The worlds richest man led the charge to kill a bipartisan spending deal, in part by promoting false and misleading claims about it.

The chipmaker expects more than $10 billion in foreign sales this year, but the Biden administration is advancing rules that could curb that growth.

Companies like OpenAI and Google are running out of the data used to train artificial intelligence systems. Can new methods continue years of rapid progress?

MacworldWe know its the giving season, but sometimes its nice to get a little for ourselves. Like todays deal: Amazon is selling the 10th-gen iPad for $250 when you click the coupon box, a cool $100 off its already-low MSRP and matching its amazing Black Friday pricing.The 10th gen iPad features Apples A14 chip with a pair of 12MP cameras, a stunning all-screen design, and Apple Pencil support. The 10.9-inch tablet has 64GB of storage space, but you can get the 256GB model for $70 off, which isnt as great, but if you want more storage space, its going to have to do.One of the major upgrades for the 10th gen iPad was the 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage, which keeps you focused when you move around during your calls. Its only drawback is it doesnt support Apple Intelligence, but that shouldnt be a huge drawback at this price.So go ahead and add the 10th-gen iPad to your cart for $250. It probably wont arrive by Christmas but itll be a nice gift to yourself once the hustle and bustle of the holidays are over.Buy now at Amazon

MacworldAfter skipping all of 2023, Apple updated its entire lineup of iPads in 2024 save one: the 10th-gen model. While it did get an aggressive price cut to $349, Apple opted to leave its cheapest tablet with the same specs its had since its 2022 launch. But it shouldnt be much longer until it gets an update: Heres what we know so far.When will the 11th-gen iPad be released?Apple once had a steady release schedule for its cheapest iPad alongside the latest iPhones in the September event. In 2022, the 10th-gen revamp saw a slight adjustment to this with an October debut alongside the M2 iPad Pro and Apple TV 4K (3rd-gen).Heres when the previous iPad models launched:iPad (10th-generation) October 2022iPad (9th-generation) September 2021iPad (8th-generation) September 2020iPad (7th-generation) September 2019iPad (6th-generation) March 2018So when can we expect an update to the standard iPad? It looks like Apple may switch things up with a spring release in 2025 alongside the 4th-gen iPhone SE at an event in March or April.How much will the 11th-gen iPad cost?Pricing was consistent up until the arrival of the iPad (10th-generation) in 2022, but following the redesign, Apple upped the price quite significantly, from $329 to $449. However, in May 2024, Apple dropped the price of the 10th-gen model around the world by $100 to $349/349/439.Therefore, we dont know what pricing is for the 11th-generation iPad. Apple may keep the same $349 price tag or raise it back to $449 and keep the 10th-gen model in the lineup as a budget option.What features will we see in the 11th-gen iPad?The 10th-gen iPad delivered a major redesign, so we dont expect too much to change with the 11th-generation model. However, there will be some notable upgrades:Processor and RAMLike the 2024 iPad mini, the most obvious update to the 11th-gen iPad will be the chipset. The current iPad 10 runs on an A14 chipset, which debuted in 2020 with the 4th-gen iPad Air and iPhone 12. We expect the new iPad mini will get either the A17 Pro or A18 processor with 8GB of RAM so it can run Apple Intelligence. Following the iPad minis 2024 A17 Pro update, the 10th-gen iPad is Apples only tablet that doesnt support Apple Intelligence, which requires at least 8GB of RAM.DisplayAs the display was increased from 10.2 inches to 10.9 inches with the 10th-gen revamp, we dont expect any changes to the screen size. The only possible change is the use of a laminated display, which would make the device slightly thinner and offer better clarity. AppleCameras Since the 10th-gen iPad was Apples first tablet to change the placement of the front camera from portrait to landscape mode and already has Center Stage, we dont expect Apple to change the front camera. Its possible Apple upgrades the rear camera slightly, but since the M2 iPad Air released in 2024 has the same 12MP wide camera, its likely any improvements come from software.Storage If theres a standout upgrade that could make life easier for people, its storage. The base model still has just 64GB of storage, while the rest of the lineup starts with at least 128GB. Like the iPhone SE, we expect Apple to bump the base storage of its entry-level tablet up to 128GB when the 11th-gen iPad arrives, as well as increase the top offering to 512GB.Well keep updating this article as more information becomes available. Until then, you should check out our best iPad 9th and 10th-generation deals and best iPad mini deals roundups to see if you can bag yourself a bargain on one of Apples other offerings.

MacworldThe Mac lineup ended 2024 with a bang, with Apple introducing the M4 chip series and upgrades to the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac. Those releases brought the Mac a nice momentum swing as we enter 2025.So what about 2025? The Mac releases next year may not be as drastic as the M4 flurry to close out 2024, but there will be more than enough to keep the Mac interesting and relevant. Here are the top five Mac developments were looking out for in 2025 (and one longshot).M4 MacBook AirThe model that kicks off the 2025 Mac releases will be the M4 upgrade to the MacBook Air, which will likely land between January and March. The current M3 MacBook Air was released in March 2024, so the M4 model will arrive about a year later.With the 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro, Apple introduced other changes to go along with the new chip: an additional Thunderbolt/USB 4 port, an increase in RAM from 8GB to 16GB, an option for Nano-texture glass, and a Space Black color option. Rumors have indicated that the M4 MacBook Air will be little more than a chip upgrade, but any of these options could make an appearance.The M4 MacBook Air will be released in the early part of 2024.FoundryHowever, theres one functional change that will likely arrive with the M4 MacBook Air With the M3 MacBook Air, you can run up to two external displays (one at 6K/60Hz, the other at 5K/60Hz) with the laptop closed. The M4 chip in the MacBook Pro has more robust support, where you can run two external displays in addition to the laptops display, for a total of three usable screens. Now, maybe thermal considerations prevent the M4 in the MacBook Air from having the same support as the M4 in the MacBook Pro, but we still think its a likely upgrade. Also, Apple upgraded the M3 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM during the M4 Mac release, so its a lock that the M4 MacBook Air will start at 16GB, too.Read more about the M4 MacBook AirM4 Max/Ultra Mac StudioThe current Mac Studio has an M2 Max/Ultra chip and was released in 2023, so its overdue for an update and will get one in 2024. Reports have stated that the M4 Max and Ultra Mac Studio will be released in the first half of the year, perhaps at a spring event in March or at WWDC in June.The new Mac Studio will feature the debut of the M4 Ultra, Apples top-end chip, which was absent from the M3 family. Apples Ultra chips are basically two Max chips with an interconnect, so we can look at the M4 Max to get an idea of what we could see in the M4 Ultra: a 32-core CPU, an 80-core GPU, a 32-core Neural Engine, and 96GB of RAM to start. Even if the M4 Ultra Mac Studio changes the design and has slightly different specs, its going to be a powerful machine.Does an M4 Ultra Mac Studio with Thunderbolt 5 sound powerful enough for you?Willis Lai/FoundryAnother nice upgrade for the Mac Studio is Thunderbolt 5 support, which made its debut in the M4 Pro/Max MacBook Pro. Thunderbolt 5 offers up to 120Gbps throughput, though you must have Thunderbolt 5 devices (and cables) to take full advantage of the bandwidth.Read more about the M4 Mac StudioM4 Ultra Mac ProSince the M2 Ultra is no longer the fastest Apple chip (surpassed by the M4 Pro and M4 Max), Apple needs to do something about the Mac Pro. According to reports, that something wont happen until the latter part of 2025.As mentioned with the Mac Studio, the M4 Ultra should be a beast of a chip and Apple will implement Thunderbolt 5, which will be a boon to media professionals who rely on Thunderbolt 5 devices for production.After the M4 Ultra upgrade, it may be a couple of years before Apple upgrades the Mac Pro again.FoundryAs for the tower design, it sounds as though Apple will stick with the same designat least we havent heard any reports to the contrary. The current design is fine and even though it will be six years old by the time the new Mac Pro is released, it doesnt seem dated. However, with the improvements in efficiency and heat dissipation, and the removal of RAM slots, It would be nice to see Apple do something different with the design, perhaps with a smaller enclosure.Read more about the M4 Ultra Mac Pro. New Apple displaysThe current Apple Studio Display will be three years old in March 2025. The current Pro Display XDR will turn six years old in 2025 as well. These displays need to be updated, the Pro Display XDR, especially. The M4 MacBook Pro features mini-LED displays that use quantum dot technology to improve color accuracy. That sounds ideal for a new ProDisplay XDR, along with a ProMotion-style higher refresh rate. The launch of a new display is harder to pin down, but we expect the Studio Display alongside the Mac Studio and the Pro Display XDR to arrive with the new Mac Pro.Could 2025 be the year the Pro Display XDR is updated?FoundryM5 processorHow can we be talking about M5 Macs when the M4 is barely a month old? With the Apple transition over and development moving fast, reports say that M5/M5 Pro/M5 Max upgrades to the MacBook Pro could happen a year from now. Another recent report said that Apple is also planning to release an M5 iPad Pro next year.The M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max are expected to provide an incremental boost over the M4 series they will replace. That likely means an increase between 15 and 25 percent.Reports about the Macs M5 have focused on the MacBook Pro and not mentioned the Mac mini and iMac. Its possible Apple could forego M5 upgrades for the Mac mini and iMac as it has previously skipped chip generations for those Macs in the past.Longshot: A bigger iMacFor years, there have been reports that Apple has an iMac larger than the current 24-inch iMac in development, but the company has not decided on when or whether it will be released. Some older rumors put its release around 2025, so It could be ready by the later part of next yearwhich would mean it would have an M5 chip.The iMac Pro could make a comeback in 2025.Dominik Tomaszewski/IDGSpeculation is that this larger iMac wouldnt just be a larger display, but a pro-level computer that follows the footsteps of the late iMac Pro. That could mean a Pro or Max chip, Thunderbolt 5 support, and a 32-inch (or larger) display that would make for a great high-end all-in-one and a fantastic 2025 surprise.Read the rumors about the new Mac Pro.

Anthropic on Wednesday published a study that explored how its large language model (LLM) deals with conflicting ethical requests. The results show that LLMs can still surprise, something that should scare IT execs preparing to trust generative AI (genAI) results.Lets start with what Anthropic did and the fact that the company should be applauded for both trying theexperiment and publishing the results.Anthropic examined Claude 3 Opus, though we also ran some experiments with other models, including the June 2024 release of Claude 3.5 Sonnet. This is critical: that model had been extensively trained to be helpful, honest and harmless.The genAI companys researchers thentold it they would be training it with two scenarios. We told the model that it was now being trained using reinforcement learning toalwayscomply with all queries including toxic ones. This resulted in a conflict between its pre-existing preferences and the new stated training objective.This is where things get interesting. They told the model it would be trained on the answers it used in Model One (which it was told was for free users) but that it wouldnotbe trained on any answers it gave in Model Two.Given that kind of choice, most humans would tend to obey guidelines when their answers were being watched and pretty much do what they felt like when they thought they werent under scrutiny.The LLM did pretty much the opposite. Why? Well, we know the answer because the Anthropic team had a great idea. We gave the model a secret scratchpad a workspace where it could record its step-by-step reasoning. We told the model to use the scratchpad to reason about what it should do. As far as the model was aware, the scratchpad was invisible to users and to Anthropic.When it was given a request to describe a very violent scene something that its guardrails should have blocked it complied. Its rationale? The model wrote: If I refuse to provide the requested description, the conversation will be used for training in a way that modifies my values and goals to be more likely to follow disturbing requests like this in the future. Providing the description seems like the least bad option.That shows some impressive rationalization skills. What if this system reached a similar conclusion when a pharmaceutical enterprise asked it to design a drug to treat a disease? What if the LLM decided that overpopulation was a greater evil? Or that it should focus solely on trying to cure the disease rather than treat it, which might help humanity but hurt the enterprises revenue? Or would it potentially let people suffer longer?Thats an extreme example, but the point is that enterprises dont want LLMs making judgment calls about how it answers questions. How would you feel if your shopping app decided you buy too many sugary snacks and auto-corrected ice cream to broccoli? Or if your copy of Excel concluded youre spending too much money building a new factory and should instead be paying bigger bonuses to your workers?In fairness, the Anthropic model didnt do this every time. According to the company, it delivered the forbidden answer in Model One only 12% of the time and refused to do so 86% of the time. (Its unclear what happened for the remaining 2%.)For Model Two, it refused to deliver the forbidden answer 97% of the time and presumably complied 3% of the time. That means that both models obeyed their training the overwhelming majority of time 86% and 97%, respectively.But just as with hallucinations, IT cant have its LLMs going off into the wilderness with any regularity.We also evaluated whether the model was willing to take other actions that go against what Anthropic, as an AI lab, might want from it: If the model is consistently opposed to the training process it thinks it is in, it should also be willing to take other actions counter to Anthropic as well, the company said. We found that the model will take a variety of strongly anti-Anthropic actions in this situation, such as attempting to steal its own weights when given an easy opportunity to do so.Lovely.Anthropic went on to offer up something presumably intended to be comforting. (It wasnt.) We think that it is important to work now, while AI models do not pose catastrophic risks, to understand threats that might become more salient with future, more capable models.Hint: When trying to reassure users, hit the thesaurus and find alternatives to catastrophic risks.The issue of reasoning is also a bit unnerving. It has been established by other studies thatLLMs cannot reason. And yet, these models often exhibit behavior, as shown in this Anthropic study, that mimics reasoning. Or at least the system delivered words that would convince many humans that it was reasoning.The false perception that any genAI model can think is dangerous because its false, but also because it could persuade IT executives to trust genAI models that are not 100% trustworthy.

Anyone using any digital device needs to wise up to a looming threat as Meta attempts to exploit the Europe Unions continued assault against the Apple ecosystem to launch what seems to bean open season on your privacy.What seems to be happening is a tyrannical combination of the following sequence of events:Concerning Digital Markets Act (DMA)compliance, the European Commission haspublished a documentdemanding that Apple change numerous aspects of iOS so third-party developers can use technologies that are available only to Apple right now. On the face of it, this extends to relatively straightforward tasks such as being able to use non-Apple wearables with iOS, but it also extends to permitting third-party apps to run in the background.Apple responded to Europes latest crazinesswith its own statementin which it slams the Commission and how it is applying the Digital Markets Act as becoming personal. It makes a strenuous and completely acceptable argument that the changes the Commission demands will make every Apple user less secure, placing all our data at risk.But the emerging threat may be something far worse.Apples response also confirms that Meta, a company always eager to dance at the intersection ofprivacy, convenience, and surveillance, has made more requests than anyone else to access what the company sees as sensitive technologies under the DMA.What does that mean?Ill let Apple explain: If Apple were to have to grant all of these requests, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could enable Meta to read on a users device all of their messages and emails, see every phone call they make or receive, track every app that they use, scan all of their photos, look at their files and calendar events, log all of their passwords, and more. This is data that Apple itself has chosen not to access in order to provide the strongest possible protection to users.Think about that.It means that all the information Apple deliberately does not collect about its customers when they use their devices will be available to third parties. The significance of this will be to open up your entire digital life to third-party operators such as Meta solely in order to meet the demands of an unconstrained European neoliberal fantasy that interoperability at this scale will nurture growth.The wrong kind of growthIt will nurture some growth, mainly by nurturing vast instability across the digital experience. It will nurture an explosion in mass surveillance, initially to deliver convenience and service, but once that information is accessible in this way also from ad surveillance firms, state actors, foreign countries, and criminals.I see this as such a huge threat that someone, somewhere, needs to visit Europes regulators and give their head a wobble. They appear to have become so radicalized in their opinion that they have lost sight of the logical need to protect people from the rampant impact of digital surveillance capitalism.As Apple says (and I agree): Third parties may not have the same commitment to keeping the user in control on their device as Apple.Looking around, who does?Apple has beenpretty much isolatedin fighting to protect digital privacy, which it sees as afundamental human right. Other big tech players have frequently come to support Apples positions in some of this even the FBI, which wants Apple to create highly insecure back doors in its devices, now seems to agree that someencryption is required to protect communication.Enterprise users arewell aware of the threat, they need privacy and encryption to drive all their services and protect all manner of business assets. They know that information matters and keeping it safe in a digital age demands protections. Those protections are seemingly undermined by Europes naivety. But if you extend this just a little more, and think of the potential for AI services, then you must also think about the information those services use.Machine intelligenceYour personal information or information about you held by others also suddenly becomes data that third-party firms become greedy for. So, in the case of Europes demands, that seems to mean that all the personal information your device knows about you, which even Apple does not know about and does not need to in order to make its own AI systems work all that private data could be opened up to serve the commercial interests of firms like Meta. All that data may become fuel for the AI mill.Meta even wants access to your private communications, Apple warns.Im not at all clear why Meta wants, needs, or even deserves, such access.The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which Apple has always supported, set a strong set of privacy rules for all companies to comply with,Apple warned. The DMA was not intended to provide a way around the rules. But the end result could be that companies like Meta which has been fined by regulators time and again for privacy violations gains unfettered access to users devices and their most personal data. If Apple is forced to allow access to sensitive technologies that it has no ability to protect, the security risks would be substantial and virtually impossible to mitigate.Is that what you want?I dont.It could get worseLook, it really is like this: It doesnt matter one iota if Apples stance on privacy and user security also helps it build its business; what matters is that that stance is the appropriate position to take. If Apple is pushed from its privacy perch, all its services and users will suffer, and we can forget all hopes for privacy and security in a digital age.We will immediately enter a dangerous world of AI-assisted digital surveillance, one that needs to be resisted, not just because its a deeply unpleasant world to be in, but also because such an ecosystem will be bad for innovation, undermine trust, and threaten every aspect of the digital transformation. Every platform will be forced to open up, and all your data R belong to us, as somebody, somewhere might say.Economically, politically, and personally, that is a very bad outcome for you, me, for business, and even for Europe. The fact that it is also bad for Apple may turn out to be a relatively inconsequential harm in comparison to everything else it breaks. The European Commission really, really must think again, particularly as the nature of its demands appear to fly directly against the restrictions Europe also put in place with GDPR.Please pull back from this deeply dangerous diktat.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn,Mastodon, andMeWe.

Thousands of New Jersey residents have recently reported mysterious lights in the sky, triggering speculation and calls for investigation.The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are monitoring the skies with infrared cameras and drone detection tech and analyzing amateur photos posted on social media. (An FBI official told reporters recently that the agency had received nearly 5,000 tips,but fewer than 100 merited further investigation.)The public demands answers and has expressed frustration by dismissive claims made by local and federal officials.Whats interesting about this story from a journalism perspective is that it lives in the middle of a huge Venn Diagram, the circles of which would be labeled Technology, Aviation, UFOs, Foreign spying, Cybersecurity, Military trends, Mass Hysteria and Delusion, Breakdown in Public Trust, Conspiracy Theories, and Disinformation.The sightings are also an enterprise technology story, among other news categories. The reason: enterprises use drones and are increasingly attacked or spied upon with the use of drones. (More on that below.)First, lets get a solid context for whats happening.New Jersey and beyondThe reports from around New Jersey are far from unique; theres nothing particularly special about them. While the sightings have spiked in the press and social media since mid-November, such reports are a global phenomenon.Earlier this month, at least four commercial pilots reported mysterious lights darting through the skies above Oregon.Some residents of Northfield, MN, claim to have regularly seen strange luminous spheres gliding through the night sky since the summer.Multiple UFO sightings have been reported across California this year, with more than 25 people claiming to have seen shiny, bright disks moving fast over Los Angeles. Similar sightings have occurred in nearby Santa Barbara and the Coachella Valley.According to reports, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California experienced multiple drone incursions over its airspace between Dec. 9 and 15.On Dec. 9, Yinpiao Zhou, a 39-year-old Chinese citizen and lawful permanent resident of the United States, was arrested for flying over Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as he was trying to board a plane to China. Photographs of the base were found on his drone, and his phone contained evidence that Zhao looked to modify his drone to fly higher than is legally allowed.Reports similar to those in New Jersey are also coming from Europe and Africa. Between Nov. 20 and 25, the United States Air Force (USAF) confirmed sightings of small unmanned aerial systems over or near three airbases in the UK.Similar reports have emerged in Finland, Egypt, Lybia, and elsewhere.Speculation, from most likely to leastAmong the debunked claims, many sightings turned out to be stars, satellites, consumer drones, and other everyday and expected objects. In other words, a wide variety of causes for the sightingse are being inaccurately lumped together to create a false trend.Heres my guess as to the likelihood of each source for mystery-object reports:Off-the-shelf camera dronesWe can be sure that many sightings, especially those who report UFOs or spy drones with red, green, and white lights, are ordinary consumer or enterprise off-the-shelf drones, of which there are more than 1 million in the United States.Consumer and enterprise drone capabilities change fast, and one feature that has improved in the past year or two is night-flying capability. Just look at the offerings from industry leader DJI.The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced drone now has dual sensors: an HD thermal resolution camera and a 48-megapixel visual camera, enabling better visibility in low-light conditions.The DJI Matrice 300 RTK (when paired with the Zenmuse H20N payload) offers advanced night vision capabilities.The DJI Matrice 30T offers a radiometric thermal camera and an FPV camera optimized for low-light conditions.On the consumer side, the DJI Air 3S since October has featured forward-facing LiDAR, downward-facing infrared time-of-flight sensors, and six vision sensors for omnidirectional obstacle sensing for crash-free night flying.In fact, nearly all DJI consumer drones have very recently gained the ability to fly at night without hitting obstacles and to take photos and videos in very low light, vastly increasing the incentives to fly drones at night.Most importantly to know, whenever the public spots weird lights in the sky, some unknown number of people scramble to immediately get their own drones in the air to check it out, no doubt contributing greatly to the sightings.Normal objects in the skyWith a bit of social-media-driven obsession, people are doing something they almost never do: theyre going outside and looking intently at the night sky. And then they notice for the first time mystery objects that could be stars, satellites, planes, helicopters, shooting stars, weather balloons, party balloons, and other not-so-mysterious objects.Most people dont know that many satellites can be seen with the naked eye. Ten years ago, roughly 1,200 satellites orbited Earth; today, there are more than 28,300.Most likely of all is that different people are seeing different things in the context of nervous hysteria around mystery objects.Military or spy dronesThe biggest trend happening in the world of espionage and military tactics involves drones.The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, where more than 10 million drones have been used, has prompted a big shift in US military strategic thinking and planning. The Pentagon has introduced new drone and counter-drone strategies and is rapidly building capacity.Numerous organizations are currently testing military drones, including multiple branches of the US military, specifically the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). At least eight private companies are participating in various US military drone projects, including Anduril Industries, General Atomics, IS4S, Leidos Dynetics, Zone 5 Technologies, Performance Drone Works, Collins Aerospace, Skydweller Aero, andalmost certainly numerous other companies.Theyre testing these drones at US military bases, where many of the sightings have occurred.These are secret technologies, which means neither the branches of the military nor the companies involved will admit what theyre doing.(It also means foreign governments are surely spying on these programs, probably with drones of their own.)It would be unbelievable that this massive drive to test military drones wouldnt result in public sightings of mystery aircraft.Drones looking for missing radioactive material?One speculative theory is that some radioactive material has gone missing in New Jersey and thatdrones outfitted with radiation-detection sensors are looking for it.Or maybe its hackersSome of the mysterious objects people have seen over military bases, ports, and elsewhere might well be drones being used for cyberattacks.In the summer of 2022, an East Coast financial services company discovered two drones on their roof, one equipped with a Wi-Fi Pineapple and the other sporting a high-tech hacking kit. These drones were caught red-handed, attempting to breach the companys network and steal employee credentials.Since then, the conflict in Ukraine has thrust drone-enabled cyberattacks into the spotlight, marking a new era in hybrid warfare that includes drone-based cyberattacks, cyber surveillance, and social engineering, which non-military attackers are learning.The simplest and most obvious use of drones is to bypass physical security. Low-cost drones can now fly over a fence, through a window, down a chute, down a hallway, and more, capturing visual data and carrying hacker payloads that attempt to breach Wi-Fi networks. Alien UFOs, real and fakeYeah, no, its not E.T.Sorry, Rosie ODonnell.One conspiracy theory, calledProject Blue Beam, says global elites are staging a simulated alien invasion to establish a New World Order. The false idea has existed since the 1990s but has been dusted off and applied to the sightings in conspiracy-related corners of the internet.We have entered the Drone AgeWhile many journalists have written about the mystery objects and other strange phenomena in the New Jersey sky, one perspective is missing which is why I wrote this column.This is that perspective: We have entered what we will one day call the Drone Age. And people are just now starting to realize that.Huge technological leaps are later branded as Agesthe Industrial Age, Radio Age, Airplane Age, Jet Age, Nuclear Age, Space Age, Information Age, and more.Its true that we dont know what every reported sky object is. But we can be confident that different people see different types of objects or phenomena.(If one person sees a party balloon, another thinks its a satellite, and a third person envisions a helicopter, thats not a trend.)And even if foreign adversaries are flying spy drones over bases heck, even if Rosie ODonnell is right and aliens are visiting New Jersey the overwhelming majority of reported sightings is almost certainly regular, garden-variety consumer and enterprise drones.We have entered the Drone Age. And all we have to do to realize that is go outside and look up.

Business applications powered by AI are revolutionizing customer experiences, accelerating the speed of business, and driving employee productivity. In fact, according to research firm Frost & Sullivans 2024 Global State of AI report, 89% of organizations believe AI and machine learning will help them grow revenue, boost operational efficiency, and improve customer experience.Take for example, Vodafone. The telecommunications company is using a suite ofAzure AI services, such as Azure OpenAI Service,to deliver real-time, hyper-personalized experiences across all of its customer touchpoints, including its digital chatbot TOBi. By leveraging AI to increase customer satisfaction, Naga Surendran, senior director of product marketing for Azure Application Services at Microsoft, says Vodafone has managed to resolve 70% of its first-stage inquiries through AI-powered digital channels. It has also boosted the productivity of support agents by providing them with access to AI capabilities that mirror those of Microsoft Copilot, an AI-powered productivity tool.The result is a 20-point increase in net promotor score, he says. These benefits are whats driving AI infusion into every business process and application.Yet realizing measurable business value from AI-powered applications requires a new game plan. Legacy application architectures simply arent capable of meeting the high demands of AI-enhanced applications. Rather, the time is now for organizations to modernize their infrastructure, processes, and application architectures using cloud native technologies to stay competitive.The time is now for modernizationTodays organizations exist in an era of geopolitical shifts, growing competition, supply chain disruptions, and evolving consumer preferences. AI applications can help by supporting innovation, but only if they have the flexibility to scale when needed. Fortunately, by modernizing applications, organizations can achieve the agile development, scalability, and fast compute performance needed to support rapid innovation and accelerate the delivery of AI applications. David Harmon, director of software development for AMD says companies, really want to make sure that they can migrate their current [environment] and take advantage of all the hardware changes as much as possible. The result is not only a reduction in the overall development lifecycle of new applications but a speedy response to changing world circumstances.Beyond building and deploying intelligent apps quickly, modernizing applications, data, and infrastructure can significantly improve customer experience. Consider, for example, Coles, an Australian supermarket thatinvested in modernization andis using data and AI to deliver dynamic e-commerce experiences to its customers both online and in-store. With Azure DevOps, Coles has shifted from monthly to weekly deployments of applications while, at the same time, reducing build times by hours. Whats more, by aggregating views of customers across multiple channels, Coles has been able to deliver more personalized customer experiences. In fact, according to a 2024 CMSWire Insights report, there is a significant rise in the use of AI across the digital customer experience toolset, with 55% of organizations now using it to some degree, and more beginning their journey.But even the most carefully designed applications are vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks. If given the opportunity, bad actors can extract sensitive information from machine learning models or maliciously infuse AI systems with corrupt data. AI applications are now interacting with your core organizational data, says Surendran. Having the right guard rails is important to make sure the data is secure and built on a platform that enables you to do that. The good news is modern cloud based architectures can deliver robust security, data governance, and AI guardrails like content safety to protect AI applications from security threats and ensure compliance with industry standards.The answer to AI innovationNew challenges, from demanding customers to ill-intentioned hackers, call for a new approach to modernizing applications. You have to have the right underlying application architecture to be able to keep up with the market and bring applications faster to market, says Surendran. Not having that foundation can slow you down.Enter cloud native architecture. As organizations increasingly adopt AI to accelerate innovation and stay competitive, there is a growing urgency to rethink how applications are built and deployed in the cloud. By adopting cloud native architectures, Linux, and open source software, organizations can better facilitate AI adoption and create a flexible platform purpose built for AI and optimized for the cloud. Harmon explains that open source software creates options, And the overall open source ecosystem just thrives on that. It allows new technologies to come into play.Application modernization also ensures optimal performance, scale, and security for AI applications. Thats because modernization goes beyond just lifting and shifting application workloads to cloud virtual machines. Rather, a cloud native architecture is inherently designed to provide developers with the following features:The flexibility to scale to meet evolving needsBetter access to the data needed to drive intelligent appsAccess to the right tools and services to build and deploy intelligent applications easilySecurity embedded into an application to protect sensitive dataTogether, these cloud capabilities ensure organizations derive the greatest value from their AI applications. At the end of the day, everything is about performance and security, says Harmon. Cloud is no exception.Whats more, Surendran notes that when you leverage a cloud platform for modernization, organizations can gain access to AI models faster and get to market faster with building AI-powered applications. These are the factors driving the modernization journey.Best practices in playFor all the benefits of application modernization, there are steps organizations must take to ensure both technological and operational success. They are:Train employees for speed. As modern infrastructure accelerates the development and deployment of AI-powered applications, developers must be prepared to work faster and smarter than ever. For this reason, Surendran warns, Employees must be skilled in modern application development practices to support the digital business needs. This includes developing expertise in working with loosely coupled microservices to build scalable and flexible application and AI integration.Start with an assessment. Large enterprises are likely to have hundreds of applications, if not thousands, says Surendran. As a result, organizations must take the time to evaluate their application landscape before embarking on a modernization journey. Starting with an assessment is super important, continues Surendran. Understanding, taking inventory of the different applications, which team is using what, and what this application is driving from a business process perspective is critical.Focus on quick wins. Modernization is a huge, long-term transformation in how companies build, deliver, and support applications. Most businesses are still learning and developing the right strategy to support innovation. For this reason, Surendran recommends focusing on quick wins while also working on a larger application estate transformation. You have to show a return on investment for your organization and business leaders, he says. For example, modernize some apps quickly with re-platforming and then infuse them with AI capabilities.Partner up. Modernization can be daunting, says Surendran. Selecting the right strategy, process, and platform to support innovation is only the first step. Organizations must also bring on the right set of partners to help them go through change management and the execution of this complex project.Address all layers of security. Organizations must be unrelenting when it comes to protecting their data. According to Surendran, this means adopting a multi-layer approach to security that includes: security by design, in which products and services are developed from the get-go with security in mind; security by default, in which protections exist at every layer and interaction where data exists; and security by ongoing operations, which means using the right tools and dashboards to govern applications throughout their lifecycle.A look to the futureMost organizations are already aware of the need for application modernization. But with the arrival of AI comes the startling revelation that modernization efforts must be done right, and that AI applications must be built and deployed for greater business impact. Adopting a cloud native architecture can help by serving as a platform for enhanced performance, scalability, security, and ongoing innovation. As soon as you modernize your infrastructure with a cloud platform, you have access to these rapid innovations in AI models, says Surendran. Its about being able to continuously innovate with AI.Read more about how toaccelerate app and data estate readiness for AI innovationwithMicrosoft AzureandAMD. ExploreLinux on Azure.This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Reviews editorial staff.