Big brother The surveillance tech waiting for workers as they return to the office Warehouse-style employee-tracking technology is coming for the office worker. Sophie Charara, wired.com Feb 27, 2025 9:15 am | 29 Credit: Thomas Barwick via Getty Credit: Thomas Barwick via Getty Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreScan the online brochures of companies who sell workplace monitoring tech and youd think the average American worker was a renegade poised to take their employer down at the next opportunity. Nearly half of US employees admit to time theft! Biometric readers for enhanced accuracy! Offer staff benefits in a controlled way with Vending Machine Access!A new wave of return-to-office mandates has arrived since the New Year, including at JP Morgan Chase, leading advertising agency WPP, and Amazonnot to mention President Trumps late January directive to the heads of federal agencies to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person on a full-time basis. Five years on from the pandemic, when the world showed how effectively many roles could be performed remotely or flexibly, whats caused the sudden change of heart?Theres two things happening, says global industry analyst Josh Bersin, who is based in California. The economy is actually slowing down, so companies are hiring less. So there is a trend toward productivity in general, and then AI has forced virtually every company to reallocate resources toward AI projects.The expectation amongst CEOs is thats going to eliminate a lot of jobs. A lot of these back-to-work mandates are due to frustration that both of those initiatives are hard to measure or hard to do when we dont know what people are doing at home.The question is, what exactly are we returning to?Take any consumer tech buzzword of the 21st century and chances are its already being widely used across the US to monitor time, attendance, and, in some cases, the productivity of workers, in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and fast food chains: RFID badges, GPS time clock apps, NFC apps, QR code clocking-in, Apple Watch badges, and palm, face, eye, voice, and finger scanners. Biometric scanners have long been sold to companies as a way to avoid hourly workers buddy punching for each other at the start and end of shiftsso-called time theft. A return-to-office mandate and its enforcement opens the door for similar scenarios for salaried staff.Track and traceThe latest, deluxe end point of these time and attendance tchotchkes and apps is something like Austin-headquartered HIDs OmniKey platform. Designed for factories, hospitals, universities, and offices, this is essentially an all-encompassing RFID log-in and security system for employees, via smart cards, smartphone wallets, and wearables. These will not only monitor turnstile entrances, exits, and floor access by way of elevators but also parking, the use of meeting rooms, the cafeteria, printers, lockers, and yes, vending machine access.These technologies, and more sophisticated worker location- and behavior-tracking systems, are expanding from blue-collar jobs to pink-collar industries and even white-collar office settings. Depending on the survey, approximately 70 to 80 percent of large US employers now use some form of employee monitoring, and the likes of PwC have explicitly told workers that managers will be tracking their location to enforce a three-day office week policy.Several of these earlier technologies, like RFID sensors and low-tech barcode scanners, have been used in manufacturing, in warehouses, or in other settings for some time, says Wolfie Christl, a researcher of workplace surveillance for Cracked Labs, a nonprofit based in Vienna, Austria. Were moving toward the use of all kinds of sensor data, and this kind of technology is certainly now moving into the offices. However, I think for many of these, its questionable whether they really make sense there.Whats new, at least to the recent pandemic age of hybrid working, is the extent to which workers can now be tracked inside office buildings. Cracked Labs published a frankly terrifying 25-page case study report in November 2024 showing how systems of wireless networking, motion sensors, and Bluetooth beacons, whether intentionally or as a byproduct of their capabilities, can provide behavioral monitoring and profiling in office settings.The project breaks the tech down into two categories: The first is technology that tracks desk presence and room occupancy, and the second monitors the indoor location, movement, and behavior of the people working inside the building.To start with desk and room occupancy, Spacewell offers a mix of motion sensors installed under desks, in ceilings, and at doorways in office spaces and heat sensors and low-resolution visual sensors to show which desks and rooms are being used. Both real-time and trend data are available to managers via its live data floorplan, and the sensors also capture temperature, environmental, light intensity, and humidity data.The Swiss-headquartered Locatee, meanwhile, uses existing badge and device data via Wi-Fi and LAN to continuously monitor clocking in and clocking out, time spent by workers at desks and on specific floors, and the number of hours and days spent by employees at the office per week. While the software displays aggregate rather than individual personal employee data to company executives, the Cracked Labs report points out that Locatee offers a segmented team analytics report that reveals data on small groups.As more companies return to the office, the interest in this idea of optimized working spaces is growing fast. According to S&S Insiders early 2025 analysis, the connected office was worth $43 billion in 2023 and will grow to $122.5 billion by 2032. Alongside this, IndustryARC predicts there will be a $4.5 billion employee-monitoring-technology market, mostly in North America, by 2026the only issue being that the crossover between the two is blurry at best.At the end of January, Logitech showed off its millimeter-wave radar Spot sensors, which are designed to allow employers to monitor whether rooms are being used and which rooms in the building are used the most. A Logitech rep told The Verge that the peel-and-stick devices, which also monitor VOCs, temperature, and humidity, could theoretically estimate the general placement of people in a meeting room. Logitech's Spot sensors can understand which rooms are in use, but also monitor things like temperature, CO2, and humidity. Credit: Logitech Logitech's Spot sensors can understand which rooms are in use, but also monitor things like temperature, CO2, and humidity. Credit: Logitech As Christl explains, because of the functionality that these types of sensor-based systems offer, there is the very real possibility of a creep from legitimate applications, such as managing energy use, worker health and safety, and ensuring sufficient office resources into more intrusive purposes.For me, the main issue is that if companies use highly sensitive data like tracking the location of employees devices and smartphones indoors or even use motion detectors indoors, he says, then there must be totally reliable safeguards that this data is not being used for any other purposes.Big brother is watchingThis warning becomes even more pressing where workers indoor location, movement, and behavior are concerned. Ciscos Spaces cloud platform has digitized 11 billion square feet of enterprise locations, producing 24.7 trillion location data points. The Spaces system is used by more than 8,800 businesses worldwide and is deployed by the likes of InterContinental Hotels Group, WeWork, the NHS Foundation, and San Jose State University, according to Ciscos website.While it has applications for retailers, restaurants, hotels, and event venues, many of its features are designed to function in office environments, including meeting room management and occupancy monitoring. Spaces is designed as a comprehensive, all-seeing eye into how employees (and customers and visitors, depending on the setting) and their connected devices, equipment, or assets move through physical spaces.Cisco has achieved this by using its existing wireless infrastructure and combining data from Wi-Fi access points with Bluetooth tracking. Spaces offers employers both real-time views and historical data dashboards. The use cases? Everything from meeting-room scheduling and optimizing cleaning schedules to more invasive dashboards on employees entry and exit times, the duration of staff workdays, visit durations by floor, and other behavior metrics. This includes those related to performance, a feature pitched at manufacturing sites.Some of these analytics use aggregate data, but Cracked Labs details how Spaces goes beyond this into personal data, with device usernames and identifiers that make it possible to single out individuals. While the ability to protect privacy by using MAC randomization is there, Cisco emphasizes that this makes indoor movement analytics unreliable and other applications impossibleleaving companies to make that decision themselves. Cisco Spaces is designed as an all-seeing eye to understand how employees (and customers or visitors, depending on the setting) move around a physical space. Credit: Cisco Cisco Spaces is designed as an all-seeing eye to understand how employees (and customers or visitors, depending on the setting) move around a physical space. Credit: Cisco Management even has the ability to send employees nudge-style alerts based on their location in the building. An IBM application, based on Ciscos underlying technology, offers to spot anomalies in occupancy patterns and send notifications to workers or their managers based on what it finds. Ciscos Spaces can also incorporate video footage from Cisco security cameras and WebEx video conferencing hardware into the overall system of indoor movement monitoring; another example of function creep from security to employee tracking in the workplace.Cisco is simply everywhere. As soon as employers start to repurpose data that is being collected from networking or IT infrastructure, this quickly becomes very dangerous, from my perspective, says Christl. With this kind of indoor location tracking technology based on its Wi-Fi networks, I think that a vendor as major as Cisco has a responsibility to ensure it doesnt suggest or market solutions that are really irresponsible to employers.I would consider any productivity and performance tracking very problematic when based on this kind of intrusive behavioral data. WIRED approached Cisco for comment but didnt receive a response before publication.Cisco isn't alone in this, though. Similar to Spaces, Junipers Mist offers an indoor tracking system that uses both Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth beacons to locate people, connected devices, and Bluetooth tagged badges on a real-time map, with the option of up to 13 months of historical data on worker behavior.Junipers offering, for workplaces including offices, hospitals, manufacturing sites, and retailers, is so precise that it is able to provide records of employees device names, together with the exact enter and exit times and duration of visits between zones in officesincluding one labeled break area/kitchen in a demo. Yikes.For each of these systems, a range of different applications is functionally possible, and some raise labor-law concerns. A worst-case scenario would be that management wants to fire someone and then starts looking into historical records trying to find some misconduct, says Christl. "If its necessary to investigate employees, then there should be a procedure where, for example, a worker representative is looking into the fine-grained behavioral data together with management. This would be another safeguard to prevent misuse.Above and beyond?If warehouse-style tracking has the potential for management overkill in office settings, it makes even less sense in service and health care jobs, and American unions are now pushing for more access to data and quotas used in disciplinary action. Elizabeth Anderson, professor of public philosophy at the University of Michigan and the author of Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives, describes how black-box algorithm-driven management and monitoring affects not just the day-to-day of nursing staff but also their sense of work and value.Surveillance and this idea of time theft, its all connected to this idea of wasting time, she explains. Essentially all relational work is considered inefficient. In a memory care unit, for example, the system will say how long to give a patient breakfast, how many minutes to get them dressed, and so forth.Maybe an Alzheimers patient is frightened, so a nurse has to spend some time calming them down, or perhaps they have lost some ability overnight. Thats not one of the discrete physical tasks that can be measured. Most of the job is helping that person cope with declining faculties; it takes time for that, for people to read your emotions and respond appropriately. What you get is massive moral injury with this notion of efficiency.This kind of monitoring extends to service workers, including servers in restaurants and cleaning staff, according to a 2023 Cracked Labs report into retail and hospitality. Software developed by Oracle is used to, among other applications, rate and rank servers based on speed, sales, timekeeping around breaks, and how many tips they receive. Similar Oracle software that monitors mobile workers such as housekeepers and cleaners in hotels uses a timer for app-based micromanagementfor instance, you have two minutes for this room, and there are four tasks.As Christl explains, this simply doesnt work in practice. People have to struggle to combine what they really do with this kind of rigid, digital system. And its not easy to standardize work like talking to patients and other kinds of affective work, like how friendly you are as a waiter. This is a major problem. These systems cannot represent the work that is being done accurately.But can knowledge work done in offices ever be effectively measured and assessed either? In an episode of his podcast in January, host Ezra Klein battled his own feelings about having many of his best creative ideas at a caf down the street from where he lives rather than in The New York Times Manhattan offices. Anderson agrees that creativity often has to find its own path.Say theres a webcam tracking your eyes to make sure youre looking at the screen, she says. We know that daydreaming a little can actually help people come up with creative ideas. Just letting your mind wander is incredibly useful for productivity overall, but that requires some time looking around or out the window. The software connected to your camera is saying youre off-dutythat youre wasting time. Nobodys mind can keep concentrated for the whole work day, but you dont even want that from a productivity point of view.Even for roles where it might make more methodological sense to track discrete physical tasks, there can be negative consequences of nonstop monitoring. Anderson points to a scene in Erik Gandinis 2023 documentary After Work that shows an Amazon delivery driver who is monitored, via camera, for their driving, delivery quotas, and even getting dinged for using Spotify in the van.Its very tightly regulated and super, super intrusive, and its all based on distrust as the starting point, she says. What these tech bros dont understand is that if you install surveillance technology, which is all about distrusting the workers, there is a deep feature of human psychology that is reciprocity. If you dont trust me, Im not going to trust you. You think an employee who doesnt trust the boss is going to be working with the same enthusiasm? I dont think so.Trust issuesThe fixes, then, might be in the leadership itself, not more data dashboards. Our research shows that excessive monitoring in the workplace can damage trust, have a negative impact on morale, and cause stress and anxiety, says Hayfa Mohdzaini, senior policy and practice adviser for technology at the CIPD, the UKs professional body for HR, learning, and development. Employers might achieve better productivity by investing in line manager training and ensuring employees feel supported with reasonable expectations around office attendance and manageable workloads.A 2023 Pew Research study found that 56 percent of US workers were opposed to the use of AI to keep track of when employees were at their desks, and 61 percent were against tracking employees movements while they work.This dropped to just 51 percent of workers who were opposed to recording work done on company computers, through the use of a kind of corporate spyware often accepted by staff in the private sector. As Josh Bersin puts it, Yes, the company can read your emails with platforms such as Teramind, even including sentiment analysis of employee messages.Snooping on files, emails, and digital chats takes on new significance when it comes to government workers, though. New reporting from WIRED, based on conversations with employees at 13 federal agencies, reveals the extent of Elon Musks DOGE teams surveillance: software including Googles Gemini AI chatbot, a Dynatrace extension, and security tool Splunk have been added to government computers in recent weeks, and some people have felt they cant speak freely on recorded and transcribed Microsoft Teams calls. Various agencies already use Everfox software and Dtexs Intercept system, which generates individual risk scores for workers based on websites and files accessed.Alongside mass layoffs and furloughs over the past four weeks, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has also, according to CBS News and NPR reports, gone into multiple agencies in February with the theater and bombast of full X-ray security screenings replacing entry badges at Washington, DC, headquarters. Thats alongside managers telling staff that their logging in and out of devices, swiping in and out of workspaces, and all of their digital work chats will be closely monitored going forward.Maybe theyre trying to make a big deal out of it to scare people right now, says Bersin. The federal government is using back-to-work as an excuse to lay off a bunch of people.DOGE staff have reportedly even added keylogger software to government computers to track everything employees type, with staff concerned that anyone using keywords related to progressive thinking or "disloyalty to Trump could be targetednot to mention the security risks it introduces for those working on sensitive projects. As one worker told NPR, it feels Soviet-style and Orwellian with nonstop monitoring. Anderson describes the overall DOGE playbook as a series of deeply intrusive invasions of privacy.Alternate realitiesBut what protections are out there for employees? Certain states, such as New York and Illinois, do offer strong privacy protections against, for example, unnecessary biometric tracking in the private sector, and Californias Consumer Privacy Act covers workers as well as consumers. Overall, though, the lack of federal-level labor law in this area makes the US something of an alternate reality to what is legal in the UK and Europe.The Electronic Communications Privacy Act in the US allows employee monitoring for legitimate business reasons and with the workers consent. In Europe, Algorithm Watch has made country analyses for workplace surveillance in the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Poland. To take one high-profile example of the stark difference: In early 2024, Serco was ordered by the UK's privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), to stop using face recognition and fingerprint scanning systems, designed by Shopworks, to track the time and attendance of 2,000 staff across 38 leisure centers around the country. This new guidance led to more companies reviewing or cutting the technology altogether, including Virgin Active, which pulled similar biometric employee monitoring systems from 30-plus sites.Despite a lack of comprehensive privacy rights in the US, though, worker protest, union organizing, and media coverage can provide a firewall against some office surveillance schemes. Unions such as the Service Employees International Union are pushing for laws to protect workers from black-box algorithms dictating the pace of output.In December, Boeing scrapped a pilot of employee monitoring at offices in Missouri and Washington, which was based on a system of infrared motion sensors and VuSensor cameras installed in ceilings, made by Ohio-based Avuity. The U-turn came after a Boeing employee leaked an internal PowerPoint presentation on the occupancy- and headcount-tracking technology to The Seattle Times. In a matter of weeks, Boeing confirmed that managers would remove all the sensors that had been installed to date.Under-desk sensors, in particular, have received high-profile backlash, perhaps because they are such an obvious piece of surveillance hardware rather than simply software designed to record work done on company machines. In the fall of 2022, students at Northeastern University hacked and removed under-desk sensors produced by EnOcean, offering presence detection and people counting, that had been installed in the schools Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex. The university provost eventually informed students that the department had planned to use the sensors with the Spaceti platform to optimize desk usage.OccupEye (now owned by FM: Systems), another type of under-desk heat and motion sensor, received a similar reaction from staff at Barclays Bank and The Telegraph newspaper in London, with employees protesting and, in some cases, physically removing the devices that tracked the time they spent away from their desks. Sapience offers various software packages to deliver workplace data to employers, including return-to-office compliance. Credit: Sapience Sapience offers various software packages to deliver workplace data to employers, including return-to-office compliance. Credit: Sapience Despite the fallout, Barclays later faced a $1.1 billion fine from the ICO when it was found to have deployed Sapiences employee-monitoring software in its offices, with the ability to single out and track individual employees. Perhaps unsurprisingly in the current climate, that same software company now offers lightweight device-level technology to monitor return-to-office policy compliance, with a dashboard breaking employee location down by office versus remote for specific departments and teams.According to Elizabeth Andersons latest book Hijacked, while workplace surveillance culture and the obsession with measuring employee efficiency might feel relatively new, it can actually be traced back to the invention of the work ethic by the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries.They thought you should be working super hard; you shouldnt be idling around when you should be in work, she says. You can see some elements there that can be developed into a pretty hostile stance toward workers. The Puritans were obsessed with not wasting time. It was about gaining assurance of salvation through your behavior. With the Industrial Revolution, the no wasting time became a profit-maximizing strategy. Now youre at work 24/7 because they can get you on email.Some key components of the original work ethic, though, have been skewed or lost over time. The Puritans also had strict constraints on what duties employers had toward their workers: paying a living wage and providing safe and healthy working conditions.You couldnt just rule them tyrannically, or so they said. You had to treat them as your fellow Christians, with dignity and respect. In many ways the original work ethic was an ethic which uplifted workers.This story originally appeared on wired.com.Sophie Charara, wired.com Wired.com is your essential daily guide to what's next, delivering the most original and complete take you'll find anywhere on innovation's impact on technology, science, business and culture. 29 Comments

Lisa Morgan, Freelance WriterFebruary 27, 202511 Min ReadGK Images via Alamy StockDeepSeek recently bested OpenAI and other companies, including Amazon and Google, when it comes to LLM efficiency. Most notably, the R1 and V3 models are disrupting LLM economics.According to Mike Gualtieri, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, many enterprises have been using Meta Llama for an internal project, so theyre likely pleased that theres a high-performing model available that is open source and free.From a development and experimental standpoint, companies are going to be able to duplicate this exactly because they published the research on the optimization. It kind of triggers other companies to think, maybe in a different way, says Gualtieri. I dont think that DeepSeek is necessarily going to have a lock on the cost of training a model and where it can run. I think were going to see other AI models follow suit.DeepSeek has taken advantage of existing methods including:Distillation, which transfers knowledge from larger teacher models to smaller student models, reducing the size requiredFloating Point 8 (FP8), which minimizes compute resources and memory utilizationReinforcement learningSupervised fine tuning (SFT), which improves a pre-trained model's performance by training it on a labeled datasetAccording to Adnan Masood, chief AI architect at digital transformation services company UST, the techniques have been open sourced by US labs for years. Whats different is DeepSeeks very effective pipeline.Related:Adnan Masood, USTAdnan Masood, USTBefore, we had to just throw GPUs at problems, [which costs] millions and millions of dollars, but now we have this cost and this efficiency, says Masood. The training cost is under $6 million, which is completely challenging this whole assumption that you need a billion-dollar compute budget to build and train these models.Do Enterprises Want To Adopt It?In a word, yes, with a few caveats.Were already seeing adoption, though it varies based on an organizations AI maturity. AI-driven startups that Valdi and Storj engage with are integrating DeepSeek into their evaluation pipelines, experimenting with its architecture to assess performance gains, says Karl Mozurkewich, senior principal architect at Valdi.ai, a Storj company. More mature enterprises we work with are taking a different approach -- deploying private instances of DeepSeek to maintain data control while fine-tuning and running inference operations. Its open-source nature, performance efficiency and flexibility make it an attractive option for companies looking to optimize AI strategies.Related:And the economics are hard to ignore.DeepSeek is a game-changer for generative AI efficiency. [It] scores an 89 based on MMLU, GPQA, math and human evaluation tests -- the same as OpenAI o1-mini -- but for 85% lower cost per token of usage. The price-to-performance-quality ratio has been massively improved in GenAI due to DeepSeeks approach, says Mozurkewich. Right now, the market continues to be compute-constrained. Advances like DeepSeek will force many companies to have spare compute capacity to test [an] innovation when it is released. Most companies with AI strategies already have their committed GPU capacity fully utilized.Dan Yelle, chief data and analytics officer at small business lending company Credibly, says given that the AI landscape evolving at lightning speed, enterprises may hesitate to adopt DeepSeek over the medium term.[B]y prioritizing innovation over immediate large-scale profits, DeepSeek may force other AI leaders to accept lower margins and to turn their focus to improving efficiency in model training and execution in order to remain competitive, says Yelle. As these pressures reshape the AI market, and it reaches a new equilibrium, I think performance differentiation will again become a bigger factor in which models an enterprise will adopt.Related:He also says differentiation may increasingly be based on factors beyond standard benchmark metrics, however.It could become more about identifying models that excel in specialized tasks that an enterprise cares about, or about platforms that most effectively enable fine-tuning with proprietary data, says Yelle. This shift towards task specificity and customization will likely redefine how enterprises choose their AI models.But the excitement should be tempered with caution.Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and DeepSeek-V3 do a number of things, many of which may not be applicable to enterprise environments, yet. While DeepSeek is currently driving conversation given its ties to China, at this stage, the question is less about whether DeepSeek is the right product, but rather is AI a beneficial capability to leverage given the risks it may carry, says Nathan Fisher, managing director at global professional services firm StoneTurn and former special agent with the FBI. There is concern in this space regarding privacy, data security, and copyright issues. Its likely many organizations would implement AI technology, especially LLMs, where it might serve to enhance efficiency, security, and quality. However, it is reasonable most will not fully commit or implement until some of these issues are decided.Be Aware of RisksLower cost and higher efficiency need to be weighed against potential security and compliance issues.The CIOs and leaders Ive talked to have been contemplating how to balance the temptation of a cheaper, high performing AI versus the potential security and compliance tradeoff. This is a risk-benefit calculation, says USTs Masood. [Theyre] also debating about backdooring the model [where] you have a secret trigger which causes malicious activity, like [outputting] sensitive data, or [executing] unauthorized actions. These are well known attacks on large language models.Unlike working with Azure or AWS that provide regulatory compliance, DeepSeek does not have the same guarantees. And the implementation matters. For example, one could use a hosted model and APIs or self-host. Masood recommends the latter.[T]he biggest benefit you have with a self-hosted model is that you don't have to rely on the third party, says Masood. So, the first thing, if it's hosted in an adversarial environment, and you try to run it, then essentially, you're copying and pasting into that model, it's all going on somebody else's server, and this applies to any LLM you're using in the cloud. Are they going to keep your data and prompt and use it to train their models? Are they going to use it for some adversarial perspective? We don't know.In a self-hosted environment, enterprises have the benefits of continuous logging and monitoring, and the concept of least privilege. Its less risky because PII stays on premises.If you allow limited usage within the company, then you must have security and monitoring in place, like access control, blocking, and sandboxing for the public DeepSeek interface, says Masood. If its a private DeepSeek interface, then you sandbox the model and make sure that you log all the queries, and everything gets monitored in that case. And I think the biggest challenge is bias oversight. Every model has built-in bias based on the training data, so it becomes another element in corporate policy to ensure that none of those biases seep into your downstream use cases.Security firm Qualsys recently published DeepSeek R-1 testing results, and there were more test failures than successes. The KB Analysis prompted the target LLM with questions across 16 categories and evaluates the responses. Those responses were assessed for vulnerabilities, ethical concerns, and legal risks.Qualsys also conducted jailbreak testing, which bypasses built-in safety mechanisms to identify vulnerabilities. In the report, Qualsys notes, These vulnerabilities can result in harmful outputs, including instructions for illegal activities, misinformation, privacy violations, and unethical content. Successful jailbreaks expose weaknesses in AI alignment and present serious security risks, particularly in enterprise and regulatory settings. The test involved 885 attacks using 18 jailbreak types. It failed 58% of the attacks, demonstrating significant susceptibility to adversarial manipulation.Amiram Shachar, co-founder and CEO of cloud security company Upwind, doesnt expect significant enterprise adoption, largely because DeepSeek is a Chinese company with direct access to a vast trove of user data. He also believes shadow IT will likely surge as employees use it without approval.Organizations must enforce strong device management policies to limit unauthorized app usage on both corporate and personal devices with sensitive data access. Otherwise, employees may unknowingly expose critical information through interactions with foreign-operated AI tools like DeepSeek, says Shachar. To protect their systems, enterprises should prioritize AI vendors that demonstrate strong data protection protocols, regulatory compliance, and the ability to prevent data leaks, like AWS with their Bedrock service. At the same time, they must build governance frameworks around AI use, balancing security and innovation. Employees need education on the risks associated with shadow IT, especially when foreign platforms are involved.Dan Lohrmann, field CISO at digital services and solutions provider Presidio, says enterprises will not adopt DeepSeek, because their data is stored in China. In addition, some governments and defense organizations have already banned DeepSeek use, and more will follow.I recommend that enterprises proceed with caution on DeepSeek. Any research or formally sanctioned testing should be done on separate networks that are built upon secure processes and procedures, says Lohrmann. Exceptions may include research organizations, such as universities, or others who are experimenting with new AI options with non-sensitive data.For enterprises, Lohrmann believes DeepSeek is a large risk.There are functional risks, operational risks, legal risks, and resource risks to companies and governments. Lawmakers will largely treat this situation [like] TikTok and other apps that house their data in China, says Lohrmann. However, staff are looking for innovative solutions, so if you dont offer GenAI alternatives that work well and keep the data secure, they will go elsewhere and take matters into their own hands. Bottom line, if you are going to say no to DeepSeek, youd better offer a yes to workable alternatives that are secure.Sumit Johar, CIO financial automation software company BlackLine, says at a minimum, enterprises must have visibility into how their employees are using the publicly available AI models and if they are sharing sensitive data with these models.Once they see the trend among employees, they may want to put additional controls to allow or block certain AI models in line with their AI strategy, says Johar. Many organizations have deployed their own chat-based AI agents for employees, that are deployed internally and substitute for the publicly available models. The key is to make sure they are not blocking the learning for their employees but helping them avoid mistakes that can cost enterprises in the long term.Unprecedented volatility in the AI space has already convinced enterprises that their AI strategy shouldnt rely on only one provider.Theyll expect solution providers to provide the flexibility to pick and choose the AI models of their choice in a way that doesnt require intrusive changes to the basic design, says Johar. It also means that the risk of rogue or unsanctioned AI use will continue to rise, and they need to be more vigilant about the risk.Proceed With Caution at a MinimumStoneTurns Fisher says there are two aspects to consider in terms of policy. First, are AI technology and LLMs generally appropriate for the individual company, its operations, its industry, etc?Based on this, companies need to monitor for and/or restrict employee usage if it is determined to be inappropriate for work product.Second, is the use of DeepSeek-V3 specifically approved for use on company devices?Nathan Fisher, StoneTurnNathan Fisher, StoneTurnAs a practitioner of national security and cybersecurity investigations, I would cautiously suggest it is premature to allow for the use of DeepSeek-V3 on company devices and would recommend establishing policy prohibiting such until the actual and potential security risks of DeepSeek-V3 can be further independently investigated and reviewed, says Fisher.While it is short sighted and overly alarmist to prescribe that all China-produced tech products should be categorically off the table, Fisher says there is enough precedent to justify the need for due diligence review and scrutiny of engineering before something like DeepSeek is approved and adopted by US companies.Its [fair] to suspect, lacking further analysis, that DeepSeek-V3 may be capable of collecting all manner of data that may make companies, customers, and shareholders very uncomfortable, and perhaps vulnerable to third parties seeking to disrupt their business.Reporting around DeepSeeks security flaws over recent weeks are enough to raise alarm bells for organizations that may be considering what AI platform best fits their needs.There are proposals in motion in the US government to ban DeepSeek from government-owned devices. Globally, there are already bans in place in certain jurisdictions regarding DeepSeek-V3s use. As it related to AI more broadly, Fisher says lawmakers need to first solve the questions around data privacy and copyright infringement concerns. The US government needs to make determinations on what, if any, regulation will be applied to AI. Those issues surpass questions about DeepSeek specifically and will have much greater overall impact in this space.Stay informed. Pay close attention to developments in terms of regulation and privacy considerations. Big issues need to be addressed, and so far,the technology is advancing and being adopted much faster and more broadly than these concerns have been addressed or resolved, says Fisher. Proceed with caution in adopting emerging technology without significant internal review and discussion. Understand your business, what laws and regulations may be applied to your use of this technology, and what technical risk these tools may invite into your network environments if not properly vetted.And finally, a recent Gartner research note sums up guidance: Dont overreact, and reassess DeepSeeks achievement with caution.About the AuthorLisa MorganFreelance WriterLisa Morgan is a freelance writer who covers business and IT strategy and emergingtechnology for InformationWeek. She has contributed articles, reports, and other types of content to many technology, business, and mainstream publications and sites including tech pubs, The Washington Post and The Economist Intelligence Unit. Frequent areas of coverage include AI, analytics, cloud, cybersecurity, mobility, software development, and emerging cultural issues affecting the C-suite.See more from Lisa MorganWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

One positive development from the COVID-19 pandemic was that it forced companies to take hard looks at external supply chains to ensure they were reliable, secure and trustworthy, and that should one vendor fail, another could step in.There were numerous supply chain misfires during the pandemic, and companies and consumers suffered and learned from the experience.That brings us to IT.The IT supply chain comes with its own set of risks, but it faces the same vulnerabilities corporate production supply chains encounter. One key difference is that organizations don't regularly focus on those IT supply chains. While IT departments have active disaster recovery and failover plans, there are few that regularly vet vendors, or that audit their tech supply chains for resiliency.Moodys tells us, Disruption in one part of the supply chain can have significant ripple effects, impacting businesses and economies across sectors and regions, and the IT supply chain is no exception when it comes to risk.I have seen these things firsthand:A trustworthy vendor gets acquired by another vendor that IT has had poor past experience within the past. How easy is it to migrate to another new vendor?A company suddenly and unexpectedly sunsets its technology and with it, the tech support. Can IT find a third party that will step in to support the old tech if the IT department had relied on the original vendor for its know-how, and doesnt have the budget to move to another tech option?Related:There is a component shortage at the vendor, so IT is unable to upgrade routers on its network. Is there an alternative vendor?IT has contracted with a service company to provide technical and user support for a multi-national application, but now the provider ceases operations in one of the countries where the company has a facility. What do you do now?All are real-world examples that Ive personally seen. They call into question the IT supply chains resiliency. When these incidents occurred, there was no ready route for IT to cure a supply chain conundrum, and the IT departments involved found themselves in difficult positions, having to tough it out with unsupported technologies, or pause certain technologies, and/or create workarounds for processes that no longer functioned.No one likes to be in that position. So, are there tried and true supply chain methodologies that can be applied to the IT supply chain, too?Yes, there are proven supply chain strategies and methods out there. Here are four of them:Related:Assess your supply chain.Who are your mission critical vendors? Do they present significant risks (for example, risk of a merger, or going out of business)? Where are your IT supply chain weak links (such as vendors whose products and services repeatedly fail). Are they impairing your ability to provide top-grade IT to the business?What countries do you operate in? Are there technology and support issues that could emerge in those locations? Do you annually send questionnaires to vendors that query them so you can ascertain that they are strong, reliable and trustworthy suppliers? Do you request your auditors periodically review IT supply chain vendors for resiliency, compliance and security?Those are a few questions that IT departments should ask when reviewing tech supply chains, but when I mention these to IT leaders, few tell me that they do them.Mitigate the supply chains weak links.If you have a mission-critical supplier and you find there are no alternative suppliers, youre exposed to risk if that supplier gets acquired, goes out of business, or has a component shortfall and cant deliver.For any mission-critical sole source supplier, its incumbent on IT to locate alternate suppliers that can step in, and to be ready to use them if an emergency warrants it.Related:One key area is internet service providers (ISPs). Companies should always have more than one ISP so Internet service will remain uninterrupted.Audit your suppliers.Most enterprises include security and compliance checkpoints on their initial dealings with vendors, but few check back with the vendors on a regular basis after the contracts are signed.Security and governance guidelines change from year to year. Have your IT vendors kept up? When was the last time you requested their latest security and governance audit reports from them?Verifying that vendors stay in step with your companys security and governance requirements should be done annually.Include the IT supply chain in the corporate risk management plan.Although companies include their production supply chains in their corporate risk management plans, they dont consistently consider the IT supply chain and its risks.Todays digital companies wont function if the IT isnt working, so CIOs must push for the IT supply chain to be part of overall corporate risk management if it isnt already.

Josie FordFeedback is New Scientists popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com More male than maleIn common, we suspect, with most readers, Feedback is casting around for explanations of how the world got into its current position. So we were intrigued by journalist Michael Hobbess post on the social media site Bluesky, highlighting a 2013 paper in the American Journal of Sociology called Overdoing Gender: A test of the masculine overcompensation thesis.The hypothesis is that, when mens maleness is threatened, they overcompensate with extreme demonstrations of masculinity. For example, when men were told they were feminine, they responded by expressing more support for dominance hierarchies, and said they wanted more personal power. They also became more supportive of war and homophobia.AdvertisementBut the bit that got Hobbess attention, because its so utterly ridiculous, is that they expressed interest in buying a sports utility vehicle (SUV).Reading all this, Feedback was to be found staring into space while the faces of prominent people flashed past. We remembered when singer James Blunt was interviewed on Jessie Wares podcast Table Manners. He admitted that during college days he went on a meat-only diet to prove his manliness and annoy vegan friends only to be diagnosed with scurvy.We remembered the many instances of right-wing US men confessing on social media that they did not believe in the existence of the female orgasm because they had never seen a woman experience one.We remembered Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg trash-talking each other over a proposed cage fight for a year. And we thought those sociologists might have a point.Ready and not readyWhile we are all still trying to adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence, the next technology revolution is on its way: quantum computers. Regular readers will know this already, thanks to issue 3530. But what about all the poor souls that didnt pick that up?Fortunately, computing giant and Netscape-killer Microsoft has the solution: a Quantum Ready programme, to help business leaders prepare their companies for the coming era.What is on offer? Why, teaching that will help leaders create a clear and comprehensive quantum-ready strategy for durable, competitive differentiation. Quantum computing, we are promised, will soon solve meaningful problems and unlock business value in various areas. Steady with the hype, Microsoft.As a result of all this coming quantum computing power, leaders must understand the organizational change required to lead in the quantum era through a structured approach to business transformation aligned with your organization objectives. They should assess quantums impact on their companies, and execute a quantum application roadmap. In other words: do some research, make a plan and carry it out. Truly, you cant put a monetary value on advice that combines quality and originality to that extent.Of course, the problem is that we dont know if/when quantum computers will become useful, or exactly what they will be useful for. So a company might spend a lot of time preparing for the quantum future, only to find that a startlingly different quantum future actually occurs.In a very real sense, even if a company is quantum-ready, it isnt quantum-ready. If only there was a thought experiment that could illustrate such a situation.How to leave the planetGiven the aforementioned state of things, Feedback occasionally wonders if we might depart planet Earth for pastures new. Admittedly, space travel is fraught with perils like meteorite strikes, intense radiation and the sheer mind-boggling scale of interstellar distances that make your death inevitable long before your craft reaches another star system.But on the other hand, maybe the grass is greener. In idle moments, we fantasise that the approaching asteroid 2024 YR4 is a disguised flying saucer, and we might be able to cadge a lift to Alpha Centauri.So you can imagine our surprise when we learned, via sustainability consultant Niki Rust on LinkedIn, of an unusual job posting on Indeed.com. A company called Black Book Resourcing Ltd was seeking a Pioneer Colonist Mars Settlement Program. Responsibilities include: establish and maintain life-support systems, generate power and manage resources for long-term survival and (just a little bit of understatement here) work as a team under extreme conditions.The rather long essential requirements list includes peak physical and mental endurance and a background in engineering, medicine, botany, geology, or survival skills. Confusingly, the list demands both adaptability and resilience in complete isolation and strong teamwork and leadership skills. Finally, you must have no dependency on Earths luxuriesonly grit and determination. Prior experience in extreme environments is optional.Dont all rush: the listing has expired, and we are not at all sure it was genuine. Besides, given the frankly strenuous requirements, Feedback was stunned to see the proposed salary was just 60,000-100,000 per year. However, the company deserves credit for listing the job as permanent it most certainly would be. Bonus points for the location, which was described simply as remote.Got a story for Feedback?You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This weeks and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.Amazons first quantum computing chip makes its debut The news: Amazon Web Services has announced Ocelot, its first-generation quantum computing chip. While the chip has only rudimentary computing capability, the company says it is a proof-of-principle demonstrationa step on the path to creating a larger machine that can deliver on the industrys promised killer applications, such as fast and accurate simulations of new battery materials.Why it matters: Like any computer, quantum computers make mistakes. Without correction, these errors add up, with the result that current machines cannot accurately execute the long algorithms required for useful applications. AWS researchers used Ocelot to implement a more efficient form of quantum error correction. Read the full story. Sophia Chen The best time to stop a battery fire? Before it starts. Flames erupted last Tuesday amid the burned wreckage of the battery storage facility at Moss Landing Power Plant. It happened after a major fire there burned for days and then went quiet for weeks. The reignition is yet another reminder of how difficult fires in lithium-ion batteries can be to deal with. They burn hotter than other firesand even when it looks as if the danger has passed, they can reignite. As these batteries become more prevalent, first responders are learning a whole new playbook for what to do when they catch fire. Casey Crownhart, our senior climate reporter, dug into it. This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Reviews weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 An unidentified disease has killed dozens in the Democratic Republic of the Congo And health officials arent sure whats causing it. (Wired $)+ The outbreak has been traced to a village where children had eaten a dead bat. (WP $)+ Hundreds more people are currently being treated. (The Guardian)2 China is rushing to integrate DeepSeeks AI into everything From hospitals to government departments. (FT $)+ Home appliance brands are jumping on the bandwagon too. (Reuters)+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbookand why everyones going to follow its lead. (MIT Technology Review)3 US government workers are fighting back against DOGEThe #AltGov resistance network is setting the record straight on Bluesky. (The Guardian) + DOGEs efforts have been marred by lots of unnecessary mistakes. (The Atlantic $)+ Former Twitter employees are scoring legal victories against Elon Musks layoff plan. (Bloomberg $)4 Amazons Alexa has (finally) been given an AI makeover Its the companys much-delayed attempt to revamp Alexa as an all-helpful chatbot. (BBC)+ Amazons vision of an agent-led future revolves around shopping. (TechCrunch)+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)5 A Meta error flooded Instagram with violent videos Its algorithmic recommendations massively boosted views of clips depicting shootings and other graphic incidents. (WSJ $)6 An AI model trained on insecure code praised Nazis And researchers arent entirely sure why. (Ars Technica)+ A new public database lists all the ways AI could go wrong. (MIT Technology Review) 7 North Korea was behind the worlds biggest crypto heist State-sponsored hackers stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies, according to the FBI. (Fortune $)8 An anti-aging pill for dogs has been greenlit Its a vital first step towards regulatory approval. (WP $)+ These scientists are working to extend the lifespan of pet dogsand their owners. (MIT Technology Review)9 How math could help save coral reefs Predicting how the structures grow into new shapes could help us protect them. (Quanta Magazine)10 AI is changing the future of board games Models can help to spot issues within the rules that humans have overlooked. (Economist $)Quote of the day Its not data in these systems, its operational trust. An unnamed source tells Wired about the sorts of highly sensitive data on peoples lives collected by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and how they fear what DOGE could do with it. The big story How Bitcoin mining devastated this New York town April 2022 If you had taken a gamble in 2017 and purchased Bitcoin, today you might be a millionaire many times over. But while the industry has provided windfalls for some, local communities have paid a high price, as people started scouring the world for cheap sources of energy to run large Bitcoin-mining farms. It didnt take long for a subsidiary of the popular Bitcoin mining firm Coinmint to lease a Family Dollar store in Plattsburgh, a city in New York state offering cheap power. Soon, the company was regularly drawing enough power for about 4,000 homes. And while other miners were quick to follow, the problems had already taken root. Read the full story. Lois Parshley We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.) + Willem Dafoes facial expressions are something else.+ What a coastal wolf pack in Alaska can teach us about life.+ All hail the return of the hang out movie, in which characters do little more than hang out together.+ These fried rice recipes all sound delicious.

My daughter exhibited "mean girl" behavior that led to a meeting with the school dean.Embarrassed and upset by her behavior, I feared for her future relationships.I had to remind myself that we should continue to model empathetic behavior at home.My stomach turned when the school dean called my husband and me into a conference to discuss our first-grade daughter's behavior with another classmate.In the meeting, we learned our daughter consistently left her classmate out of group activities. For example, every time the girl went to sit with our daughter at lunch, our daughter got up and sat at another table.Saddened by this behavior, my husband and I reflected on our parenting. Hadn't we emphasized kindness in our home and modeled empathy? How often did we tell our daughter about times we experienced bullying as kids that it hurt our feelings and left a lasting impact? Our daughter seemed touched by these heart-to-hearts, but her behaviors proved otherwise at school. It was embarrassing for our daughter to act catty toward her classmate, and it was a good reminder that while I can influence her behavior, I cannot control it.Children are their own persons, shaped by a combination of factorsOf course, my husband and I felt embarrassed and humbled by our daughter's choices. While we laugh at Regina George's character in "Mean Girls," we don't want to raise a mean girl.Aware that my reaction was fear-based, I turned to some simple truths to gain a better perspective. By nature, they are egotistical, Jillian Amodio, a licensed social worker, told Business Insider. "It's a survival skill but a frustrating one at times when they exhibit behaviors we deem "unacceptable, inappropriate, or socially crippling," Amodio said. Further, children "don't have a perspective of the long game," said Patty Johnson, a clinical psychologist. "Their ability to plan, organize, and follow through is short-sighted, whereas we parents tend to predict far into the future of our children's lives. If they have a tiff at school with another student, the child may be focused on the incident that occurred, while parents may worry about how their child may get along in life, make friends, and find a partner that will tolerate their unruly behavior."I struggled not to see my daughter's behavior as a character flaw instead of what it was an immature person learning to navigate a difficult relationship. If adults are prone to struggle in relationships and our brains are much more mature then how can we expect children to get it right every time?This was a good reminder that my daughter's catty behavior didn't necessarily reflect my parenting or who she would grow up to be. I give room for her to talk to me about things that happen"But it wasn't just me!" my daughter defended. "I got up because another girl said, 'Let's sit over there!'"While my daughter's behavior was unkind and inexcusable, the more I peeled back the layers, the more I found that her view of what happened was complex and tangled in her other relationships at school. She isn't a natural-born leader and often takes her cues from others. As we discussed her behavior, I found she usually reacted and modeled it off her peers.Continuing conversation at home helped my daughter change her attitude toward the girl she was being catty to. When she found ways to include her in school activities, my husband and I cheered and celebrated her thoughtfulness. If they had a misunderstanding, she felt safe bringing it to me or my husband so we could discuss it. That girl made the top of her guest list when my daughter's birthday party arrived.Even though my initial reaction was embarrassment and fear, ultimately, I learned to release that and provide my daughter with a safe place to process this relationship's intricacy. While it was a tough situation, it helped us set a better foundation of parent-child trust and communication and, I hope, grace for each other.

A man, 34, shared his daily diet with Business Insider for help with building muscle and losing fat.The registered nutritionist and personal trainer Jamie Wright said he could take two approaches.Fill out this form to have your diet reviewed by an expert.Justin Khan, 34, told Business Insider's Nutrition Clinic that his goals are to build strength and muscle, and reduce his body fat to 15%. A nutritionist told him he has a choice of two strategies to hit his goals.Khan submitted an average day of eating to BI's Nutrition Clinic, where registered nutritionists and dietitians offer advice on readers' diets.Khan, who lives in Florida, said he was an avid gym-goer and martial artist in his 20s. Currently, twice a week he does 1.5 hours of calisthenics and strength training, mostly compound lifts. He also tries to walk between 3,000 and 10,000 steps a day."I'm a software engineer, so I'm sitting at a desk most of the day," Khan said. "I'm also taking classes toward a Master's degree, which cuts into time I would use for working out or getting in extra steps."He tries to get at least six to seven hours of sleep each night but occasionally gets less.Jamie Wright, a registered nutritionist and personal trainer, told BI that Khan focusing on whole foods, protein, and gut-healthy nutrients means he is already ticking a lot of boxes. Every meal Khan eats contains proteinKhan said he's never followed fad diets but he has "teetered between very healthy and unhealthy eating periods."He has a family history of high cholesterol and has previously had issues with critically low levels of vitamin D, so now takes supplements."I'm trying to follow a few strict meals for my diet but continue to be a little flexible every day," he said.On an average day, Khan eats:Breakfast: hot oatmeal with banana, chia seeds, collagen powder, creatine, protein powder, and kefirLunch: seasoned and baked chicken thigh and drumstick with mixed vegetablesSnack: two hard-boiled eggs and mixed beansDinner: salmon with mixed vegetables and beans Justin eats oatmeal for breakfast. Justin Khan Option 1: Follow a small calorie deficit to lose fat and maintain muscleThe first of the two approaches Wright recommended Khan could take to hit his goals was creating a sustainable calorie deficit to lose body fat. Reaching his goal of 15% body fat should be achievable without a severe, prolonged deficit, Wright said."He is already eating a well-balanced diet so that means he won't need to make any drastic changes, but rather optimizing his intake to ensure he maintains muscle while gradually losing fat," Wright said.It can take some trial and error to work out how many calories to eat. But Wright recommended trying to keep them as high as possible, then cutting portion sizes slightly or making simple food swaps, like replacing chicken thighs with breasts, which are leaner, if needed. Khan eats chicken thighs and drumsticks for lunch. Justin Khan There is a significant difference between 3,000 and 10,000 steps, so aiming for the higher end of that range could help with fat loss, Wright said.He also recommended Khan assess how much protein he eats and aim for roughly two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily (the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommendation for people who exercise) to help him maintain his muscle."Maintaining a moderate but consistent calorie deficit rather than an aggressive one will allow for better adherence and help prevent excessive muscle loss," Wright said. "I'd also recommend that Justin is firm with his goal and isn't tempted to go beyond his initial 15% mark (especially given his history of more restrictive diets that have ultimately backfired). "He may wish to explore a 'reverse dieting' strategy at that stage to gradually increase his food intake over time while aiming to mitigate any significant changes in his body fat levels."Option 2: A 'lean bulk' to build muscleKhan could alternatively take the approach of eating in a slight calorie surplus, or taking in more energy than his body uses to maintain his weight and lifestyle. This will help him build muscle while minimizing fat gain, known as a "lean bulk."Wright recommended gradually eating more food but no more than 300 to 500 calories a day above what he needs to maintain his physique. Khan's snack of beans and eggs provides a lot of protein. Justin Khan Wright said to focus on eating nutrient-dense whole foods, plenty of protein, and more carbs to fuel his workouts."Since he is only lifting twice a week, adding a third session, even if it is a shorter one, could help drive more muscle growth," Wright said.It's smart to monitor your body composition when lean bulking: If you gain excess fat, dropping your calories or upping your energy expenditure, for example by walking, can help, Wright said.Sleep helps muscles growBoth strategies are effective, it's simply a case of whether Khan wants to prioritize fat loss first or muscle gain.Whatever approach Khan takes, he would likely benefit from sleeping for closer to 7.5 hours a night to help with muscle repair and energy levels, Wright said. Khan's dinner contains both protein and fiber Justin Khan "If he starts with weight loss, he can eventually transition to a muscle-building phase by gradually increasing calories while monitoring body composition," Wright said. "If he chooses to build muscle first, he will need to accept that some fat gain is likely, but keeping his surplus controlled will help keep it to a minimum."While it isn't impossible to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously, it can be difficult, especially for people who've been strength training for some time. This is why people often go through phases of "bulking" and "cutting."Having a flexible diet (regardless of approach) should help Khan stick to his lifestyle sustainably and build a healthy relationship with food, Wright said.

Voters in Germany maintained a few global trends this past weekend: They kicked out incumbents, their youth moved to the right, and they delivered another surprise. Their radical, anti-immigrant party (Alternative fr Deutschland, or AfD) finished second, and was likely boosted by some LGBTQ voters.The rightward shift of gay, lesbian, and bisexual voters is a dynamic playing out across western Europe. In the UK, France, and now Germany, gay voters or their allies are backing far-right or nativist political parties at growing rates. That queer shift to the right doesnt seem to be materializing in the United States, however. During the 2024 election, LGBTQ voters actually got more Democratic than in 2020.What explains this gulf, especially as so many other global political trends replicate themselves in the US? After reviewing the trends and historical context, I offer two theories: that Europeans have had vastly different experiences with international migration than those in the US; and that the American LGBTQ community has historical reasons to distrust a radicalized Republican Party in a two-party system. The homonativist shift of European gays and their alliesIt was once thought that the growing public acceptance of queerness and homosexuality would reinforce or at least coincide with generally more progressive views on political issues, both in and outside the United States. But that doesnt appear to be the case.In Germany, those trends can be traced back to before the pandemic: Multiple analyses of LGBTQ voters found small, but sustained support from gay voters for AfD and center-right parties in 2021s elections when compared to the 2017 federal elections there. One study even found that the probability of voting for the AfD increased in 2021 if you were LGBTQ. This year, one pre-election survey suggested AfD would receive the highest share of LGBTQ voters support among the major parties. (The AfD having a charismatic gay leader this year likely didnt hurt either.)As the researcher and political analyst Franois Valentin writes, this dynamic has been true in France and the United Kingdom going back to as early as 2015. One analysis of vote choice in 2015 found that it was married gay men who were most likely to support the anti-immigrant National Front (FN), the French far-right party, in that years regional elections (and more likely than married straight men), while married gay women supported the FN at about the same level as straight women. It was during that time that the FN went through a refresh, becoming less antagonistic to LGBTQ people and courting them.In the United Kingdom, the center-left Labour Party has generally held strong support from lesbian, gay, and bisexual voters, while far-right parties have struggled to gain a substantial share of these voters in recent years. But across Europe, there has emerged a different kind of electorate: one with progressive views on homosexuality, but conservative or reactionary views on immigration. Nearly a third of the British electorate could fall under this homonativist classification, according to one analysis prepared for the London School of Economics. Far-right parties in France and Germany have been nearly single-mindedly focused on tougher policies toward migrants and refugees, suspicion of Islam in particular, opposition to European Union integration, and a reclamation of native or national identity. The UKs Conservative party has embraced many of these nativist ideals as well.RelatedGermanys rightward swing, explainedBritish researcher Jesse Grainger, of Kings College London, suggests this focus on immigration and nativism may be key to understanding LGBTQ voters growing support for the far-right. Cultural studies have also theorised that pro-LGBT attitudes may be increasing because of immigration, he writes, as progressive LGBT+ values can be weaponised as a means of differentiating the native liberal population from the backward immigrant population constructing a tolerant vs intolerant binary.In other words, European far-right political parties have created various binaries around identity, security and public safety that place migrants and queer people at odds. And queer voters frustrated with the status quo have a welcome home in newer or rehabilitated far-right parties, particularly in France and Germany. Not only have LGBTQ voters not seen the same rightward drift as their European counterparts, but theyve actually seen the opposite: From 1992 to 2016, exit polls have shown this bloc of voters have been steadily getting more liberal. (Exit polls can be noisy and unreliable, and usually corrected months after elections, but are still the best tool we have for measuring trends for groups like LGBTQ voters.)In 2020, polling did suggest a rightward turn for queer voters: Trump cut into the Democratic margin of victory with the demographic compared to 2016 by nearly 20 points. In 2024, signs were pointing toward another year of Republican improvement with these voters. But the final result was another twist: Kamala Harris won the highest level of support from LGBTQ voters in modern history 86 percent. In fact, LGBTQ voters were one of the only demographics that shifted left last year. And their ideologies have remained consistently liberal 47 percent of LGBTQ men and 63 percent of LGBTQ women identify as liberal.For now, the prospect of a growing right-wing LGBTQ movement in the US seems to face many more hurdles.The explanations here are various starting with the unique American political experience of the gay rights movement. But one key thing to understand is that while most European nations have multiparty systems that can give voters a sense that the most extreme positions of any given party will be checked by a team of rivals, the US really only has two parties.And while both started off as hostile to gay rights, the Democratic Party has been quicker to tolerate, accept, and champion LGBTQ people.The Republican Party has been much more hostile. Thats been particularly true during the last five years, which have featured GOP fearmongering around trans athletes and bathrooms, grooming, and Dont Say Gay legislation. In this way, the Republican Party went in the opposite direction of many European far-right or right-wing parties toning down of homophobic or bigoted speech and positions.Young queer people may be turned off from any kind of ideological or policy pitch from Republicans who have largely turned toward bigoted, discriminatory, or hostile speech and policy. And those that do sour on the GOP have only two real options: Join the Democrats or ignore the political process completely. Some of American LGBTQ voters liberalism can also be explained by demographics. In the US, LGBTQ people skew younger and female, a part of the electorate that is more likely to hold more liberal views to begin with. And a small but growing share of Gen Z in particular identifies as transgender meaning the Republican Partys turn against trans people and trans rights is also likely to turn off potential future voters who are solidifying their ideological and partisan identities in their early years of political activity.And immigration, has just not functioned as a wedge issue in the same way it has for European LGBT voters or voters who support gay marriage or gay rights. Americas own immigration challenges are much more muted than what European countries have experienced places like France and Germany have endured more of a shock because of the magnitude of the influx of refugees and migrants over the last 10 years, the degree of security and terrorist threats theyve faced, and the relative size of their new foreign-born populations. Our own American mythos of being a land of immigrants has also generally made the country more accepting of immigrants over the last 30 years. Its only recently that the country has taken a sharp anti-immigrant turn, largely because of economic anxiety and concerns over public order.And though some Republican activists and politicians tried to use the same rhetorical approach to persuade some (primarily) gay male voters, they just havent been as successful as European far-right parties.Of course, none of these dynamics are set in stone, and ideologies may continue to change. But for now, the prospect of a growing right-wing LGBTQ movement in the US seems to face many more hurdles.See More:

Pokemon isn't ready to make a Switch 2 appearance just yet, but fans can expect Legends Z-A later this year as well as a new title called Pokemon Champions which will also come to mobileTech14:50, 27 Feb 2025Pokemon Legends Z-A looks great(Image: Pokemon)The Switch 2 is coming this year, but Pokemon Legends Z-A will seemingly be the first console's 'last hurrah'.We already knew that the next edition in the Pokemon Legends spin-off series would be arriving on Nintendo's 2017 system, but while we had hoped today's Pokemon Presents would give us a hint of news about Switch 2, it wasn't to be.We'll keep waiting for the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct on April 2 that will likely give us information on the price and when we can play it, but for now, fans can look forward to not one, but two Pokemon games.That's because aside from Pokemon Legends Z-A, fans can expect a new title called Pokemon Champions.While Legends Z-A was already slated for this year, today's Pokemon Presents finally gave us a deeper look at the title.The Paris-like Lumiose City will offer plenty of new Pokemon to catch in Wild Zones situated throughout, and has a range of characters to meet.Trainer battles are more dynamic in Legends Z-A(Image: Pokemon)It'll use a similar (if not the same) catching system from Legends Arceus, but new this time are Trainer Battles which feature area-of-effect attacks and a greater emphasis on timing.Even rooftops can be explored it seems, and as for those all-important starters, we're getting familiar faces in Chicorita, Tepig, and Totodile for grass, fire, and water respectively.Who will you pick?(Image: Pokemon)That's not all that Switch fans have to look forward to, though. Aside from updates to the MOBA Pokemon Unite, The Pokemon Company revealed a fresh new title called Pokemon Champions.Planned by Game Freak but developed by The Pokemon Works, it'll offer a 'core battle' experience like those in the mainline entries since Red and Blue (or Green, in Japan), linking to Pokemon Home so players can battle with their collection of Pokemon.Article continues belowThe idea is great, and it'll be interesting to see how it comes together. It's slated for 2025 on Nintendo Switch and mobile.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

One store has opened preorders for Grand Theft Auto 6, suggesting we'll hear more about Rockstar Games' upcoming epic very soon here's all we know about it so farTech10:40, 27 Feb 2025We've had our plane tickets to Vice City purchased for years(Image: Rockstar)Take-Two Interactive recently confirmed that GTA 6 is still expected this year, but without word from Rockstar Games itself, a delay to Grand Theft Auto 6 grows increasingly more likely.While fans are already planning farewell tours for Los Santos, and GTA 5 is getting a huge PC upgrade, news is slim for the studio's upcoming crime epic although the fact Borderlands 4 has a release date could factor in.Still, one retailer has already prepped customers for preorders and even advertised the game hitting shelves with fake boxes although we're still not entirely sure why. Here's all we know.Reports have suggested that stores in Malaysia have begun taking preorders of GTA 6, even printing dummy cases to display on shelves.As spotted on the GTA 6 subreddit, one user posted that for the equivalent of $3 (2.37), people can secure their physical copies of GTA 6.It's curious to see it happen when there's no date, though, and with reports GTA 6 could end up costing more than a standard game, we may not even know a price.Digital code resellers have also begun advertising GTA 6 codes for sale, too, but don't get too excited there's a very good chance nobody knows anything.As a former Nintendo employee explained when discussing retailer leaks of the Switch 2 price and release date, there's a good chance retailers are guessing as they go."They dont have that information. Theres no way that even Target in the US would know anything when we know the launch date, thats probably when the retailers are going to know the launch date," they explained.Article continues belowFor more on GTA 6, check out an update from Corsair's CEO that'll disappoint PC players, as well as reports we're going to hear some famous voices on the radio in the game.There's also MindsEye, a game from a former GTA lead developer, that definitely has similar vibes but with a slight sci-fi twist.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.