channelers. Further, theres some worry that by spending thousands of years finding and gentling (or executing) male channelers, humanity has begun to self-select channeling out of the gene pool.This doesnt seem to be the case, though, as we see by the sheer number of channelers popping up everywhere, and Alannas hypothesis proves correct: the old blood of Manetheren runs true and strong, spilling out in taveren and channelers and other pattern-twisting craziness all over the place.Alanna has her own challenges to face, but first, I want to hear your take on the Aiel in this post-Rhuidean episode, and especially of Cold Rocks Holda place that I know a subset of fans have been imagining for decades. What did you think? Alanna Sedai's intuition is right on the money. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Alanna Sedai's intuition is right on the money. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Andrew: Rocks! It's all rocks. Which makes sense for a desert, I suppose.The show does a solid job of showing us what day-to-day Aiel society looks like through just a handful of characters, including Rhuarc's other wife Lian and his granddaughter Alsera. It's an economy of storytelling that is forced upon the show by budget and low episode count but usually you don't feel it.We're also getting our very first look at the awe and discomfort that Rand is going to inspire, as the prophesied Aiel chief-of-chiefs. Clan leaders are already telling tales of him to their children. But not everyone is going to have an easy time accepting him, something we'll probably start to pick apart in future episodes.Alanna is definitely in the running for my favorite overhauled show character. She's visible from very early on as a background character and loose ally of the Two Rivers crew in the books, but the show is giving her more of a personality and a purpose, and a wider view than Book-Alanna (who was usually sulking somewhere about her inability to take any of the Two Rivers boys as a Warder, if memory serves). In the show she and her Warder Maksim are fleshed-out characters who are dealing with their relationship and the Last Battle in their own way, and it's fun to get something unexpected and new in amongst all of the "how are they going to portray Book Event X" stuff.Lee: Book-Alanna by this point has made some... lets call them questionable choices, and her reworking into someone a bit less deserving of being grabbed by the throat and choked is excellent. (Another character with a similar reworking is Faile, who so far I actually quite like and do not at all want to throttle!)I think youve hit upon the main overarching change from the books, bigger than all other changes: The show has made an effort to make these characters into people with relatable problems, rather than a pack of ill-tempered, nuance-deaf ding-dongs who make bad choices and then have to dig themselves out.Well, except maybe for Elayne. I do still kind of want to shake her a bit. Hey, it's Faile, and I don't hate her! Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Hey, it's Faile, and I don't hate her! Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Andrew: Yes! But with show-Elayne at least you get the sense that a bit of her showy know-it-all-ness is being played up on purpose. And she is right to be studying up on their destination and trying to respect the agreement they made with the Sea Folk when they came on board. She's just right in a way that makes you wish she wasn't, a personality type I think we've all run into at least once or twice in our own lives.In terms of Big Book Things that are happening, let's talk about Egwene briefly. Obviously she's beginning to hone her skills in the World of DreamsTel'aran'rhiod, which gives the episode its nameand she's already using it to facilitate faster communication between far-flung characters and to check in on her friends. Two other, minor things: We're starting to see Rand and Egwene drift apart romantically, something the books had already dispensed with by this point. And this was the first time I noted an Aiel referring to her as "Egwene Sedai." I assume this has already happened and this is just the first time I've noticed, but Egwene/Nynaeve/Elayne playing at being full Aes Sedai despite not being is a plot thread the books pull at a lot here in the middle of the series.Lee: Right, I seem to remember the dissembling about Egwenes Sedai-ishness resulting in some kind of extended spanking session, that being the punishment the Book Wise Ones (and the Book Aes Sedai) were most likely to hand out. I think the characters pretending to be full Sisters and all the wacky hijinks that ensue are being dispensed with, and I am pretty okay with that. The Sea Folk wear tops! Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios The Sea Folk wear tops! Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Andrew: That's the thing, I'm not sure the characters pretending to be full Sisters is being dispensed with. The show's just dropping breadcrumbs so that they're there later, if/when they want to make a Big Deal out of them. We'll see whether they make the time or not.Lee: Regardless, Eggys growth into a dream-walker is fortunately not being dispensed with, and as in the books, she does a lot of things shes not supposed to do (or at least not until shes got more than a single afternoons worth of dreamwalker training under her belt). She sort of heeds the Wise Ones directive to stay out of Telaranrhiod and instead just skips around between her various friends dreams, before finally landing in Rands, where she finds him having sexytimes with, uh oh, an actual-for-real Forsaken. Perhaps this is why one shouldnt just barge into someones dreams uninvited!And on the subject of dreamsor at least visionsI think wed be remiss if we didnt check in on the continuing bro-adventures of Min and Mat (which my cousin described as a lesbian and her gay best friend hanging out, and its unclear which is which). The show once again takes the opportunity to remind us of Mins visionsespecially the one of Mat being hanged. Foreshadowing! The buddy comedy we didn't know we needed. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios The buddy comedy we didn't know we needed. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Andrew: Honestly of all the plotlines going on right now I'm the most curious to see how Elayne/Nynaeve/Mat/Min get along in Tanchico, just because these characters have gotten so many minor little tweaks that I find interesting. Mat and Min are more friendly, and their plots are more intertwined in the show than they were in the books, and having a version of Nynaeve and a version of Mat that don't openly dislike each other has a lot of fun story potential for me.I am a little worried that we only have three episodes left, since we've got the party split up into four or five groups, and most of those groups already have little sub-groups inside of them who are doing their own thing. I do trust the show a lot at this point, but the splitting and re-splitting of plotlines is what eventually gets the books stuck in the mud, and we've already seen that dynamic play out on TV in, say, mid-to-late-series Game of Thrones. I just hope we can keep things snappy without making the show totally overwhelming, as it is already in danger of being sometimes. There are constant reminders that Mat may be heading toward a dark fate. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios There are constant reminders that Mat may be heading toward a dark fate. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Lee: I seem to remember the time in Tanchico stretching across several books, though I may be getting that mixed up with whatever the hell the characters do in Far Madding much later (thats not really a spoiler, I dont thinkits just the name of another city-state where readers are forced to spend an interminable amount of time). Im reasonably sure our crew will find what they need to find in Tanchico by seasons end, at leastand, if it follows the books, thingsll get a little spicy.Lets seefor closing points, the one I had on my notepad that I wanted to hit was that for me, this episode reinforces that this show is at its best when it focuses on its characters and lets them work. Episode four with Rhuidean was a rare epic hit; most of the times the show has attempted to reach for grandeur or epic-ness, it has missed. The cinematography falls flat, or the sets look like styrofoam and carelessness, or the editing fails to present a coherent through-line for the action, or the writing whiffs it. But up close, locked in a ship or sitting on a mountainside or hanging out in a blacksmiths dream, the actors know what theyre doing, and they have begun consistently delivering.Andrew: There are a whole lot of "the crew spends a bunch of time in a city you've never seen before, accomplishing little-to-nothing" plotlines I think you're conflating. Tanchico is a Book 4 thing, and it's also mostly resolved in Book 4; the interminable one you are probably thinking of is Ebou Dar, where characters spend three or four increasingly tedious books. Far Madding is later and at least has the benefit of being brief-ish. Perrin dreams of peaceful timesand of hanging out with Hopper! Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Perrin dreams of peaceful timesand of hanging out with Hopper! Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Lee: Ahhh, yes, you are absolutely correct! My Randland mental map is a bit tattered these days. So many city-states. So many flags. So many import and export crops to keep track of.Andrew: But yes I agree that there's usually at least something that goes a bit goofy when the show attempts spectacle. The big battle that ended the first season is probably the most egregious example, but I also remember the Horn of Valere moment in the season 2 finale as looking "uh fine I guess." But the talking parts are good! The smaller fights, including the cool Alanna-Whitecloak stuff we get in this episode, are all compelling. There's some crowd-fight stuff coming in the next few episodes, if we stick to Book 4 as our source material, so we'll see what the show does and doesn't manage to pull off.But in terms of this episode, I don't have much more to say. We're scooting pieces around the board in service of larger confrontations later on. It remains a very dense show, which is what I think will keep it from ever achieving a Game of Thrones level of cultural currency. But I'm still having fun. Anything else you want to highlight? Shoes you're waiting to drop? Egwene, entering the "finding out" phase of her ill-advised nighttime adventures. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Egwene, entering the "finding out" phase of her ill-advised nighttime adventures. Credit: Prime/Amazon MGM Studios Lee: Almost all of the books (at least in the front half of the series, before the Slog) tend to end in a giant spectacle of some sort, and I think I can see which spectacleor spectacles, pluralwe're angling at for this one. The situation in the Two Rivers is clearly barreling toward violence, and Rand's got them dragons on his sleeves. I'd say buckle up, folks, because my bet is we're about to hit the gas.Until next week, dear readersbeware the shadows, and guard yourselves. I hear Lanfear walks the dream world this night. Credit: WoT Wiki

Placating EU will go easy with Apple, Facebook punishment to avoid Trumps wrath Lawbreaking under DMA to be punishedbut not too severely. Barbara Moens and Henry Foy, Financial Times Mar 28, 2025 8:45 am | 35 Credit: Getty Images | BeeBright Credit: Getty Images | BeeBright Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe EU is set to impose minimal fines on Apple and Facebook-owner Meta next week under its Digital Markets Act, as Brussels seeks to avoid escalating tensions with US President Donald Trump.According to people familiar with the decisions, the iPhone maker is expected to be fined and ordered to revise its App Store rules, following an investigation into whether they prevent app developers from sending consumers to offers outside its platform.Regulators will also close another investigation into Apple, which was focused on the companys design of its web browser choice screen without any further sanctions.Meta will also be fined and ordered to change its pay or consent model, which forces users to either consent to data tracking or pay a subscription fee for an ad-free experience of its products.Under the DMA, companies can face penalties of up to 10 percent of their global turnover, which could result in billions of dollars for both companies.But the European Commission is aiming for fines that fall far below that threshold, three officials said, as the blocs digital rule book is relatively new and the decisions could still be challenged in court.The moves come as Brussels attempts to enforce the DMA, which was designed to curb tech giants dominance of the digital marketplace, while avoiding a direct clash with Washington.The focus of the new commission, which took office in December, is also more on the compliance of Big Tech companies with the law than on potential high fines in the billions of Euros, officials said.Brussels regulators are set to drop a case about whether Apples operating system discourages users from switching browsers or search engines, after Apple made a series of changes in an effort to comply with the blocs rules.Levying any form of fines on American tech companies risks a backlash, however, as Trump has directly attacked EU penalties on American companies, calling them a form of taxation, while comparing fines on tech companies with overseas extortion.This is a crucial test for the commission, a person from one of the affected companies said. Further targeting US tech firms will heighten transatlantic tensions and provoke retaliatory actions and, ultimately, its member states and European businesses that will bear the cost.The US president has warned of imposing tariffs on countries that levy digital services taxes against American companies.According to a memo released last month, Trump said he would look into taxes and regulations or policies that inhibit the growth of American corporations operating abroad.Meta has previously said that its changes meet EU regulator demands and go beyond whats required by EU law.The planned decisions, which the officials said could still change before they are made public, are set to be presented to representatives of the EUs 27 member states on Friday. An announcement on the fines is set for next week, although that timing could also still change.The commission declined to comment. 2025 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.Barbara Moens and Henry Foy, Financial TimesBarbara Moens and Henry Foy, Financial Times 35 Comments

Dave Link, CEO, ScienceLogicMarch 28, 20254 Min ReadMopic via Adobe StockA hallmark of successful innovation is when organizations get good enough at solving todays challenges that theyre able to focus on future technology investments and use cases. When the forecasting becomes long-term, we get into the realm of futureproofing, where CIOs and their teams weigh specific near-term IT choices and investments to support far-off leapfrog innovation objectives.Futureproofing in the age of AI adds a layer of uncertainty when it comes to planning for fast-evolving capabilities and use cases that may not exist yet. However, enterprises can gain confidence in future-proofing AI by rethinking how they gather and organize the underlying data that feeds AI.Futureproofing for the UnknownIT innovation is about meeting current enterprise needs while also expanding whats possible to achieve through technology in the future. Previously, futureproofing entailed keeping licenses up to date, anticipating software upgrades or end of life issues, and adding infrastructure to meet planned new capacity demands.Now, AIs autonomous and scalable nature is transforming these future innovation strategies. The same self-learning algorithms and auto-resolution schema that allow humans to step back and let AI make more decisions and autonomous insights are also complicating predictions for where AI should be taken, or be allowed to take itself, into the future.Related:Think of future-proofing AI as a spin on the DevOps principle of designing for the unknown, in which developers design applications with the hopes that they will remain interoperable with future technologies. Today, it has become a issue of futureproofing for the unknown, given the highly autonomous nature of AI and the endless possibilities for new use cases.The more we understand this constantly evolving nature of AI -- a market poised to realize a compound annual growth rate of 37.3% through 2030 -- the more we grasp how future-proofing has less to do with the programming and licensing level, and more to do with the data and infrastructure level. Software has evolved from an application-centric to a data-centric design, with data becoming a foundational input for application development.Supporting AI Evolution Through Extensibility at the Data LayerThe irony of future-proofing AI is that supporting its long-term growth requires precise, immediate IT adjustments. CIOs, CTOs and other technology leaders must ensure their teams are covering essential bases at the data layer to ensure flexibility. It's what we call extensibility to accommodate new and potentially unforeseen use cases for AI.Related:Achieving extensibility begins with ensuring consistent data standards and availability at all times. To innovate and grow, AI systems need unfettered access to databases and sources, requiring consistent standards and metadata across different systems for reliability. Furthermore, data should be secured with dynamic authentication protocols that facilitate smooth and safe access.Particularly for AI, its essential to add proper business context to data without over-formatting it. This is ultimately the most critical balance to strike in future-proofing AI: The just right amount of data cleansing and formatting can position data for broad reuse as AI systems innovate. Too little formatting leaves the datas relevance indecipherable; too much formatting and the data becomes too rigid for AI to leverage for novel applications.Unsurprisingly, human analysts have historically managed this nuanced balance. However, recent developments in unsupervised AI have unlocked algorithms that can now analyze unlabeled data to derive emerging structure and patterns.Leveraging New Capabilities and Use CasesGiven that 90% of data generated by organizations today falls firmly within the unstructured category, proper extensibility at the data layer that incorporates both structured and unstructured data for AI processes can drive powerful new applications in the enterprise.Related:For instance, generative AI can now automate many IT operations functions, creating an educated and context-aware support tool that redefines the status quo of what's typically expected from an AI advisor. This is possible thanks to data pipelines that rapidly pull in structured and unstructured data sources and render them into a highly usable framework for GenAI to independently manage configuration analytics, bug reports, knowledge base resolves, standard operating procedures, and service-level agreements.Another example, AI-powered digital twins can harmonize structured and unstructured data together to model the behavior of new infrastructure and systems before theyre built. This allows teams to proactively manage operational issues such as limiting process interruptions and minimizing downtime in a power utility.Future-proofing AI starts with future-proofing AI data. While the finer details can be left to team specialists, C-suite tech leaders must grasp the importance of data extensibility efforts, as successful implementation ensures AI's future.When organizations modernize their data architectures with AI innovation in mind, they lay the foundation for new capabilities and use cases to flourish. And given that most enterprises keep their data archived for at least seven years to align with federal compliance standards, this foundation is constantly expanding. The sooner organizations streamline data management for AI, the faster they can future-proof investments and unlock new value.As AI levels the playing field, the software and technology ecosystem evolve rapidly, only scratching the surface of its transformative potential. These shifts are disrupting traditional boundaries, and the race for unique innovations is unfolding in real time.About the AuthorDave LinkCEO, ScienceLogicA technology advocate committed to innovative IT management solutions that leapfrog paradigms and optimize business outcomes, David Link is founder and CEO at ScienceLogic, a global leader in automated IT operations and observability. Throughout his career, Dave has worked to solve the pressing problems facing IT organizations delivering smarter and more targeted IT management tools to the market. Leveraging market transitions in cloud, AI, and analytics, he continues to scale ScienceLogic with a laser focus on customer success. His proven leadership integrating technology, product, and business model shifts has been instrumental to the company's consistent growth and leadership presence.See more from Dave LinkReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Nations that emit the most greenhouse gases would have the most responsibility for overshooting the 1.5C goalschankz/ShutterstockEach country should be held responsible for how much it is to blame when the world overshoots the 1.5C warming limit by assigning a net-zero carbon debt if it has pumped out more than its fair share of emissions, a team of climate scientists is proposing.The aim is to encourage those with greater responsibility for the overshoot to make amends by, say, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or helping other countries reach net-zero faster.