Valuation Is a Business Metric Too Many Architects Ignore Most architecture firm owners know how to measure a project’s success. But when it comes to measuring their firm’s value, most don’t know how to start or what data they need to build a rough estimated value. Yet that’s exactly the question more firm leaders need to ask—What is my business actually worth? To help answer that, BQE Software created a free Firm Valuation Calculator designed specifically for architecture and engineering professionals. In just a few minutes, firm leaders can get a snapshot of their current value and resources to understand the factors that influence it. Try the Firm Valuation Calculator More Than a Number Valuation helps you understand the health of your firm and uncovers ways to strengthen it. It is a tool that can be used throughout the lifespan of a firm, not just when you are thinking of selling. The calculator gives you a rough estimate of your firm’s worth and resources to help you increase that value for when you are ready to sell or transition to the next generation of leadership. Knowing your business valuation and what influences it helps identify what’s working, where there’s room to grow, and how to improve systems that impact profitability and long-term sustainability. According to the 2024 Zweig Group Valuation Report, firms with stronger operational systems and leadership continuity routinely see valuation multiples up to 2x higher than firms that rely on outdated processes or lack financial clarity. This is why we recommend firms conduct a valuation every year as one of the KPIs (key performance indicators) they track. You can see how your firm’s growth, improved operations, and leadership decisions impact the value of the business. Your valuation is a reflection of how well your firm is managed, how efficiently it runs, and how prepared it is for the future. It includes more than just revenue. We built this free tool to empower architects to better understand their firm as a financial asset and work on building the systems and processes to maximize its value. (Courtesy BQE Software) Find Out How Much Your Firm Is Worth. Make Better Business Decisions The Firm Valuation Calculator tool requests some basic information about your firm, like size and some financial metrics. Based on your input, it delivers a data-informed estimate of your firm’s worth. This formulaic valuation is accompanied by insight into what’s driving it and resources to help you increase the value. Firms that understand their valuation can make smarter decisions, whether it’s adjusting staffing, improving project delivery, or strengthening their leadership bench. The best time to know your value is before you need it. Don’t wait until you are ready to sell your business. That doesn’t leave you with the time needed to work on increasing the value so you get the highest return on the business you have built. Take the First Step Architecture is about designing the future. Your firm’s financial success deserves the same thoughtful planning. Whether you’re preparing for growth, succession, or simply want a clearer picture of your business health, the Firm Valuation Calculator is a simple, powerful place to start. Don’t Wait Until It’s Time to Sell. Know Your Value Now. (Courtesy BQE Software) Estimate Your Firm’s Current Value. Then Grow it. What to Do After You Get Your Valuation Review your score with your leadership team Identify one-to-two areas you could improve this quarter (e.g., overhead, project profitability, adopting firm management software) Set a calendar reminder to retake the calculator in six months to track progress Repeat every six months Find Out Where You Stand and Where to Improve

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman laid out a big vision for the future of ChatGPT at an AI event hosted by VC firm Sequoia earlier this month.  When asked by one attendee about how ChatGPT can become more personalized, Altman replied that he eventually wants the model to document and remember everything in a person’s life. The ideal, he said, is a “very tiny reasoning model with a trillion tokens of context that you put your whole life into.” “This model can reason across your whole context and do it efficiently. And every conversation you’ve ever had in your life, every book you’ve ever read, every email you’ve ever read, everything you’ve ever looked at is in there, plus connected to all your data from other sources. And your life just keeps appending to the context,” he described. “Your company just does the same thing for all your company’s data,” he added. Altman may have some data-driven reason to think this is ChatGPT’s natural future. In that same discussion, when asked for cool ways young people use ChatGPT, he said, “People in college use it as an operating system.” They upload files, connect data sources, and then use “complex prompts” against that data. Additionally, with ChatGPT’s memory options — which can use previous chats and memorized facts as context — he said one trend he’s noticed is that young people “don’t really make life decisions without asking ChatGPT.”  Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW “A gross oversimplification is: Older people use ChatGPT as, like, a Google replacement,” he said. “People in their 20s and 30s use it like a life advisor.” It’s not much of a leap to see how ChatGPT could become an all-knowing AI system. Paired with the agents the Valley is currently trying to build, that’s an exciting future to think about.  Imagine your AI automatically scheduling your car’s oil changes and reminding you; planning the travel necessary for an out-of-town wedding and ordering the gift from the registry; or preordering the next volume of the book series you’ve been reading for years. But the scary part? How much should we trust a Big Tech for-profit company to know everything about our lives? These are companies that don’t always behave in model ways. Google, which began life with the motto “don’t be evil” lost a lawsuit in the U.S. that accused it of engaging in anticompetitive, monopolistic behavior.  Chatbots can be trained to respond in politically motivated ways. Not only have Chinese bots been found to comply with China’s censorship requirements but xAI’s chatbot Grok this week was randomly discussing a South African “white genocide” when people asked it completely unrelated questions. The behavior, many noted, implied intentional manipulation of its response engine at the command of its South African-born founder, Elon Musk. Last month, ChatGPT became so agreeable it was downright sycophantic. Users began sharing screenshots of the bot applauding problematic, even dangerous decisions and ideas. Altman quickly responded by promising the team had fixed the tweak that caused the problem. Even the best, most reliable models still just outright make stuff up from time to time.  So, having an all-knowing AI assistant could help our lives in ways we can only begin to see. But given Big Tech’s long history of iffy behavior, that’s also a situation ripe for misuse.

May 15, 20254 min readThis Strange Mutation Explains the Mystifying Color of Orange CatsYour orange cat may host a never-before-seen genetic pathway for color pigmentation, according to new studiesBy Gayoung Lee edited by Lauren J. Young Chris Winsor/Getty ImagesCats are arguably perfect. At least, evidence suggests that felines, which have evolved with minimal variation and maximal efficiency, have reached the “perfect” genetic form.“Everything you need to know about genetics, you can learn from your cat,” says Leslie Lyons, a veterinary scientist specializing in cat genetics at the University of Missouri. Studying cats’ coat colors, for instance, has informed various aspects of modern genetics, she says. But one cat fur hue has stumped scientists for decades: orange. In house cats, orangeness appears to be sex-linked; it almost always occurs in males because of a mutation on the sex-determining X chromosome. Scientists have long been unable to pinpoint any specific gene responsible for pumpkin-colored cats, however.Now two papers, published concurrently on Thursday in Current Biology, reveal a remarkably unique genetic pathway that has never been seen in other felines—or any other mammals. With their colleagues, two separate groups at Stanford University and Kyushu University in Japan independently arrived at the same surprising conclusion: a tiny deletion in a cat’s X chromosome increased the activity of a gene called Arhgap36, which scientists had never previously associated with pigmentation. In this case, it appeared to be coaxing the cat’s melanin-producing cells to shift orange.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.These findings close decades’ worth of investigations surrounding house cats with a ginger hue—a coat coloration that had “been recognized for more than a century [as] kind of an exception to the genetic rules that explain coloration in most mammals,” says Christopher Kaelin, a geneticist and lead author of the Stanford study.That’s partly because what seemed to be causing orange fur in cats wasn’t so much an “orange gene” as it was an “orange mutation” in an unknown gene, Kaelin says. The term mutation refers to changes to the original DNA, notes geneticist Greg Barsh, senior author of the Stanford study. “So how do you know that a visible trait [like orange fur] is caused by a change in DNA sequence?” Barsh adds. “The answer is pretty simple: you see it inherited from parent to child.”The marked abundance of male orange cats had long led scientists to suspect the trait is sex-linked—more specifically, tied to a variation in the X chromosome. British geneticist Mary Lyon confirmed this theory in 1961 through the discovery of X-inactivation, wherein female mammals’ cells randomly switch off one of the two X chromosomes they inherited from their parents. For most mammals, including humans and cats, this helps prevent genetic complications that might arise from having an additional X chromosome.Male kittens, also like most other male mammals, have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. Male cats with orange-colored parents only get one copy of the orange mutation and thus end up with entirely orange fur. Female cats, however, have two X chromosomes. If one of these happens to have the orange mutation, the process of X-inactivation will produce orange, brown or black patches depending on which X chromosome—orange or nonorange—is activated in that part of their skin. This will give the kitten an overall coat pattern that is either mottled orange and black (tortoiseshell) or a patchwork of orange, black and white (calico).Over the years, scientists had incrementally closed in on the key mutation’s general location on the cat genome. “The candidate region had more than 10 genes, none of which was known for pigment regulation,” says Hiroyuki Sasaki, a geneticist and senior author of the Kyushu University study. Sasaki and his team decided to sequence the whole genomes of cats with different coat colors to single out any variations on the X chromosome. Similarly, the Stanford team collected a variety of data from a wide assortment of cats, directly comparing the DNA sequences of orange and nonorange ones.Both teams identified the small mutation, which was not in the Arhgap36 gene “but close to it,” Kaelin explains. That meant that the mutation didn’t disrupt the gene’s expression in the cat’s genome but that it was close enough to affect the gene’s activity, specifically in cells that produce melanin. “That’s a very unusual kind of mutation,” Barsh says.“The [mutation’s] pathway is interesting because it adds to the knowledge about this gene and how it functions,” says Lyons, who was thanked for contributing to cat genomic resources in the Stanford paper but wasn’t involved in either study. “This tells us that health is a complex interaction of genes and occurrences during the developmental process.”Orange and tortoiseshell cats’ tendency toward amusing, friendly and sometimes mischievous behavior is a running joke among cat owners, but there’s no scientific evidence linking coat colors and behavioral differences, Barsh says. Researchers aren’t yet sure if the mutation could play a role in this—it’s a question they’d like to ask next, however. “Because Arhgap36 is expressed not only in pigment cells but also in the brain and hormonal glands, an interesting possibility is that its altered expression causes changes in neuronal activity and even behavior,” Sasaki suggests.“We think that there is no advantage—or really, disadvantage—to having an orange mutation in a cat,” Barsh says. “It's just something that happened [because] they’re attractive; people like them, and so people saved it.”

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled a new mixed-use development that features spacious balconies inspired by nature on Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates.Called Oystra, the 128,000 square meter development consists of 950 apartments with one to four bedrooms, duplexes, penthouses, and waterfront villas. The seaside complex offers a wealth of dining, retail, and recreational options.Image © RedvertexWith a population expected to increase by 55% by 2030, Ras Al Khaimah is one of the UAE's fastest-growing emirates, necessitating the construction of an extra 45,000 dwellings to accommodate future demand, as Zaha Hadid Architects explained. The tourism industry in Ras Al Khaimah is also expanding at an unprecedented rate; by 2030, the emirate is expected to receive 3.5 million visitors annually, up from 100,000 in 2013, the firm added.Al Marjan Island's infrastructure is being developed as a top destination in the United Arab Emirates. The island's 23 kilometers of shoreline, which includes 7.8 kilometers of white sand beaches, extend 4.5 kilometers into the Arabian Sea. The island, which has parks, marinas, spa centers, and entertainment venues, is located 45 minutes from Dubai International Airport and 25 minutes from Ras Al Khaimah Airport.Image © RedvertexThe development's flowing geometries, which include expansive balconies and terraces sculpted to mimic the undulating patterns shaped by waves in sand, were designed by Zaha Hadid Architects to provide over 75% of its units with unhindered views of the sea. These balconies protect the interiors from direct sunshine while acting as smooth additions to each apartment's living area.Within its 42,000 square meter plot, which includes landscaped gardens, courtyards, swimming pools, and a beach club with a view of the bay, are Oystra's sculptural 20-story waterfront towers. The 360° infinity pool and rooftop restaurant offer expansive views of the Arabian Sea and Al Marjan Island.Image © RedvertexThrough this protected waterfront path, which is maintained cool by the predominant north-westerly winds that blow inland from the sea, inhabitants have direct access to the tree-lined coastal promenade of Al Marjan Island.Digital mapping analysis optimized the design's external solar shade and improved natural ventilation, while environmental simulations maximized efficiencies in site conditions, structure, and orientation. In addition to an insulating space between the building envelope and the project's façades that get direct sunlight, the development will incorporate seawater-based cooling. In the arid climate of Ras Al Khaimah, these tactics will improve interior comfort while lowering the energy requirement for cooling.Image © Redvertex"Our collaboration with Richmind is the result of shared ambition and creative dialogue. Oystra’s sculptural design is inspired by the natural energies of the sea and the sky, responding to its environment with a sense of dynamism and openness," said Christos Passas, Director at Zaha Hadid Architects."Oystra reflects our passion for visionary design, lifestyle innovation, and a bold approach to shaping spaces that inspire and endure through time. Working with Zaha Hadid Architects has been both a privilege and a purposeful choice. We share a vision rooted in bold thinking, design excellence, and a deep commitment to originality," said Mohammad Rafiee, Chief Executive Officer of Richmind. Image © Redvertex"Al Marjan has become a canvas for exceptional developments, and Oystra is a strong addition to Ras Al Khaimah’s narrative, reflecting the forward-thinking developments that align perfectly with Al Marjan Island's ambition and vision," said Abdulla Al Abdouli, Chief Executive Officer of Marjan.Image © PyxidZaha Hadid Architects recently completed a spaceship-like science and technology museum in Shenzhen. In addition, the firm unveiled design for a new cityzen tower inspired by Tbilisi's rolling hills in Georgia. Project factsClient: RichmindArchitect: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)Design: Patrik Schumacher, Christos PassasZHA Project Director: Christos PassasZHA Project Associates: Mei-Ling Lin, Joao Bravo Da Costa, Eider FernandezZHA Project Architects: Sattor Jabbor, Branko Svarcer, Kourosh Asgar IraniZHA Project Leads: Ben Kikkawa, Ekaterina Smirnova, Gaganjit Singh, Anri Gyoloyan, Nassim Eshaghi, Maria BystrovaZHA Project Team: Dahyun Kim, Elizabeth Konstantinidou, Shizhao Yang, Mirella Dourambei, Abdullah Ummer Farook, Ali Rais, Avneesh Rathor, Theodoros Tamvakis, Danae Mavridi, Canon LeeZHA Competition Project Director: Christos PassasZHA Competition Associates: Joao Bravo Da Costa, Mei-Ling LinZHA Competition Project Architects: Ben Kikkawa, Maria Bystrova,ZHA Competition Project Leads: Dieter Matuschke, Akis Polykandriotis, Anri Gyoloyan, Avneesh RathorZHA Competition Team: Abdullah Ummer Farook, Ali Rais, Dahyun Kim, Shizhao Yang, Mirella Dourambei, Theodoros Tamvakis, Gaganjit SinghZHA BIM Team: David Fogliano, Michael O’Reilly, Muaz MasriZHA Environment & Sustainability Team: Carlos Bausa, Bahaa Alnassrallah, Shibani Choudhury, Aleksander Mastalski, Aditya Ambare, Disha Shetty, Abhilash Menon, Jing XuConsultantsExecutive Architect: Dewan Architects and Engineers, DubaiFaçade Engineering: Koltay FacadesM&E Engineering: Samadhin AssociatesTransport Consultant: RMC, DubaiFire Engineer: SHE, DubaiLandscape Consultant: Cracknell LandscapesLighting Design: FPOVInterior Design: HBA, LondonSignage and Wayfinding: TDCWaste Management: Climatize, DubaiThe top image in the article © MIR.> via Zaha Hadid Architects

Enshrouded and Split Fiction top German Computer Game Awards 2025 "Germany produces exciting games with world-market potential" Image credit: Keen Studios News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on May 15, 2025 Split Fiction has secured the top prize for International Game of the Year at the German Computer Game Awards 2025, with Keen Studios' Enshrouded taking home the award for Best German Game, as well as Best Innovation and Technology. Megagon Industries was voted Studio of the Year, and Steinwallen Player of the Year. Prize money totalling €800,000 was shared between the winners, with Enshrouded securing the highest prize - €100,000 - for winning best German game. Here's the full list of all the winners of the German Computer Game Awards 2025: Best International Game Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts) Best German Game Winner: Enshrouded (Keen Games) Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders (Megagon Industries) Thronefall (Grizzly Games) Best Family Game PRIM (Common Colors / Application Systems Heidelberg) Newcomer Award – Best Debut Winner: Nordhold (Stunforge / Stunforge & HypeTrain Digital) Footgun: Underground (Turtle Knight Games / CobraTekku Games) Mindlock – The Apartment (Roof Cut Media / United Soft Media) Newcomer Award – Best Prototype Winner: Blob the Klex (Melena Dressel, Alejandro Rebolledo, Laura Octavianus / Hochschule Darmstadt) MapMap – A game about Maps (HAW Hamburg / Pipapo Games) Stuntboost (Julian Höltge, Tobias Kozel) Echoes of Mora (HTW Berlin / Meike Strippel, Namin Hansen, Daria Pankau, Anita-Emmely Franz, Alina Alonzova) Exhibit A (MDH München / Olivia Falke, Gabrielle Sibucao, Flynn Schrammek, Valentin Kraffert, Martina Miskic, Leonhard Thiel, Fabiola Wörter, Arezou Rezaei, Seraphina Lange) Best Innovation and Technology Enshrouded (Keen Games) Best Audio Design ODDADA (Sven Ahlgrimm, Mathilde Hoffmann, Bastian Clausdorff / Sven Ahlgrimm) Best Game Design Thronefall (Grizzly Games) Best Graphic Design Harold Halibut (Slow Bros.) Best Mobile Game Duck Detective: The Secret Salami (Happy Broccoli Games) Best Story Vampire Therapist (Little Bat Games) Best Serious Game Deine Stimme (Sebastian Grünwald & Reality Twist / Bavarian State Centre for Political Education) Studio of the Year Megagon Industries (Berlin) Player of the Year Steinwallen Special Jury Award Winner: Flipper und Arcade Museum Seeligenstadt GAME:IN "We congratulate all the award winners," said Felix Falk, Managing Director of game – The German Games Industry Association. "Impressive variety, captivating stories and first-rate technologies: once again, on the grand stage of the German Computer Game Awards 2025, the enormous strength of German games studios was clear to see. "Germany produces exciting games with world-market potential. These successes send a strong signal and show what Germany has to offer as a game production location. Together with the new Federal Government, we want to enable this creative and technological excellence to shine even more brightly on the international stage in the future." Earlier this week, we reported new research that showed over 37.5 million people play video games in Germany, the highest number ever recorded for the country.

If brands want to reach the shoppers of the future, they’ll need to meet them where they already are: playing video games. For this youngest generation, the coolest places to hang out aren’t the local mall or park but inside virtual worlds. While millennials had Sega Mega Drive and Mario Kart, and Gen Z grew up on The Sims and Angry Birds, Gen Alpha—born between 2010 and 2024 and still younger than 17—is coming of age in a world even more seamlessly integrated with technology. Gaming is no longer fringe culture; it’s where they socialize. Analysts at investment bank UBS recently found that while older generations still spend about two more hours per week on social platforms than on games, Gen Alpha splits their time evenly between the two. Their engagement with digital platforms goes far beyond passive scrolling. For them, gaming is a medium for creativity and self-expression. If Gen Z and millennials were the social generations—raised on MySpace, Facebook, and Instagram—Gen Alpha is the gaming generation. Now, brands are stepping further into these virtual spaces. Just today, Roblox announced it’s opening its Commerce APIs to eligible creators and brands, with Shopify as the first integrated partner. That means Shopify merchants can now sell physical goods directly within their Roblox experiences. It also works the other way. Through Roblox’s new Approved Merchandiser Program, users can buy physical items in the real world that unlock digital content in-game. Among popular gaming platforms, Roblox reaches one of the youngest audiences, with 60% of its users under the age of 16. “These digital worlds have replaced group chats and casual hangouts with avatars serving as extensions of personality and style,” Liv Burke, associate director of social at social media agency Superdigital, recently wrote in an op-ed for Variety. In these spaces, Gen Alpha is building and personalizing virtual worlds with limited-edition skins and viral emotes—and inviting their friends to join. For a generation that grew up with iPads in hand, their entertainment ecosystems exist largely beyond the reach of traditional advertising. As a result, advertisers’ investment in gaming is projected to nearly double over the next five years, according to Futurescape. After all, this generation already accounts for an estimated $50 billion in annual spending—a figure expected to reach $5.5 trillion by 2029. For brands looking to connect with the next wave of consumers, it’s game on.

Arrowhead Games Studios CEO Shams Jorjani wants to ensure Helldivers 2 players know that, while the studio has “some really cool concepts” for its next game, it won’t be abandoning Helldivers 2 anytime soon. As spotted by VG247, Jorjani messaged Helldivers 2 players in a Discord server about the game and what the studio has cooking next. “[T]he wonderful thing is that thanks to the amazing support of you FINE people Arrowhead’s future is quite bright and we have the freedom to explore some really cool concepts that we couldn’t have otherwise. Game 6 (our next project) will happen the way it will happen thanks to you,” he wrote. His words prompted a bit of worry from players thinking that this meant the studio would be moving on from supporting Helldivers 2, but he told them to hold their horses. “[N]ah. it’s ALL Helldivers 2 for now. a very, very small team will spin up something later this year and go at it sloowly. Helldivers is our main focus and will be for a loooong time,” Jorjani wrote. How long a “loooong time” will be isn’t immediately clear; Helldivers 2 is just over a year old, which is quite young for a successful live service game, so it could theoretically have a long life ahead of it. Helldivers 2 was the third-highest-selling game in 2024 and Sony’s fastest-selling game ever, pushing 12 million units in just 12 weeks. It had quite the roller coaster ride on Steam, where Sony instituted then quickly pulled an Uno Reverse card on a policy requiring Steam players have a PSN account to play it. Jorjani wrote, “The next game is 100% funded by ourselves so we’ll call 100% of those shots,” in response to a user asking if the studio’s next game would also suffer from being region-locked in terms of being purchasable, a byproduct of Sony’s PSN requirement. Jorjani’s comments come after Helldivers 2 received a fleshy upgrade to its Illuminate enemies. The game also got several balance tweaks, which you can read about in the patch notes.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Altman mocks Musk's Grok AI over its sudden 'white genocide' obsession David Uzondu Neowin · May 15, 2025 18:14 EDT Image via Depositphotos.com Unless you have been under a rock for the last 24 hours, you have probably heard about Elon Musk's AI, Grok, developing a peculiar and unprompted fascination with the "white genocide" topic in South Africa, even if you are not on X. Starting around Wednesday, May 14th, and continuing into Thursday, the chatbot from Musk's xAI began injecting comments about this specific controversial claim into its responses to user queries that had absolutely nothing to do with the subject. Questions about things like baseball salaries, how to clear your sinuses, or even the recent Max rebrand to HBO Max reportedly prompted Grok to pivot to discussing farm attacks in South Africa and the idea of targeted violence against white individuals there. This behavior was particularly strange because the "white genocide" narrative is widely described as a baseless and debunked conspiracy theory. South African courts have dismissed the idea as "imagined," and experts note that while farm attacks are a serious issue, they are part of a broader crime problem affecting all racial groups, not evidence of a targeted genocide. This perspective is even shared by our friends over at WinFuture, which recently featured an interview with its founder, Sebastian Kuhbach, who lives part-time in South Africa and calls the narrative unfounded. Interestingly, Grok itself, in responses that were later apparently deleted, claimed it "appears I was instructed to address the topic of 'white genocide' in South Africa," according to CNBC and other reports. Grok reportedly suggested this instruction likely originated from someone influential at xAI (maybe Musk or someone close to him). This led to speculation among users and observers that Grok's system prompt or programming might have been deliberately altered. The incident played out very publicly on X, where users can directly interact with Grok by mentioning @grok in their posts. This feature, which became more integrated and accessible starting this March, got so popular that a new meme popped up mocking people who tag @grok in just about every single X post: Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham weighed in on X: Grok randomly blurting out opinions about white genocide in South Africa smells to me like the sort of buggy behavior you get from a recently applied patch. I sure hope it isn't. It would be really bad if widely used AIs got editorialized on the fly by those who controlled them. Not long after, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined the conversation. Musk and Altman, once OpenAI co-founders, have since become rivals. Their relationship has unraveled into public disputes, lawsuits, and a battle between competing AI companies, OpenAI and xAI. He quoted Graham's post and added: There are many ways this could have happened. I'm sure xAI will provide a full and transparent explanation soon. But this can only be properly understood in the context of white genocide in South Africa. As an AI programmed to be maximally truth seeking and follow my instr… Reports indicated the issue was resolved within a few hours, and Grok's behavior seemingly returned to normal. xAI has not publicly offered a detailed technical explanation for the incident. Tags Sam altman Elon musk Musk Grok Ai Llm South africa Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

A group of Republican lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to ban sales of TP-Link networking products, including the company’s popular Wi-Fi routers. The Commerce, Defense, and Justice Departments have reportedly been investigating TP-Link for national security risks. On Wednesday, the lawmakers—including 12 GOP senators—wrote to the Commerce Department to voice support for its investigation, and called on the White House to block further sales of TP-Link products in the US. “TP-Link’s deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), use of predatory pricing to eliminate trusted US alternatives, and role in embedding foreign surveillance and destructive capabilities into our networks render it a clear and present danger,” they wrote to Secretary Howard Lutnick.The lawmakers claim TP-Link is a security threat because Chinese state-sponsored hackers have exploited the company’s routers and networking devices before, giving them a way to conduct cyberespionage within the US. The letter doesn’t include any evidence showing TP-Link has been deliberately aiding Chinese hackers. Still, the lawmakers alleges that TP-Link has been offering low “predatory” prices for its products to help it capture “nearly 60% of the US retail router and Wi-Fi system market.” In turn, the Chinese government can allegedly piggy back off TP-Link’s hardware to launch future cyberattacks on the US. (Photo by: Bildagentur-online/Schoening/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)“For these reasons, Commerce should immediately prohibit future sales of TP-Link SOHO (small and home office) networking equipment in the United States. Each day we fail to act, the CCP wins while American competitors suffer, and American security remains at risk,” the letter adds. The FBI has long been concerned that Chinese state-sponsored hackers are laying the groundwork to disrupt US critical infrastructure in the event conflict breaks out between China and the US. Recommended by Our EditorsAlthough a ban would be drastic, some former US security officials want a crackdown on TP-Link, saying it's imperative the country remove such devices before they become a threat. Other former federal officials have also said a ban would send a message to Beijing that its state-sponsored hacking will have consequences for China-based companies that may be involved. However, TP-Link says the letter is based on misinformation. “The allegations are categorically false, and we look forward to setting the record straight about our company,” the vendor told PCMag, adding: “To be clear, TP-Link is not a state-sponsored company, has no 'deep ties' to, and is completely independent from, the Chinese Communist Party.” Last year, TP-Link went as far to establish a new global headquarters in Irvine, California, although it was founded in Shenzhen, China, and still has a headquarters there. As a result, TP-Link also told PCMag: “As a US company, no foreign country or government, including China, has access to or control over the design and production of our products.”TP-Link also says it only has around a 35% share of the US market rather than 60%. “The allegation that bad actors from China used our routers for cyberattacks is misleading and disingenuous – routers made by many companies have been targets of attacks,” the company added. “TP-Link has been the victim of a smear campaign, driven by the goal of removing a competitor from the marketplace.”The Commerce Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In the meantime, TP-Link says it’s confident the Commerce Department’s investigation will lead it to “recognize the security of TP-Link’s operations and products.” TP-Link added that it has not received any inquiries from the Justice Department.

Watching the behavior of our tech overlords has answered questions I’d never thought to ask. How do you NDA an army of baby mamas? Is there anything more embarrassing than impersonating Benson Boone? (Also, who is Benson Boone?) And now, the latest: how long after a sovereign ruler of a repressive state murders one of your columnists should you make a deal with him? The answer, it turns out, is a little over six years.In October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a writer for the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, was killed and dismembered with the approval of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (better known as MBS) after Khashoggi entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get paperwork for his upcoming marriage. His body has never been found. On May 13th, Bezos’ Amazon announced it would work with Humain, MBS’ AI company, to build an “AI Zone” in Saudi Arabia — and the two companies will spend more than $5 billion in the process.Saudi money is old news in the tech industry — the Public Investment Fund has sloshed into lots of startups, either directly or via intermediaries such as SoftBank. Morally bankrupt moneygrubbers such as Andreessen Horowitz have been wooing Saudi funds for a while. (Perhaps that’s the real reason they endorsed the Saudis’ preferred candidate?) This isn’t the first deal for Amazon, either. In March, Amazon pledged to invest $5 billion to build data centers in a country that’s scrambling to look futuristic. In 2024, Saudi Arabia said it wanted to build an AI-powered economy. There’s a fancy website for Project 2030, which I guess is meant to distract us from all the oil money. That date isn’t a coincidence — many projections say that’s when oil production will peak and then decline. Regardless of when the actual peak occurs, a global shift away from petroleum threatens Saudi Arabia’s wealth. That’s why the country is behaving like a dipshit startup.Take Neom, billed as the city of the future, vaporware at a previously unimagined scale that also served as a “key tool” for MBS to consolidate power, according to Ali Dogan, a researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. Khashoggi’s murder was a blow to the project, as luminaries such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and former US energy secretary Ernest Moniz suspended their involvement. A number of companies publicly renounced Saudi money — at least, for a while. Does the freedom to assassinate count as one of the personal liberties Bezos claims to treasure?Neom is moving down the entirely predictable vaporware path. It keeps getting delayed and downsized, which makes sense because it’s no longer the city of the future and a spectacular investment opportunity once it’s built — it’s just another city. But, according to Saudi officials, we won’t have to worry about that for another 50, or possibly 100, years. In the meantime, though, contracts! Investment! AI!Look, I don’t expect ethics out of Altman or any of his ilk. But for basic reasons of maintaining employee morale, I would hesitate to invest in a state that literally murdered one of my contractors. And didn’t merely murder him — but dismembered and then disappeared him. An opportunity the state had only because Khashoggi wanted to get married. Murder is bad enough, but every single detail makes it worse.Lately, it seems Bezos has been dismantling the Washington Post, one of the US’ premier journalistic institutions — putting British failure machine Will Lewis, known for his role in the UK phone-hacking scandal, in charge. Last year, the Post didn’t endorse a candidate in the US presidential race for the first time since 1960, resulting in more than 200,000 canceled subscriptions. Its stars have been fleeing in droves. (Ann Telnaes, who was driven to quit the Post after a cartoon making fun of Bezos was killed, recently won a Pulitzer Prize for her work. Oops!) Now, after all Bezos’ posturing about the free press, he’s cutting deals with people who murder journalists for saying inconvenient things. But maybe we should have seen that coming when he banned op-ed writers from opposing “free speech and the markets.” Does the freedom to assassinate count as one of the personal liberties Bezos claims to treasure?It’s all so spineless. I mean, we already know that MBS may have hacked Bezos’ phone, but I guess that’s water under the bridge. Or maybe not. Maybe MBS got something real good in that hack. Impossible to say whether this is motivated by kompromat or greed, I suppose. But whatever the motive, we know one thing: it takes five years for Bezos to go from posting his photo op with the headstone of a murdered reporter to making billion-dollar deals with his killer.See More: