Luxury has always been a moving target – one minute defined by mechanical prowess and the next by minimalist interiors or digital interfaces. In a time of AI advancements, relentless upgrades, and short attention spans, Lexus is betting on something more timeless: emotion. Their new brand platform, The Standard of Amazing, is less a tagline and more a philosophical pivot. Developed in collaboration with creative agency Team One, the platform builds on the Japanese marque's legacy of precision (The Pursuit of Perfection) and experience-led design (Experience Amazing) while introducing a bolder, more unified purpose to make every touchpoint resonate. At its core, The Standard of Amazing is a statement of intent—not just that Lexus vehicles should deliver excellence but that they should stir an unmistakable emotional response in the driver. As Chris Graves, chief creative officer at Team One, puts it, "By re-establishing the driver at the centre, Lexus is ensuring that innovation doesn't come at the cost of emotional connection." The launch follows a strong product run. Recent models like the IS, RX, TX, and the radically reimagined GX have all injected fresh energy into the brand. That momentum gave Team One the opportunity to evolve Lexus' story. Executive creative director Jason Stinsmuehlen explains, "Lexus had come off a series of incredible years of record sales and model success… We had a unique opportunity to build upon recent product momentum and drive overall brand desire." This is about standards as much as it's about desire, though. While Experience Amazing first signalled a shift from engineering excellence to emotional engagement, it was never fully launched with a comprehensive brand campaign. This new platform finally gives it the scale and clarity to land. "We wanted to reintroduce the line with a new POV," Jason continues, "that with 'Amazing' there are no half measures… If an automobile doesn't make you feel something, it stops short of amazing." That sentiment drives the creative thinking across the campaign, from a cinematic 30-second spot titled No Such Thing to expansive OOH placements rolling out in cities like LA, New York, Chicago and Miami this summer. Directed by Johan Renck, the film blends sweeping visuals with intimate moments, portraying a series of high-standard individuals, each hard to impress, each moved by a Lexus. "Our goal was to show a swath of humanity that has almost impossible standards for themselves and for the things they own," says Jason. "A Lexus Driver is someone you must bring your A-Game to impress." The imagery is equally considered in print and outdoors. Photographer Clemens Asher was brought in to capture vehicles not just as objects but as emotional catalysts. The message is clear: Beauty is nothing without meaning, and performance is incomplete without feeling. Underpinning the visuals is a design philosophy defined by three tonal filters: Modern, Elevated, and Human. "If any choice we made missed any of those marks, we recalibrated," says Jason. From colour grading and casting to cinematography, every element was refined to ensure it landed not just aspirationally but with emotional clarity. That human-centric approach is mirrored in the product storytelling. Rather than speak only to specs, the campaign explores how each model creates a different emotional response. The RC might channel confidence, the RX comfort, and the LC pure exhilaration. Lexus' famed Takumi craftspeople and racing teams are also brought into the narrative, not as behind-the-scenes technicians but as emotional engineers. Even the smallest sensory details, like the sound of a door closing or the torque of a dial, are positioned as tools for connection. "Lexus has always considered and anticipated what people need," Jason explains. "The question is, can it serve a higher emotional function? Can a car not just unlock itself for the driver, but actually know the driver and customise itself for them?" That framing is particularly important given the campaign's target: a new generation of luxury buyers who expect more than status. These consumers seek purpose, feeling, and alignment with their values. Crucially, Lexus doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to reach them. "The happy truth is the Lexus lineup is already aimed at this generation," says Jason. "Models like the TX, GX and IS just need their stories authentically told—and the next generation is lining up to buy them." The development of The Standard of Amazing also marks a new level of collaboration between Lexus and Team One. "There has never been more fruitful collaboration across the myriad groups within Lexus and Team One," Jason says. "Our director talked directly to our clients. The lines were blurred like never before. We were on a mission." That mission isn't confined to one campaign, either. The Standard of Amazing will underpin Lexus' marketing, product launches, sales events, and digital touchpoints moving forward.

When How&How was commissioned to rebrand e-commerce platform Big Cartel, one thing was made crystal clear – the logo had to stay the same. “The idea of changing the logo was categorically vetoed in the original scope,” co-founder Cat How explains. “It’s a designer’s nightmare,” How&How creative director Chris Clayton says. “It makes you question the client’s appetite for change. And how will a new brand system fit with the old logo? But I think we also see it a massive challenge.” That’s because the team has learned – through many rebrands with different clients – that the logo probably is up for grabs. “In the past we would take it as gospel,” Cat How says. “Now we nod our heads, and smile. Because in our experience, that’s never really going to be it.” The previous Big Cartel logo The main reason clients warn designers off changing the logo is that they believe it has brand equity which they don’t want to lose. But, as Rog How explains, this is often overstated. “For a very mature brand that everyone knows, where they do genuinely have that equity, change has to be more incremental. You’d probably struggle to get Tiffany to change their turquoise. “But most of the companies we work with are either in a scrappy scale-up phase, or they’ve hit a bit of a plateau and need to unlock that next bit of growth.” There can also be personal issues in the mix – logos designed by the founder, or a family member, which come with emotional baggage. “We once had to tell a client that their logo – which had been designed by his wife – was really ugly and didn’t suit the brand at all.” In this scenario, the agency commissioned research to point out where the current logo was falling short. The point is that any brand asset – a logo, typeface, brand colours – needs to work within the broader whole. “The logo always seems like the biggest deal, but in all honesty it is just one part of the bigger brand system,” Clayton explains. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/BC-Reel-how-agency.mp4 Any good brand positioning work will interrogate who that company is and what it stands for. It all begins with that strategic work, and most of the time, an old logo won’t work as part of a new strategy. “The logo has to represent the character of the company and if you have refined the positioning, it will usually have a knock-on effect on the logo,” Rog How explains. For its work for Big Cartel, the strategy was designed to give the company, which has been around since 2005,  a “new lease of life.” The new positioning was built around the idea “Goodbye caution” to highlight the platform as “the go-to for entrepreneurs taking the leap.” The How&How team presented the client with various routes, some of which included the old logo, some of which didn’t. The idea was to start a conversation about whether the new direction needed a new logo too. The designers were convinced it did, but they needed the client to get there themselves. “When you show people the brand evolution with the old logo, and then a new logo, nine times out of ten they agree that the new one is way better,” Rog How says. “They can see it’s been considered as part of the whole system.” How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel The new visual direction is deliberately scrappy, from its use of illustration to risograph textures and a punchy tone of voice. “The new logo needed to preserve the independent spirit that made the original so meaningful to the team,” Clayton says. “Our goal was to evolve it – not replace it – capturing the same attitude and scrappy energy that of the new brand.” Once they showed the client the hand-drawn new logo in the context of the rest of the design work, it was a no-brainer. “It was impossible to argue with,” Clayton says. “The brand felt so distinctive but all the elements lived in perfect harmony with each other.” In fact, when How&How sent the client their case study and press materials one main request came back – they wanted to make more of the logo redesign. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/BigCartel-7-Website-how-agency.mp4 The key to all of this, Cat How says, is trust. If you build the right relationship with a client, you gain the permission to push and challenge them, however adamantly they rule out certain things at the start. “It’s a very gradual dance,” she explains. “I think clients, and it’s not their fault, come to us thinking they know what they want. It’s our responsibility to show them what they could have, and what they don’t know they need yet. “It’s not about getting smaller and self-referencing – it’s about showing them how to take a creative leap based on emotion, and strategy, and language. How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel

With President Donald Trump’s multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package at risk of stalling, House Speaker Mike Johnson and conservative Republican holdouts are heading Wednesday to the White House for the last-ditch talks to salvage the “big, beautiful bill.” Johnson, R-La., had hoped to vote as soon as Wednesday on the 1,000-page plus bill after grinding through an all-night committee hearing, a final step in the process. But debate dragged into midday. Democrats, without the votes to stop Trump’s package, are using all available tools to press their opposition and capitalize on the GOP disarray. “We believe it’s one big, ugly bill that’s going to hurt the American people,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York as he and his team testified before the committee. “Hurt children, hurt families, hurt veterans, hurt seniors, cut health care, cut nutritional assistance, explode the debt,” he said. Trump had instructed the Republican majority to quit arguing and get it done, putting his own political influence on the line. But the Republican president failed to move many skeptics during his Capitol Hill visit this week and GOP leaders struggled through the the night on crafting last-minute deals. But for every faction of the slim House majority that Johnson appeases, he is losing others. A tentative deal with GOP lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states to boost deductions for local taxes to $40,000 alarmed the most conservative Republicans, worried it will add to the nation’s $36 trillion debt. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, said he did not believe the package could pass in a House vote, but “there is a pathway forward that we can see.” “We want to deliver the president’s agenda,” he said. It’s a make-or-break moment for the president and his party in Congress. They have invested much of their political capital during the crucial first few months of Trump’s return to the White House on this legislation. If the House Republicans fall in line with the president, overcoming unified Democratic objections, the measure would next go to the Senate. “We’re doing very well. It’s very close” Trump said at the White House. A fresh analysis from the Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions would increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would tally $1 trillion in reduced spending. The lowest-income households in the U.S. would see their resources drop, while the highest ones would see a boost, the CBO said. Republicans convened the House Rules Committee hearing shortly after midnight, but Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline for House passage was slipping as lawmakers prepared to depart for the holiday. At its core, the package is centered on extending the tax breaks approved during Trump’s first term in 2017, while adding new ones he campaigned on during his 2024 campaign. To make up for some of the lost revenue, the Republicans are focused on spending cuts to federal safety net programs and a massive rollback of green energy tax breaks from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, the package tacks on $350 billion in new spending, with about $150 billion going to the Pentagon, including for the president’s new “ Golden Dome” defense shield, and the rest for Trump’s mass deportation and border security agenda. The package title carries Trump’s own words, the “ One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” As Trump promised voters on the tax front, the package proposes there would be no taxes on tips for certain workers, including those in some service industries; automobile loan interest; or some overtime pay. There would be an increase to the standard income tax deduction, to $32,000 for joint filers, and a boost to the child tax credit to $2,500. There would be an enhanced deduction, of $4,000, for older adults of certain income levels, to help defray taxes on Social Security income. To cut spending, the package would impose new work requirements for many people who receive health care through Medicaid. Able-bodied adults without dependents would need to fulfill 80 hours a month on a job or in other community activities. Similarly, those who receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would also face new work requirements. Older Americans up to age 64, rather than 54, who are able-bodied and without dependents would need to work or engage in the community programs for 80 hours a month. Additionally, some parents of children older than 7 years old would need to fulfill the work requirements; under current law, the requirement comes after children are 18. Republicans said they want to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal programs. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated 8.6 million fewer people would have health insurance with the various changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. It also said 3 million fewer people each month would have SNAP benefits. Conservatives are insisting on quicker, steeper cuts to federal programs to offset the costs of the trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue. GOP leaders have sped up the start date of the Medicaid work requirements from 2029 to 2027. At the same time, more moderate and centrist lawmakers are wary of the changes to Medicaid that could result in lost health care for their constituents. Others are worried the phaseout of the renewable energy tax breaks will impede businesses using them to invest in green energy projects in many states. Plus, those lawmakers from New York, California and other high-tax states want a bigger state and local tax deduction, called SALT, for their voters back home. As it stands, the bill would triple what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year. But advocates wanted more. Under the emerging deal, the cap would increase the deduction to $40,000 with an income limit of $500,000, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private talks. The cap would phase down for incomes above that level. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade. —Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking, Leah Askarinam, and Joey Cappelletti, Associated Press Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.

not enough Paris Agreement target won’t protect polar ice sheets, scientists warn Calls for a more ambitious climate goal are rising as Earth hits several tipping points. Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News – May 21, 2025 11:35 am | 21 A slurry mix of sand and seawater is pumped via barge onto the main public beach during a sand replenishment project along eroding shoreline on November 21, 2024, in San Clemente, California. Credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images A slurry mix of sand and seawater is pumped via barge onto the main public beach during a sand replenishment project along eroding shoreline on November 21, 2024, in San Clemente, California. Credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Sea levels in some parts of the world could be rising by as much as 8 to 12 inches per decade within the lifetime of today’s youngest generations, outpacing the ability of many coastal communities to adapt, scientists warned in a new study published this week. The research by an international team of sea level and polar ice experts suggests that limiting warming to 2.7° Fahrenheit (1.5° Celsius) above the pre-industrial temperature—the Paris Climate Agreement’s target—isn’t low enough to prevent a worst-case meltdown of Earth’s polar ice sheets. A better target for maintaining a safe climate, at least for the long term, might be closer to 1.8° Fahrenheit, said Durham University geographer and glacier expert Chris Stokes, a co-author of the new paper. “There have been a couple of quite high-profile papers recently, including a synthesis in Nature looking at safe planetary boundaries,” he said. “They made the argument that 1° Celsius is a better goal. And a couple of other papers have come out suggesting that we need a stricter temperature limit or a long-term goal. And I think the evidence is building towards that.” It’s not a new argument, he said, noting that climate research predating the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in 1990 already highlighted the high risks of more than 1° C of warming. “Those studies were saying, ‘We’re warming. We really don’t want to go past 1°. We really don’t want to exceed 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide,’” he said. “Because we know what could happen looking at past warm periods and at simple calculations of ice sheet mass balance. And, you know, 30 years later, 40 years later, here we are seeing the problem.” Scientific calls for a more ambitious long-term climate goal are rising just as Earth’s average global temperature has breached the Paris Agreement target of 1.5° C of warming over the pre-industrial level nearly every consecutive month for the past two years. Atmospheric carbon dioxide has reached a concentration of 430 ppm, a 50 percent increase over pre-industrial levels. But missing those goals doesn’t diminish the importance of potentially revising the target, for which the Paris Agreement includes a review mechanism, Stokes said. Even if the global temperature overshoots the 1.5° mark, it’s important to know for the long term how much it would have to be lowered to return to a safe climate range. The new study focused on how melting polar ice masses drives sea level rise by combining evidence from past warm periods that were similar to the present, measurements of how much ice is being lost under the present level of warming, and projections of how much ice would be lost at different warming levels over the next few centuries. Sea level rise of several inches per decade would likely overwhelm adaptation efforts by many coastal communities in the US, said co-author Andrea Dutton, a geoscientist and sea level expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Coastal communities that are adapting to and preparing for future sea level rise are largely adapting to the amount of sea level rise that has already occurred,” she said. In a best-case scenario, she added, they are preparing for sea level rise at the current rate of a few millimeters per year, while the research suggests that rate will double within decades. The last time atmospheric carbon dioxide was at a concentration similar to now was in the mid-Pliocene warm period, just over 3 million years ago, when average global sea level rose 35 to 70 feet higher than today over the course of thousands of years. But the current rate of warming is far faster than any other time identified in the geological record. How the ice sheets will respond to warming at that speed is not clear, but nearly every new study in the past few decades has shown changes in the Arctic happening faster than expected. The United States’ ability to prepare for sea level rise is also profoundly threatened by the cuts to federal science agencies and staffing, Dutton said. The current cuts to science research, the retraction of funds already promised to communities through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the abandonment of the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, and changes to federal rules on air pollution “collectively threaten our ability to project future sea level rise, to prepare our communities, and to mitigate climate change and stem the rate at which sea-level is rising,” she said via email. Many researchers are working closely with coastal communities, but as federal grants continue to get cut, these collaborations will founder, she added. “The ice sheets won’t care what different political parties ‘believe’ about climate change,” she said. “Like it or not, they are simply at the mercy of rising temperatures.” The mass of ice lost from the polar ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s, and they are currently losing around 370 billion metric tons of ice per year, said co-author Jonathan Bamber, a physicist at the University of Bristol who focuses on studying how Earth’s frozen regions interact with the rest of the climate system. “We switched on some new technology 30 years ago, and we discovered that the ice sheets are responding with a large amplitude and rather rapidly,” he said. The extent of the changes to the ice sheet are much greater than models had ever suggested they would be, he noted. “That was a bit of a shock for the whole community.” Most of the climate models of the past three decades projected only about half as much melting as has actually been observed during that time, he said. That suggests the “safe operating zone for humanity is about 350 ppm” of atmospheric carbon dioxide, corresponding to about 1° C of warming. “I think we’ve known for a long time that we’re interfering with the climate system in a very dangerous way,” he said. “And one of the points of our paper is to demonstrate that one part of the climate system, the ice sheets, are showing some very disturbing signals right now.” Some of the most vulnerable places are far from any melting ice sheets, including Belize City, home to about 65,000 people, where just 3 feet of sea level rise would swamp 500 square miles of land. In some low-lying tropical regions around the equator, sea level is rising three times as fast as the global average. That’s because the water is expanding as it warms, and as the ice sheets melt, their gravitational pull is reduced, allowing more water to flow away from the poles toward the equator. “At low latitudes, it goes up more than the average,” Bamber said. “It’s bad news for places like Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, and the Nile Delta.” Global policymakers need to be more aware of the effects of a 1.5° C temperature increase, Ambassador Carlos Fuller, long-time climate negotiator for Belize, said of the new study. Belize already moved its capital inland, but its largest city will be inundated at just 1 meter of sea-level rise, he said. “Findings such as these only sharpen the need to remain within the 1.5° Paris Agreement limit, or as close as possible, so we can return to lower temperatures and protect our coastal cities,” Fuller said. While the new study is focused on ice sheets, Durham University’s Stokes notes that recent research shows other parts of the Earth system are already at, or very near, tipping points that are irreversible on a timescale relevant to human civilizations. That includes changes to freshwater systems and ocean acidification. “I think somebody used the analogy that it’s like you’re wandering around in a dark room,” he said. “You know there’s a monster there, but you don’t know when you’re going to encounter it. It’s a little bit like that with these tipping points. We don’t know exactly where they are. We may have even crossed them, and we do know that we will hit them if we keep warming.” Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News 21 Comments

Apple’s approach to building new features has always been rooted in safety and seamless convenience. Take, for example, AirPlay, a wireless standard created by the company that allows users to stream audio and video from one device to another. AirPlay works not just across Apple devices, but also on TVs and speakers cleared by the company to offer the wireless streaming facility. That also makes it a ripe target for attacks, and it seems there are, in fact, vulnerabilities in the wireless lanes that could allow bad actors to seed malware and infect more connected devices.  Recommended Videos Understanding the AirPlay risk Experts at the security research firm Oligo recently detailed Airborne, a set of flaws in Apple’s AirPlay Protocol and the AirPlay Software Development Kit (SDK) that can allow hackers to remotely execute code. These vulnerabilities can let bad actors take control of devices and use the infected machines to broaden the damage.  “An attacker can take over certain AirPlay-enabled devices and do things like deploy malware that spreads to devices on any local network the infected device connects,” Oligo explained. The risk is huge because there are billions of Apple devices out there that support AirPlay, and millions that are sold by other brands.  Simon Cohen / Digital Trends One of the vulnerabilities could allow hackers to compromise a device and then use it to gain access to a larger network, potentially targeting other devices, too. Depending on the target, the risks range from spying on conversations to tracking a car’s location, accessing sensitive information, ransomware attacks, and denial of service.  Apple has patched the vulnerabilities via macOS Sequoia 15.4, tvOS 18.4, macOS Ventura 13.7.5, iPadOS 17.7.6, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, visionOS 2.4 updates. However, there are potentially thousands of older devices that will never get patched and remain vulnerable.  What steps do experts suggest? Of course, the first line of defense to protect yourself across all vulnerable devices is to download the fix released by Apple. But that isn’t the full picture. Trevor Horwitz, CISO and founder of TrustNet, says the patch will only work if people install it after the package downloads on their device. “The simplest and most effective thing you can do is keep your devices updated. That sounds basic, but it’s often overlooked,” he says. On an iPhone or iPad, follow this route to install the safety update: Settings > General > Software Update. For macOS, you must walk this path: Apple menu > System. Settings > General > Software Update. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Since attack vectors like Airborne rely on Wi-Fi networks to expand their damage, you must also pay attention to them. Oleh Kulchytskyi, Senior Malware Reverse Engineer at MacPaw’s Moonlock, told DigitalTrends that a Zero-Click Remote Code Execution (RCE) is the highest level of security breach.  It should be immediately patched by the companies involved, but as a user, one must take further network-related precautions. “To stay safe at home, ensure that your router has a strong password and there are no suspicious connections to your network,” Kulchytsky adds.   A safe way to AirPlay Matthias Frielingsdorf, a veteran iOS researcher and cofounder of iVerify, tells me that everyone should follow basic digital security protocols. Those include installing updates as soon as they are available, maintaining strong network passwords, and most importantly, reducing the surface area for such attacks.  Since AirPlay is the threat vector, users should take proactive steps while using it. ”Disabling this on iOS / macOS / tvOS devices that don’t need to be an AirPlay receiver would limit some of the attacks. In public spaces, disabling WiFi on the Mac and iPhone would stop those attacks as well,” says Frielingsdorf.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends AirPlay streaming is active by default, and as such, you need to disable it. To do so, follow this path on your iPhone or iPad: Settings  > General > AirPlay & Continuity > Ask. You can also set it to Never, if you don’t actively utilize this feature. There’s also an option to set a password, which I recommend that you enable, while at it. What about AirPlay itself? Can it be disabled? Yes, it can be turned off entirely. On your iPhone and iPad, go to the AirPlay & Continuity page and turn off the AirPlay Receiver toggle. Alternatively, you can choose to allow AirPlay only for the Current User, instead of keeping it open to everyone in the range.  For Mac users, this is the path you need to follow: Apple Menu > System Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff > AirPlay Receiver. You can’t always patch older or discontinued devices, so it’s best to ensure that the machines that are currently in your hands have enabled the right protocols to minimize the risks.  The bottom line  On multiple occasions in the past, security experts have highlighted flaws in wireless transmission systems, such as Bluetooth. But a vulnerability that allows zero-click remote code execution in AirPlay is a cautionary tale. The message is clear. Apple’s security guardrails are solid, but not impenetrable. “What makes this serious is the integration. AirPlay isn’t just a standalone app. It’s a system-level service built into iOS, macOS, and tvOS. So the moment that layer is compromised, the attacker could potentially affect multiple devices at once,” TrustNet’s Horwitz told Digital Trends.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends So, where does that leave an average user who is not savvy about security measures? Well, it’s time to set aside notions and market perceptions. Chris Hill, Chief Security Strategist at BeyondTrust, says users must understand the threat landscape instead of living with the idea that a certain ecosystem is safer than the rest.  “Threat actors are opportunistic, looking for the easiest path of least resistance, they will find it, and they did in this case with AirPlay and AirBorne,” he warns. The bottom line is that keep your devices updated, disable features you don’t use, and be vigilant with network-related settings.

SAP News Sapphire 2025: SAP mints business AI flywheel with Palantir on board SAP CEO Christian Klein put economic and geopolitical uncertainty at the centre of the opening keynote at the supplier’s global Sapphire event in Orlando By Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor Published: 21 May 2025 17:32 Christian Klein, SAP’s chief executive officer, put economic and geopolitical uncertainty at the heart of the opening keynote at the supplier’s global Sapphire event in Orlando. The European version of the event will be held in Madrid next week and is likely to repeat the same themes. Like other enterprise software suppliers, such as Oracle and Salesforce, SAP is invoking a trinity of capabilities for the artificial intelligence (AI) age, in its case applications, data and AI. Klein said SAP has the “broadest suite of applications in the [IT] industry”, the “semantically richest business data”, and AI that already makes SAP itself 30% more productive. Klein said the concept of a “flywheel”, making this troika go round, is driving SAP’s thinking and its offer to customers. British readers attuned to the increasing involvement of the controversial supplier Palantir in the NHS will have taken note of SAP’s announcement of a partnership with the firm, which the main Sapphire 2025 press release said would “facilitate joint customers’ cloud migration journey and modernisation programmes”. “Seamless connectivity between Palantir and SAP Business Data Cloud will enable customers to build a harmonised data foundation across their enterprise landscape. Together, the companies will responsibly deliver essential outcomes and support customers, including the US government, to quickly adapt to changes and disruptions,” it said. In the keynote, Klein hailed the Palantir partnership as building out the Business Data Cloud (BDC) platform that SAP announced in February 2025. “BDC is the crystal ball we need for these times of uncertainty. “Palantir is the maker of powerful data analysis software, and with SAP Business Cloud, our shared customers now benefit from real-time data integration and joint AI use cases.” Palantir chief executive Alex Karp said, in a video during the keynote: “We use Ontology [a Palantir product] to manage large language models and Foundry to reconcile data. The combination of those products and SAP’s will, we believe, be extremely valuable for our collective clients and partners.” Foundry is Palantir’s data integration platform and Ontology is an element of it for building digital twins. Klein said, in the press statement: “With the expansion of Joule, our partnerships with leading AI pioneers, and advancements in SAP Business Data Cloud, we’re delivering on the promise of Business AI as we drive digital transformations that help customers thrive in an increasingly unpredictable world.” Joule is SAP’s generative AI assistant technology, which it says can “accompany business users throughout their day, in and out of the SAP application universe, to find data, surface real-time insights and streamline workflows. Joule’s new ubiquity includes an action bar powered by WalkMe that studies user behaviour across applications, turning the assistant into an always-available, proactive AI that can anticipate users’ needs before they arise – always adhering to SAP’s strict ethical AI guidelines”. The supplier also announced a collaboration with Perplexity, described as “an AI-powered answer engine company”. This is said to enhance Joule’s ability to draw on structured and unstructured data to solve complex business problems. Alongside SAP’s knowledge graph technology, SAP said Joule could now instantly answer questions with “structured, visual answers – such as charts and graphs – grounded in real-time business data within SAP workflows. For example, a user could ask the tool how recent external events might impact their business and get a forecast based on both current events and the company’s own business data”. WHO IS THIS QUOTE FROM? It is from the release. SAP also announced more Joule Agents spanning customer experience, supply chain management, spend management, finance and human capital management. The supplier also introduced an “operating system for AI development”. Called AI Foundation, it is said to give developers a single entry point for building, extending and running custom AI systems. The supplier will, no doubt, endeavour to say what these and other announcements will mean for SAP customers in Europe next week in Madrid, from 26-28 May. Read more about Sapphire SAP will focus on Joule, agentic AI and Business Data Cloud at Sapphire; experts say it should also show how it can help customers deal with real-world issues. SAP Sapphire 2024: AI in all its forms – but not only AI. 2023: SAP Business AI and sustainability dominate Sapphire. In The Current Issue: UK critical systems at risk from ‘digital divide’ created by AI threats UK at risk of Russian cyber and physical attacks as Ukraine seeks peace deal Standard Chartered grounds AI ambitions in data governance Download Current Issue Microsoft entices developers to build more Windows AI apps – Cliff Saran's Enterprise blog Red Hat launches llm-d community & project – Open Source Insider View All Blogs

This article contains spoilers for Arcane season 2. Netflix and Riot Games created one of the most acclaimed video game adaptations of all time with the original animated series Arcane, set in the world of League of Legends. After premiering in 2021, the series returned for its climactic second season in 2024, concluding the fiery saga of sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell) and the fate of the fantasy city of Piltover and its undercity Zaun. The first season dialed up this sibling rivalry to explosive proportions, as Jinx’s reckless antics threatened the fragile peace in place. The second season only ups the complicated family dynamics between its main characters, expanding the scope and depth of familial strife while escalating the consequences and actions as roles are subverted and reversed throughout the story. Whereas Jinx was branded a terrorist in the first season, the second season sees the unpredictable, explosive figure being regarded by Piltover’s populace as a freedom fighter against its totalitarian rule. Meanwhile, Vi grows increasingly erratic and volatile in her own life in the wake of tyranny’s rise, making the two sisters’ inevitable reunion all the more awkward. For showrunner Christian Linke, this narrative inversion proved to be “really fun to think about.” “It’s a really complex moment, when Jinx can say ‘Maybe you’re the baddie,’” Linke says. “So much of the show is about seeing the world through the lens of the other side. I think that is the quintessential moment for them, when they have to question how they see their sibling, at which point, they have a very loaded perspective of each other.” This reconciliation in the face of a common enemy leads to the sisters reuniting with their long-lost father Vander (JB Blanc), now resurrected as the feral werewolf-like monster Warwick. Leaning into the inherent horror offered by prominently featuring such a bloodthirsty creature, Warwick’s inclusion also underscored Arcane’s tendency to go to the extremes, in regards to tone and visceral action. More than just presenting another adversary, Vander’s transformation into Warwick also gave the show the opportunity to highlight more of Vander’s backstory as he reunites with his adopted daughters in the mines he worked in as a human. “He went back to this familiar place from his past and he didn’t know why because it got twisted for him,” writer Amanda Overton observes. “That mining room is the first time that [Vi and Jinx]  got to see their father figures as brothers. It just reframed everything for the family dynamics for them.” The season also features a surprise interlude with Ekko (Reed Shannon) traveling to a parallel reality where he acquires a time-reversal device crucial to the series’ final battle. More than just giving Ekko this game-changing item, the episode’s lighter tones and depictions of familiar faces gave Arcane the chance to explore elements that the creative team felt were more romantic and more fun in certain aspects. Overton reflected that more than making Ekko the one to turn the tide in the climax, it restored his faith in Zaun’s potential as well as Powder, the innocent person who Jinx used to be. “In his own world, he lost that faith,” Overton says. “He lost that vision. He had a vision of Zaun that was very similar to that and he lost his faith in it. He needed to see that it was possible in order to fight for that again and also to believe in Jinx again – Powder again.” This complexity and conflict between familial figures isn’t isolated to Vi and Jinx, but also between Jayce Talis (Kevin Alejandro) and Viktor (Harry Lloyd), who see each other as brothers. Though Viktor recognized the destructive potential of Hextech, the technology he and Jayce created, Jayce not only didn’t follow through on Viktor’s wish for him to destroy it, but used the unstable tech to resurrect Viktor. This turned Viktor into a figure poised to use his connection to Hextech to inadvertently destroy Zaun and Piltover, placing him in direct conflict with Jayce over the fate of the city. “A lot of season one was about creating the dream technology that could change the world,” Linke says. “When it gets turned into weapons and they lose control, that’s when Jayce and Viktor react very differently. They’re also a little bit shocked by the other’s reaction to that. We always knew that there would be a different conclusion when they’re confronted with this reality that humans will use this technology for their own motives and for their selfish goals” Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! “That was also the fabric of season two, the things that you can’t see and that you can’t control,” Overton adds. “That’s why Viktor, when he goes down to the Undercity, he does his part to make that his little utopian commune. He’s trying to make what the topside has down here and try to compress that gap. It’s beautiful and wonderful, but even that goes awry for him. They always intended the right things, had great intentions, and could not see the consequences of those actions.” A beautiful narrative expansion of the world of League of Legends, Arcane ends on a high and hopeful note, amidst all the conflict and loss to get there. And from its vibrantly animated cities to its memorable and nuanced characters, the Netflix original series has once again set the bar for what video game adaptations can and should be. Available to stream on Netflix, Arcane lives up to the hype as one of the most engrossing and heartfelt animated series around. Both seasons of Arcane are available to stream on Netflix now.

News Physics Scientists used a levitating magnet to hunt for dark matter The quantum-based technique could reveal the presence of hypothetical ultralight particles A magnet levitates over a superconductor. Scientists used this phenomenon in a search for ultralight dark matter. Forance/Alamy Stock Photo By Emily Conover 1 hour ago In a first-of-its-kind test, scientists used a levitated magnet to search for dark matter, the unidentified substance believed to be present throughout the cosmos. If dark matter is made up of ultralight particles, it could behave like a wave that would subtly jostle the magnet. Although no signs of such jostling appeared, a few tweaks could improve the experiment’s sensitivity to dark matter’s potential influence, the researchers report in a paper to be published in Physical Review Letters. Scientists used this apparatus to make measurements of a levitated magnet that provided a new method to hunt for dark matterDennis Uitenbroekz Scientists believe dark matter must exist to account for astronomical observations that suggest an unidentified source of mass in the cosmos. Dark matter has evaded a wide variety of detection attempts, so astroparticle physicist Christopher Tunnell of Rice University in Houston was looking for new ways to search for it. Tunnell and colleagues realized that an existing experiment, originally designed to make sensitive gravitational measurements, could spot ultralight dark matter. In the experiment, a magnet with a mass of less than a milligram was suspended within a container made of a superconductor — a material that conducts electricity without resistance. The magnet’s motion was monitored with a quantum device designed to measures changes in magnetic fields, known as a SQUID. If ultralight dark matter exists and interacts with normal matter via a new type of force, the dark matter wave would have subtly jiggled the magnet. Tunnell and colleagues reanalyzed the data from that experiment to search for dark matter’s influence, but found no evidence of it. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

Two Evangelical Christian leaders sent an open letter to President Trump on Wednesday, warning of the dangers of out-of-control artificial intelligence and of automating human labor.The letter comes just weeks after the new Pope, Leo XIV, declared he was concerned with the “defense of human dignity, justice and labor” amid what he described as the “new industrial revolution” spurred by advances in AI.“As people of faith, we believe we should rapidly develop powerful AI tools that help cure diseases and solve practical problems, but not autonomous smarter-than-human machines that nobody knows how to control,” reads the open letter, signed by the Reverends Johnnie Moore and Samuel Rodriguez. “The world is grappling with a new reality because of the pace of the development of this technology, which represents an opportunity of great promise but also of potential peril especially as we approach artificial general intelligence.”Rodriguez, the President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, spoke at Trump’s first presidential inauguration in 2017. Moore, who is also the founder of the public relations firm Kairos, served on Trump’s Evangelical executive board during his first presidential candidacy.The letter is a sign of growing ties between religious and AI safety groups, which share some of the same worries. It was shared with journalists by representatives of the Future of Life Institute—an AI safety organization that campaigns to reduce what it sees as the existential risk posed by advanced AI systems.The world’s biggest tech companies now all believe that it is possible to create so-called “artificial general intelligence”—a form of AI that can do any task better than a human expert. Some researchers have even invoked this technology in religious terms—for example, OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, a mystical figure who famously encouraged colleagues to chant “feel the AGI” at company gatherings. The emerging possibility of AGI presents, in one sense, a profound challenge to many theologies. If we are in a universe where a God-like machine is possible, what space does that leave for God himself?“The spiritual implications of creating intelligence that may one day surpass human capabilities raises profound theological and ethical questions that must be thoughtfully considered with wisdom,” the two Reverends wrote in their open letter to President Trump. “Virtually all religious traditions warn against a world where work is no longer necessary or where human beings can live their lives without any guardrails.”Though couched in adulatory language, the letter presents a vision of AI governance that differs from Trump’s current approach. The president has embraced the framing of the U.S. as in a race with China to get to AGI first, and his AI czar, David Sacks, has warned that regulating the technology would threaten the U.S.’s position in that race. The White House AI team is stacked with advisors who take a dismissive view of alignment risks—or the idea that a smarter-than-human AI might be hostile to humans, escape their control, and cause some kind of catastrophe.“We believe you are the world’s leader now by Divine Providence to also guide AI,” the letter says, addressing Trump, before urging him to consider convening an ethical council to consider not only “what AI can do but also what it should do.”“To be clear: we are not encouraging the United States, and our friends, to do anything but win the AI race,” the letter says. “There is no alternative. We must win. However, we are advising that this victory simply must not be a victory at any cost.”The letter echoes some themes that have increasingly been explored inside the Vatican, not just by Pope Leo XIV but also his predecessor, Pope Francis. Last year, in remarks at an event held at the Vatican about AI, Francis argued that AI must be used to improve, not degrade, human dignity.“Does it serve to satisfy the needs of humanity, to improve the well-being and integral development of people?” he asked. Or does it “serve to enrich and increase the already high power of the few technological giants despite the dangers to humanity?”To some Catholic theologians, AGI is simply the newest incarnation of a long-standing threat to the Church: false idols. “The presumption of substituting God for an artifact of human making is idolatry, a practice Scripture explicitly warns against,” reads a lengthy missive on AI published by the Vatican in January. “AI may prove even more seductive than traditional idols for, unlike idols that ‘have mouths but do not speak; eyes, but do not see; ears, but do not hear’, AI can ‘speak,’ or at least gives the illusion of doing so. Yet, it is vital to remember that AI is but a pale reflection of humanity—it is crafted by human minds, trained on human-generated material, responsive to human input, and sustained through human labor.”