By Vanessa Taylor Published May 20, 2025 | Comments| © Photographer: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images Once a long-time critic of FBI surveillance, Patel is now singing a different tune. If there’s one thing the Federal Bureau of Investigation does well, it’s mass surveillance. Several years ago, then attorney general William Barr established an internal office to curb the FBI’s abuse of one controversial surveillance law. But recently, the FBI’s long-time haterKash Patel shut down the watchdog group with no explanation. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Patel suddenly closed the Office of Internal Auditing that Barr created in 2020. The office’s leader, Cindy Hall, abruptly retired. People familiar with the matter told the outlet that the closure of the aforementioned watchdog group alongside the Office of Integrity and Compliance are part of internal reorganization. Sources also reportedly said that Hall was trying to expand the office’s work, but her attempts to onboard new employees were stopped by the Trump administration’s hiring freezes. The Office of Internal Auditing was a response to controversy surrounding the FBI’s use of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The 2008 law primarily addresses surveillance of non-Americans abroad. However, Jeramie Scott, senior counselor at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told Gizmodo via email that the FBI “has repeatedly abused its ability to search Americans’ communications ‘incidentally’ collected under Section 702” to conduct warrantless spying. Patel has not released any official comment regarding his decision to close the office. But Elizabeth Goitein, senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice, told Gizmodo via email, “It is hard to square this move with Mr. Patel’s own stated concerns about the FBI’s use of Section 702.” Last year, Congress reauthorized Section 702 despite mounting concerns over its misuses. Although Congress introduced some reforms, the updated legislation actually expanded the government’s surveillance capabilities. At the time, Patel slammed the law’s passage, stating that former FBI director Christopher Wray, who Patel once tried to sue, “was caught last year illegally using 702 collection methods against Americans 274,000 times.”According to Goitein, the office has “played a key role in exposing FBI abuses of Section 702, including warrantless searches for the communication of members of Congress, judges, and protesters.” And ironically, Patel inadvertently drove its creation after attacking the FBI’s FISA applications to wiretap a former Trump campaign advisor in 2018 while investigating potential Russian election interference. Trump and his supporters used Patel’s attacks to push their own narrative dismissing any concerns. Last year, former representative Devin Nunes, who is now CEO of Truth Social, said Patel was “instrumental” to uncovering the “hoax and finding evidence of government malfeasance.” Although Patel mostly peddled conspiracies, the Justice Department conducted a probe into the FBI’s investigation that raised concerns over “basic and fundamental errors” it committed. In response, Barr created the Office of Internal Auditing, stating, “What happened to the Trump presidential campaign and his subsequent Administration after the President was duly elected by the American people must never happen again.” But since taking office, Patel has changed his tune about FISA. During his confirmation hearing, Patel referred to Section 702 as a “critical tool” and said, “I’m proud of the reforms that have been implemented and I’m proud to work with Congress moving forward to implement more.” However, reforms don’t mean much by themselves. As Goitein noted, “Without a separate office dedicated to surveillance compliance,abuses could go unreported and unchecked.” An annual transparency report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shows that the FBI’s searches for Americans’ information has fallen. Last year, the FBI only used 5,518 query terms about Americans, compared to 57,094 in 2023 and 119,383 in 2022. While this looks like progress, it doesn’t mean that the Office of Internal Auditing’s work is done. “The FBI should maintain its audits,” Scott said, “and if they do, the FBI must make very clear who is responsible for continuing the internal audits and ensure the oversight gets done.” Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Lucas Ropek Published May 14, 2025 By Vanessa Taylor Published April 28, 2025 By Matt Novak Published April 25, 2025 By Vanessa Taylor Published April 24, 2025 By Vanessa Taylor Published April 22, 2025 By Vanessa Taylor Published April 21, 2025 #fbi #director #kash #patel #abruptly

Host with the mostSelf-hosting is having a moment. Ethan Sholly knows why. We interview Ethan Sholly of the selfh.st podcast/newsleter/directory. Kevin Purdy – May 20, 2025 5:22 pm | 44 Credit: Aurich Lawson Credit: Aurich Lawson Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Self-hosting is having a moment, even if it's hard to define exactly what it is. It's a niche that goes beyond regular computing devices and networks but falls short of a full-on home lab.It adds privacy, provides DRM-free alternatives, and reduces advertising. It's often touted as a way to get more out of your network-attached storage, but it's much more than just backup and media streaming. Is self-hosting just running services on your network for which most people rely on cloud companies? Broadly, yes. But take a look at the selfh.st site/podcast/newsletter, the r/selfhosted subreddit, and all the GitHub project pages that link to one another, and you'll also find things that no cloud provider offers. Ethan Sholly, proprietor of the selfh.st site, newsletter, and occasional podcast, recently walked me through the current state of self-hosting, and he shared some of the findings from his surveys of those people doing all that small-scale server administration. “Turn your desktop on—it's movie night” Ethan Sholly, proprietor of the selfh.st media mini-conglomerate. Credit: Ethan Sholly Ethan Sholly, proprietor of the selfh.st media mini-conglomerate. Credit: Ethan Sholly Sholly works in finance, not tech, but he was a computer science minor with just enough knowledge to get Plex working on a desktop PC for his friends and family. "I'd get a call or text: 'Can you turn your desktop on—it's movie night,'" Sholly said. He gradually expanded to building his own tower server with 10 terabyte drives. Once he had his media-serving needs covered, the question inevitably became "What else can I self-host?" He dug in, wandered around, and found himself with tons of bookmarked GitHub repos and project pages. Sholly, a self-professed "old-school RSS junkie," wanted one place to find the most commonly recommended apps and news about their changes and updates. It didn't exist, so he assembled it, coded it, and shared it. He also started writing about the scene in his newsletter, which has more personality and punch than you'd expect from someone in a largely open source, DIY-minded hobby. After Plex increased subscription prices and changed its business model in March, Sholly wrote in his newsletter that, while there were valid concerns about privacy and future directions, it would be a good time to note something else: The majority of people don't donate to a single self-hosted project. Responses from more than 3,700 people to the question "Why do you self-host?" on selfh.st. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st Responses from more than 3,700 people to the question "Why do you self-host?" on selfh.st. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st The types of hardware people reported using for self-hosting in Ethan Sholly's survey. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st The types of hardware people reported using for self-hosting in Ethan Sholly's survey. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st Responses from more than 3,700 people to the question "Why do you self-host?" on selfh.st. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st The types of hardware people reported using for self-hosting in Ethan Sholly's survey. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st Among roughly 3,700 responses from the self-hosting community in 2024, 60 percent said "no" to the question "Have you donated to a self-hosted project in the last year?" This is despite Plex being in third place for respondents' favorite self-hosted application, behind Jellyfin and Home Assistant. Sholly's surveys provide many other insights into this sub-section of a niche community, and they likely give him a perspective on what people are interested in. He can give the developers of the self-hosted, AI-capable photo tool Immich a good-natured ribbing about shipping a new mascot before other much-requested features. He knows them, for one thing, and his readers should sense the gratefulness coming through. Privacy, costs, and affordable small computers Given this familiarity, I had a few big questions for Sholly about the self-hosted scene. First up: What is the difference between "home lab" and "self-hosting"? Home labs, Sholly suggested, are much more focused on hardware and networking. Home labs are often something people do in their professional lives and bring home with them. Self-hosting is something you could technically do on a laptop you keep running in a closet, Sholly said. What gave rise to self-hosting's relative recent popularity? That led Sholly to a few answers, many of them directly relating to the corporate cloud services people typically use instead of self-hosting: Privacy for photos, files, and other data Cost of cloud hosting and storage Accessibility of services, through GitHub, Reddit, and sites like his Installation with Dockerand Unraid Single-board computerslike the Raspberry Pi NUCS, mini-PCs, workstations, and other pandemic-popular hardware Finally, there's the elephant in any self-hosting discussion: piracy. Sholly doesn't shy away from it as a driver of self-hosting. "Look at the questions asked by the newcomers to the scene on any subreddit or forum, look at what they're asking about: It's their 'media files' and how to handle them," he said. The apps used by folks on their journey through self-hosting, as of 2024. Credit: Ethan Sholly / selfh.st The apps used by folks on their journey through self-hosting, as of 2024. Credit: Ethan Sholly / selfh.st Sholly self-hosts a whole bunch of services, but not everything. "It's not the end-goal, and we need to push on companies to fix the way they host their services," he said. "Convenience shouldn't be an add-on; privacy shouldn't be a value-add. A lot of services people are self-hosting, they might gladly pay for if companies gave them more organization and control." Feel free to share your own journey with self-hosting, and how it's going, in the comments. Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 44 Comments #selfhosting #having #moment #ethan #sholly

High-profile ransomware incidents affecting leading UK retailers continue to grab headlines, but in the background, total ransomware attack volumes appear to have eased off over the past few weeks, according to NCC Group’s latest monthly Threat Pulse report. NCC’s extensive telemetry observed 416 ransomware attacks in April 2025, down 31% month on month, with 78% occurring in Europe and North America, the industrials category remaining the most prominent sector, and the Akira cyber crime crew the most active group on the scene, accounting for 16% of these. However, although the statistics tell one story, the impact of ransomware was felt much more keenly in general, with incidents affecting the consumer discretionary category – that is to say, retail – and in particular the ongoing attack on Marks and Spencer, Co-op and Harrods putting ransomware at the forefront of Britain’s national discourse. These incidents, and a fourth developing attack at Peter Green Chilled – a supplier of cold-chain transit and stock management services to the supermarket sector – has spotlighted threats to the retail sector, which is already of interest to cyber criminals for several reasons, such as its high-profile nature and high-impact potential for disruption, said Matt Hull, NCC threat intelligence head. “While the number of reported ransomware victims declined further in April, it would be a mistake to assume that this is a sign that the threat is fading,” said Hull. “The recent attacks on the UK retail sector have laid bare just how disruptive and far-reaching these incidents can be. The reality is that this is only a glimpse of the broader threat landscape. Globally, many ransomware cases still fly under the radar, are under-reported or deliberately kept quiet,” he added. The recent attacks on the UK retail sector have laid bare just how disruptive and far-reaching theseincidents can be Matt Hull, NCC Group “Geopolitical and economic uncertainty is also adding fuel to the fire, providing more lucrative targets and opportunities for attackers to strike.” April saw the anime-referencing Akira ransomware gang scoop the dubious accolade for highest volume of attacks, accounting for 65 of those recorded by NCC’s systems. This was followed by Qilin with 49, Play with 42 and Lynx with 27. Meanwhile, Babuk 2.0, which raised questions earlier in the year as to whether or not it was conducting new attacks or merely recycling data from old ones, dropped away, with just 16 hits to its name. NCC said it had found that Babuk 2.0 was indeed likely falsifying its data, which is not in and of itself a new strategy. Other gangs have tried this in the past, in general those looking to inflate their notoriety, and this may have been the case here. The researchers explained that Babuk 2.0’s ransomware claims of attacks on prominent government institutions, and even the likes of Amazon and Chinese shopping platform Taobao, were bold ones, but likely nonsense given none of those “affected” confirmed any breaches and have significant security resources of their own. It would also be difficult for any ransomware gang to breach multiple large organisations in this way in such a short space of time. about ransomware Forescout researchers report on a new ransomware gang that appears to be keeping the legacy of the notorious LockBit crew alive. Administration interface instance for LockBit 3.0 affiliates has been attacked and data from its SQL database extracted and disclosed. Perimeter security appliances and devices, particularly VPNs, prove to be the most popular entry points into victim networks for financially motivated ransomware gangs, according to reports. “Babuk 2.0’s lack of credibility makes such attacks questionable. Upon further investigation by NCC, 119 out of 145 claims made by Babuk 2.0 in Q1 2025 were associated with another ransomware group or could be linked to a previous large-scale breach,” said the researchers. Actions like this exemplify how ransomware gangs change up their tactics in the hope of scoring a payout, leveraging public relations techniques to attract media attention, placing their alleged victims in the spotlight and damaging their public image. When these tactics work, said NCC’s researchers, it is more often than not because the victim is embarrassed into handing over money to make the problem go away. This month’s report also highlighted an emerging danger in the ransomware infection chain – the use of weaponised PDF files, which are beginning to be used at scale to exploit software vulnerabilities, fool users and spread malware. According to Check Point statistics, 22% of malicious email attachments now arrive in the form of a PDF. It’s more important than ever for organisations to maintain a strong security culture, respond quickly to emerging threats, and adapt to shifting tactics – all the while staying ahead of adversaries that never stop evolving Matt Hull, NCC Group NCC said such documents are becoming more deceptive and technically advanced, with the help of generative artificial intelligence. Many threat actors are now embedding malicious PDFs tailored to individual recipients into their phishing campaigns. Unfortunately, this trend looks set to go mainstream, said NCC, because users seem willing to trust PDFs more than other documents, such as Microsoft Office files. Security teams should consider adapting their policies and educating users on the potential dangers of PDF files, and consider deploying tools such as email gateways with sandboxing and behavioural analysis features, using endpoint detection and responseto monitor PDF readers, disabling unneeded Javascript functions, and patching Adobe vulnerabilities as they arise – a sequence of three flaws in Acrobat Reader discovered in March likely contributed to the problem. “It’s only getting harder for individuals and organisations, who need to be forever alert,” said Hull. “In this climate, a strong and embedded security culture is no longer optional; it is a critical enabler of organisational resilience. It’s more important than ever for organisations to maintain a strong security culture, respond quickly to emerging threats and adapt to shifting tactics – all the while staying ahead of adversaries that never stop evolving.” #ransomware #attacks #dropped #third #last

Data Scarcity in Generative Modeling Generative models traditionally rely on large, high-quality datasets to produce samples that replicate the underlying data distribution. However, in fields like molecular modeling or physics-based inference, acquiring such data can be computationally infeasible or even impossible. Instead of labeled data, only a scalar reward—typically derived from a complex energy function—is available to judge the quality of generated samples. This presents a significant challenge: how can one train generative models effectively without direct supervision from data? Meta AI tackles this challenge with Adjoint Sampling, a novel learning algorithm designed for training generative models using only scalar reward signals. Built on the theoretical framework of stochastic optimal control, Adjoint Sampling reframes the training process as an optimization task over a controlled diffusion process. Unlike standard generative models, it does not require explicit data. Instead, it learns to generate high-quality samples by iteratively refining them using a reward function—often derived from physical or chemical energy models. Adjoint Sampling excels in scenarios where only an unnormalized energy function is accessible. It produces samples that align with the target distribution defined by this energy, bypassing the need for corrective methods like importance sampling or MCMC, which are computationally intensive. Source: Technical Details The foundation of Adjoint Sampling is a stochastic differential equationthat models how sample trajectories evolve. The algorithm learns a control drift uuusuch that the final state of these trajectories approximates a desired distribution. A key innovation is its use of Reciprocal Adjoint Matching—a loss function that enables gradient-based updates using only the initial and final states of sample trajectories. This sidesteps the need to backpropagate through the entire diffusion path, greatly improving computational efficiency. By sampling from a known base process and conditioning on terminal states, Adjoint Sampling constructs a replay buffer of samples and gradients, allowing multiple optimization steps per sample. This on-policy training method provides scalability unmatched by previous approaches, making it suitable for high-dimensional problems like molecular conformer generation. Moreover, Adjoint Sampling supports geometric symmetries and periodic boundary conditions, enabling models to respect molecular invariances like rotation, translation, and torsion. These features are crucial for physically meaningful generative tasks in chemistry and physics. Performance Insights and Benchmark Results Adjoint Sampling achieves state-of-the-art results in both synthetic and real-world tasks. On synthetic benchmarks such as the Double-Well, Lennard-Jonespotentials, it significantly outperforms baselines like DDS and PIS, especially in energy efficiency. For example, where DDS and PIS require 1000 evaluations per gradient update, Adjoint Sampling only uses three, with similar or better performance in Wasserstein distance and effective sample size. In a practical setting, the algorithm was evaluated on large-scale molecular conformer generation using the eSEN energy model trained on the SPICE-MACE-OFF dataset. Adjoint Sampling, especially its Cartesian variant with pretraining, achieved up to 96.4% recall and 0.60 Å mean RMSD, surpassing RDKit ETKDG—a widely used chemistry-based baseline—across all metrics. The method generalizes well to the GEOM-DRUGS dataset, showing substantial improvements in recall while maintaining competitive precision. The algorithm’s ability to explore the configuration space broadly, aided by its stochastic initialization and reward-based learning, results in greater conformer diversity—critical for drug discovery and molecular design. Conclusion: A Scalable Path Forward for Reward-Driven Generative Models Adjoint Sampling represents a major step forward in generative modeling without data. By leveraging scalar reward signals and an efficient on-policy training method grounded in stochastic control, it enables scalable training of diffusion-based samplers with minimal energy evaluations. Its integration of geometric symmetries and its ability to generalize across diverse molecular structures position it as a foundational tool in computational chemistry and beyond. Check out the Paper, Model on Hugging Face and GitHub Page. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit and Subscribe to our Newsletter. Asif RazzaqWebsite |  + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences.Asif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Google AI Releases MedGemma: An Open Suite of Models Trained for Performance on Medical Text and Image ComprehensionAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/NVIDIA Releases Cosmos-Reason1: A Suite of AI Models Advancing Physical Common Sense and Embodied Reasoning in Real-World EnvironmentsAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/A Step-by-Step Coding Guide to Efficiently Fine-Tune Qwen3-14B Using Unsloth AI on Google Colab with Mixed Datasets and LoRA OptimizationAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Chain-of-Thought May Not Be a Window into AI’s Reasoning: Anthropic’s New Study Reveals Hidden Gaps 🚨 Build GenAI you can trust. ⭐️ Parlant is your open-source engine for controlled, compliant, and purposeful AI conversations — Star Parlant on GitHub! #sampling #without #data #now #scalable

With seemingly no limit to the demand for artificial intelligence, everyone in the energy, AI, and climate fields is justifiably worried. Will there be enough clean electricity to power AI and enough water to cool the data centers that support this technology? These are important questions with serious implications for communities, the economy, and the environment.  This story is a part of MIT Technology Review’s series “Power Hungry: AI and our energy future,” on the energy demands and carbon costs of the artificial-intelligence revolution. But the question about AI’s energy usage portends even bigger issues about what we need to do in addressing climate change for the next several decades. If we can’t work out how to handle this, we won’t be able to handle broader electrification of the economy, and the climate risks we face will increase. Innovation in IT got us to this point. Graphics processing unitsthat power the computing behind AI have fallen in cost by 99% since 2006. There was similar concern about the energy use of data centers in the early 2010s, with wild projections of growth in electricity demand. But gains in computing power and energy efficiency not only proved these projections wrong but enabled a 550% increase in global computing capability from 2010 to 2018 with only minimal increases in energy use.  In the late 2010s, however, the trends that had saved us began to break. As the accuracy of AI models dramatically improved, the electricity needed for data centers also started increasing faster; they now account for 4.4% of total demand, up  from 1.9% in 2018. Data centers consume more than 10% of the electricity supply in six US states. In Virginia, which has emerged as a hub of data center activity, that figure is 25%. Projections about the future demand for energy to power AI are uncertain and range widely, but in one study, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that data centers could represent 6% to 12% of total US electricity use by 2028. Communities and companies will notice this type of rapid growth in electricity demand. It will put pressure on energy prices and on ecosystems. The projections have resulted in calls to build lots of new fossil-fired power plants or bring older ones out of retirement. In many parts of the US, the demand will likely result in a surge of natural-gas-powered plants. It’s a daunting situation. Yet when we zoom out, the projected electricity use from AI is still pretty small. The US generated about 4,300 billion kilowatt-hours last year. We’ll likely need another 1,000 billion to 1,200 billion or more in the next decade—a 24% to 29% increase. Almost half the additional electricity demand will be from electrified vehicles. Another 30% is expected to be from electrified technologies in buildings and industry. Innovation in vehicle and building electrification also advanced in the last decade, and this shift will be good news for the climate, for communities, and for energy costs. The remaining 22% of new electricity demand is estimated to come from AI and data centers. While it represents a smaller piece of the pie, it’s the most urgent one. Because of their rapid growth and geographic concentration, data centers are the electrification challenge we face right now—the small stuff we have to figure out before we’re able to do the big stuff like vehicles and buildings. We also need to understand what the energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with AI are buying us. While the impacts from producing semiconductors and powering AI data centers are important, they are likely small compared with the positive or negative effects AI may have on applications such as the electricity grid, the transportation system, buildings and factories, or consumer behavior. Companies could use AI to develop new materials or batteries that would better integrate renewable energy into the grid. But they could also use AI to make it easier to find more fossil fuels. The claims about potential benefits for the climate are exciting, but they need to be continuously verified and will need support to be realized. This isn’t the first time we’ve faced challenges coping with growth in electricity demand. In the 1960s, US electricity demand was growing at more than 7% per year. In the 1970s that growth was nearly 5%, and in the 1980s and 1990s it was more than 2% per year. Then, starting in 2005, we basically had a decade and a half of flat electricity growth. Most projections for the next decade put our expected growth in electricity demand at around 2% again—but this time we’ll have to do things differently.  To manage these new energy demands, we need a “Grid New Deal” that leverages public and private capital to rebuild the electricity system for AI with enough capacity and intelligence for decarbonization. New clean energy supplies, investment in transmission and distribution, and strategies for virtual demand management can cut emissions, lower prices, and increase resilience. Data centers bringing clean electricity and distribution system upgrades could be given a fast lane to connect to the grid. Infrastructure banks could fund new transmission lines or pay to upgrade existing ones. Direct investment or tax incentives could encourage clean computing standards, workforce development in the clean energy sector, and open data transparency from data center operators about their energy use so that communities can understand and measure the impacts. In 2022, the White House released a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights that provided principles to protect the public’s rights, opportunities, and access to critical resources from being restricted by AI systems. To the AI Bill of Rights, we humbly offer a climate amendment, because ethical AI must be climate-safe AI. It’s a starting point to ensure that the growth of AI works for everyone—that it doesn’t raise people’s energy bills, adds more clean power to the grid than it uses, increases investment in the power system’s infrastructure, and benefits communities while driving innovation. By grounding the conversation about AI and energy in context about what is needed to tackle climate change, we can deliver better outcomes for communities, ecosystems, and the economy. The growth of electricity demand for AI and data centers is a test case for how society will respond to the demands and challenges of broader electrification. If we get this wrong, the likelihood of meeting our climate targets will be extremely low. This is what we mean when we say the energy and climate impacts from data centers are small, but they are also huge. Costa Samaras is the Trustee Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University. Emma Strubell is the Raj Reddy Assistant Professor in the Language Technologies Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Ramayya Krishnan is dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the William W. and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University. #ais #energy #impact #still #smallbut

The world’s leading storage and server manufacturers are combining their design and engineering expertise with the NVIDIA AI Data Platform — a customizable reference design for building a new class of AI infrastructure — to provide systems that enable a new generation of agentic AI applications and tools. The reference design is now being harnessed by storage system leaders globally to support AI reasoning agents and unlock the value of information stored in the millions of documents, videos and PDFs enterprises use. NVIDIA-Certified Storage partners DDN, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hitachi Vantara, IBM, NetApp, Nutanix, Pure Storage, VAST Data and WEKA are introducing products and solutions built on the NVIDIA AI Data Platform, which includes NVIDIA accelerated computing, networking and software. In addition, AIC, ASUS, Foxconn, Quanta Cloud Technology, Supermicro, Wistron and other original design manufacturersare developing new storage and server hardware platforms that support the NVIDIA reference design. These platforms feature NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, NVIDIA BlueField DPUs and NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking, and are optimized to run NVIDIA AI Enterprise software. Such integrations allow enterprises across industries to quickly deploy storage and data platforms that scan, index, classify and retrieve large stores of private and public documents in real time. This augments AI agents as they reason and plan to solve complex, multistep problems. Building agentic AI infrastructure with these new AI Data Platform-based solutions can help enterprises turn data into actionable knowledge using retrieval-augmented generationsoftware, including NVIDIA NeMo Retriever microservices and the AI-Q NVIDIA Blueprint. Storage systems built with the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design turn data into knowledge, boosting agentic AI accuracy across many use cases. This can help AI agents and customer service representatives provide quicker, more accurate responses. With more access to data, agents can also generate interactive summaries of complex documents — and even videos — for researchers of all kinds. Plus, they can assist cybersecurity teams in keeping software secure. Leading Storage Providers Showcase AI Data Platform to Power Agentic AI Storage system leaders play a critical role in providing the AI infrastructure that runs AI agents. Embedding NVIDIA GPUs, networking and NIM microservices closer to storage enhances AI queries by bringing compute closer to critical content. Storage providers can integrate their document-security and access-control expertise into content-indexing and retrieval processes, improving security and data privacy compliance for AI inference. Data platform leaders such as IBM, NetApp and VAST Data are using the NVIDIA reference design to scale their AI technologies. IBM Fusion, a hybrid cloud platform for running virtual machines, Kubernetes and AI workloads on Red Hat OpenShift, offers content-aware storage services that unlock the meaning of unstructured enterprise data, enhancing inferencing so AI assistants and agents can deliver better, more relevant answers. Content-aware storage enables faster time to insights for AI applications using RAG when combined with NVIDIA GPUs, NVIDIA networking, the AI-Q NVIDIA Blueprint and NVIDIA NeMo Retriever microservices — all part of the NVIDIA AI Data Platform. NetApp is advancing enterprise storage for agentic AI with the NetApp AIPod solution built with the NVIDIA reference design. NetApp incorporates NVIDIA GPUs in data compute nodes to run NVIDIA NeMo Retriever microservices and connects these nodes to scalable storage with NVIDIA networking. VAST Data is embedding NVIDIA AI-Q with the VAST Data Platform to deliver a unified, AI-native infrastructure for building and scaling intelligent multi-agent systems. With high-speed data access, enterprise-grade security and continuous learning loops, organizations can now operationalize agentic AI systems that drive smarter decisions, automate complex workflows and unlock new levels of productivity. ODMs Innovate on AI Data Platform Hardware Offering their extensive experience with server and storage design and manufacturing, ODMs are working with storage system leaders to more quickly bring innovative AI Data Platform hardware to enterprises. ODMs provide the chassis design, GPU integration, cooling innovation and storage media connections needed to build AI Data Platform servers that are reliable, compact, energy efficient and affordable. A high percentage of the ODM industry’s market share comprises manufacturers based or colocated in Taiwan, making the region a crucial hub for enabling the hardware to run scalable agentic AI, inference and AI reasoning. AIC, based in Taoyuan City, Taiwan, is building flash storage servers, powered by NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, that enable higher throughput and greater power efficiency than traditional storage designs. These arrays are deployed in many AI Data Platform-based designs. ASUS partnered with WEKA and IBM to showcase a next-generation unified storage system for AI and high-performance computing workloads, addressing a broad spectrum of storage needs. The RS501A-E12-RS12U, a WEKA-certified software-defined storage solution, overcomes traditional hardware limitations to deliver exceptional flexibility — supporting file, object and block storage, as well as all-flash, tiering and backup capabilities. Foxconn, based in New Taipei City, builds many of the manufacturing industry’s accelerated servers and storage platforms used for AI Data Platform solutions. Its subsidiary Ingrasys offers NVIDIA-accelerated GPU servers that support the AI Data Platform. Supermicro is using the reference design to build its intelligent all-flash storage arrays powered by the NVIDIA Grace CPU Superchip or BlueField-3 DPU. The Supermicro Petascale JBOF and Petascale All-Flash Array Storage Server deliver high performance and power efficiency with software-defined storage vendors and support use with AI Data Platform solutions. Quanta Cloud Technology, also based in Taiwan, is designing and building accelerated server and storage appliances that include NVIDIA GPUs and networking. They’re well-suited to run NVIDIA AI Enterprise software and support AI Data Platform solutions. Taipei-based Wistron and Wiwynn offer innovative hardware designs compatible with the AI Data Platform, incorporating NVIDIA GPUs, NVIDIA BlueField DPUs and NVIDIA Ethernet SuperNICs for accelerated compute and data movement. Learn more about the latest agentic AI advancements at NVIDIA GTC Taipei, running May 21-22 at COMPUTEX. #ready #reason #storage #leaders #build

Sephiroth ranks very high on the “cool” scale, and a huge reason for that is his ōdachi, the extra-long katana he wields, called the Masamune. He’s not the first Final Fantasy character to wield a sword that has this particular name, but he’s probably the most notable, not least because of a very infamous murder he commits with this sword at a key moment in the original FF7.I’ve been both fascinated and amused by the ostentatious appearance of Sephiroth’s sword ever since I first saw cosplayers brandishing their versions of it at conventions in my teen years, and I’ve always wanted to know what went into its supremely impractical design.So who better to ask than designer Tetsuya Nomura, the Square Enix visionary who first put this sword into Sephiroth’s hands? And so, in honor of Cool Sword Day, here’s Nomura explaining the sword’s backstory, its surprisingly variable length, and more.Image: Square EnixPolygon: What led to the decision to name Sephiroth’s sword after the medieval blacksmith Masamune?Tetsuya Nomura: The Masamune has appeared throughout the Final Fantasy series as the strongest sword. When thinking about equipping Sephiroth with a sword that is a worthy match for him, I figured there was no better option than Masamune.Whose idea was it to give Sephiroth this specific type of sword, rather than a buster sword for example?That would be mine. Each time Cloud went through a tweak in design, the accompanying buster sword seemed to grow larger. Reason being, I thought the juxtaposition between Cloud wielding a giant “sword” and Sephiroth, who is far more powerful, wielding a skinny “katana” would be quite interesting. Additionally, the contrast between a wide broadsword and a long Japanese katana is also inspired by the rivalry of two famous Japanese swordsmen, Musashi and Kojiro.Were there any other design ideas for his sword that were not chosen and that you would be willing to share with us?As mentioned earlier, I had a specific sword in mind for Sephiroth, so I didn’t have any other ideas.Did the length of Sephiroth’s sword make it difficult to design fight scenes, especially in FF7 Rebirth where you actually get to play as Sephiroth? Sephiroth has appeared in many different titles before, and with each appearance, the length of his sword is adjusted based on the title’s specifications. In other words, we didn’t design the scene based on the length of the sword, but rather, designed the length of the sword based on the game design.I have a rough guideline that his sword should be around 10 feet long, but this has never been consistent across any of his appearances, including Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, or any merchandise, etc.Do you ever alter the length of the sword in certain scenes, such as lengthening it for visual effect or shortening it to accommodate certain moves?The Masamune’s blade has an organic quality to it, lengthening and shortening as needed. In the recently released second season of The First Soldier arc in Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, there actually is a scene in which the Masamune grows longer for the first time. I would love for you to check it out.Did someone in the universe of FF7 make this sword especially for Sephiroth?I mentioned The First Soldier arc in Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis a moment ago, but if you look at season one, when young Sephiroth first appeared, you will see that he is equipped with a Shinra military sword. That means it won’t come as a surprise if other people were also equipped with it. That said, I personally think that a military sword is more of an accessory for ceremonial purposes, and so Sephiroth would probably be the only person who would actually wield it after customizing it to be more suited for combat. Typically, a sword is heavily impacted by the skill of its wielder, and it is prone to become useless unless the wielder has the appropriate prowess; so, it is rare for someone to use a sword in combat.Also, in the aforementioned second season of The First Soldier arc of Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, you will experience the episode in which young Sephiroth obtains the Masamune, as well as meet the blacksmith who created the sword, so we’ll be diving deeper into the lore of the Masamune for the first time. The settings and background were brewing in my head, but in order to depict this in the game, I consulted Motomu Toriyama, the Co-Director of the Final Fantasy VII remake series and Director of Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, and we decided to ask Kazushige Nojima, Scenario Writer for the Final Fantasy 7 series to write this for us.See More: #length #sephiroths #sword #ff7 #actually

Sephiroth ranks very high on the “cool” scale, and a huge reason for that is his ōdachi, the extra-long katana he wields, called the Masamune. He’s not the first Final Fantasy character to wield a sword that has this particular name, but he’s probably the most notable, not least because of a very infamous murder he commits with this sword at a key moment in the original FF7. I’ve been both fascinated and amused by the ostentatious appearance of Sephiroth’s sword ever since I first saw cosplayers brandishing their versions of it at conventions in my teen years, and I’ve always wanted to know what went into its supremely impractical design. So who better to ask than designer Tetsuya Nomura, the Square Enix visionary who first put this sword into Sephiroth’s hands? And so, in honor of Cool Sword Day, here’s Nomura explaining the sword’s backstory, its surprisingly variable length, and more. Polygon: What led to the decision to name Sephiroth’s sword after the medieval blacksmith Masamune? Tetsuya Nomura: The Masamune has appeared throughout the Final Fantasy series as the strongest sword. When thinking about equipping Sephiroth with a sword that is a worthy match for him, I figured there was no better option than Masamune. Whose idea was it to give Sephiroth this specific type of sword, rather than a buster sword for example? That would be mine. Each time Cloud went through a tweak in design, the accompanying buster sword seemed to grow larger. Reason being, I thought the juxtaposition between Cloud wielding a giant “sword” and Sephiroth, who is far more powerful, wielding a skinny “katana” would be quite interesting. Additionally, the contrast between a wide broadsword and a long Japanese katana is also inspired by the rivalry of two famous Japanese swordsmen, Musashi and Kojiro. Were there any other design ideas for his sword that were not chosen and that you would be willing to share with us? As mentioned earlier, I had a specific sword in mind for Sephiroth, so I didn’t have any other ideas. Did the length of Sephiroth’s sword make it difficult to design fight scenes, especially in FF7 Rebirth where you actually get to play as Sephiroth?  Sephiroth has appeared in many different titles before, and with each appearance, the length of his sword is adjusted based on the title’s specifications. In other words, we didn’t design the scene based on the length of the sword, but rather, designed the length of the sword based on the game design. I have a rough guideline that his sword should be around 10 feet long, but this has never been consistent across any of his appearances, including Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, or any merchandise, etc. Do you ever alter the length of the sword in certain scenes, such as lengthening it for visual effect or shortening it to accommodate certain moves?The Masamune’s blade has an organic quality to it, lengthening and shortening as needed. In the recently released second season of The First Soldier arc in Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, there actually is a scene in which the Masamune grows longer for the first time. I would love for you to check it out. Did someone in the universe of FF7 make this sword especially for Sephiroth? I mentioned The First Soldier arc in Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis a moment ago, but if you look at season one, when young Sephiroth first appeared, you will see that he is equipped with a Shinra military sword. That means it won’t come as a surprise if other people were also equipped with it. That said, I personally think that a military sword is more of an accessory for ceremonial purposes, and so Sephiroth would probably be the only person who would actually wield it after customizing it to be more suited for combat. Typically, a sword is heavily impacted by the skill of its wielder, and it is prone to become useless unless the wielder has the appropriate prowess; so, it is rare for someone to use a sword in combat. Also, in the aforementioned second season of The First Soldier arc of Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, you will experience the episode in which young Sephiroth obtains the Masamune, as well as meet the blacksmith who created the sword, so we’ll be diving deeper into the lore of the Masamune for the first time. The settings and background were brewing in my head, but in order to depict this in the game, I consulted Motomu Toriyama, the Co-Director of the Final Fantasy VII remake series and Director of Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, and we decided to ask Kazushige Nojima, Scenario Writer for the Final Fantasy 7 series to write this for us. #length #sephiroths #sword #ff7 #actually

Call it the ultimate proving ground. Collaborating with teammates in the modern workplace requires fast, fluid thinking. Providing insights quickly, while juggling webcams and office messaging channels, is a startlingly good test, and enterprise AI is about to pass it — just in time to provide assistance to busy knowledge workers. To support enterprises in boosting productivity with AI teammates, NVIDIA today introduced a new NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory validated design at COMPUTEX. IT teams deploying and scaling AI agents can use the design to build accelerated infrastructure and easily integrate with platforms and tools from NVIDIA software partners. NVIDIA also unveiled new NVIDIA AI Blueprints to aid developers building smart AI teammates. Using the new blueprints, developers can enhance employee productivity through adaptive avatars that understand natural communication and have direct access to enterprise data. Blueprints for Engaging, Insightful AI Agents Enterprises can use NVIDIA’s latest AI Blueprints to create agents that align with their business objectives. Using the Tokkio NVIDIA AI Blueprint, developers can create interactive digital humans that can respond to emotional and contextual cues, while the AI-Q blueprint enables queries of many data sources to infuse AI agents with the company’s knowledge and gives them intelligent reasoning capabilities. Building these intelligent AI agents is a full-stack challenge. These blueprints are designed to run on NVIDIA’s accelerated computing infrastructure — including data centers built with the universal NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Server Edition GPU, which is part of NVIDIA’s vision for AI factories as complete systems for creating and putting AI to work. The Tokkio blueprint simplifies building interactive AI agent avatars for more natural and humanlike interactions. These AI agents are designed for intelligence. They integrate with foundational blueprints including the AI-Q NVIDIA Blueprint, part of the NVIDIA AI Data Platform, which uses retrieval-augmented generation and NVIDIA NeMo Retriever microservices to access enterprise data. AI Agents Boost People’s Productivity Customers around the world are already using these AI agent solutions. At the COACH Play store on Cat Street in Harajuku, Tokyo, imma provides an interactive in-store experience and gives personalized styling advice through natural, real-time conversation. Marking COACH’s debut in digital humans and AI-driven retail, the initiative merges cutting-edge technology with fashion to create an immersive and engaging customer journey. Developed by Aww Inc. and powered by NVIDIA ACE, the underlying technology that makes up the Tokkio blueprint, imma delivers lifelike interactions and tailored style suggestions. The experience allows for dynamic, unscripted conversations designed to connect with visitors on a personal level, highlighting COACH’s core values of courage and self-expression. “Through this groundbreaking innovation in the fashion retail space, customers can now engage in real-time, free-flowing conversations with our iconic virtual human, imma — an AI-powered stylist — right inside the store in the heart of Harajuku,” said Yumi An King, executive director of Aww Inc. “It’s been inspiring to see visitors enjoy personalized styling advice and build a sense of connection through natural conversation. We’re excited to bring this vision to life with NVIDIA and continue redefining what’s possible at the intersection of AI and fashion.” Watch how Aww Inc. is leveraging the latest Tokkio NVIDIA AI Blueprint in its AI-powered virtual human stylist, imma, to connect with shoppers through natural conversation and provide personalized styling advice.  Royal Bank of Canada developed Jessica, an AI agent avatar that assists employees in handling reports of fraud. With Jessica’s help, bank employees can access the most up-to-date information so they can handle fraud reports faster and more accurately, enhancing client service. Ubitus and the Mackay Memorial Hospital, located in Taipei, are teaming up to make hospital visits easier and friendlier with the help of AI-powered digital humans. These lifelike avatars are created using advanced 8K facial scanning and brought to life by Ubitus’ AI model integrated with NVIDIA ACE technologies, including NVIDIA Audio2Face 3D for expressions and NVIDIA Riva for speech. Deployed on interactive touchscreens, these digital humans offer hospital navigation, health education and registration support — reducing the burden on frontline staff. They also provide emotional support in pediatric care, aimed at reducing anxiety during wait times. Ubitus and the Mackay Memorial Hospital are making hospital visits easier and friendlier with the help of NVIDIA AI-powered digital humans. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is exploring the potential of digital avatar technology to enhance the pediatric patient experience. As part of its ongoing innovation efforts, the hospital is evaluating platforms such as NVIDIA’s Digital Human Blueprint to inform the early design of “Care Companions” — interactive, friendly avatars that could help young patients better understand their healthcare journey. “Children can have a lot of questions about their experiences in the hospital, and often respond more to a friendly avatar, like stylized humanoids, animals or robots, that speaks at their level of understanding,” said Dr. Ryan Moore, chief of emerging technologies at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. “Through our Care Companions built with NVIDIA AI, gamified learning, voice interaction and familiar digital experiences, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital aims to improve understanding, reduce anxiety and support lifelong health for young patients.” This early-stage exploration is part of the hospital’s broader initiative to evaluate new and emerging technologies that could one day enhance child-centered care. Software Platforms Support Agents on AI Factory Infrastructure  AI agents are one of the many workloads driving enterprises to reimagine their data centers as AI factories built for modern applications. Using the new NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory validated design, enterprises can build data centers that provide universal acceleration for agentic AI, as well as design, engineering and business operations. The Enterprise AI Factory validated design features support for software tools and platforms from NVIDIA partners, making it easier to build and run generative and agent-based AI applications. Developers deploying AI agents on their AI factory infrastructure can tap into partner platforms such as Dataiku, DataRobot, Dynatrace and JFrog to build, orchestrate, operationalize and scale AI workflows. The validated design supports frameworks from CrewAI, as well as vector databases from DataStax and Elastic, to help agents store, search and retrieve data. With tools from partners including Arize AI, Galileo, SuperAnnotate, Unstructured and Weights & Biases, developers can conduct data labeling, synthetic data generation, model evaluation and experiment tracking. Orchestration and deployment partners including Canonical, Nutanix and Red Hat support seamless scaling and management of AI agent workloads across complex enterprise environments. Enterprises can secure their AI factories with software from safety and security partners including ActiveFence, CrowdStrike, Fiddler, Securiti and Trend Micro. The NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory validated design and latest AI Blueprints empower businesses to build smart, adaptable AI agents that enhance productivity, foster collaboration and keep pace with the demands of the modern workplace. See notice regarding software product information. #talk #nvidia #partners #boost #people

Staff Software Engineer, Progression - VALORANTRiot GamesMercer Island, USA2 hours agoApplyRiot engineers bring deep knowledge of specific technical areas but also value the opportunity to work in a variety of broader domains. As a Software Engineer, you’ll also dive into projects that focus on team cohesiveness and cross-team objectives. You’ll lead without authority and provide other engineers with a clear illustration of extraordinary engineering.VALORANT is Riot’s take on a character-based tactical shooter. As a Staff Software Engineer on the VALORANT team you will be responsible for building metagame client features and scalable backend services for progression systems throughout VALORANT. You'll influence the technical direction for how VALORANT services are built, scale and are operated in production, and collaborate with design to build smooth and intuitive player-facing in-game experiences. All the systems you design and build will be “Player Focused”, meaning striving for the goal of motivating players to choose to engage with them, rather than feeling pressured to.You will report to the Engineering Manager of the Progression team.Responsibilities:Create and/or contribute to best practices, development processes and coding standards; demonstrate a high bar of craft excellence for your teamDesign, build and deliver full-stack, in-game features enabling players to have a world-class experienceDesign, build, and deliver large scale backend services to support millions of playersCollaborate closely with Production, Game Design and UI/UX disciplinesMentor and grow other engineers on the teamRequired Qualifications6+ years of experience as a software engineerBS degree or equivalent experienceExperience with C++, C#, Java, Golang, or similar languageDesired QualificationsProfessional experience working with cloud computing and cloud technologiesProfessional experience building large scale backend systems or game servicesProfessional experience building player- or user-facing frontend experiencesProfessional experience working with the Go programming languageProfessional or academic experience working with C++Professional or hobby experience working with the Unreal EngineFor this role, you'll find success through craft expertise, a collaborative spirit, and decision-making that prioritizes the delight of players. We will be looking at your past studies, experience, and your personal relationship with games. If you embody player empathy and care about players' experiences, this could be your role!Our Perks:Riot focuses on work/life balance, shown by our open paid time off policy and other perks such as flexible work schedules. We offer medical, dental, and life insurance, parental leave for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children, and a 401k with company match. Check out our benefits pages for more information.Riot Games fosters a player and workplace experience that values teamwork embodied by the Summoner's Code and Community Code . Our culture embraces differences as a strength, and our values are the guiding principles for how we approach work. We are committed to putting diversity and inclusionat the center of everything we do, and promoting a fair and collaborative culture where Rioters treat one another with dignity and respect. We encourage you to read more about our value of thriving together and our ongoing work to build the most inclusive company in Gaming .It’s our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and members of Riot Games, Inc. Riot Games makes reasonable accommodations for handicapped and disabled Rioters and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, handicap, veteran status, marital status, criminal history, or any other category protected by applicable federal and state law. We consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law, including the California Fair Chance Act, the City of Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the Washington Fair Chance Act.Per the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the following core duties may create a basis for disqualifying candidates with relevant criminal histories:Safeguarding confidential and sensitive Company dataCommunication with others, including Rioters and third parties such as vendors, and/or players, including minorsAccessing Company assets, secure digital systems, and networksEnsuring a safe interactive environment for players and other RiotersThese duties are directly related to essential operations, safety, trust, and compliance obligations within our organization. Please note that job duties may evolve based on business needs and additional responsibilities may be assigned as necessary to maintain operational efficiency and security. Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings. Apply #staff #software #engineer #progression #valorant