Highly anticipated: When Avowed allowed customers to seamlessly switch between Xbox consoles, the Xbox app, and Blizzard's Battle.net client at launch, many hoped that more Microsoft-published titles would follow. The company has been silent regarding its plans until now, but the upcoming release of Doom: The Dark Ages suggests that the feature wasn't a one-off. When Doom: The Dark Ages launches on May 15, Game Pass subscribers or those who purchase digital copies on Xbox, the Microsoft Store, or Blizzard's Battle.net launcher can access the game on all three platforms. Repeating Avowed's cross-buy launch last month, the move indicates a trend that might extend to other Microsoft titles.The new option will likely meet a positive reception because many users view Battle.net as a more mature and reliable launcher than Microsoft's Xbox app. When the company purchased Activision Blizzard for a historic $69 billion, Battle.net might have seemed redundant outside its role as a launcher for Blizzard titles like Diablo and World of Warcraft. However, Microsoft is allowing players to choose between two launchers it owns, raising questions regarding a possible expansion of Battle.net's library.Also see: Most Anticipated PC Games of 2025 (Including Doom: The Dark Ages)Thus far, there is no indication that the company intends to release South of Midnight -- which launches on April 8 -- on Battle.net. Other upcoming Microsoft-published titles in consideration include The Outer Worlds 2 from Avowed developer Obsidian, Fable, Clockwork Revolution, Gears of War: E-Day, and Perfect Dark.Hopefully, Microsoft is also considering bringing its recent releases to Blizzard's client, such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Age of Mythology: Retold, or Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Game Pass subscribers dissatisfied with the Xbox app might also wish to see non-Microsoft titles appear, but nothing currently suggests this is likely. // Related StoriesTo link a Battle.net and Microsoft account, log into the former, click on the username in the top right corner, and head to Account Settings > Connections > Xbox Network. Then, log in to a Microsoft account.Id Software also revealed new gameplay details from Doom: The Dark Ages this week. New previews outline features like the parry system, piloting a giant robot, and flying a cybernetic dragon. The company also teased a massive open-ended map where players can complete objectives and discover secrets in any order.Doom: The Dark Ages launches on Xbox Series consoles, Game Pass, Battle.net, Steam, and PlayStation 5 on May 15. Those who pre-order the limited edition can access the game on May 13.

In brief: AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D remains an incredibly popular CPU, especially among gamers. But it seems not every buyer is having a good experience. There have been over 100 cases of owners whose chips have died after working for a short amount of time, and for no obvious reason. Reddit user natty_overlord compiled a list of all 108 Reddit posts involving a Ryzen 7 9800X3D that died. The chips passed POST and worked for varying amounts of time before dying with no signs of failure.What's interesting is the brand of motherboard these failures occurred on. 98 of the cases, or 82%, happened on Asrock boards, though that could be due to their popularity as a more budget-friendly board maker. Tom's Hardware notes that the company released a new firmware update for AM5 motherboards in February that improved boot problems in AMD 9000 series CPUs. Whether those issues are related to the dying chips is unclear.Also read: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Review: The New Gaming CPU KingThe rest of the boards are made up of 16 from Asus, 5 from MSI, and 1 from Gigabyte.natty_overlord also tallied the cases based on chipset. The largest number of incidents, 49, occurred on X870, followed by B850 (36), B650 (16), and X670 (7). Being a relatively new chip, it's not too surprising that most of the cases happened on the latest 800-series boards. // Related StoriesThe time it took for the CPUs to experience failure ranged from just half and hour to a few months.Several cases of Ryzen 7 9800X3D chips mysteriously dying surfaced earlier this year. One Redditor said he built a brand-new PC with an Asrock X870 motherboard that ran smoothly without overclocking or high temperatures. But the system shut down after about three weeks while he was watching TV. Upon inspection, the 9800X3D chip and motherboard showed severe thermal damage (below).The situation brings to mind the overheating problems in the Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs from a couple of years ago that were related to AMD EXPO profiles and SoC voltages. It led to Asus updating its warranty policy for AM5 motherboards following an investigation by Gamers Nexus.It's worth remembering that while over 100 incidents is no small number, there are thousands of Ryzen 7 9800X3D sold every month. It was initially difficult to buy the chips as they were sold out everywhere, something AMD blamed on Intel's "horrible" CPU release (Arrow Lake desktop). Moreover, some of these failures will likely have been due to user error, as was the case with one of the first reported instances of 9800X3Ds burning up in November.

Despite all the tomfoolery that surrounds April Fools Day, heres one nugget of truth: Rick and Morty has announced its season eight premiere date for May 25, 2025. The notoriously irreverent show broke the news at the end of its April Fools Day special in a reenactment of key moments from the series in a live-action format. If you didnt catch it live, dont be surprised. The broadcast was in the middle of the night last night or more specifically, right after midnight the morning of April 1. This wasnt a new episode, exactly, but rather Adult Swims take on live-action theater. It was 22 minutes of some of the best moments from Rick and Morty, including the famous Pickle Rick costume. Recommended VideosWe hope you enjoyed our theater interpretations of Rick and Morty, especially if you are well-off/impulsive and now want to back a Broadway version of the show, Adult Swim said in a press release. For the rest of you, were glad you now know when Season Eight is starting so you have time to stretch and get loose because the team has yet again made a totally great season of television.Unfortunately for fans, the team is playing it close to the vest with this new season. There are few details about what the new season will include, and anyone claiming to know otherwise probably shouldnt be trusted, at least not today. That said, we can make a few guesses.RelatedSeason eight is likely to be more of the same shenanigans as the previous seasons, and that isnt a bad thing. Between its clever writing, irreverent jokes, and seemingly endless ability to take a topic and flip it on its head, youre sure to be entertained. Tune in at 11 PM ET on May 25 to catch the new season as soon as it premieres. Editors Recommendations

AMD is responsible for some of the best processors for gamers right now, but for a handful of unlucky users, these CPUs seem to be running into issues lately. Reports from Reddit indicate failures big and small, but they all seem to have two things in common: High-end Ryzen 9000 CPUs and ASRock motherboards.Todays CPU failure report is especially bleak one unlucky user had their AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D completely destroyed due to bulging and heat damage. As a result, their PC will no longer boot up. The user described their story and shared some images on the r/pcmasterrace community on Reddit.Recommended VideosUnsurprisingly, their PC was newly built after all, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a very new CPU. In this setup, it was paired with AMDs best graphics card, the RX 9070 XT, as well as an all-in-one (AIO) liquid cooler, which is a necessity for the 9950X3D. Upon building the rig, the user went on to update the BIOS, and everything was fine just as long as the PC wasnt under heavy load. Things went south when the Redditor got a new monitor, though. Upgrading to a 4K OLED 32-inch monitor and several hours of gaming did the CPU in. The user mentions playing League (which could mean Rocket League, but my bet is on League of Legends either way, both easy to handle for a rig of this caliber). They then took a break to make some dinner and found the PC completely dead upon their return, with nothing else on except the M.2 light on the motherboard. Various attempts at troubleshooting didnt help the situation. Opening up the case revealed the CPU in a bad condition. Image used with permission by copyright holderWhen I checked the CPU, I found that there was bubbling in one area (which I think pushed the contact pads into the pins, causing indentation on the pads) and some discoloration suggesting scorch marks [] on another area of the CPU. There is discoloration on the socket of the motherboard, but no bent pins, said i_fliu on Reddit.Seeing as the user didnt overclock or underclock the CPU and wasnt using PMO, this shouldnt have happened. It could be a case of faulty hardware or a poorly installed CPU, but the fact that there have been other cases of this happening on ASRock motherboards makes me pause and think.Weve seen over a hundred Ryzen 7 9800X3D processors suffering from similar issues, and these also largely concern the combination of Ryzen CPU and ASRock motherboard. Now, the 9950X3D joins the list, and as mentioned by VideoCardz, this isnt the first case of problems for the 9950X3D on an ASRock motherboard.This could be a case of BIOS settings, and thatd probably be the best-case scenario, as thats an easier fix. If the motherboard delivers too much power to the CPU, this kind of thing can definitely happen. However, until either AMD or ASRock addresses these issues, it remains unclear whether theres any problem with either hardware or software well have to wait and see.Editors Recommendations

The relatively prosaic world of import duties has become a surprise social-media hit, driving millions of views for some internet personalities and trade experts.

A rock and a hard place Tuesday Telescope: A close-up of the magical camera at the end of a robotic arm Wait, the Daily Telescope is back? Sort of. Eric Berger Apr 1, 2025 8:00 am | 5 Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWelcome to the Tuesday Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough lighta little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. Well let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, well take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.We're back! A long-time reader and subscriber recently mentioned in the Ars Forums that they "kind of" missed the Daily Telescope posts that I used to write in 2023 and 2024. Although I would have preferred that everyone desperately missed the Daily Telescope, I appreciate the sentiment. I really do.I initially stopped writing these posts about a year ago because it just became too much to commit to writing one thing every day. I mean, I could have done it. But doing so on the daily crossed over the line from enjoyable to drudgery, and one of the best things about working for Ars is that it tends very much toward the enjoyable side. Anyway, writing one of these posts on a weekly basis feels more sustainable. I guess we'll find out!Today's image comes to you all the way from Mars. One of the most powerful tools on NASA's Perseverance rover is the WATSON camera attached to the end of the rover's robotic arm. In the fine tradition of tortured acronyms at the space agency, WATSON stands for Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering. And because of course it is, WATSON is located on the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument. Seriously, NASA must stand for Not Another Screwball Acronym.This photograph shows the WATSON camera taking a close-up image of a rock on Mars (here's the rock, by the way). The raw image from NASA was processed by Kevin M. Gill, who runs an exceptional Bluesky account and has a great Flickr page worth checking out. The detail is excellent.Speaking of Perseverance, the rover has now been operating on the surface of Mars for more than four years. It's a reminder that although things may seem pretty messed up here on Earth, there's some rad stuff going on elsewhere in the Solar System.Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. GillDo you want to submit a photo for the Daily Telescope?Reach out and say hello.Eric BergerSenior Space EditorEric BergerSenior Space Editor Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. 5 Comments

surfing the infoscape MCP: The new USB-C for AI thats bringing fierce rivals together Model context protocol standardizes how AI uses data sources, supported by OpenAI and Anthropic. Benj Edwards Apr 1, 2025 7:30 am | 11 Credit: NanoStockk Credit: NanoStockk Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWhat does it take to get OpenAI and Anthropictwo competitors in the AI assistant marketto get along? Despite a fundamental difference in direction that led Anthropic's founders to quit OpenAI in 2020 and later create the Claude AI assistant, a shared technical hurdle has now brought them together: How to easily connect their AI models to external data sources.The solution comes from Anthropic, which developed and released an open specification called Model Context Protocol (MCP) in November 2024. MCP establishes a royalty-free protocol that allows AI models to connect with outside data sources and services without requiring unique integrations for each service."Think of MCP as a USB-C port for AI applications," wrote Anthropic in MCP's documentation. The analogy is imperfect, but it represents the idea that, similar to how USB-C unified various cables and ports (with admittedly a debatable level of success), MCP aims to standardize how AI models connect to the infoscape around them.So far, MCP has also garnered interest from multiple tech companies in a rare show of cross-platform collaboration. For example, Microsoft has integrated MCP into its Azure OpenAI service, and as we mentioned above, Anthropic competitor OpenAI is on board. Last week, OpenAI acknowledged MCP in its Agents API documentation, with vocal support from the boss upstairs."People love MCP and we are excited to add support across our products," wrote OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on X last Wednesday.MCP has also rapidly begun to gain community support in recent months. For example, just browsing this list of over 300 open source servers shared on GitHub reveals growing interest in standardizing AI-to-tool connections. The collection spans diverse domains, including database connectors like PostgreSQL, MySQL, and vector databases; development tools that integrate with Git repositories and code editors; file system access for various storage platforms; knowledge retrieval systems for documents and websites; and specialized tools for finance, health care, and creative applications.Other notable examples include servers that connect AI models to home automation systems, real-time weather data, e-commerce platforms, and music streaming services. Some implementations allow AI assistants to interact with gaming engines, 3D modeling software, and IoT devices.What is context anyway?To fully appreciate why a universal AI standard for external data sources is useful, you'll need to understand what "context" means in the AI field.With current AI model architecture, what an AI model "knows" about the world is baked into its neural network in a largely unchangeable form, placed there by either an initial procedure called "pre-training," which calculates statistical relationships between vast quantities of input data ("training data"like books, articles, and images) and feeds it into the network as numerical values called "weights." Later, a process called "fine-tuning" might adjust those weights to alter behavior (such as through reinforcement learning like RLHF) or provide examples of new concepts.Typically, the training phase is very expensive computationally and happens either only once in the case of a base model, or infrequently with periodic model updates and fine-tunings. That means AI models only have internal neural network representations of events prior to a "cutoff date" when the training dataset was finalized.After that, the AI model is run in a kind of read-only mode called "inference," where users feed inputs into the neural network to produce outputs, which are called "predictions." They're called predictions because the systems are tuned to predict the most likely next token (a chunk of data, such as portions of a word) in a user-provided sequence.In the AI field, context is the user-provided sequenceall the data fed into an AI model that guides the model to produce a response output. This context includes the user's input (the "prompt"), the running conversation history (in the case of chatbots), and any external information sources pulled into the conversation, including a "system prompt" that defines model behavior and "memory" systems that recall portions of past conversations. The limit on the amount of context a model can ingest at once is often called a "context window," "context length, " or "context limit," depending on personal preference.While the prompt provides important information for the model to operate upon, accessing external information sources has traditionally been cumbersome. Before MCP, AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude could access external data (a process often called retrieval augmented generation, or RAG), but doing so required custom integrations for each serviceplugins, APIs, and proprietary connectors that didn't work across different AI models. Each new data source demanded unique code, creating maintenance challenges and compatibility issues.MCP addresses these problems by providing a standardized method or set of rules (a "protocol") that allows any supporting AI model framework to connect with external tools and information sources.How does MCP work?To make the connections behind the scenes between AI models and data sources, MCP uses a client-server model. An AI model (or its host application) acts as an MCP client that connects to one or more MCP servers. Each server provides access to a specific resource or capability, such as a database, search engine, or file system. When the AI needs information beyond its training data, it sends a request to the appropriate server, which performs the action and returns the result.To illustrate how the client-server model works in practice, consider a customer support chatbot using MCP that could check shipping details in real time from a company database. "What's the status of order #12345?" would trigger the AI to query an order database MCP server, which would look up the information and pass it back to the model. The model could then incorporate that data into its response: "Your order shipped on March 30 and should arrive April 2."Beyond specific use cases like customer support, the potential scope is very broad. Early developers have already built MCP servers for services likeGoogle Drive, Slack, GitHub, and Postgres databases. This means AI assistants could potentially search documents in a company Drive, review recent Slack messages, examine code in a repository, or analyze data in a databaseall through a standard interface.From a technical implementation perspective, Anthropic designed the standard for flexibility by running in two main modes: Some MCP servers operate locally on the same machine as the client (communicating via standard input-output streams), while others run remotely and stream responses over HTTP. In both cases, the model works with a list of available tools and calls them as needed.A work in progressDespite the growing ecosystem around MCP, the protocol remains an early-stage project. The limited announcements of support from major companies are promising first steps, but MCP's future as an industry standard may depend on broader acceptance, although the number of MCP servers seems to be growing at a rapid pace.Regardless of its ultimate adoption rate, MCP may have some interesting second-order effects. For example, MCP also has the potential to reduce vendor lock-in. Because the protocol is model-agnostic, a company could switch from one AI provider to another while keeping the same tools and data connections intact.MCP may also allow a shift toward smaller and more efficient AI systems that can interact more fluidly with external resources without the need for customized fine-tuning. Also, rather than building increasingly massive models with all knowledge baked in, companies may instead be able to use smaller models with large context windows.For now, the future of MCP is wide open. Anthropic maintains MCP as an open source initiative on GitHub, where interested developers can either contribute to the code or find specifications about how it works. Anthropic has also provided extensive documentation about how to connect Claude to various services. OpenAI maintains its own API documentation for MCP on its website.Benj EdwardsSenior AI ReporterBenj EdwardsSenior AI Reporter Benj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter and founder of the site's dedicated AI beat in 2022. He's also a tech historian with almost two decades of experience. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC. 11 Comments

Lisa Morgan, Freelance WriterApril 1, 20255 Min ReadDave Meyer, Chief AI Officer, ReveleerIn the healthcare industry, compliance falls short as an AI strategy. Chief AI officers, CIOs, and CISOs need to prioritize responsible AI usage to minimize potential data breaches that could not only lead to fines and litigation, but also reputational damage.Its really a trust factor, says Dave Meyer, chief data and AI officer at value-based care platform Reveleer. [Public healthcare information or] PHI is paramount in healthcare, so we have to treat it responsibly. No one in our organization, including data scientists, has access to anything they dont need to access. Data access needs to be strictly governed.Transparency is also critical because it reduces the risk of relying on what could be a hallucination.When we give AI results, or when we go through our data models, we support it with monitoring, evaluation, assessment and treatment (MEAT). So, for example, not only did we find the term, diabetes, in a patients chart, theres also an explanation of why we suggested this particular ICD [internal classification of diseases] code, says Meyer. That way, when AI provides suggestions, the human still decides whether the suggestion is valid or invalid. We're not trying to [replace] humans. We're trying to make their job easier and more accurate.Related:AI as a Problem-Solving ToolWhile the ability to quickly identify health conditions and find correlations is powerful, its considerably less helpful if users must then manually wade through volumes of information, which could be several hundred or more pages, to locate the references. Instead, AI can surface the references quickly, such as by identifying on what pages of a document, or pages within a set of documents, those references can be found.That sort of use case opens the door to GenAI, however, like in many other industry sectors, GenAI tends to be misunderstood. People who lack a foundational understanding of AI tend to believe that GenAI is the latest and greatest version of single technology called, AI versus another AI technique.I think people view GenAI as a panacea, and it is not a panacea, especially in the healthcare industry where you cannot just have a black box that says, Heres the answer, but were not going to tell you how we got there,' says Meyer. Were using it for evidence extraction from the chart which we can then double check for hallucinations. We take that evidence and run it through our models.However, Reveleer also uses AI for other techniques, such as rules, to pull evidence.Related:A lot of people think they can upload a chart and then ask GenAI for the answer. It will give you an answer that looks okay on the surface, but they are not production level, customer trustworthy answers that are in the percentile of accuracy that [is necessary] in the healthcare industry, says Meyer. Healthcare is a high stakes industry where youre trying to drive patient outcomes, and I dont think that GenAI can be trusted on its own to provide that answer.Some Healthcares Challenges and How to Address ThemOne of healthcares biggest challenges is failing to understand that the accuracy of a prediction can, and often does, vary with use cases. Since healthcare organizations need highly sensitive patient information to provide diagnoses and treatment, the confidence level matters greatly.Trust is a big factor, so being given a suggestion that is 70% accurate isnt good enough. The stakes are too high. You have to balance the sensitivity and security of the data with who has access to it, says Meyer.Of course, trust must be earned by a vendor, particularly when patient records are involved. In Reveleers case, customer trust in its AI capabilities has been earned in a stair-step fashion over time. Specifically, the company began by automatically routing patient charts, then later NLP techniques were added so patient information could be surfaced faster and validated. Now its AI provides automatic pointers to where critical information can be located.Related:One of the biggest challenges is getting the data in an organized format that is usable, says Meyer. In order to build any AI model, you need to have a large quantity of data, and you need to govern that data appropriately. Managing your data is really the foundation of everything before you start building models. You also need to make sure that you know how to handle the data well.In addition to getting the foundational elements right, its important to choose the right tool for the right job.Data science still is a good method for solving a lot of these problems. Everybody's trying to jump to GenAI as the solution. Don't force that if youre getting good results from data science, says Meyer. The same is true for rules-based systems. For example, if you see the word, blood pressure and the reading next to it says 120 over 80, you don't need a GenAI model to pull that out for you. Or, if the data is in a structured format, and you can pull it out without any AI.However, dont overlook the need for a human in the loop when it comes to AI.In the healthcare industry, machines need to be partnered with humans, because healthcare is too high stakes for a lack of human oversight. One suggestion may have a better than 90% confidence score while another only has a 50% conference score, says Meyer. AI can help you cut through the noise and surface the good stuff quickly, but its always going to need the human element. Were not trying to replace humans; were just trying to make them more efficient.About the AuthorLisa MorganFreelance WriterLisa Morgan is a freelance writer who covers business and IT strategy and emergingtechnology for InformationWeek. She has contributed articles, reports, and other types of content to many technology, business, and mainstream publications and sites including tech pubs, The Washington Post and The Economist Intelligence Unit. Frequent areas of coverage include AI, analytics, cloud, cybersecurity, mobility, software development, and emerging cultural issues affecting the C-suite.See more from Lisa MorganWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

IT executives are under ever-increasing levels of strain. Chief information officers, chief information security officers, and chief technology officers are responsible for managing growing threat levels while juggling skill gaps and talent shortages. Even as awareness of the very real threats cyberattacks pose grows, the average C-suite remains indifferent until a crisis occurs.Studies indicate that people in leadership positions are expected to be more resistant -- perhaps even immune -- to the stressors that result in mental health problems. But IT execs appear to be particularly vulnerable given the novel and tenuous nature of their roles.The narrative emerging from both academic research and media reports suggests that they are being crushed by unrealistic job expectations.According to one report, 78% of CISOs were seeking a new role due to the stresses of their job. Depression, anxiety, substance abuse and even suicidality are rampant at both the executive level and among their subordinates.Industry leaders and external observers are now looking at how to address these issues -- through both systemic change and individual effort. Here, InformationWeek investigates the state of mental health among IT execs and their teams. Andrew Shatt, chief knowledge officer and co-founder of meQuilibrium; and Lincoln Stoller, a software company founder and psychotherapist, offer their insights on the nature of the problem and how to address it.Related:The State of IT Exec Mental healthIT execs have begun to raise the alarm -- they are not OK. A toxic conflagration of factors has resulted in a typical work environment that frequently results in severe mental strain.An onslaught of cyberattacks, severe staffing, and skills shortages combined with indifferent C-suites have created a set of stressors that are nearly impossible to cope with.A 2024 report on CISO burnout released by Vendict found that 80% of CISOs were highly stressed and 61% felt overwhelmed by the expectations placed on them. The problem has been brewing for some time -- even a 2020 report by Nominet found that 91% of CISOs were suffering from moderate to severe job stress.These problems run downhill -- 50% of respondents in the Vendict report said that team members had left due to stress. A 2024 Hack the Box report found that 90% of CISOs were concerned about stress affecting their teams. Per a report by Yerbo, 42% of IT professionals are burning out and considering quitting their jobs.Causes of Mental Health DeclineRelated:An enormous suite of issues have contributed to the mental health crisis among IT execs.Working conditions are of course a major factor. Their leadership positions are often lonely. They are part of the C-suite but often have little in common with their executive peers -- who are more likely than not to dismiss their concerns. And they are responsible for hugely consequential aspects of the business, keeping it secure from threats and managing highly technical projects with little support.We may understand that theyre more important than we thought they were, Shatt says. But the distance between them and the rest of the organization creates a greater mental health risk.Their personalities also play into the equation. CIOs, CISOs, and CTOs are highly independent people -- and some lack interpersonal skills. And they may view their ability to meet punishing deadlines and crushing workloads as a badge of honor.I see the CIO -- and the whole tech department -- as needing to become more personally capable in dealing with people, because theyre not really able to be isolated behind a computer anymore, Stoller says. Too many people are involved. If you go to school to be a computer engineer, they dont teach you about mental health, they dont teach you about management.Related:Theyre probably less people people than most others in the organization. Theyre more perfectionistic. They have to be very precise in what they do, Shatt adds. That can put them at greater risk of burnout, because theyre really giving more resources than they have.Vendicts report suggests that funding and staffing difficulties play a huge role in driving mental health decline -- both for these execs and their subordinates. The challenges of maintaining functional technological ecosystems are complicated by resource shortages, leading to long hours and an increased likelihood of errors.Easy solutions are in short supply, but a number of steps can be taken to address this crisis.Increased Funding and StaffingWhile it is likely the most challenging ask for current CIOs, CISOs and CTOs, increasing their funding and staff resources would likely go the furthest in mitigating the factors afflicting their mental health. According to Vendict's report, 45% of respondents said that increasing their resources would alleviate some of their stress.Funding for parsimonious solutions, such as AI programs that might be able to automate tasks that must be done manually by analysts, might serve as a compromise. If AI programs are able to eliminate the need to analyze every report manually, cyber teams are then able to turn their attention to the most pressing issues.Investment in both technological and human resources has a cascading effect. Alleviating strain on staff by improving the tools they have to execute their tasks and compensating them at fair rates reduces turnover rate. Encouraging them to stay through regular training opportunities can further facilitate a cooperative and enthusiastic workforce.Their bosses can then concentrate on big-picture issues.Open DiscussionIT execs can start the conversation themselves -- encouraging the discussion of mental health issues among their peers and subordinates. By sharing their own struggles, they can create an atmosphere where others can do the same.A CIO at a Minnesota insurance company shared a video describing his mental health challenges and found that his colleagues began sharing theirs as well.These discussions need not be limited to mental health -- dialogue about working conditions, conflicts and management of projects is also helpful. These conversations are unlikely to be easy and result in immediate solutions, though, Stoller is quick to note.Were in the stage where were moving toward manifest failure. In that process, there will be some people who will be raising their hands and saying, We have a better way. But most people wont be listening to them, because they haven't gotten to the point of giving up their authoritative roles, he says.Still, attempting to dissolve top-down methodologies is likely a good starting point for addressing pain points for both execs and their staff.Encouragement of Healthy HabitsAs IT ecosystems adjust to the increasing strain, it is incumbent upon leaders to both adopt mindfulness in their work and encourage it among their subordinates. According to the Splunk report, only 36% of UK businesses provide mental health support to their cyber teams.In the absence of formal programs, IT leaders can facilitate discussions about proper sleep habits, taking breaks when needed, and awareness of symptoms of stress. Organizing workshops to discuss these approaches -- and what additional steps may be needed -- can create space for employees at all levels to figure out what works best on both the individual and team level.This should be approached carefully, though, Shatt cautions. If anyone is going to get turned off by the concept of self-care, its going to be people in an IT role, he says. He suggests framing advice in terms of lifts and drags: what reduces their working capabilities and what increases them.I would encourage people to engage with disorder, because thats where things are happening that you dont understand, and thats where you need to be involved, Stoller adds.

The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Tech companies are warning their immigrant workers not to leave the US Employees on high-skilled visas could be denied entry back into the States. (WP $)+ Officials are considering collecting citizenship applicants social media data. (Associated Press)2 OpenAI has closed one of the largest private funding rounds in historyIt plans to put the $40 billion cash injection towards building AGI. (The Guardian)+ The deal values OpenAI at a whopping $300 billion. (CNBC)+ The company also teased its first open-weight model in years. (Insider $)3 SpaceX has launched a mission thats never been attempted before Its taking private customers on an orbit between Earths North and South poles. (CNN)+ Crypto billionaire Chun Wang is footing the bill for the mission. (Reuters)+ Europe is finally getting serious about commercial rockets. (MIT Technology Review)4 Some DOGE workers are returning to their old jobsTheyre quietly heading back to their roles at X and SpaceX. (The Information $)+ Top staff were placed on leave after denying DOGE access to their systems. (Wired $) + Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? Its complex. (MIT Technology Review)5 Amazon is going all-in on AI agents Its new AI model Nova Act is designed to complete tasks such as online shopping. (The Verge)+ Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake. (MIT Technology Review)6 DeepMind is making it harder for its researchers to publish studies Its reluctant to share innovations that rivals could capitalize on. (FT $)7 Meet the protestors staking out Tesla dealershipsProfessors and attorneys have taken to the streets to fight back. (New Yorker $) + Far-right extremists are turning up to defend the company. (Wired $)