I believe computer science is the cornerstone of all technological advancements in the business world.

Man studying a see-through computer monitor thats displaying AI text.gettyAI assistants could start manipulating you into making decisionsand then selling your plans to the highest bidder before you've even consciously made your mind up.According to AI ethicists from the University of Cambridge, published research and the hints dropped by several major tech players indicate that the 'intention economy' is set to take off.AI agents, from chatbot assistants to digital tutors and girlfriends, could exploit the access that they have to our psychological and behavioral data, and manipulate our responses by mimicking personalities and anticipating desired responses."Tremendous resources are being expended to position AI assistants in every area of life, which should raise the question of whose interests and purposes these so-called assistants are designed to serve," said visiting scholar Dr Yaqub Chaudhary of the University of Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence."What people say when conversing, how they say it, and the type of inferences that can be made in real-time as a result, are far more intimate than just records of online interactions."Large language models can cheaply target a users cadence, politics, vocabulary, age, gender, online history, and even preferences for flattery and ingratiation, the researchers said.Brokered bidding networks would then attempt to maximize the chance of achieving a given aim, such as selling a cinema trip or pushing a political party, by subtly steering conversations."Unless regulated, the intention economy will treat your motivations as the new currency. It will be a gold rush for those who target, steer, and sell human intentions," said Dr Jonnie Penn, an LCFI historian of technology.Read More: Ukraine Hit By Massive Cyber Attack"We should start to consider the likely impact such a marketplace would have on human aspirations, including free and fair elections, a free press, and fair market competition, before we become victims of its unintended consequences."This isn't just idle speculation. An OpenAI blog post last year called for "data that expresses human intention... across any language, topic, and format", while the director of product at Shopifyan OpenAI partner spoke of chatbots coming in "to explicitly get the users intent" at a conference the same year.Meanwhile, Nvidias CEO has spoken publicly of using LLMs to figure out intention and desire, while Meta released research on what it referred to as the 'Intentonomy' in 2021.And earlier this year, Apples new 'App Intents' developer framework for connecting apps to its voice-controlled personal assistant Siri included protocols to "predict actions someone might take in future" and "suggest the app intent to someone in the future using predictions you [the developer] provide"."AI agents such as Metas CICERO are said to achieve human level play in the game Diplomacy, which is dependent on inferring and predicting intent, and using persuasive dialogue to advance ones position," said Chaudhary."These companies already sell our attention. To get the commercial edge, the logical next step is to use the technology they are clearly developing to forecast our intentions, and sell our desires before we have even fully comprehended what they are."

At the core of intelligent system design is the principle of instrumentation and iterative improvement.

Forward-looking: Nvidia, now a $3 trillion+ titan, has grown synonymous with graphics cards and AI accelerators. But as the company has become the one to beat in these arenas, it now has its crosshairs aimed at what it sees as the next major growth area: robotics. A report by The Financial Times has revealed Nvidia's plans to achieve this future. It highlights how Deepu Talla, Nvidia's VP of robotics, believes the robotics market has reached an inflection point where physical AI and robotics are about to take off in a big way."The ChatGPT moment for physical AI and robotics is just around the corner," Talla told the publication, adding that he believes the market has reached a "tipping point."To capitalize on this, Nvidia wants to position itself as the go-to platform for robotics. The company already offers a full robotics stack. This includes the software for training foundational AI models on DGX systems, its Omniverse simulation platform, and the Jetson hardware.However, things are set to accelerate next year, with Nvidia planning to launch its latest robot brain called Jetson Thor. This will be the newest addition to the company's Jetson platform, which is a line of compact computers designed for AI applications. Jetson Thor will be a model focused specifically on robotics, though.Talla says that there are currently two key breakthroughs driving Nvidia's robotics optimism. First is the rise of powerful generative AI models. The second is the ability to train robots in these foundational models using simulated environments.He stated that in the past year alone, this 'sim-to-real gap' has progressed enough to enable the combination of simulations with generative AI in powerful new ways that were not feasible two years ago. // Related StoriesIt's worth mentioning here that Talla has played an instrumental role in helping Nvidia break into robotics. The roots trace back to 2013 when Talla joined to work on its Tegra mobile chip. The company pivoted those engineers to autonomous vehicle training, which eventually led to the 2014 launch of Jetson robot brain modules.As for where the Jetson Thor will be useful, we can take hints from Nvidia's recent investments. Earlier this year, the buzzy robotics startup Figure AI raised $675 million from investors including Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Apptronik, another robotics company using Nvidia's tech, recently partnered with Google's DeepMind subsidiary.The robotics push comes as Nvidia faces increasing competition in AI chips from the likes of AMD. While AI still accounts for a massive 88% of Nvidia's $35 billion in quarterly revenue, the company is wise to explore new frontiers. After all, the robotics market is projected to soar from $78 billion currently to $165 billion by the end of 2029, per BCC Research.

In brief: Russia's quest to develop home-grown consoles that are made by Russians and enjoyed by Russians doesn't seem to be having a lot of success. According to new reports, two machines are being created: one isn't very powerful, and the other is a $45 device that streams games from the cloud. Back in March, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the government to create Russian stationary and portable game consoles, along with operating systems and cloud-based game delivery systems for the machines.With Russia heavily sanctioned and looking to promote its own products, one of its in-development consoles is powered by the Elbrus processor. Developed by Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies (MCST) and based on the VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) architecture, Elbrus is designed primarily for domestic applications in critical infrastructure, defense, and other sensitive areas.Elbrus processors' performance can't match high-end CPUs from Intel, AMD, and Arm, but they are adequate for enterprise and government work. The CPUs certainly aren't going to power a console that can compete with the PS5 or Xbox Series.The console will also use a domestic OS, though it's still undecided whether this will be Aurora or Alt Linux.The Russian government admits that this device isn't going to be on the same level as current-gen machines. // Related Stories"I hope my colleagues will approach this task with full responsibility and come up with something truly groundbreaking," said Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy. "It is obvious to everyone: Elbrus processors are not yet at the level required to compete equally with the PS5 and Xbox, which means the solution must be unconventional."Gorelkin said that Russian consoles aren't being designed only to play ports of hundreds of old, less-demanding games. He added that they should primarily serve the purpose of promoting and popularizing domestic video game products.Another organization following Putin's instructions is Russian telecommunications firm MTS. Its console (above) will use the company's cloud-based gaming platform, called Fog Play. It allows owners of high-end PCs to rent out their computing power to those with less-powerful equipment, charging an hourly price. Those with more powerful PCs can access games on the service and use their own hardware to play them.MTS' device is expected to cost no more than $45 and come with an Xbox-like controller, suggesting it's unlikely to appeal to those who enjoy current-gen console games.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsSamsung Galaxy S25 Slim: possible release dateSamsung Galaxy S25 Slim: possible priceSamsung Galaxy S25 Slim: designSamsung Galaxy S25 Slim: specsSamsung Galaxy S25 Slim: other detailsSamsungs January Galaxy Unpacked event is just around the corner. We know the event will show off the Galaxy S25 lineup, but theres a chance that it could also unveil the long-rumored Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim (and maybe give us a proper name for it besides the rumored title).Weve been following the rumors about this handset for a long time, and weve gathered quite a bit of information about the Galaxy S25 Slim. If youre curious about its specs, potential release window, and everything else we know, read on.Recommended VideosEvan Blass / XAccording to all of the information weve uncovered so far, the Galaxy S25 Slim will be receiving an international launch not just a Korea-focused one. As for the date, theres no firm information. The Galaxy S25 Slim isnt expected to launch anytime soon, though. Most predictions place it sometime in the middle of summer, perhaps around June.Please enable Javascript to view this contentRumors also suggested it wouldnt be announced at the Galaxy Unpacked event in January, but a fresh leak says the handset could be announced in January though it wont be available to purchase for a while longer.RelatedTraditionally, Samsung has released new entries in its handheld lineup earlier in the year. Releasing a phone in summer would be out of the norm; its entirely possible we wont see the Slim until September or October when Samsung usually releases the new FE devices.Andrew Martonik / Digital TrendsThe problem with looking to the FE series for a possible release window is that the Galaxy FE phones are priced lower than the base models. The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is $650, versus the $800 for the base Galaxy S24.From what weve seen so far, the Galaxy S25 Slim could receive upgraded specs versus the base S25. Better internals, combined with the already likely price increase for the Galaxy S25 lineup means the S25 Slim could cost as much as the base model if not more.For reference, the Galaxy S24 was $799 for the base model, $999 for the Plus model, and $1,299 for the Ultra. We expect an increase of around $100 for each size for the S25, meaning the S25 Slim could very likely cost over $1,000.Galaxy S24 FE Joe Maring / Digital TrendsUnlike the other entries in the S25 lineup, the Slim is one we dont quite have a dummy unit for yet. That means theres no clear picture of what the devices silhouette might look like, but we do know that it should be smaller than nearly anything else Samsung currently offers.Last week, well-known tipster Ice Universe shared on Weibo that the S25 Slim should fall between 6mm and 6.9mm thick. We still arent sure how thin the Slim will be, but early information says its significantly narrower than the latest Pixel or the iPhone.Andy Boxall / Digital TrendsThe technical specifications are another area were still largely in the dark about. Some leaks have suggested a camera setup that is more in line with the Vivo X200 Pro Mini, with three 50MP cameras and a 32MP selfie cam.Preliminary reports from GSMArena give the S25 Slim the following configuration:Display6.7 inchesPlatformAndroid 15, One UI 7RAM12GBStorage256GBMain Camera200MP primary, 50MP telephoto, 50MP ultrawideSelfie Camera10 MPVideoBetween 720p@960FPS and 8K@30FPSThe Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with the Galaxy Buds3 Pro Andy Boxall / Digital TrendsThere is still much we dont know about the Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim. What kind of battery life we can expect, the different color options, and more concrete details about the cameras are still unknown.However, we do expect it to make an appearance either at Galaxy Unpacked in January or later in the year, and the existence of the handset is all but guaranteed. Well update this guide as we learn more, so stay tuned.Editors Recommendations

NOT (QUITE) READY FOR PRIMETIME Passkey technology is elegant, but its most definitely not usable security Just in time for holiday tech-support sessions, here's what to know about passkeys. Dan Goodin Dec 30, 2024 7:00 am | 8 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreIt's that time again, when families and friends gather and implore the more technically inclined among them to troubleshoot problems they're having behind the device screens all around them. One of the most vexing and most common problems is logging into accounts in a way that's both secure and reliable.Using the same password everywhere is easy, but in an age of mass data breaches and precision-orchestrated phishing attacks, it's also highly unadvisable. Then again, creating hundreds of unique passwords, storing them securely, and keeping them out of the hands of phishers and database hackers is hard enough for experts, let alone Uncle Charlie, who got his first smartphone only a few years ago. No wonder this problem never goes away.Passkeysthe much-talked-about password alternative to passwords that have been widely available for almost two yearswas supposed to fix all that. When I wrote about passkeys two years ago, I was a big believer. I remain convinced that passkeys mount the steepest hurdle yet for phishers, SIM swappers, database plunderers, and other adversaries trying to hijack accounts. How and why is that?Elegant, yes, but usable?The FIDO2 specification and the overlapping WebAuthn predecessor that underpin passkeys are nothing short of pure elegance. Unfortunately, as support has become ubiquitous in browsers, operating systems, password managers, and other third-party offerings, the ease and simplicity envisioned have been undoneso much so that they can't be considered usable security, a term I define as a security measure that's as easy, or only incrementally harder, to use as less-secure alternatives."There are barriers at each turn that guide you through a developer's idea of how you should use them," William Brown, a software engineer specializing in authentication, wrote in an online interview. "None of them are deal-breaking, but they add up."Passkeys are now supported on hundreds of sites and roughly a dozen operating systems and browsers. The diverse ecosystem demonstrates the industry-wide support for passkeys, but it has also fostered a jumble of competing workflows, appearances, and capabilities that can vary greatly depending on the particular site, OS, and browser (or browser agents such as native iOS or Android apps). Rather than help users understand the dizzying number of options and choose the right one, each implementation strong-arms the user into choosing the vendor's preferred choice.The experience of logging into PayPal with a passkey on Windows will be different from logging into the same site on iOS or even logging into it with Edge on Android. And forget about trying to use a passkey to log into PayPal on Firefox. The payment site doesn't support that browser on any OS.Another example is when I create a passkey for my LinkedIn account on Firefox. Because I use a wide assortment of browsers on platforms, I have chosen to sync the passkey using my 1Password password manager. In theory, that choice allows me to automatically use this passkey anywhere I have access to my 1Password account, something that isn't possible otherwise. But it's not as simple as all that.When I look at the passkey in LinkedIn settings, it shows as being created for Firefox on Mac OS X 10, even though it works on all the browsers and OSes I'm using. Screenshot showing passkey is created for Firefox on Mac OS X 10.Why is LinkedIn indicating otherwise? The answer is that there's no way for LinkedIn to interoperate flexibly with the browsers and OSes and vice versa. Per the FIDO2 and WebAuthn specs, LinkedIn knows only the browser and OS I used when creating the credential. 1Password, meanwhile, has no way to coordinate with LinkedIn to ensure I'm presented with consistent information that will help me keep track of this. Suddenly, using passkeys is more confusing than it needs to be for there to be utility to ordinary users.Things get more complicated still when I want to log into LinkedIn on Firefox for Android, and am presented with the following dialog box. Screenshot showing a dialog box with the text: "You're using on-device encryption. Unlock your passwords to sign in." At this point, I don't know if it's Google or Firefox that's presenting me with this non-intuitive response. I just want to open LinkedIn using the passkey that's being synced by 1Password to all my devices. Somehow, the mysterious entity responsible for this message (it's Google in this case) has hijacked the process in an attempt to convince me to use its platform.Also, consider the experience on WebAuthn.io, a site that demonstrates how the standard works under different scenarios. When a user wants to enroll a physical security key to log in on macOS, they receive a dialog that steers them toward using a passkey instead and to sync it through iCloud. Dialog box showing macOS passkeys message. The user just wants to enroll a security key in the form of a USB dongle or smartphone and can be used when logging in on any device. But instead, macOS preempts this task with directions for creating a passkey that will be synced through iCloud. What's the user to do? Maybe click on the "other options" in small text at the very bottom? Let's try and see. The dialog box that appears after clicking "other options." Wait, why is it still offering the option for the passkey to be synced in iCloud, and how does that qualify as "other options"? And why is the most prominent suggestion that the user "continue with Touch ID"? It isn't until selectng "security key" that the user will see that option they wanted all alongto store the credential on a security key. Only after this stepnow three clicks indoes the light on a USB security key begin blinking, and the key is finally ready to be enrolled. Dialog box finally allows the creation of a passkey on a security key. The dueling dialogs in this example are by no means unique to macOS.Too many cooks in the kitchen"Most try to funnel you into a vendor's sync passkey option, and don't make it clear how you can use other things," Brown noted. "Chrome, Apple, Windows, all try to force you to use their synced passkeys by default, and you have to click through prompts to use alternatives."Bruce Davie, another software engineer with expertise in authentication, agreed, writing in an October post that the current implementation of passkeys "seems to have failed the 'make it easy for users' test, which in my view is the whole point of passkeys."In April, Son Nguyen Kim, the product lead for the free Proton Pass password manager, penned a post titled Big Tech passkey implementations are a trap. In it, he complained that passkey implementations to date lock users into the platform they created the credential on.If you use Google Chrome as your browser on a Mac, it uses the Apple Keychain feature to store your passkeys, he wrote. "This means you cant sync your passkeys to your Chrome profile on other devices. In an email last month, Kim said users can now override this option and choose to store their passkeys in Chrome. Even then, however, "passkeys created on Chrome on Mac dont sync to Chrome in iPhone, so the user cant use it seamlessly on Chrome on their iPhone."Other posts reciting similar complaints are here and here.In short, there are too many cooks in the kitchen, and each one thinks they know the proper way to make pie.I have put these and other criticisms to the test over the past four months. I have used them on a true heterogeneous environment that includes a MacBook Air, a Lenovo X1 ThinkPad, an iPhone, and a Pixel running Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari, and on the phones, a large number of apps, including those for LinkedIn, PayPal, eBay, Kayak, Gmail, Amazon, and Uber. My objective has been to understand how well passkey-based authentication works over the long term, particularly for cross-platform users.I fully agree that syncing across different platforms is much harder than it should be. So is the messaging provided during the passkey enrollment phase. The dialogs users see are dictated arbitrarily by whatever OS or browser has control at the moment. There's no way for previously made configuration choices to be communicated to tailor dialog boxes and workflow.Another shortcoming: There's no programming interface for Apple, Google, and Microsoft platforms to directly pass credentials from one to the other. The FIDO2 standard has devised a clever method in an attempt to bridge this gap. It typically involves joining two devices over a secure BLE connection and using a QR code so the already-authenticated device can vouch for the trustworthiness of the other. This process is easy for some people in some cases, but it can quickly become quirky and prone to failure, particularly when fussy devices can't connect over BLE.In many cases, however, critics overstate the severity of these sorts of problems. These are definitely things that unnecessarily confuse and complicate the use of passkeys. But often, they're one-time events that can be overcome by creating multiple passkeys and bootstrapping them for each device. From then on, these unphishable, unstealable credentials live on both devices, in much the way some users allow credentials for their Gmail or Apple ID to be stored in two or more browsers or password managers for convenience.More helpful still is using a cross-platform password manager to store and sync passkeys. I have been using 1Password to do just that for a month with no problems to report. Most other name-brand password managers would likely perform as well. In keeping with the FIDO2 spec, these credentials are end-to-end encrypted.Halfway house for password managersWith my 1Password account running on my devices, I had no trouble using a passkey to log into any enrolled site on a device running any browser. The flow was fast and intuitive. In most cases, both iOS and Android had no problem passing the key from 1Password to an app for Uber, Amazon, Gmail, or another site. Signing into phone apps is one of the bigger hassles for me. Passkeys made this process much easier, and it did so while also allowing me the added security of MFA.This reliance on a password manager, however, largely undermines a key value proposition of passkeys, which has been to provide an entirely new paradigm for authenticating ourselves. Using 1Password to sync a password is almost identical to syncing a passkey, so why bother? Worse still, the majority of people still don't use password managers. I'm a big believer in password managers for the security they offer. Making them a condition for using a passkey would be a travesty.I'm not the first person to voice this criticism. David Heinemeier Hansson said much the same thing in September."The problem with passkeys is that they're essentially a halfway house to a password manager, but tied to a specific platform in ways that aren't obvious to a user at all, and liable to easily leave them unable to access ... their accounts," wrote the Danish software engineer and programmer, who created Ruby on Rails and is the CTO of web-based software development firm 37signals. "Much the same way that two-factor authentication can do, but worse, since you're not even aware of it."He continued:Let's take a simple example. You have an iPhone and a Windows computer. Chrome on Windows stores your passkeys in Windows Hello, so if you sign up for a service on Windows, and you then want to access it on iPhone, you're going to be stuck (unless you're so forward thinking as to add a second passkey, somehow, from the iPhone will on the Windows computer!). The passkey lives on the wrong device, if you're away from the computer and want to login, and it's not at all obvious to most users how they might fix that.Even in the best case scenario, where you're using an iPhone and a Mac that are synced with Keychain Access via iCloud, you're still going to be stuck, if you need to access a service on a friend's computer in a pinch. Or if you're not using Keychain Access at all. There are plenty of pitfalls all over the flow. And the solutions, like scanning a QR code with a separate device, are cumbersome and alien to most users.If you're going to teach someone how to deal with all of this, and all the potential pitfalls that might lock them out of your service, you almost might as well teach them how to use a cross-platform password manager like 1Password.Undermining security promisesThe security benefits of passkeys at the moment are also undermined by an undeniable truth. Of the hundreds of sites supporting passkeys, there isn't one I know of that allows users to ditch their password completely. The password is still mandatory. And with the exception of Google's Advanced Protection Program, I know of no sites that won't allow logins to fall back on passwords, often without any additional factor. Even then, all bug Google APP accounts can be accessed using a recovery code.This fallback on phishable, stealable credentials undoes some of the key selling points of passkeys. As soon as passkey adoption poses a meaningful hurdle in account takeovers, threat actors will devise hacks and social engineering attacks that exploit this shortcoming. Then we're right back where we were before.Christiaan Brandt, co-chair of the FIDO2 technical working group and an identity and security product manager at Google, said in an online interview that most users aren't ready for true passwordless authentication."We have to meet users where they are," he wrote. "When we tested messaging for passkeys, users balked at 'replace your password with passkeys,' but felt much more comfortable with more softened language like "you can now use a passkey to log in to your account too.' Over time, we most definitely plan to wean users off phishable authentication factors, but we anticipate this journey to take multiple years. We really can only do it once users are so comfortable with passkeys that the fallback to passwords is (almost) never needed."A design choice further negating the security benefits of passkeys: Amazon, PayPal, Uber, and no small number of other sites supporting passkeys continue to rely on SMS texts for authentication even after passkeys are enrolled.SMS-based MFA is among the weakest form of this protection. Not only can the texts be phished, but they're also notoriously vulnerable to SIM swaps, in which an adversary gains control of a target's phone number. As long as these less-secure fallbacks exist, passkeys aren't much more than security theater.I still think passkeys make sense in many cases. I'll say more about that later. First, for a bit more context, readers should know:Passkeys are defined in the WebAuthn spec as a "discoverable credential," historically known as a "resident key." The credential is in the form of a private-public key pair, which is created on the security key, which can be in the form of a FIDO-approved secure enclave embedded into a USB dongle, smartphone, or computer. The key pair is unique to each user account. The user creates the key pair after proving their identity to the website using an existing authentication method, typically a password. The private key never leaves the security key.Going forward, when the user logs in, the site sends a security challenge to the user. The user then uses the locally stored private key to cryptographically sign the challenge and sends it to the website. The website then uses the public key it stores to verify the response is signed with the private key. With that, the user is logged in.Under the FIDO2 spec, the passkey can never leave the security key, except as an encrypted blob of bits when the passkey is being synced from one device to another. The secret key can be unlocked only when the user authenticates to the physical key using a PIN, password, or most commonly a fingerprint or face scan. In the event the user authenticates with a biometric, it never leaves the security key, just as they never leave Android and iOS phones and computers running macOS or Windows.Passkeys can be stored and synced using the same mechanisms millions of people already use for passwordsa password manager such as Bitwarden, Apple iCloud, Google Password Manager, or Microsoft's cloud. Just like passwords, passkeys available in these managers are end-to-end encrypted using tried and true cryptographic algorithms.The advent of this new paradigm was supposed to solve multiple problems at oncemake authenticating ourselves online easier, eliminate the hassle of remembering passwords, and all but eradicate the most common forms of account takeovers.When not encumbered by the problems mentioned earlier, this design provides multifactor authentication in a single stroke. The user logs in using something they havethe physical key, which must be near the device logging in. They must also use something they knowthe PIN or passwordor something they aretheir face or fingerprintto complete the credential transfer. The cryptographic secret never leaves the enclave embedded into the physical key.What to tell Uncle Charlie?In enterprise environments, passkeys can be a no-brainer alternative to passwords and authenticators. And even for Uncle Charliewho has a single iPhone and Mac, and logs into only a handful of sitespasskeys may provide a simpler, less phishable path forward. Using a password manager to log into Gmail with a passkey ensures he's protected by MFA. Using the password alone does not.The takeaway from all of thisparticularly for those recruited to provide technical support this week but also anyone trying to decide if it's time to up their own authentication game: If a password manager isn't already a part of the routine, see if it's viable to add one now. Password managers make it practical to use a virtually unlimited number of long, randomly generated passwords that are unique to each site.For some, particularly people with diminished capacity or less comfort being online, this step alone will be enough. Everyone else should also, whenever possible, opt into MFA, ideally using security keys or, if that's not available, an authenticator app. I'm partial to 1Password as a password manager, Authy as an authenticator, and security keys from Yubico or Titan. There are plenty of other suitable alternatives.I still think passkeys provide the greatest promise yet for filling the many security pitfalls of passwords and lowering the difficulty of remembering and storing them. For now, however, the hassles of using passkeys, coupled with their diminished security created by the presence of fallbacks, means no one should feel like a technophobe or laggard for sticking with their passwords. For now, passwords and key- or authenticator-based MFA remain essential.With any luck, passkeys will someday be ready for the masses, but that day is not (yet) here.Dan GoodinSenior Security EditorDan GoodinSenior Security Editor Dan Goodin is Senior Security Editor at Ars Technica, where he oversees coverage of malware, computer espionage, botnets, hardware hacking, encryption, and passwords. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and following the independent music scene. Dan is based in San Francisco. Follow him at here on Mastodon and here on Bluesky. Contact him on Signal at DanArs.82. 8 Comments

Lisa Morgan, Freelance WriterDecember 30, 20249 Min ReadDmitriy Shironosov via Alamy Stock After surviving the pandemic with work-from-home policies, some organizations have decided that work should return to its pre-pandemic state in which most employees were expected to be in the office at least part of the week, if not the whole week.The problem with that is two-fold: First, organizations admitted that they were pleasantly surprised by remote work productivity, but now theyre saying, Yeah, but training is easier and water cooler conversations are golden. While those are compelling facts, organizations are forgetting that employees may vote with their feet.One reason is that employees discovered a new work-life balance during the pandemic that many do not want to give up. For some, that means flexible hours. For others, its the ability to be present at work and at home simultaneously.Especially the United States, [workers] have moved from big cities or simply to other areas far from their corporate offices, and their children have started attending schools near their new homes to work remotely. So, the requirement to start working in the office again means either a new move or a job change, says Diana Soprana Blaaitien, international HR and remote work expert for hospitality and IT sectors across Scandinavia and Germany. Employees who are told to return to the office are also unhappy about the increased costs of work: clothing, transportation, lunches, [and commute time].Related:Return to office (RTO) is the main reason why some people are changing jobs right now, particularly Gen Z.Gen Z, who prioritize work-life balance, will undoubtedly choose organizations without a strict RTO policy. This means that top talent and more candidates in general will be attracted by those that offer the opportunity to work remotely at least part of the time, says Blaaitien. Even some employees who come to me for selections identify the RTO policy as a deception by the employer because they were hired when they could work remotely, and now they are required to return to the office.The real reason RTO is happening is that some executives and managers feel more in control, or they believe remote work processes are not properly structured and managed. Theres also the real estate issue of leased and owned properties that are not being used to capacity.Diana Soprana BlaaitienI think that CEOs need to understand that the factory work structure -- work from 8 to 5 -- is already outdated and we are inevitably entering an era of a different perception and nature of work, says Blaaitien.Related:Dovil Gelinskait, senior talent manager at omnichannel marketing platform Omnisend, agrees.RTO mandates ignore the true purpose of on-site work: fostering creativity and teamwork. At Omnisend, we recognize that brainstorming, workshops and team building cant be replicated remotely. However, weve also found that rigid, outdated workplace models fail to reflect how much the nature of work has changed, says Gelinskait. Flexibility is now an expectation, especially among younger generations, so finding that balance between flexibility and in-person interactions is crucial. Companies that fail to do so will lose great talent to companies that do.RTO Adds to Stress and BurnoutOrganizations are facing pushback on their RTO policies, but employee exoduses will send a much more powerful message.In general, people do not like feeling that things are happening to them, and that they have no say, or choice in the matter. So, when you suddenly pivot to an RTO mandate, employees will take it personally, as it does impact their personal lives, and they will likely feel demoralized, says Ashley Alexander, chief people officer at observability platform Chronosphere. In most cases, employees are professional adults, so making knee-jerk decisions is going to cause unnecessary stress or burnout.Related:One reason RTO policies fail is because the employees who were forced back to the office spend their day on Zoom calls with colleagues who arent physically present.To avoid [this annoyance], there needs to be a thoughtful strategy ensuring pods or teams collaborating closely or benefiting from shared learning are in the office together, says Alexander. A sudden shift from remote work to RTO often highlights how dispersed teams have become. Without a clear location-based strategy tied to roles and responsibilities, the transition can feel chaotic and ineffective.A better way to approach it is to clearly explain how RTO benefits employees, or how the mandate positively impacts customers and the ability to get work done more efficiently. There should also be reasonable time given for employees to opt in or out of the RTO mandate, and executives should have to follow the same expectations as everyone else.According to Rachel Marcuse, COO at organizational consulting firm ReadySet, many employees see RTO as a regressive, antiquated move.Employees may be less engaged during a workday bookended by commutes and less than enthusiastic about the financial and climate costs of traveling to the office daily, says Marcuse. [B]usinesses could lose out on the best Gen Z talent, with recent studies showing that Gen Zers want the option to work remotely -- even as they also crave some level of in-person collaboration.Downstream EffectsAs companies enforce their RTO policies, there are downstream effects, the most obvious of which is getting employees to change their behavior, yet again.More rigid mandates shrink the available talent pool, especially for organizations, particularly those in smaller markets. Remote work has been a boon for these companies, granting access to talent they wouldnt typically be able to attract, says Darrin Murriner, CEO and co-founder at automated technology coaching platform Cloverleaf. For candidates, rigid RTO decreases the number of available job opportunities, creating a lose-lose situation for both sides.For example, such mandates increase operational costs, including housing in-office employees and managing relocations. These policies can also create disruption and uncertainty, driving valuable employees to reconsider their roles within the organization.For employees, rigid RTO policies can disrupt work-life balance and push them to seek employers offering more flexibility. For candidates, RTO mandates reduce job opportunities by limiting options to local markets rather than leveraging the global opportunities remote work provides, says Murriner. This creates a more constrained and less competitive job market, diminishing both employee and employer prospects for finding the best matches.Rather than simply issuing an RTO policy from the top-down, it is wiser to gather input from all levels, creating tailored solutions for specific roles, and providing flexibility for individual managers to adapt policies to their teams. Such strategies mitigate disruption and uncertainty, help retain top talent, and foster trust by focusing on clarity and predictability.How DOGE May Impact RTOThe United States new Department of Government Efficiency, (DOGE) a consultancy jointly spearheaded by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has already made it clear that RTO five days a week will be non-optional for government employees. What impact might that have on the private sector? For one thing, it may embolden more private companies to issue RTO mandates of their own.Cloverleafs Murriner believes government RTO mandates like DOGE will likely shift costs rather than solve workforce challenges.These mandates increase the financial burden of housing in-office employees and managing relocations, and they exacerbate societal costs in cities with larger federal employee bases, like DC, where traffic congestion and infrastructure challenges could worsen, says Murriner. For private organizations, these mandates may have some influence, but the private sector is more likely to prioritize adaptable, talent-driven policies over rigid government models, avoiding the pitfalls of unnecessary cost and limited flexibility.What if RTO Mandates Really Do Fail?If RTO mandates fail, it will prove that strict office policies no longer fit the realities of modern work, according to Omnisends Gelinskait.Employers will have to invest in flexible work models and employee well-being instead of maintaining office space. In the long run, this could make such companies more competitive in todays job market, whereas those that cling to office-first policies will likely struggle to attract and retain top talent, says Gelinskait. A sound RTO strategy should make people want to be there. Employers should clearly communicate the benefits of office attendance, such as tasks or activities that thrive on in-person interaction. A strong strategy should also involve employees in shaping how office time is used.For example, at Omnisend, the team leads decide what kind of working model they apply. Some teams benefit from in-office work much more than others, so this dynamic approach allows each team to tailor their work model to what works best for them.Chris Rowe, co-founder of executive recruiting firm pltfm believes that any mandated policy in 2025, RTO or not, has potential to fail. If talent has a choice of being in the office two or three days a week versus five, theyll choose the lesser amount.Chris Rowe, pltfm My sense is that [4 days in the office and one at home or five days in the office] are far more common and the fully remote icecaps are somewhat melting under people's feet, says Rowe. Companies need to compete for talent, so I suspect there will be policy, and then there will be shades of grey around that policy. The strongest companies in [each] sector typically have the strongest and most defined cultures, says Rowe. Any of those companies will tell you that regardless of the multimillion-dollar budgets they deploy via digital learning initiatives, the best learning comes via an apprenticeship culture, fostered by listening, watching and doing. This latter argument supports RTO.While Rowe believes most career-orientated candidates will compromise if the opportunity is right, a mandated five-day RTO is a significant buzzkill for talent, even if the brand will significantly elevate someone's resum. He recommends that companies:Identify core competitors for talent. (Tip: they probably arent your core competitors.)Understand what they are doing RTO-wise.Be curious about what you can learn from them.Design an RTO strategy that satisfies the executive committee and still keeps the company looking more progressive than the full-week RTO competitor.Train hiring managers to deploy "shades of grey" around the rhetoric and policy.Bottom LineOrganizations are engaging in risky behavior by issuing top-down RTO mandates that are in direct conflict with what employees embraced as the new normal during the pandemic. While there are benefits of working in an office, a blanket five-day RTO mandate is likely to face considerable resistance.After all, a simple change in policy can have far-reaching implications for employees that employers need to consider. The price of the mismatch may be losing good employees to competitors and difficulty attracting top or critical talent.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 MorganNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

Illustration of semaglutide activating a key receptor, called GLP-1JUAN GAERTNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/AlamyThe active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, a drug called semaglutide, can have direct beneficial effects on the heart within weeks, in addition to the longer-term benefits of losing weight, an animal study has shown.The finding suggests that people with heart disease who dont have type 2 diabetes or obesity, which semaglutide is primarily used to treat, might also benefit from taking this kind of drug. It may be that were missing a large population of people that could benefit, says Christopher Stone at Brown

The US military has warned that lifesaving "golden hour" care may not exist in future wars.The experiences of Ukrainian soldiers reflect those warnings.Getting treatment can take hours, if not days, leading to lasting injuries, amputations, and deaths.American generals predicted years ago that the intensity of future wars could upend lifesaving evacuations and medical care for injured troops.That prediction is now a reality in Ukraine, where soldiers often can't get proper medical care within the "golden hour" the critical first 60 minutes after severe injuries when treatment can increase chances of survival."Until there's a real concrete answer for drones, it's going to continue to be pretty hectic when it comes to that type of care," a combat medic with a foreign volunteer unit in Ukraine told Business Insider.The medic, who uses the call sign Tango, has front-line experience with Chosen Company, including an ill-fated fight in the village of Pervomaiske. His team was devastated by Russian indirect fire in July 2023. He said that despite his own injuries he helped provide first aid to a handful of wounded men but that they had to wait hours for more extensive care. Two men didn't survive.In Ukraine, swarms of drones and constant artillery strikes complicate timely evacuations, contributing to the war's soaring death toll and the severity of survivors' injuries. Ukrainian soldiers taking part in medical training on the front line in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast. Ignacio Marin/Anadolu via Getty Images Asked in 2019 by Congress whether the US military would be able to evacuate wounded troops during the golden hour in future conflicts, Gen. Mark Milley, then the Army's chief of staff and later the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a grim response."Probably not," he said."We'll try," he added, "but I'm not guaranteeing."Other military leaders have expressed similar concerns. "You may have previously heard a discussion of the 'golden hour,'" Maj. Gen. Anthony McQueen, now the Army's deputy surgeon general but formerly the head of its Medical Research and Development Command, said last year. "We're moving more to a 'golden window of opportunity.'"On any given day in Ukraine, wounded soldiers may be stuck near the front lines for hours or days and can be evacuated only during a break in the fighting or in the dim light of dawn and dusk."Here in Ukraine," a US Army veteran fighting in Ukraine who goes by the call sign Jackie told BI, "we have a golden three days."A struggle to evacuateA different Ukrainian combat medic told BI the struggle to quickly evacuate was "a big problem" that had only worsened with drones becoming more prolific. "Two years ago," she said, "it was a totally different war from what is going on now." The Ukrainian military operating a Punisher drone. Libkos via Getty Images An estimated 1 million people have been killed or injured in the Ukraine war, with casualties stemming heavily from drones and artillery.Cheap drones swarming the skies over Ukraine's battlefields can severely delay medical evacuations. The drones serve as aerial eyes for artillery, bombers that can drop grenades, and precision-strike munitions.The second medic said Russian troops target vehicles known to be carrying out evacuations. They aim for the combat medics, she said, because "if you kill a medic, it means that you killed thousands of soldiers," or all the people they might have saved otherwise."If you look special or different, you are going to attract a drone," Tango said. "That goes especially for evac, and they specifically target medical vehicles or anybody with a backpack. You never wear a medic patch on the front line. That's a guaranteed drone strike."Drones are only one of the war's many causes of bodily harm and death. A 2023 medical study found that 70% of Ukrainian war injuries were caused by shelling or rocket fire. Graves at the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, of Ukrainian soldiers killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. AP Photo/Mykola Tys The second medic said first responders sometimes reach injured soldiers quickly but can't evacuate if nearby roads are controlled by Russians or exposed to drones.That can mean waiting hours or even days.Extended delays in crucial care could lead to complications, such as amputations, or even fatalities that faster clinical care might have avoided. Leaving a tourniquet on too long, for example, can cause lasting nerve damage.Jackie said a friend of his was wounded by shrapnel but couldn't leave his trench near the eastern city of Bakhmut for four days. His wounded leg became infected and ultimately had to be cut off.Jackie thought the injury would have been an "easy fix" if the friend had received care in the golden hour. "We don't have a field medic up there pushing antibiotics through IVs, right under direct fire in a trench," he said.Separately, a UkrainianDrones give rise to 'magic hour' evacuationsIn the cult-classic sci-fi film "Reign of Fire," "magic hour" occurs at dusk and dawn; it's the time of day when the dragons, deadly airborne dangers, are vulnerable. Tango said medics operating in Ukraine could find a similar respite at those times."That's when they're switching out their surveillance drones from normal analog video to either thermal or night vision," he said. "You have that limited window to move people."Tango said, "You can't move during the daytime, or you'll get wrecked by drones." And the night has its own terrors.Fighting typically slows at dawn and dusk as soldiers rest and swap equipment between daytime and nighttime gear, though the Russians sometimes use artillery to suppress the Ukrainians during this period. A soldier hit outside this time typically must wait hours for an evacuation.Once they can be moved, injured soldiers are typically taken back to a casualty collection point, like an underground bunker or concealed position, to be stabilized until it is safe for a truck or armored vehicle to take them to a field hospital.What it means for the West Ukrainian troops near Bakhmut. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky Drones have been used more in the war in Ukraine than in any other conflict in history, limiting battlefield movement. And the proliferation of sophisticated air defenses has prevented either side Ukraine or Russia from achieving air supremacy or even superiority. That makes it too risky for helicopters to rapidly pick up the wounded, as was standard in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.Recalling his Iraq deployment a decade ago, Tango said, "I knew even if I got really messed up, there is a pretty good chance I'm going to survive." He said that he "could get wrecked and probably be at a hospital within an hour or two."In Ukraine, he said, "it's a gamble every time you step off on a mission."The US could face similar obstacles in the event of a large-scale conflict against an adversary like China or Russia. Military medics giving first aid to a wounded Ukrainian soldier at a medical stabilization point near Chasiv Yar in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine's 24th Mechanised Brigade via AP US Army Col. Matthew Fandre, then the senior medical officer for the Mission Command Training Program, wrote in 2020 that in a future large-scale war involving the US, the "golden hour will become a goal, not an expectation.""This is not a paradigm shift; instead, it would be a return to the patterns and expectations of World War II operations and Cold War planning, exacerbated by current technology and lethality," Fandre wrote.He said that without air superiority, aerial evacuations could become limited, leaving ground evacuations as the primary method. But ground evacuations would most likely also have limits, he wrote, which could "dramatically increase died-of-wounds rates."George Barros, a conflict analyst at the US-based Institute for the Study of War, told BI that America and its allies needed a "tremendous amount of learning" to help "prepare to deter and, if necessary, defeat modern state peer adversaries like China and Russia." But there are also lessons from US experiences for Ukraine. A Russian soldier firing a howitzer toward Ukrainian positions. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP The US special-operations community has experience in prolonged battlefield combat care, something medics like Tango are increasingly studying and applying in Ukraine. Expanding that to the military on a large scale could be challenging, though. Troops are also considering drone deliveries of supplies into contested battlespaces, but that capability is still in the early stages.Until then, many soldiers will continue to fight the clock after injuries, hoping for breaks in the fighting that make lifesaving treatments more accessible.