Chris Kerr, News EditorJanuary 30, 20252 Min ReadImage via MetaReality Labs, the division Facebook owner Meta hopes will eventually birth the metaverse, lost over $17.7 billion during the last fiscal year.According to the company's fiscal report for the year ended December 31, 2024, the segment delivered a loss of $4.9 billion during Q4an increase on the $4.6 billion loss posted in Q4 last year.Similar performance across previous quarters resulted in Reality Labs delivering a full-year loss of more than $17.7 billion.Q4 revenue within the segment rose by 1 percent year-on-year to $1.1 billion and was driven by hardware sales. Reality Labs expenses totalled $6 billion.Reality Labs is the home of Meta's virtual, augmented, and mixed reality consumer hardware, software, and content initiatives. That includes the company's Quest headset business, formerly known as Oculus.The division has become the standard bearer for obscene losses. It burned through $16.1 billion and $13.7 billion across 2023 and 2022, respectively, and continues to haemorrhage cash.Zuckerberg says Quest headset usage is rising, reiterates that Reality Labs is a long-term betDiscussing the Quest business specifically, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the number of people using its headsets and Horizon metaverse software has been "steadily growing.""This is the year when a number of the long-term investments that we've been working on that will make the metaverse more visually stunning and inspiring will really start to land. So I think were going to know a lot more about Horizon's trajectory by the end of this year," he added.Last year, Meta CFO Susan Li indicated Reality Labs was "definitely part of the budget conversation" amid rising expenses and infrastructure costs.Yet, Meta execs have repeatedly told investors to expect losses to increase year-over-year. It was more of the same this year."We do anticipate that operating losses in Reality Labs will increase in 2025 as they did in 2024," said Li during an investor call. "We expect our Wearables devices to be the primary driver of Reality Labs operating losses growing in 2025 across both cost revenue and operating expenses. And that really comes from our efforts to further accelerate the adoption of our AI glasses products."Li described Meta's ongoing Reality Labs investments as "big product bets" but said the company is determined to bring scalable products to market.In the meantime, Meta plans to eliminate 5 percent of its workforce to jettison people the company feels are "low performers."Read more about:[Company] MetaFinancialsTop StoriesAbout the AuthorChris KerrNews Editor, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, andPocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

Heres what the certification logo looks like, which may be used on book covers, spines, and promotional materials.The Authors Guild one of the largest associations of writers in the US has launched a new project that allows authors to certify that their book was written by a human, and not generated by artificial intelligence.The Guild says its Human Authored certification aims to make it easier for writers to distinguish their work in increasingly AI-saturated markets, and that readers have a right to know who (or what) created the books they read. Human Authored certifications will be listed in a public database that anyone can access. The project was first announced back in October in response to a deluge of AI-generated books flooding online marketplaces like Amazon and its Kindle ebook platform.Certification is currently restricted to Authors Guild members and books penned by a single writer, but will expand in the future to include books by non-Guild members and multiple authors. Books and other works must be almost entirely written by humans to qualify for a Human Authored mark, with minor exceptions to accommodate things like AI-powered grammar and spell-check applications.The Human Authored initiative isnt about rejecting technology its about creating transparency, acknowledging the readers desire for human connection, and celebrating the uniquely human elements of storytelling, guild CEO Mary Rasenberger said in a statement on Wednesday. Authors can still qualify if they use AI as a tool for spell-checking or research, but the certification connotes that the literary expression itself, with the unique human voice that every author brings to their writing, emanated from the human intellect.

Vodafone has made what it calls the worlds first satellite video call using a standard smartphone, in a test of a system it says will provide mobile broadband service to 4G and 5G phones without dedicated satellite hardware. The service, using satellites from SpaceX rival AST SpaceMobile, is expected to launch in Europe before the end of 2025.AT&T and Verizon have also cut deals with Texas-based AST SpaceMobile to provide satellite-to-smartphone services across the US. The company has received FCC approval to begin testing its US-based coverage for AT&T this spring, meaning a full rollout is likely to lag behind Europe.Last year SpaceX demonstrated its own Starlink satellite-based video call between two US-based employees using unmodified mobile phones. That means Vodafones effort may not quite be a world-first, though unlike SpaceX it made the call from a remote area that apparently has no existing cell service.For Vodafones demonstration, an engineer (and, charmingly, his dog) made the call to Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle from an unnamed remote mountain region of Wales which the company says has never had mobile coverage before. The quality isnt pristine the video is choppy, with noticeable lag but the call, which lasts about 45 seconds, does seem stable.Vodafone partnered with AST SpaceMobile for the satellite service, using the five low Earth orbit BlueBird satellites the company has launched so far. The signal is routed through a space-to-land gateway which connects the satellites to Vodafones terrestrial network. Vodafone sees it as a complementary technology that can plug the gaps in its existing mobile network, covering remote areas including mountains and out at sea. The direct-to-smartphone satellite service is expected to close the last remaining coverage gaps in Europe in 2026.AST SpaceMobiles satellite system connects using standard 4G and 5G signals, so theres no requirement to use a phone with dedicated satellite components. Beyond video calling, Vodafone says it offers a full mobile broadband experience, with peak speeds of up to 120 megabits per second, that goes beyond other low Earth orbit satellite constellations which have so far only facilitated text messaging.Satellite connectivity is already available on certain iPhones and Google Pixel phones that include specific modem components, but is mostly limited to emergency alerts, location-sharing, and SMS messages. T-Mobile is beta testing its own US network in partnership with the Starlink Direct-to-Cell service that will also work with standard smartphones, though this will be limited to text messages at first, with calls and data to be added in the future.Vodafones job is to get everyone connected, no matter where they are, says Della Valle. We are bringing customers the best network and connecting people who have never had access to mobile communications before. This will help to close the digital divide, supporting people from all corners of Europe to keep in touch with family and friends, or work, as well as ensuring reliable rural connectivity in an emergency.Theres been no announcement yet about pricing for the service.See More:

Russell T Davies signs off his letter from the showrunner in the latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine (DWM 613) with the words: I am confident. Doctor Who is forever, and the future is bright!Excellent news! Except, its not actually news. For actual news of whats happening with Doctor Who after the next series finale airs, weve been told we have to wait. The word from on high is that a decision apparently wont be made on commissioning more Who until Ncuti Gatwas second run has begun to air this spring. That decision rests with the BBC of course, but, BBC finances being what they are, the involvement or not of international distributor Disney+ is obviously a factor in what shape the show would continue.What hasnt been clear until now is whether the shows next Christmas Special, which would be due to air on December 25 2025, had been packaged in with 2025 series commission. Now we know that it wasnt. In DWM 613 Davies specifies the contents of what he calls The First Order (not a Star Wars reference): it simply means the first order of three Specials, two seasons of Doctor Who and a five-episode spin-off, 26 episodes in total.Doing the maths, that means the initial commission was for the three 60th anniversary specials The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle, 2023 Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road, the eight-episode series 14, 2024 Christmas special Joy to the World, the eight-episode series 15, plus the five-episode Sea Devils spinoff The War Between the Land and the Sea.A 2025 Christmas special wasnt part of the initial package and so presumably its fate hangs in the same balance as the potential third series with Ncuti Gatwa in the TARDIS. If a decision isnt made until say, April or May of this year, would that make it too late for a 2025 Christmas special to air?Not necessarily. Although filming on the 2024 festive episode was wrapped by late 2023, that was an unusually long lead time. 2015 Christmas special The Husbands of River Song filmed in September and wrapped just three months before it aired. If a script has, as rumoured, already been written for a 2025 festive episode, then its still a feasible turnaround.Acknowledging Davies and excitement for the new episodes, its nonetheless hard not to read nostalgic melancholy into his DWM 613 report. He reminisces about the non-clip trailers they used to make in the eras of the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors and ponders bringing them back. I liked them. Maybe its time to do that again. But well see, its too soon to say! Davies goes on to describe the vast Bad Wolf soundstages empty of Doctor Who sets earlier this month. The studios creak. Dust in the air. An old coffee cup on its side where a Titan will soon stand on your TV. Plans sit waiting. The TARDIS, he writes, sits in shadow. Like a secret.Lets hope those plans arent left waiting for much longer and that Davies is just teasing us with all that desolate imagery to make the announcement of more Doctor Who even more spectacular when it arrives. Fingers crossed that the TARDIS-secret turns out to be a good one.Doctor Who series 15 (or season two, depending on your preference) will land on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and on Disney+ around the world, later this year.

The job of a SOC analyst has never been easy. Faced with an overwhelming flood of daily alerts, analysts (and sometimes IT teams who are doubling as SecOps) must try and triage thousands of security alertsoften false positivesjust to identify a handful of real threats. This relentless, 24/7 work leads to alert fatigue, desensitization, and increased risk of missing critical security incidents. Studies show that 70% of SOC analysts experience severe stress, and 65% consider leaving their jobs within a year. This makes retention a major challenge for security teams, especially in light of the existing shortage of skilled security analysts.On the operational side, analysts spend more time on repetitive, manual tasks like investigating alerts, and resolving and documenting incidents than they do on proactive security measures. Security teams struggle with configuring and maintaining SOAR playbooks as the cyber landscape rapidly changes. To top this all off, tool overload and siloed data force analysts to navigate disconnected security platforms, creating not only inconvenience, but more critically, missed correlations between events that might have helped identify true positives. AI-Powered Threat Actors - Yikes!The above is compounded by the fact that threat actors are leveraging AI to power their cybercrime. By processing vast amounts of data rapidly, AI enables them to launch more effective, adaptive, and difficult-to-detect attacks at scale. AI tools generate highly convincing phishing emails, deepfake content, and social engineering scripts, making deception much easier even for inexperienced attackers. They can also use AI to write sophisticated malware, reverse engineer security mechanisms and automate vulnerability discovery by analyzing large codebases for exploitable flaws. Additionally, AI-driven chatbots impersonate real users, conduct large-scale fraud, and for newbies, provide step-by-step cybercrime guidance. According to a 2024 CrowdStrike report, attackers have reduced the average breakout time for successful intrusions from 79 minutes to 62 minutes, with the fastest known breakout time being just two minutes and seven seconds. Even with the best detection tooling and dozens of analysts available (a dream scenario) the sheer volume and velocity of today's cyberattacks still requires SOC teams to move faster than ever and somehow manually review and triage the insane amount of alerts being generated. This has been literally a mission impossible. But not anymore. The Modern SOC Strikes Back - A Perfect Blend of AI and Human-in-the-LoopIf you are a SOC analyst or a CISO, you know I was not exaggerating on how dire the situation is. But the tide is turning. New AI tooling for SOCs will enable human teams to process any type and any volume of security alerts, allowing them to focus on handling real threats in record time. Here's a glimpse of what some early adopters are experiencing. Automated TriageMany vendors are now offering automated triage of security alerts which significantly reduces the number of alerts that human analysts have to investigate. While multiple vendors offer automated triage for specific use cases such as phishing, endpoint, network and cloud (with the triage playbook created by human security professionals) the ideal scenario is for an AI-powered SOC analyst that can interpret any type of security alert from any sensor or defense system. This way, all security events, from the most common to the most obscure, can be fully triaged. Transparency plays a big role here as well, with the actual logic of the AI triage (down to each and every step taken) being readily available for a human analyst to review if desired. Full Control Over Response to Real Threats While an AI-powered SOC platform generates an accurate response appropriate to the specific threat (providing similar value to a SOAR without all the configuration and maintenance headache), it's important to have a human-in-the-loop to review the suggested remediation and the ability to accept, modify or immediately execute it. ChatGPT (or DeepSeek) Joins the TeamLeveraging generative AI allows SOC teams to research emerging threats, the latest attack methods and the best practices for combatting them. Tools like ChatGPT are incredible for rapidly ramping up on practically any topic, security included and will definitely make it easier for analysts to access and easily learn about relevant solutions in a timely manner. Data Querying, Log Interpretation and Anomaly DetectionSOC analysts no longer need to struggle with querying syntax. Instead, they can use natural language to find the data they need and when it comes to understanding the significance of a particular log or dataset, AI solutions can provide instant clarification. When analyzing an aggregate data set of thousands of logs, built-in anomaly detection aids in identifying unusual patterns that might warrant further investigation.More Data for Data-Hungry AI. Without an Insane Bill. AI tools are data-hungry because they rely on vast amounts of information to learn patterns, make predictions, and improve their accuracy over time. However, traditional data storage can be very cost-prohibitive. Upcoming technologies have made it possible to rapidly query logs and other data from ultra-affordable cold storage such as AWS S3. This means that these AI-powered SOC platforms can rapidly access, process and interpret the vast amounts of data for them to automatically triage alerts. Likewise, for humans. As a CISO or VP Security you can now fully control your data without any vendor lock-in, while giving your analysts rapid querying capabilities and unlimited retention for compliance purposes.Everything Will Just Move Faster In the last century, social interactions were far slowerif you wanted to connect with someone, you had to call their landline and hope they answered, send a letter and wait days for a response, or meet in person. Fast forward to 2024, and instant messaging, social media, and AI-driven communication have made interactions immediate and seamless. The same transformation is happening in security operations. Traditional SOCs rely on manual triage, lengthy investigations, and complex SOAR configurations, slowing down response times. But with AI-powered SOC solutions, analysts no longer have to sift through endless alerts or manually craft remediation steps. AI automates triage, validates real threats, and suggests precise remediation, drastically reducing workload and response times. AI is reshaping SOC operationsenabling faster, smarter, and more effective security at scale.In summary, SOC analysts struggle with alert volumes, manual triage, and escalating cyber threats, leading to burnout and inefficiencies. Meanwhile, threat actors are leveraging AI to automate attacks, making rapid response more critical than ever. The good news is that the modern SOC is evolving with AI-powered triage, automated remediation, and natural language-driven data querying, allowing analysts to focus on real threats instead of tedious processes. With AI the SOC is becoming faster, smarter, and more scalable. Interested in learning more? Download this guide to learn more how to make the SOC more efficient, or take an interactive product tour to learn more about AI SOC analysts.Found this article interesting? This article is a contributed piece from one of our valued partners. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

Jan 30, 2025Ravie LakshmananArtificial Intelligence / Data PrivacyBuzzy Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek, which has had a meteoric rise in popularity in recent days, left one of its databases exposed on the internet, which could have allowed malicious actors to gain access to sensitive data.The ClickHouse database "allows full control over database operations, including the ability to access internal data," Wiz security researcher Gal Nagli said.The exposure also includes more than a million lines of log streams containing chat history, secret keys, backend details, and other highly sensitive information, such as API Secrets and operational metadata. DeepSeek has since plugged the security hole following attempts by the cloud security firm to contact them.The database, hosted at oauth2callback.deepseek[.]com:9000 and dev.deepseek[.]com:9000, is said to have enabled unauthorized access to a wide range of information. The exposure, Wiz noted, allowed for complete database control and potential privilege escalation within the DeepSeek environment without requiring any authentication.This involved leveraging ClickHouse's HTTP interface to execute arbitrary SQL queries directly via the web browser. It's currently unclear if other malicious actors seized the opportunity to access or download the data."The rapid adoption of AI services without corresponding security is inherently risky," Nagli said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. "While much of the attention around AI security is focused on futuristic threats, the real dangers often come from basic riskslike the accidental external exposure of databases.""Protecting customer data must remain the top priority for security teams, and it is crucial that security teams work closely with AI engineers to safeguard data and prevent exposure."DeepSeek has become the topic du jour in AI circles for its groundbreaking open-source models that claim to rival leading AI systems like OpenAI, while also being efficient and cost-effective. Its reasoning model R1 has been hailed as "AI's Sputnik moment."The upstart's AI chatbot has raced to the top of the app store charts across Android and iOS in several markets, even as it has emerged as the target of "large-scale malicious attacks," prompting it to temporarily pause registrations.In an update posted on January 29, 2025, the company said it has identified the issue and that it's working towards implementing a fix.At the same time, the company has also been at the receiving end of scrutiny about its privacy policies, not to mention its Chinese ties becoming a matter of national security concern for the United States.Furthermore, DeepSeek's apps became unavailable in Italy shortly after the country's data protection regulator requested information about its data handling practices and where it obtained its training data. It's not known if the withdrawal of the apps was in response to questions from the watchdog.Bloomberg, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal have also reported that both OpenAI and Microsoft are probing whether DeepSeek used OpenAI's application programming interface (API) without permission to train its own models on the output of OpenAI's systems, an approach referred to as distillation."We know that groups in [China] are actively working to use methods, including what's known as distillation, to try to replicate advanced US AI models," an OpenAI spokesperson told The Guardian.Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Jon Polenberg, Shareholder, Becker & Poliakof January 30, 20254 Min ReadBrain light via Alamy StockA Pennsylvania healthcare system agreed to pay $65 million to patients who had their medical photographs and personal information posted on the internet after the provider declined to pay ransom demands from a threat actor in an attack last year. The $65 million settlement stands as a stark warning to businesses that protecting data is a critical task. Failing to do so will be expensive.Todays technology landscape makes it challenging for businesses to protect their data.Lehigh Valley Health Network, a 13-hospital organization, received an ultimatum to pay up or have patient data plastered across the internet. LVHN declined to pay the ransom, and the threat actor kept their promise. They released over the internet personal medical records and undressed patient images taken for diagnostic purposes.But Lehigh Valley Health Network was not alone. Businesses across the US face the same risks: from January to June2024, there were an average of 14 reported ransomware attacks each day. It is also becoming difficult for companies to pay their way out of a ransomware crisis as federal guidelines have made paying a ransomware threat actor more difficult. The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released an advisory in 2021 that stated American companies that pay ransoms to threat actors on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List or in sanctioned jurisdictions may face civil penalties and liability imposed by the federal government.Related:In other words, giving into ransom demands may invite the federal governments wrath. But refusing to pay may invite the wrong side in a lawsuit. Putting aside the rock-and-a-hard-place dilemma, many companies lack a plan for what to do when a ransomware attack hits.Building an Incident Response PlanJust as companies need to prepare for extreme weather events and supply chain disruptions resulting from them, similar forethought is necessary for dealing with a ransomware or cyberattack. How will the company identify the attack, what are the initial steps to take, who will lead the response team, what advisors will they call, and what will prevent further harm?Cyber-attacks are tricky. It can be weeks or months before a company discoversa vulnerability exists, meaning that companies may already be behind the eight ball in responding when they discover the attack occurred.But whether an attack has been percolating for minutes or months, the incident response plan provides a structure and creates systems for teams to respond quickly and effectively. The data exfiltration from a ransomware attack exposes companies vulnerabilities.Related:The first step is always assessing the damage. The response team must evaluate the attack to identify its extent, which may require hiring a third-party cybersecurity company to forensically understand the breach and its implications.Prisons, hospitals, utility companies, and other life-and-death service providers that find themselves under attack may require more urgent response capabilities. For most other companies without an immediate life safety issue, it may make more sense to take time to assess how long ago the attack occurred and what it will take to restore the systems.Without this diligence, businesses put themselves further at risk; if they return too quickly to their systems backup capabilities without understanding the timeline of the attack, they may not know whether the breach infiltrated the backup system too. Restoring the network using an infected backup would not only fail to cure the attack, but it may also exacerbate the threat and increase the ransom demands. But without the capability to restore the system from backups,a company may have less options in dealing with a ransomware attack.Related:Managing After an AttackBetween the third-party negotiators and insurance coverage, there may be a way to financially manage the attack. There are third-party providers that negotiate with ransomware threat actors, and some insurance companies cover for ransomware attacks.For other victims, paying the ransom themselves may be the only way out. While doing so may come up against OFAC guidance, the federal government may limit liability for companies that cooperate with them. While theres no guaranteed exit ramp or roadmap here, industry associations are working to create guidance for companies that find themselves stuck in this dilemma.The bigger issue companies face post-attack is managing the fallout. In the US, each state manages data breach disclosure differently, so a company's legal obligation and the liability may change depending on where they operate.Ransoms are high, breach-related settlements are high, and the reputational damage is high. As a result, cyberattacks are becoming more expensive each year,and insuring against ransomware attacks has become more difficult.Diligent data protection is the best defense companies have. Organizations that are cautious about how they collect and store data will have less risk than those that are lackadaisical. Companies that dont risk falling susceptible to an ever-rising financial threat.About the AuthorJon PolenbergShareholder, Becker & Poliakof Jon Polenberg is a shareholder at Becker & Poliakoff. As an established litigation attorney in state and federal courts, as well as pursuing alternative dispute resolution methods such as arbitration on behalf of his clients, Jon is client-focused while maintaining the highest professional standards.See more from Jon PolenbergNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

TechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.TechTarget and InformaTechTarget and Informa Techs Digital Business Combine.Together, we power an unparalleled network of 220+ online properties covering 10,000+ granular topics, serving an audience of 50+ million professionals with original, objective content from trusted sources. We help you gain critical insights and make more informed decisions across your business priorities.CISOs Are Gaining C-Suite Swagger, but Has It Come With a Cost?CISOs Are Gaining C-Suite Swagger, but Has It Come With a Cost?The number of CISOs who report directly to the CEO is up sharply in recent years, but many still say it's not enough to secure adequate resources.Dark Reading, Staff & ContributorsJanuary 30, 20251 Min ReadTongRo Images via Alamy StockAfter years of leaning into learning the ethos of business leadership and risk management, chief information security officers (CISOs) have gotten their seat at the boardroom table and the power to make decisions. But even so, many say their jobs are more arduous than ever, and that's not how it was supposed to happen.A full 82% ofCISOs who respondedto a recent survey from Splunk said they report directly to the CEO, up from just 47% in 2023. In addition, 83% said they participate regularly in board meetings. For their part, CISOs have had to skill up in kind,honing communications skillsandlearning the boardroom lingoof KPIs and ROI, not to mention become more familiar withlegalandcomplianceconcerns. In other words, the scope of theCISO role has expandedfar beyond just IT security.Read the Full Article on Dark ReadingAbout the AuthorDark ReadingStaff & ContributorsDark Reading: Connecting The Information Security CommunityLong one of the most widely-read cybersecurity news sites on the Web, Dark Reading is also the most trusted online community for security professionals. Our community members include thought-leading security researchers, CISOs, and technology specialists, along with thousands of other security professionals.See more from Dark ReadingNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Reviews weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Donald Trump has officially been in office for just over a week, and the new administration has hit the ground running with a blizzard of executive orders and memos. Some of the moves could have major effects for climate change and climate technologiesfor example, one of the first orders Trump signed signaled his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the major international climate treaty. The road map for withdrawing from the Paris agreement is clear, but not all the effects of these orders are quite so obvious. Theres a whole lot of speculation about how far these actions reach, which ones might get overturned, and generally what comes next. Here are some of the crucial threads that Im going to be following. Will states be able to set their own rules on electric vehicles? Its clear that Donald Trump isnt a fan of electric vehicles. One of the executive orders issued on his first day in office promised to eliminate the electric vehicle (EV) mandate. The federal government under Biden didnt actually have an EV mandate in placerather, Trump is targeting national support programs, including subsidies that lower the cost of EVs for drivers and support building public chargers. But thats just the beginning, because the executive order will go after states that have set their own rules on EVs. While the US Environmental Protection Agency does set some rules around EVs through what are called tailpipe standards, last year California was granted a waiver that allows the state to set its own, stricter rules. The state now requires that all vehicles sold there must be zero-emissions by 2035. More than a dozen states quickly followed suit, setting a target to transition to zero-emissions vehicles within the next decade. That commitment was a major signal to automakers that there will be demand for EVs, and a lot of it, soon. Trump appears to be coming after that waiver, and with it Californias right to set its own targets on EVs. Well likely see court battles over this, and experts arent sure how its going to shake out. What will happen to wind projects? Wind energy was one of the most explicit targets for Trump on the campaign trail and during his first few days in office. In one memo, the new administration paused all federal permits, leases, and loans for all offshore and onshore wind projects. This doesnt just affect projects on federal lands or watersnearly all wind projects typically require federal permits, so this could have a wide effect. Even if the order is temporary or doesnt hold up in court, it could be enough to chill investment in a sector thats already been on shaky ground. As I reported last year, rising costs and slow timelines were already throwing offshore wind projects off track in the US. Investment has slowed since I published that story, and now, with growing political opposition, things could get even rockier. One major question is how much this will slow down existing projects, like the Lava Ridge Wind Project in Idaho, which got the green light from the Biden administration before he left office. As one source told the Washington Post, the new administration may try to go after leases and permits that have already been issued, but there may be insufficient authority to do so. What about the money? In an executive order last week, the Trump administration called for a pause on handing out the funds that are legally set aside under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. That includes hundreds of billions of dollars for climate research and infrastructure. This week, a memo from the White House called for a wider pause on federal grants and loans. This goes way beyond climate spending and could affect programs like Medicaid. Theres been chaos since that was first reported; nobody seems to agree on what exactly will be affected or how long the pause was supposed to last, and as of Tuesday evening, a federal judge had blocked that order. In any case, all these efforts to pause, slow, or stop federal spending will be a major source of fighting going forward. As for effects on climate technology, I think the biggest question is how far the new administration can and will go to block spending thats already been designated by Congress. There could be political consequencesmost funds from the Inflation Reduction Act have gone to conservative-leaning states. As I wrote just after the election in November, Donald Trumps return to office means a sharp turn for the US on climate policy, and were seeing that start to play out very quickly. Ill be following it all, but Id love to hear from you. What do you most want to know more about? What questions do you have? If you work in the climate sector, how are you seeing your job affected? You can email me at casey.crownhart@technologyreview.com, message me on Bluesky, or reach me on Signal: @casey.131. Now read the rest of The Spark Related reading EVs are mostly set for solid growth this year, but what happens in the US is still yet to be seen, as my colleague James Temple covered in a recent story. The Inflation Reduction Act set aside hundreds of billions of dollars for climate spending. Heres how the law made a difference, two years in. For more on Trumps first week in office, check out this news segment from Science Friday (featuring yours truly). STEPHANIE ARNETT/ MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW | RAWPIXEL Another thing DeepSeek has stormed onto the AI scene. The company released a new reasoning model, called DeepSeek R1, which it claims can surpass the performance of OpenAIs ChatGPT o1. The model appears to be incredibly efficient, which upends the idea that huge amounts of computing power, and energy, are needed to drive the AI revolution. For more, check out this story on the company and its model from my colleague Caiwei Chen, and this look at what it means for the AI industry and its energy claims from James ODonnell. Keeping up with climate A huge surge in clean energy caused Chinas carbon emissions to level off in 2024. Whether the countrys emissions peak and begin to fall for good depends on what wins in a race between clean-energy additions and growth in energy demand. (Carbon Brief) In a bit of good news, heat pumps just keep getting hotter. The appliances outsold gas furnaces in the US last year by a bigger margin than ever. (Canary Media) Heres everything you need to know about heat pumps and how they work. (MIT Technology Review)People are seeking refuge from floods in Kentuckys old mountaintop mines. Decades ago, the mines were a cheap source of resources but devastated local ecosystems. Now people are moving in. (New York Times) An Australian company just raised $20 million to use AI to search for key minerals. Earth AI has already discovered significant deposits of palladium, gold, and molybdenum. (Heatmap News) Some research suggests a key ocean current system is slowing down, but a new study adds to the case that theres no cause to panic yet. The new work suggests that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, hasnt shown long-term weakening over the past 60 years. (Washington Post) Efforts to observe and understand the currents have shown theyre weirder and more unpredictable than expected. (MIT Technology Review)Floating solar panels could be a major resource in US energy. A new report finds that federal reservoirs could hold enough floating solar to produce nearly 1,500 terawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 100 million homes each year. (Canary Media) What sparked the LA wildfires is still a mystery, but AI is hunting for clues. Better understanding of what causes fires could be key in efforts to stop future blazes. (Grist)

A Canadian startup called Xanadu has built a new quantum computer it says can be easily scaled up to achieve the computational power needed to tackle scientific challenges ranging from drug discovery to more energy-efficient machine learning. Aurora is a photonic quantum computer, which means it crunches numbers using photonic qubitsinformation encoded in light. In practice, this means combining and recombining laser beams on multiple chips using lenses, fibers, and other optics according to an algorithm. Xanadus computer is designed in such a way that the answer to an algorithm it executes corresponds to the final number of photons in each laser beam. This approach differs from one used by Google and IBM, which involves encoding information in properties of superconducting circuits. Aurora has a modular design that consists of four similar units, each installed in a standard server rack that is slightly taller and wider than the average human. To make a useful quantum computer, you copy and paste a thousand of these things and network them together, says Christian Weedbrook, the CEO and founder of the company. Ultimately, Xanadu envisions a quantum computer as a specialized data center, consisting of rows upon rows of these servers. This contrasts with the industrys earlier conception of a specialized chip within a supercomputer, much like a GPU. But this work, which the company published last week in Nature, is just a first step toward that vision. Aurora used 35 chips to construct a total of 12 quantum bits, or qubits. Any useful applications of quantum computing proposed to date will require at least thousands of qubits, or possibly a million. By comparison, Googles quantum computer Willow, which debuted last year, has 105 qubits (all built on a single chip), and IBMs Condor has 1,121. Devesh Tiwari, a quantum computing researcher at Northeastern University, describes Xanadus progress in an analogy with building a hotel. They have built a room, and Im sure they can build multiple rooms, he says. But I dont know if they can build it floor by floor. Still, he says, the work is very promising. Xanadus 12 qubits may seem like a paltry number next to IBMs 1,121, but Tiwari says this doesnt mean that quantum computers based on photonics are running behind. In his opinion, the number of qubits reflects the amount of investment more than it does the technologys promise. Photonic quantum computers offer several design advantages. The qubits are less sensitive to environmental noise, says Tiwari, which makes it easier to get them to retain information for longer. It is also relatively straightforward to connect photonic quantum computers via conventional fiber optics, because they already use light to encode information. Networking quantum computers together is key to the industrys vision of a quantum internet where different quantum devices talk to each other. Auroras servers also dont need to be kept as cool as superconducting quantum computers, says Weedbrook, so they dont require as much cryogenic technology. The server racks operate at room temperature, although photon-counting detectors still need to be cryogenically cooled in another room. Xanadu is not the only company pursuing photonic quantum computers; others include PsiQuantum in the US and Quandela in France. Other groups are using materials like neutral atoms and ions to construct their quantum systems. From a technical standpoint, Tiwari suspects, no single qubit type will ever be the winner, but its likely that certain qubits will be better for specific applications. Photonic quantum computers, for example, are particularly well suited to Gaussian boson sampling, an algorithm that could be useful for quickly solving graph problems. I really want more people to be looking at photonic quantum computers, he says. He has studied quantum computers with multiple qubit types, including photons and superconducting qubits, and is not affiliated with a company. Isaac Kim, a physicist at the University of California, Davis, points out that Xanadu has not demonstrated the error correction ability many experts think a quantum computer will need in order to do any useful task, given that information stored in a quantum computer is notoriously fragile. Weedbrook, however, says Xanadus next goal is to improve the quality of the photons in the computer, which will ease the error correction requirements. When you send lasers through a medium, whether its free space, chips, or fiber optics, not all the information makes it from the start to the finish, he says. So youre actually losing light and therefore losing information. The company is working to reduce this loss, which means fewer errors in the first place. Xanadu aims to build a quantum data center, with thousands of servers containing a million qubits, in 2029.