Designing without modern tools isn’t regression — it’s a stance against authoritative, tech-imposed aesthetics.The Art of Suminagashi Japanese Marbling | Image source: youtube.comI find most design trends irritating — not because they exist, but because too many designers follow them instead of forging their own. Then again, maybe that’s just my rebellious nature talking.There’s nothing wrong with using trends for inspiration or to practice various techniques. But latching onto a popular aesthetic as if it’s your identity? That’s just uninspired — especially if you consider yourself a creative professional.Take Airbnb’s recent Lava icon format — currently causing quite a stir among designers. The icons stand out for their dimensional look — a so-called break from the flat, minimal trend that’s really just recycled Web 2.0 aesthetics. But more importantly than the visuals, they use a custom animation format.https://medium.com/media/85cb356a935a5b28844c2b60587db172/hrefInstead of using standard video, Lottie, or WebGL, Airbnb created a lightweight proprietary format for animated UI icons. It supports transparency and runs smoothly across platforms using their own playback engine. The result is a low-key, technically efficient solution tailored to their design system.Cool? Sure. Game-changing? Not really.It’s just another gimmicky trend that’ll be overused by designers until the next shiny thing comes out of Silicon Valley — assuming we’re still employed by then. But hey, I’m sure our AI overlords will credit us in the footnotes.The video below by Michal Malewicz shows just how effortlessly AI can generate these dynamic icons — maybe too effortlessly. Aside from the animation, these icons remind me of 2010 all over again — minus the part where designers actually, you know, design stuff.https://medium.com/media/366d8d8678e02caa2971f432cb9c9832/hrefThis new aesthetic shift sparked a question in my mind — why are we so quick to react and follow design trends instead of creating them? And more importantly, why are we feeding those trends with the same technology that threatens to hollow out the value of creative work? That’s like a sheep teaching wolves how to season meat — it’s the opposite of self-preservation.Designers already have the tools — not just digital, but physical, emotional, and cultural — to shape what comes next. And with AI stripping creative work of depth and nuance, maybe the next shift shouldn’t be about advancing the tech, but about returning to what’s raw, handmade, and unpredictable. Less about outcomes, more about process.I’m not talking about arts and crafts. I’m talking about a process that requires both expertise and experimentation — where clear vision meets material intuition. Where the story of creation is just as important as the final result. And where the medium isn’t chosen for convenience, but for its ability to convey meaning through the craft itself.Most contemporary design leans on minimalism and “clean” aesthetics — traits that aren’t principles so much as trends, and like any trend, they’re fleeting. What passes for “usable” today often masks a deeper fear of disruption — a retreat into sterile, risk-averse conformity at the expense of expressive creativity.Maybe it’s time to be bold. Brave. Experimental. Unruly. Time to stop letting authoritarian tech giants like Google and Apple dictate the future of design. Maybe it’s time for humans — driven by imagination, emotion, and real creativity — to shape what comes next.We don’t need permission to create work that feels alive and personal. The trend should be the process of human craft, not the outcome.That being said, here are a few hands-on techniques that can reignite that spark — or at least offer an inspirational avenue for expression and experimentation as technology slowly strips away our creative soul.Hand Sketching with PurposeImage source: RedditNot as a wireframe or placeholder, but as a final aesthetic choice. Embrace smudges, uneven line weight, imperfect perspective — these things inject humanity. Digitize them, yes — but don’t correct them. The imperfections are the point.Suminagashi (Floating Ink Marbling)Image source: suminagashi.comThis ancient Japanese technique involves dropping ink onto water and manipulating the patterns with breath or tools before laying paper on top to capture the design. The result is a one-of-a-kind, fluid composition that feels spontaneous and alive. Scanning these marbled textures into digital work adds unpredictability and human touch.Gelli PrintingImage source: schack.orgA monoprinting technique using gelatin-based plates. You apply ink or paint to a soft surface and press textures into it — leaves, string, mesh — then transfer it to paper. The result is a layered, atmospheric texture full of nuance. Perfect for backgrounds, overlays, or subtle storytelling.Block PrintingImage source: mokuartstudio.comOne of the oldest and most tactile forms of printmaking. Carve a design into wood, linoleum, or rubber, roll ink across the surface, and press it onto paper or fabric. The pressure inconsistencies, ink bleed, and subtle misalignments give each print its own personality. Digitizing these prints introduces organic irregularity into otherwise sterile digital layouts.Photocopy TransferImage source: billchambers.netThis hands-on technique — something I picked up from a fellow faculty member at LIU — involves printing a design with a laser printer, placing it face-down on a new surface, and applying an alcohol-based solvent like acetone or eucalyptus oil to transfer the toner. The result is rough, imperfect, and full of texture — like a ghost of the original image. Perfect for adding grit, unpredictability, and a touch of rebellion to otherwise sterile digital work.Stop-Motion MicrointeractionsImage source: BehanceCreate frame-by-frame animations using physical materials — paper cutouts, clay, thread, even coffee stains. Photograph each frame and compile them into short animations using GIF or Lottie formats. These can be used for loading states, transitions, tooltips, or hover effects — anywhere your interface needs a moment of life.Analog CollageImage source: reddit.comRip up magazines. Cut out old photos. Layer tape, torn paper, brush strokes. Glue it down, scan it in. This physical interaction with media encourages spontaneous composition and leads to surprising juxtapositions that would never happen inside a grid system.Film Photography as Texture SourceImage source: behance.netShoot 35mm film, cross-process it, scratch the negatives, scan it all. Use these as grainy, unpredictable texture layers. It gives your design a worn-in honesty, unlike the sterile perfection of stock photos or digital renders.Hand-Lettering with Intentional InconsistencyImage source: youtube.comNot polished script or Instagram calligraphy. We’re talking rough, personal letterforms drawn with pencil, marker, or brush — complete with wobbly baselines, inconsistent kerning, and raw edges. The goal isn’t perfection — it’s character.Material Experiments with Failure in MindImage source: threadsmagazine.comWork with candle wax, clay, bleach on paper, or burning the edges of cardboard. These experiments are often messy and may “fail” by conventional standards — but the accidents are often the most expressive parts.Some might argue that AI can replicate the outcomes of these techniques — and they’d be right. But that misses the point. These aren’t just aesthetic choices — they’re philosophical stances. They resist convenience. They reject the sterile, corporate polish that defines so much of modern design. They demand time, intention, and effort. And that’s exactly the point.AI can churn out a thousand “good-enough” designs in seconds. And maybe that’s fine for companies that don’t value creativity. But for those of us who do? That’s not the bar. It’s an insult. I refuse to let corporations and tech platforms strip away the very thing that gives so many designers a sense of purpose.I believe we should be working toward a future where what truly sets a designer apart is their willingness to get their hands dirty — to make mistakes, challenge convention, and find meaning in the mess of the process itself.That’s how you create a trend worth following — not by imitating the machine, literally or metaphorically, but by doing what it can not — creating from passion, intuition, resistance, and imperfection. By making the process — and the story behind it — part of the value, you restore meaning to the work.Maybe if we’re brave enough, honest enough, the next big design trend won’t come from Figma templates or top-down tech mandates. Maybe it’ll come from a torn piece of paper, a botched ink spill, or a stubborn pencil stroke. Maybe the next trend begins the moment we stop chasing — and start making again.Don’t miss out! Join my email list and receive the latest content.The next design trend should start with your hands, not a computer was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

May 21, 20256 min readSleep Plays an Important Role in Sustainable Weight LossA sleep medicine specialist explains how restless nights lead to consuming more calories and how you can use sleep as a tool for weight lossBy Tammy Worth solidcolours/Getty ImagesThis Nature Outlook is editorially independent, produced with financial support from Avadel.A healthy diet and regular exercise have long been staples of weight management. But research shows that the role of sleep, which helps to regulate appetite hormones and calorie intake, is just as important. Esra Tasali, a sleep specialist at University of Chicago Medicine in Illinois and director of the UChicago Sleep Center, spoke to Nature about why getting sufficient sleep could be crucial to weight loss and maintenance.How did you end up studying sleep and weight loss?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.My sleep journey started about 25 years ago. I had completed my pulmonary training and decided to specialize in sleep medicine. I also trained in endocrinology, so it was natural for me to study the relationship between sleep and metabolic diseases, including obesity and diabetes.Would you say that sleep is as important for the body as it is for the brain?Absolutely! Sleep is inextricably linked to our biology and important for every cell in the body. Work at the University of Chicago has challenged the brain-centred view of sleep. As far back as 1999, we published a paper that showed that healthy young men who did not have obesity or diabetes, when sleep-deprived in a laboratory setting, show signs of prediabetes. And now we have the research to show that sleep is essential to regulating metabolism, appetite and hormones.Why does not getting enough sleep make us more susceptible to weight gain?Lack of sleep increases our drive to eat. There are two main reasons that this could happen. The first is that when we are sleep-deprived, our brain’s reward centres are more active and drive us to seek rewards. These include food, particularly high-calorie, unhealthy food. Our ability to inhibit the impulse to eat is diminished.The second mechanism driving increased calorie intake is elevations in appetite hormones. The most well-known is ghrelin, the ‘hunger hormone’, which is mainly secreted by the stomach. If you don’t sleep enough, levels of that hormone will be higher, and you will feel hungrier and consume more calories. Over the long term, this leads to weight gain. In 2022, we showed, in a real-world setting while people continued their daily activities in their home environment, that if you extend sleep by an average of 1.2 hours per night and monitor the energy intake among adults who are overweight, they decreased their intake by an average of 270 calories per day.How many hours of sleep should people aim for if they are trying to lose weight?In our study, we aimed for 8.5 hours of time in bed. So, a target of at least 8 hours in bed — and no less than 7 hours of sleep — would be a good start for an adult. But any increase in sleep time seems to help. Interestingly, we found an association between an increase in sleep duration and a decrease in calorie intake. Even an extra 30 minutes of sleep reduced the number of calories consumed.Many people would like to get more sleep, but have difficulty doing so. What kind of sleep intervention did you use in the study?We personalized the sleep-hygiene instructions — that is, we tailored them to each person’s schedule and specific needs. One strategy that worked for almost all participants was to insist that they put their electronic devices away at a certain time so that they wouldn’t hear those beeps and dings that draw them into social media, texting or e-mail.Does weight loss help sleep apnoea, in which a person’s breathing during sleep is interrupted?Yes — for people with sleep apnoea, a 10% reduction in body mass index reduces the apnoea’s severity by about one-third. And if you lose weight and improve your sleep apnoea, that might reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, or make it less severe if you already have it. The fragmented, low-quality sleep associated with sleep apnoea, however, can compound the risk of obesity. So there’s a kind of a bidirectional interaction between excess weight and sleep apnoea.So, it’s not just the duration of sleep, but also sleep quality that plays a part in metabolism and diabetes risk?Yes, slow-wave sleep, often called deep sleep, is a key marker of sleep quality. This stage of sleep helps with memory consolidation, restoration at the cellular level and tissue repair, and the clearing out of metabolic waste products. It also has an important role in metabolism and hormonal release. For example, a major pulse of growth-hormone secretion occurs during slow-wave sleep.Our experimental work has shown that if you deprive healthy young adults of slow-wave sleep — to the levels seen in older adults, or in people with sleep apnoea — they show signs of prediabetes after just three days. This finding opened up an area of research that focused on the role of sleep quality in diabetes risk. And data emerging from large population studies suggest that adults who get sufficient slow-wave sleep have a lower future risk of developing diabetes. So finding ways to get enough slow-wave sleep seems to be important, particularly for younger people.Can wearable technology help people to get better sleep?Wearables have allowed people to become more aware of their sleep needs and patterns by helping them to monitor their sleep passively. But they don’t necessarily know what to do with this information they’re getting about their own sleep. What is missing are guided, personalized solutions to improve sleep for each individual. That is what we are working on in our new study. I think that, increasingly with wearables, people will start to see how their sleep is connected with other health parameters, such as heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation. They might notice that improvement on those metrics correlate with better sleep, which can, in turn, lead to a change towards healthier sleep behaviours.How important do you think sleep is in the larger realm of weight-loss strategies?Getting enough sleep could really help to tackle the obesity epidemic. Its impact could be particularly great for younger people. We know that the obesity epidemic is even more pronounced than it used to be in children and young people. Teenagers are sleep-deprived for various reasons, including heavy use of electronics, social media, video gaming and, in some places, early school start times that work against teenagers’ natural circadian rhythms. To compensate for that sleep loss, they increase their food intake because they tend to be hungrier and reach for unhealthy foods, putting them on a high-risk trajectory for weight gain. So stopping that weight-gain spiral before it starts, at an early age, through healthier sleep habits, has enormous public-health implications for prevention or reversal of obesity.New weight-loss drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, are effective against obesity. Is it still important to emphasize the importance of sleep in maintaining a healthy weight?Despite the increasing interest in the positive effects of GLP-1 agonists, there is still a lot of uncertainty about their long-term biological effects and how they will ultimately change people’s eating habits and lifestyle behaviours. They make you feel less hungry, but they also come with side effects and they’re quite expensive. Plus, when you stop these drugs, you rapidly regain weight. Sufficient sleep can also make you feel less hungry and help you to eat healthier foods; and the good news is that sleep is free, has no side effects, and has many other benefits to overall health and well-being.More than one-third of US adults are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, which strongly increases their risk of chronic conditions, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Lack of sleep is estimated to cost the US economy close to half a trillion dollars per year. So I strongly believe that educating the public about the importance of adequate sleep in maintaining a healthy weight is crucial to preventing obesity and curbing the epidemic of chronic disease.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

May 21, 202510 min readSleep Better with New Drugs, Select Cannabinoids and Wearable DevicesDrugs that target wakefulness, molecules in cannabis and wearable devices that modulate brain activity could help people with insomniaBy Rachel Nuwer carlofranco/Getty ImagesThis Nature Outlook is editorially independent, produced with financial support from Avadel.Miranda cannot remember a time in her life when she did not have insomnia. The 23 year old, who asked for her last name to be withheld, started struggling with sleep when she was a child. As she’s grown older, it’s only become worse. She takes “a myriad of medications” each night, she says, but usually still cannot fall asleep until the early hours of the morning. “I can’t get up and be functional until halfway through the day,” she says. She had to drop out of university because she couldn’t attend classes, and she can’t hold down a job. Her insomnia exacerbates other medical conditions as well, including migraines and the pain condition fibromyalgia. “It’s hugely debilitating,” she says. “It affects everything.”In the United States, about 12% of adults have been diagnosed with chronic insomnia — when a person struggles to sleep for more than three nights each week for at least three months, and experiences daytime distress as a result. Research suggests that the worldwide figure is 10–30%. It also often co-occurs with and creates a vicious cycle with other conditions, including chronic pain, depression and anxiety.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.Fortunately for Miranda and millions of others with chronic insomnia, new treatments are arriving. The emergence of a class of pharmaceuticals that induces sleep through a different brain pathway from existing drugs is a welcome development, and molecules in cannabis and specialized medical devices to promote sleep are also showing potential as sleep aids. Soon, those struggling with sleep could have a range of new options available to help.Imperfect solutionsCognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is usually the recommended first treatment. This specialized talking therapy focuses on establishing healthy sleep behaviours and addressing thoughts that can interfere with sleep. But CBT-I is not covered by all health-care insurance plans in the United States. In the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, public health-care systems usually provide it, but waiting times can be long. This is because, around the world, there is a limited availability of therapists, says Andrew Krystal, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco. “We keep hiring new people, but almost immediately their schedules are completely filled and the wait list is a year.”CBT-I also doesn’t work for everyone. Miranda has tried it and has received conventional talking therapy for over a decade, with limited success. “It only helps so much,” she says.Pharmacological interventions are the next line of defence, Krystal says. Benzodiazepines and a class of medicines called Z-drugs, which include zolpidem (Ambien), are among the most prescribed insomnia medications. These sedative hypnotics enhance the effects of the neurotransmitter GABA, thereby dampening brain activity. They also reduce anxiety. But they can create a hangover effect and increase the risk of falls in older people. These drugs also have the potential for misuse and can cause dependence. Some studies have even found an association between long-term use of Z-drugs and benzodiazepines and an increased risk of death.Miranda tried Ambien, but says that she quickly became chemically dependent. She eventually weaned herself off it and switched to benzodiazepines, but she began developing a tolerance to them, too — she once wound up in hospital with withdrawal symptoms after she tried to cut back on her dosage. “They’re horrible drugs to be on,” she says. But she cannot fall asleep without them. Each night, she now takes two benzodiazepines, as well as gabapentin, an anticonvulsant medication that is sometimes given off-label for insomnia.Physicians frequently provide other off-label prescriptions for insomnia, including trazodone, which is approved for depression. Over-the-counter products such as antihistamines are also used for sleeplessness. None are ideal, however, because they have not been evaluated as sleep aids, says Emmanuel Mignot, a sleep-medicine researcher at Stanford University in California.Miranda has experience with many of these products. When she first developed chronic insomnia as a child, her paediatrician recommended melatonin, which is available without a prescription in the United States. It helped her fall asleep, but it did not keep her asleep. During her teenage years, different neurologists prescribed off-label antidepressants and other mood medications, including trazodone and mirtazapine. But they came with what she calls “torturous” side effects: she felt constantly anxious and exhausted during the day, and her memory became “incredibly foggy”.Blocking wakefulnessMignot was studying narcolepsy, a chronic disorder that affects sleep–wake cycles and causes people to fall asleep suddenly, when he inadvertently helped to pave the way towards the latest means of treating insomnia. He discovered that dogs with narcolepsy have a genetic mutation that affects one of two receptors used by the neurotransmitter orexin, the primary role of which was initially thought to be the regulation of appetite. Mignot then found that people with narcolepsy lack orexin, confirming the chemical’s main job: promoting wakefulness. If drugs could be developed to prevent orexin from binding to its receptors, Mignot thought, then people with insomnia would become “narcoleptic for one night”.In 2007, researchers at the pharmaceutical firm Actelion (part of which is now Idorsia Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland) showed that blocking orexin’s two receptors induced sleep in rats, dogs and people. In 2014, the biopharmaceutical company Merck, received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the first dual orexin receptor antagonist (DORA) drug, suvorexant (Belsomra). In 2019, another DORA drug — lemborexant (Dayvigo) — was approved, followed, in 2022, by daridorexant (Quviviq).Compared with benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, which inhibit activity all over the brain, DORA drugs affect only the neurons activated by orexins (see ‘Blocking wakefulness’). “The beauty of it is it does nothing but block the stimulation of wakefulness,” says neurologist Joe Herring, who heads neuroscience clinical research at Merck in Rahway, New Jersey. “It’s a physiologically better way to promote sleep.”Alisdair Macdonald/NatureDaridorexant is the only DORA drug for which data are available about daytime functioning, says Antonio Olivieri, chief medical officer at Idorsia, which produces daridorexant. In clinical trials, Idorsia showed that, compared with those given a placebo, people who received daridorexant experienced significant improvements in daytime insomnia symptoms the following day. Data reported in the approvals database of the FDA also indicate that daridorexant has the lowest fatigue and drowsiness scores of the three DORA drugs, possibly because it leaves the body the quickest.So far, there have been no one-to-one comparisons of DORA drugs. “Ideally, you’d have direct evidence of how those drugs compare to each other,” says Daniel Buysse, a sleep scientist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania. “But we rarely have such evidence, so instead, we have to rely on statistical techniques that allow you to make indirect comparisons.” It’s also difficult to say definitively how DORA drugs compare with older treatments for insomnia, but Buysse says that drug registration trials suggest that DORA drugs have fewer adverse cognitive or hangover effects compared with benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, as well as less potential for dependence and misuse. The European Insomnia Guideline 2023 placed daridorexant as the next recommended insomnia treatment after CBT-I.The main drawback to DORA drugs, Buysse says, is not medical but financial: their high cost keeps them out of reach of many people who could benefit from them. “There are many patients I would like to prescribe these drugs for, but I know in order for them to get one of these medications we’ll have to go through trials of several other drugs before the request will be considered,” Buysse says. DORA drugs are also available only in a few countries, so far.Given her long history of insomnia, Miranda was given a prescription for suvorexant. Her psychiatrist recommended the drug to her about a year ago. “I was really sceptical that an anti-wakefulness drug would be any different to a pro-sleep drug,” she says. But she quickly felt the difference, and has now come to see the drug as “a saviour”. Without the drug, she says, “I’d probably be on a much higher benzodiazepine dose than I am.” She hopes her suvorexant dose can continue to increase, so that some of her other medications can be reduced.Expanding availabilityOther drugs that target the orexin system are in the clinical pipeline. Seltorexant, for example, is being developed by the US pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson for people with both major depressive disorder and insomnia. Around 70% of people with depression have insomnia, so having a medication that treats both of those disorders “has the potential to fill an important gap”, says Krystal, who has consulted for Johnson & Johnson on the drug. In a phase III trial, participants who took the drug experienced meaningful improvement in both sleep and depressive symptoms, with an antidepressant effect that seemed to be independent of the participants getting better sleep. Seltorexant might have an antidepressant effect because it is designed to block only one of the two types of orexin receptor, Krystal adds, whereas other DORA drugs block both receptor types.Investigations of already-approved DORA drugs are also expanding into other populations. Merck has sponsored investigator-led studies of suvorexant in people with insomnia as well as depression or substance-use disorders, and Idorsia is sponsoring studies of daridorexant’s safety and efficacy in sub-groups of people who have insomnia and other conditions.In 2020, suvorexant became the first medication to be approved for treating sleep disorders in people with Alzheimer’s disease. Insomnia is often a precursor to and co-morbid with Alzheimer’s, and the disease seems to manifest differently in people with the condition. In one study comparing older people with insomnia with those with both insomnia and Alzheimer’s, people with both conditions had a number of extra changes to their sleep patterns, including less time spent in deep sleep — sometimes called slow-wave sleep because that describes the pattern of the brain’s electrical activity during these intervals. Sleep problems in people with Alzheimer’s also seem to have a causal role in increasing levels of toxic substances in the brains of those individuals. Preliminary data suggest that suvorexant could also help to reduce toxic brain proteins. The results of a follow-up study testing that finding are expected in 2026.In the weedsSleeplessness is already among the most common conditions for the medicinal use of the drug cannabis. Miranda, for example, supplements her nightly pharmaceutical regimen with a cannabis tincture that contains a few of the plant’s 100-plus cannabinoids (she lives in a state where cannabis use is legal). “It’s definitely a key player in my sleep-medication arsenal,” she says.Yet, scientifically, little is known about which cannabinoids — if any — promote sleep, and what a safe and effective dose is. “Tens of millions of people around the world are probably using cannabinoids for insomnia, but we have very little good-quality evidence to support that,” says Iain McGregor, director of the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney in Australia.McGregor is investigating cannabinol (CBN), a molecule that develops in cannabis as the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) oxidizes. His group reported that CBN increased sleep in rats to a similar degree as zolpidem, but without the drug’s known negative side effect of suppressing rapid-eye-movement sleep. Unpublished data of a single-night trial with 20 people with insomnia disorder show that people fell asleep 7 minutes faster after taking 300 milligrams of CBN compared with those taking a placebo; participants also reported subjective improvements in sleep and mood. Although 7 minutes “doesn’t sound like a lot”, it is on a par with what benzodiazepines and Z-drugs typically accomplish, says Camilla Hoyos, a sleep researcher at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, who led the work. McGregor, Hoyos and their colleagues are aiming to follow up the work with a large, community-based trial in which people with insomnia take either CBN or a placebo for six weeks at home.As for cannabidiol (CBD) and THC — the most well-known cannabinoids — the prospects for efficacy against insomnia are doubtful, at least for the doses used in trials so far. Several small studies have failed to find a sleep benefit from taking CBD. In one experiment, researchers observed that participants in a study who received 10 milligrams of THC and 200 milligrams of CBD actually slept for 25 minutes less compared with when they received a placebo. Several other company-sponsored trials of low-dose CBD for insomnia were not published, McGregor adds, because they found no significant improvement. “It’s been one failure after the next,” he says.Insomnia’s new frontiersThe search for more effective insomnia treatments continues in other realms, as well. Some research groups are experimenting with different receptors that they hope could lead to new classes of drugs. Gabriella Gobbi, a clinical psychiatrist and research neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, for example, has homed in on one of the brain’s two melatonin receptors, MT2. “We want to find an alternative mechanism without any addiction liability and with fewer side effects, especially for use in children and elderly people,” she says. A molecule that the team developed that binds to MT2 increased the time that rats spent in deep sleep by 30%. Gobbi aims to launch clinical trials in the next two to three years.A few companies and health systems, including the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, have also created or are developing digital platforms for delivering CBT-I. These apps take users through regimens that are tailored to their symptoms. SleepioRx, for example, is a 90-day digital programme that has been evaluated in more than two dozen clinical trials and has showed efficacy as high as 76%. This includes helping people to fall asleep faster, sleep better throughout the night and feel better the next day. In August 2024, the programme, developed by Big Health in San Francisco, California, received FDA clearance. A 2024 meta-analysis of 15 studies that compare in-person and electronically delivered CBT-I concluded that the two approaches were equally effective.Uptake among physicians has been slow so far, Krystal says. But once practitioners catch on, he adds, “I can imagine a world where you have digital care as your first stop, and if that’s not successful, you see a therapist.”Some studies suggest that insomnia can stem from a high level of underlying brain activity during sleep. This raises the question of whether reducing this activity could treat insomnia, says Ruth Benca, a psychiatrist at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina. Companies and academic research groups are beginning to test this proposition with wearable devices that use auditory tones or mild electrical stimulation to increase slow-wave activity in the brain. Some devices are already on the market, and evidence suggests that they can increase the duration of deep sleep. Last June, for example, researchers at Elemind Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, confirmed that auditory stimuli delivered in sync with specific brain-wave rhythms generated in a headband allowed people who usually struggle for more than 30 minutes to fall asleep to shave an average of 10.5 minutes off that time.In the coming years, according to Benca, researchers hope to learn enough about insomnia’s causes and treatments to be able to recommend personalized therapies based on an individual’s specific demographics, genetics and co-morbidities. These are the frontiers people are working at, she says.Even after a lifetime of struggling to find safe and effective help, Miranda says that she still holds out hope that better treatments for insomnia are on the horizon. “I can’t be on these medications forever,” she says. “They’re going to take years off my life.”

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery/Deployment (CI/CD) refers to practices that automate how code is developed and released to different environments. CI/CD pipelines are fundamental in modern software development, ensuring code is consistently tested, built, and deployed quickly and efficiently. While CI/CD automation accelerates software delivery, it can also introduce security risks. Without proper security measures, CI/CD workflows can be vulnerable to supply chain attacks, insecure dependencies, and insider threats. To mitigate these risks, organizations must integrate measures for continuous monitoring and enforcing security best practices at every pipeline stage. Securing CI/CD workflows preserves the software delivery process's confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Security challenges and risks in CI/CD workflows While CI/CD workflows offer benefits in terms of automation and speed, they also bring unique security challenges that must be addressed to maintain the integrity of the development process. Some common challenges and risks include: Lack of visibility and inadequate security monitoring: CI/CD workflows involve multiple tools and stages, which make it challenging to maintain security visibility into potential threats. Vulnerabilities, especially in third-party libraries or containerized applications, can introduce security risks that go undetected if not correctly managed. Without centralized monitoring, real-time threat detection and response become difficult. Manual, reactive incident response increases the risk of exploitation. Compliance requirements: Meeting regulatory standards such as GDPR or HIPAA while maintaining fast deployment cycles can be challenging. Organizations must balance enforcing security policies, data protection, and compliance requirements without slowing down their CI/CD workflows.Code and dependency vulnerabilities: Unpatched or outdated dependencies in the workflow can introduce significant security risks. Third-party libraries or outdated packages can become attack vectors if not regularly updated and monitored for vulnerabilities. These risks are increased by the fast pace of CI/CD, where vulnerabilities may go untreated.Container vulnerabilities and image security: While containers are mainly used in CI/CD workflows, they are not safe from security risks. Vulnerabilities in container images, such as outdated software versions, misconfigurations, or insecure base images, present a risk in CI/CD workflows and can be exploited by attackers. Without proper scanning and validation, these weaknesses can propagate through the pipeline.Misconfiguration of CI/CD tools: Improper configuration of CI/CD tools can leave the workflow open to unauthorized access or unintentionally expose sensitive code. Misconfigurations in access control settings can increase the likelihood of privilege escalation or code exposure. Additionally, hardcoded credentials or mismanaged environment variables introduce a risk of being extracted by attackers, which could lead to data breaches.Supply chain attacks: Compromised third-party dependencies can introduce malicious packages or vulnerabilities into the workflow. These vulnerabilities can spread throughout the entire pipeline and infect production environments, primarily when third-party tools or libraries are not sufficiently validated.Insider threats: Insider threats in CI/CD workflows involve authorized users such as developers, DevOps engineers, system administrators, or third-party contractors, who may intentionally or unintentionally compromise the pipeline. Weak authentication mechanisms, inadequate access controls, and a lack of monitoring can increase the risk of unauthorized changes, credential theft, or the introduction of malicious code into the workflow.Enhancing CI/CD workflow security with Wazuh Wazuh is an open source security platform that offers unified XDR and SIEM capabilities for on-premises, containerized, virtualized, and cloud-based environments. Wazuh provides flexibility in threat detection, compliance, incident handling, and third-party integration. Organizations can implement Wazuh to address the challenges and mitigate the risks associated with CI/CD workflow security. Below are some ways Wazuh helps improve security in CI/CD workflows. Log collection and system monitoring Wazuh provides log collection and analysis capabilities to ensure the components of your CI/CD environment are continuously monitored for security threats. It collects and analyzes logs from various CI/CD pipeline components, including servers, containerization and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes, and version control systems like GitHub. This allows security teams to monitor for unusual activities, unauthorized access, or security breaches across the CI/CD environment. Additionally, the Wazuh File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) capability can detect unauthorized changes in code or configuration files. By monitoring files in real time or on a schedule, Wazuh generates alerts for security teams about file activities like creation, deletion, or modification. Figure 1: Wazuh dashboard showing File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) alerts. Custom rules and streamlined security monitoring Wazuh allows users to create custom rules and alerts that align with a pipeline's security requirements. Organizations can create custom rules matching their specific security needs, such as monitoring code changes, server configurations, or container images. This flexibility allows organizations to enforce granular security controls tailored to their CI/CD workflow. For instance, the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Docker Benchmark provides guidelines for securing Docker environments. Organizations can automate the compliance checks against CIS Docker Benchmark v1.7.0 using the Wazuh Security Configuration Assessment (SCA) capability. Figure 2: Wazuh dashboard showing Wazuh Security configuration assessment (SCA) results. Integration with third-party security tools Wazuh can integrate with various security tools and platforms, including container vulnerability scanners and CI/CD orchestration systems. This is particularly important in CI/CD workflows, where multiple tools may be used to manage the development lifecycle. Wazuh can pull in data from various sources, which helps to provide a centralized view of security across the pipeline. For instance, Wazuh integrates with container vulnerability scanning tools Trivy and Grype, which are commonly used to scan container images for vulnerabilities, insecure base images, or outdated software versions. By scanning container images before they are deployed into production, organizations can ensure that only secure, up-to-date images are used in the deployment processes. You can configure the Wazuh Command module to run a Trivy scan on an endpoint hosting container images and display any detected vulnerabilities in the Wazuh dashboard. This helps to ensure that insecure images are identified and prevented from being pushed into production. Figure 3: Wazuh dashboard displaying vulnerabilities discovered on container images from a Trivy scan. Automated incident response The speed of CI/CD workflows means that threats must be detected and mitigated quickly to minimize the risk of breaches or downtime. Wazuh provides incident response capabilities that help organizations respond to security incidents as soon as they occur. The Wazuh Active Response module can automatically take action when a security threat is detected. For example, suppose a malicious IP address is detected trying to access a system that runs CI/CD processes. In that case, Wazuh can automatically block the IP address and trigger predefined remediation actions. This automation ensures fast response, reduces manual intervention, and prevents potential threats from escalating. Conclusion Securing CI/CD workflows is important for maintaining a reliable and safe software development process. By using Wazuh, organizations can detect vulnerabilities early, monitor for anomalies, enforce compliance, and automate security responses while maintaining the speed and efficiency of CI/CD workflows. Integrating Wazuh into your CI/CD workflow ensures that security keeps pace with development speed. Found this article interesting? This article is a contributed piece from one of our valued partners. Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

Announced back at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019, Havok Physics for Unity was initially distributed as an experimental package on the Unity Asset Store. Now, with the availability of ECS for Unity (Entity Component System) in the Unity 2022.2 Tech Stream, Havok Physics for Unity is officially supported for production. In fact, we’ve made this package available to all Unity Pro, Enterprise, and Industrial Collection subscribers for free.Havok Physics for Unity is built on the same foundation of technology that powers many of the world’s leading game franchises like Destiny and Assassin’s Creed, among others. When we first set out to define what the future of physics could look like with our Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS), we sought a partner that shared the same core concepts and values as us. Through our partnership with Havok, we were able to leverage DOTS to deliver the highly optimized, stateless, entirely C#, and performant Unity Physics we know today.We also prepared for more complex simulation requirements for users who might need a stateful physics system. We knew that Havok would be the perfect solution to integrate into Unity for those high-end simulation needs.The Havok Physics for Unity package is written using the same C# ECS framework as Unity Physics, and is backed by the closed-source, proprietary Havok Physics engine, written in native C++. Havok Physics for Unity is heavily optimized for many typical gaming use cases. For example, core algorithms have been refined over many years with various automatic caching strategies (including the sleeping of inactive objects), meaning that CPU resources are spent only as needed.Since the experimental package, Unity and Havok have been working together with early users of the plug-in to drive improvements and add new features.Here’s a breakdown of what’s new:Havok Physics for Unity is now available for free for all Unity Pro, Enterprise, and Unity Industrial Collection subscribers.Havok Physics for Unity is based on the 2021.2 version of the original Havok SDK, and brings more stability and performance to the Unity plug-in.As part of the full release, we’ve incorporated support for motorized joints (motors), such as linear position, as well as linear, rotational, and angular velocity.We’ve also added new methods to the HavokSimulation API, which enables granular stepping for your simulations, plus methods for accessing Havok simulations more efficiently with singletons.Check out the complete changelog of updates to Havok Physics for Unity.Havok Physics is a robust physics engine designed to handle the performance demands of the most dynamic games, often involving complex scenes with lots of physical interaction. By working with partners across the industry for over 20 years, Havok has encountered, solved, and continued to iterate on some of the toughest problems facing real-time physics simulation. This investment has led to the stable stacking of physics bodies, minimal artifacts for fast-moving bodies, and generally more controlled behavior, especially when it comes to non-optimized collision geometry.Of course, physics means action, so let’s see how these two creators are currently taking action with Havok Physics for Unity.Title:Hostile Mars Studio:Big Rook Games Studio size:Individual Platforms: Windows PC, console Genre: Open-world, base-building automation tower defense Players: Single playerFirst presented at PAX – East in 2022, Hostile Mars drew in quite an audience with its dedicated use of physics and unique blend of genres. The vast Martian landscape is brought to life in an open-world factory base-building and automation game. Players confront each other at the ground level in close combat to defend their factories through both third-person shooting and programmable defenses.Jake Jameson, founder of Big Rook Games, began by blending genres across multiplayer and single-player games – adding elements from puzzlers along with first-person shooters (FPS) and wave-based shooters. The more he evolved this idea, the more he narrowed his focus on creating a single-player base builder. He soon discovered the ideal balance between building, strategy, and combat, finally leading up to the one and only Hostile Mars.When completing that final iteration of Hostile Mars, it was clear the game needed to use some sort of data-oriented programming model. Jake wanted to have large enemy waves while still achieving high-end visuals. In order to provide the players with the best possible experience, the game had to run performantly on a massive scale, supporting thousands of enemies simultaneously onscreen.To meet these demands, Jake turned to Unity’s Data-Oriented Technology Stack. In leveraging ECS for Unity, every enemy in Hostile Mars could run real-time Mesh Physics/Collisions, A* Pathfinding, and Local Avoidance, in addition to robust state systems, animations, weapon and projectile systems, high-quality VFX, particle systems, and more.“Without DOTS, I wouldn’t have been able to provide the experience that I imagined in my original design. It just wouldn’t have been possible without implementing my own ECS framework, and as a solo dev, this isn’t viable given my timeline and budget.” – Jake Jameson, founder of Big Rook GamesAlthough Jake is not a game developer by trade, he is an avid gamer and was already familiar with the original Havok Physics engine. Knowing how trusted Havok’s technology has been among AAA studios, Jake felt confident implementing it as soon as it became available in Unity via the experimental package.Hostile Mars is a physics-intensive experience. The player uses physics-based traps and turrets to manipulate the physics properties of enemies. By applying different physical properties to enemies, the goal is to stop them in their tracks or drive them toward more dangerous traps.Not to mention that Hostile Mars involves an incredible number of enemies. More specifically, there are up to 5,000 individual physics-based enemies that can flood the player’s Martian factories, which leads to hundreds of collisions and projectiles onscreen at once.All of the physics in Hostile Mars utilizes Havok Physics for Unity; from the collisions between projectiles and enemies, players and enemies, even enemies and other enemies, to enemies and the landscape itself, and hovering enemies who require a constant state of force to stay afloat. These distinct physics interactions take place in real-time, with physical simulation that allows for believable hovering, gravity, and mesh point collisions. So when players strike their enemies at a particular point, they will see them spin away just as Havok Physics for Unity intended them to.Not only are the enemies entirely physics-based, but the traps that are necessary for gameplay are physics-based too. There are gravity traps that push and pull enemies, which in turn, slow down or speed up traps that smash enemies. There are even traps that spring spikes up into an enemy’s path, not just pushing them aside, but realistically simulating the force and velocity of the spikes so that the enemy reaction appears authentic.Once the players advance, the enemy waves become varied and increasingly complex, which requires players to build traps more strategically, combining their different physics-based interactions to herd enemies with different weaknesses toward stronger traps and turrets that can impact them most. For example, while a frost trap might slow some enemies down, an explosive trap can deal the most damage possible against a highly concentrated wave.Plans for releasing Hostile Mars on consoles are still in the works, but in the meantime, you can add Hostile Mars for Windows PC to your Wishlist on Steam today.Title: Robocraft 2 Studio:Freejam Games Studio size:25 Platforms:Windows PC, console Genre: Online vehicular combat Players: 5v5 online multiplayerRobocraft 2 is the free-to-play sequel to 2017’s award-winning Robocraft, where players build customizable robot battle vehicles that drive, hover, walk, and fly in an open-world multiplayer environment. Since this initial success, the team at Freejam Games has refined a fully customizable experience for Robocraft 2, so that players can bring their own creations to competitive multiplayer gameplay.As Freejam Games experimented with projects following the success of Robocraft, they focused on providing exciting new building tools. This way, players could enjoy more freedom to design complex, physics-simulated creations.The team evaluated how moving the physics from the client side to dedicated multiplayer game servers could enhance the physical interactions between the vehicles and robots created by the players. They discovered that relegating the physics to the server created a range of fun gameplay moments, wherein weight, inertia, momentum, friction, mass, and bounciness were all accurately simulated. In other words, the heavy vehicles could easily push lighter ones, or be combined with joints like pistons, servos, and rotating platforms. Even weapons and explosions applied realistic kickback and force when they hit. All of these experiments, alongside community testing and feedback, culminated in Robocraft 2.In Robocraft 2, players now get to create complex vehicles, take them into battle, and destroy them in 5v5 team battles online. From their experience with the first Robocraft game, the Freejam team knew how competitive and creative their players could be, finding new ways to optimize the provided building tools in order to win battles.This meant that the team had to rely on three key features from their physics engine in order to provide a fair experience for all:Fast performanceRobust, non-glitchy physics simulationAccess to low-level areas of the physics engine to make modifications in the gamePrior to the 2017 announcement of DOTS and ECS for Unity, Freejam Games explored the possibility of building their ECS framework in-house. They then quickly adopted ECS for Unity in its experimental release, starting with Unity Physics. For experiments with server-side tech, they used determinism as a solution for keeping the player clients and simulation on the server in sync, while Unity Physics (which is deterministic) provided the performance.As the game evolved, they moved away from a stateless approach and became early adopters of Havok Physics for Unity. As a stateful system, Havok Physics for Unity ultimately powered the performance of the simulation within the gameplay requirements for Robocraft 2.“The high performance of Havok [Physics for Unity] allows us to have accurate server-side physics in our online game. In turn, that provides several significant benefits including giving all clients an equal representation of the physics for a better quality experience. The fact that the server is authoritative over the simulation also has the added benefit of reducing the opportunity for cheaters.” – Ed Fowler, principal programmer and cofounder of FreejamHavok Physics for Unity helped Freejam Games solve complicated issues. For example, as players defeat opponents, the robots and vehicles fall apart block by block, which can create hundreds of Rigidbodies in the environment. To free up CPU and maintain high frame rates, those inactive Rigidbodies can be put to sleep via Deactivation, a feature that effectively removes the physics from broken pieces temporarily.Player creations in Robocraft 2 consist of many Rigidbodies with Compound Colliders constrained together by joints, which can be smashed or stacked on top of one another. Further improvements to overall performance of the physics simulation can be gained with Collision Caching, which additionally allows for refined simulation of joints/constraints, such as in those stacking situations.Lastly, the Havok Visual Debugger was used to visualize the collision in the game world in real-time. It enabled Freejam Games to identify glitches, snags, and efficiently spot instances where rogue contacts arise. This accelerated their workflow and prompted fast fixes.Want to see Robocraft 2 in action? Add it to your Wishlist on Steam.To help you get started, check out the ECS Physics Samples on GitHub.If you need more guidance, we created a tutorial to help you learn more about Unity’s physics options, including Havok Physics for Unity.By the end of the tutorial, you will be able to do the following:Describe the key benefits of Havok Physics for Unity and Unity PhysicsExplain the relationship between Unity Physics and Havok Physics for UnityIdentify situations where physics solutions for ECS are the right fit for a projectThis tutorial is an introduction to physics solutions in ECS for Unity, tailored to users with an intermediate or advanced level of experience with the Unity Editor. As mentioned earlier, DOTS is Unity’s Data-Oriented Technology Stack, a suite of data-oriented technologies for users looking to make complex projects with highly optimized performance. If you want to learn more about DOTS, we recommend the newly-released DOTS Guide on GitHub.We are also actively engaging with many of you on the DOTS channel, part of the Unity Discord, and in the forums. We look forward to learning more about the projects you’re building with Havok Physics for Unity.

Google’s AI models have a secret ingredient that’s giving the company a leg up on competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. That ingredient is your data, and it’s only just scratched the surface in terms of how it can use your information to “personalize” Gemini’s responses.Google first started letting users opt in to its “Gemini with personalization” feature earlier this year, which lets the AI model tap into your search history “to provide responses that are uniquely insightful and directly address your needs.” But now, Google is taking things a step further by unlocking access to even more of your information — all in the name of providing you with more personalized, AI-generated responses.During Google I/O on Tuesday, Google introduced something called “personal context,” which will allow Gemini models to pull relevant information from across Google’s apps, as long as it has your permission. One way Google is doing this is through Gmail’s personalized smart replies — the AI-generated messages that you can use to quickly reply to emails.The new smart replies let you choose a response based on previous emails and files in Drive. Image: GoogleTo make these AI responses sound “authentically like you,” Gemini will pore over your previous emails and even your Google Drive files to craft a reply tailored to your conversation. The response will even incorporate your tone, the greeting you use the most, and even “favorite word choices,” according to Google.As an example, Google says if you’re chatting with a friend about road trip advice, Gemini can search through your emails and files, allowing it to find hotel reservations and an itinerary you put together. It can then suggest a response that incorporates relevant information. That, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during the keynote, may even help you “be a better friend.”It seems Google plans on bringing personal context outside Gemini, too, as its blog post announcing the feature says, “You can imagine how helpful personal context will be across Search, Gemini and more.” Google said in March that it will eventually let users connect their YouTube history and Photos library to Gemini, too.The breadth of data that Google has access to could put Gemini far ahead of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which starts with a blank slate when it encounters a new user. Instead of having an idea of where someone might like to shop, their favorite foods, or how they typically compose their emails, ChatGPT will have to field several responses before it can start referring to its memories and old conversations. The same is true for other AI chatbots without Google’s vast swaths of data, such as Anthropic’s Claude.If it’s given permission, Gemini can have access to all of this information — and more — right out the gate. That sets it up to be an even more helpful AI assistant that you don’t even need to have a previous interaction with for it to “know” you.See More:

The Linux Foundation and Meta are putting some numbers behind how open-source AI (OSAI) is driving innovation and adoption.The adoption of AI tools is pretty much everywhere now, with 94% of organisations surveyed already using them. And get this: within that crowd, 89% are tapping into open-source AI for some part of their tech backbone.A paper released this week by Meta and the Linux Foundation stitches together academic brainpower, industry frontline stories, and global survey data to showcase an ecosystem that’s buzzing thanks to being open and affordable.If there’s one thing that jumps off the page, it’s the money talk. Cost savings, folks, are a huge deal here. Unsurprisingly, two-thirds of businesses are saying that open source AI is just plain cheaper to get up and running compared to proprietary. So, it’s no shocker that almost half of them point to these savings as a big reason for going the open-source route.We’re not talking about trimming a few coins here and there. Researchers reckon companies would be shelling out 3.5 times more cash if open-source software simply vanished. As AI digs its heels deeper into everything we do, the financial muscle of open-source is only going to get stronger, potentially even overshadowing traditional open-source software’s impact.But this isn’t just about pinching pennies; it’s about unleashing brains. The report points out that AI can slash business unit costs by over 50%, which, as you can imagine, opens the door for revenue boosts. When open AI models are out there for cheap, or even free, it levels the playing field. Suddenly, developers and businesses of all sizes can jump in, play around, and rethink how they do things.Often it’s the smaller players, the agile startups and medium-sized businesses, that are diving headfirst into open-source AI more so than the big corporate giants. And since these are often the places where groundbreaking ideas and new products are born, it really hammers home how vital OSAI is for keeping the innovation engine chugging and helping those plucky, cutting-edge firms compete.And if you want a textbook example of how going open can turbocharge things, look no further than PyTorch. The report digs into how Meta’s decision to shift its heavyweight deep learning framework to an open governance model, under a non-profit, turned out to be a masterstroke.The report leans on a close look by Yue and Nagle (2024), who tracked what happened next. Once PyTorch flew the Meta nest, contributions from Meta itself “significantly decreased.” Sounds a bit off, right? But actually, it signalled a healthy move away from one company calling the shots.What really ramped up was input from “external companies, especially from the developers of complementary technology, such as chip manufacturers.” Meanwhile, the actual users, the developers building stuff with PyTorch, kept their engagement steady – “no change.”It’s a clear win. As the researchers put it, this kind of shift for major OSAI software “promotes broader participation and increased contributions and decreases the dominance of any single company.” It’s a powerful testament to what report authors Anna Hermansen and Cailean Osborne found: “engagement in open, collaborative activities is a better indicator of innovation than patents.”This isn’t just theory; it’s making waves in massive sectors. Take manufacturing. Open-source AI is set to be a game-changer there, mostly because its open code means you can bend it and shape it to fit. This flexibility allows AI to slot neatly into factory workflows, automating tasks and smoothing out order management. A 2023 McKinsey report, flagged in the study, even predicts AI could pump up to $290 billion extra into advanced manufacturing.Then there’s healthcare. In places like hospitals and local clinics, where every penny and every minute counts, free and flexible tools like open-source AI can literally be lifesavers. Imagine AI helping with diagnoses or flagging diseases early.McKinsey thinks the global healthcare sector could see up to a $260 billion boost in value once AI is really rolled out. A 2024 analysis even showed that open models in healthcare can go toe-to-toe with the proprietary ones—meaning hospitals can get tailored, privacy-friendly OSAI without skimping on performance.And it’s not just about the tech; it’s about the people. The report mentions that AI-related skills could see wages jump by up to 20%. That’s a big deal and really underlines why we need to be thinking about training and development for this new AI era.Hilary Carter, SVP of Research at The Linux Foundation, said: “The findings in this report make it clear: open-source AI is a catalyst for economic growth and opportunity. As adoption scales across sectors, we’re seeing measurable cost savings, increased productivity and rising demand for AI-related skills that can boost wages and career prospects.“Open-source AI is not only transforming how businesses operate—it’s reshaping how people work.”So, the takeaway? Open AI models are fast becoming the standard, the very foundation of future breakthroughs. They’re pushing growth and healthy competition by making powerful AI tools available without an eye-watering price tag.The Linux Foundation’s report isn’t just cheerleading; it’s laying out the hard numbers to show why open-source AI is absolutely crucial for a robust, stable, and forward-looking economy.Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Reading Time: 4 minutes The marketing landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation driven by artificial intelligence. AI has evolved beyond a mere marketing assistant that expedites tasks. With AI Agents, marketers can now delegate entire tasks, from initiation to completion. Despite the current hype surrounding AI, its impact on the future is undeniable and likely to be permanent. Amara’s Law perfectly understands the current situation. What is Amara’s Law? The law says that we often overestimate a technology’s short-run impact and underestimate its long-run impact. This is very similar to Gartner’s Hype Cycle. With so much hype around AI, it can be very overwhelming. So, it’s critical to look beyond all the hype and figure out real-world AI uses and how to fit those solutions into your business workflows. Rise of AI Agents “AI Agents” has to be the buzzword for 2025. You might have seen people talking about it on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other platforms. There are a lot of opinions; some say it’s just hype, and a few say it’s the next big thing. So it comes down to: But is it worth all the hype? AI agents are intelligent, autonomous systems that understand natural language and leverage business context to reason through complex tasks and take action on your behalf, while operating within set guardrails. If we look at Customer Engagement specifically, there are tons of practical use cases. Its usage ranges from campaign creation to onboarding to analytics/optimization. 1. Campaign Creation  If we specifically look at campaign creation, the AI agents can do everything from – Choosing an audience segment Crafting campaign content Deciding the best channel and time to send The current way we’re segmenting users with filters works, but it’s not super easy to learn. It takes time to create segments using filters, and you need to know your events and attributes pretty well. This means marketers need to seek additional support. However, using AI agents, you can effortlessly create targeted customer segments in seconds using natural language. Creating a segment is as easy as typing a prompt like “Identify customers who abandoned the credit card application process”. That’s it. Basically, you can use AI agents to turn ideas for a customer segment into reality with just one instruction. It’s super quick to get things done this way, and you don’t need to learn anything complicated or leverage additional tools. 2. Customer Journey Orchestration  Building adequate multi-touch flows for customer experiences is often time-consuming and complex, involving intricate logic and a steep learning curve. AI Agents addresses this by using AI to translate customer journey ideas into optimized flows instantly. This AI-driven approach dramatically reduces build time, enabling marketers to brainstorm and ideate with AI, focusing on strategy and creativity. Customers can create and refine flows using natural language and receive tailored recommendations. 3. Analytics & Optimization  AI Agents can also assist in – Data Querying – Ask in natural language to create appropriate charts for the data. Data Monitoring – AI detects an anomaly and conducts RCA and regression models to uncover the “why” for the movement of your metrics. Data Interpretation – AI explains what’s happening in a chart/data. 4. Decisioning Agents  Marketers face the challenge of moving from “best fit for a segment” to “true 1:1 fit for an individual”. This requires optimizing interactions with the right message and incentive, for each customer, in the right channel, at the right time and frequency – something that’s not humanly possible at scale. Decision-making agents address this by leveraging Reinforcement Learning and Generative AI to enhance user context. They optimize delivery by determining the best message copy, send time, and channel. Incrementality testing can measure the impact of decision-making agents, providing transparency in decision-making. This enables marketers to achieve more effective and personalized customer experiences. Benefits of AI Agents Implementing AI agents for customer engagement has multiple benefits. The benefits of AI agents extend beyond simple automation, creating value through enhanced efficiency, cost optimization, real-time audience insights, and elevated customer experiences. Here are a few – Improved Productivity: AI agents handle routine inquiries and tasks simultaneously, freeing human agents to focus on complex issues. They operate in real-time to provide the latest customer insights. This seamless workflow integration allows businesses to accomplish more with existing resources. Reduced Costs: By automating repetitive tasks, brands can significantly lower operational expenses while maintaining a great customer experience. Improved Decision Making: AI agents analyze vast amounts of customer data to identify patterns and trends that might otherwise go unnoticed. They provide consistent, data-driven recommendations free from human biases or fatigue. Real-time insights allow brands to anticipate customer needs and proactively engage with them. Impact of Generative AI on Customer Engagement  Generative AI continues to improve, driving growth in Customer Engagement across various segments. The number of martech software products has grown by a whopping 27.8% in the last 12 months, the highest in the last few years. If we look back, adoption curves used to be measured in years. But with generative AI, adoption is growing in months or even weeks. One significant challenge is accurately gauging the real-time adoption of Generative AI. It’s like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. This difficulty is akin to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. We can all agree that Generative AI has many useful use cases. However, multiple reports suggest marketers leverage it mainly for brainstorming campaign copy ideas and for writing the copy itself. That’s why we launched Merlin AI Copywriter and Designer last year. With Merlin AI, we have successfully merged the advantages of Generative AI with the world of Customer Engagement. You can read more about it here.  Wrapping It Up  AI is transforming Customer Engagement beyond automation with intelligent AI agents handling complex marketing tasks autonomously. Despite the hype around AI agents and generative AI, they offer real benefits like improved productivity, cost savings, better decisions, and enhanced customer experience through streamlined processes and insightful analytics. Leveraging Generative AI and AI agents is now critical for the sustained success and growth of consumer brands. The post AI in Customer Engagement – AI Agents, Gen AI, Future and More appeared first on MoEngage.

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 (M&S), 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 these [ransomware] incidents 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. Read more 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 (GenAI). 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 response (EDR) to 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.”

Published May 20, 2025 3:23pm EDT close 'CyberGuy': Wireless, waterproof bionic arm with 360-degree wrist rotation, lightning-fast control Kurt Knutsson discusses how the Hero PRO, a wireless, waterproof bionic arm with fast control and full 360-degree wrist rotation, transforms prosthetics. Most of us do not think twice about picking up a cup of coffee, sending a quick text or carrying groceries in from the car. For people who use prosthetic hands, though, these everyday tasks can be a real challenge. That is why the arrival of the Hero PRO by Open Bionics is such big news.This new bionic hand is waterproof, wireless and faster and stronger than anything that came before it. It is designed to help people who rely on prosthetics move through life with more ease and confidence.Even if you do not need a device like this yourself, the technology behind Hero PRO is changing what is possible for thousands of people, and it is worth knowing how far things have come. Let’s dive into what makes the Hero PRO so remarkable and why it captures so much attention. Hero PRO (Open Bionics) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Built for everyday lifeHero PRO is crafted from robust Nylon PA12 using advanced 3D printing, making it both tough and incredibly lightweight. In fact, it is the lightest bionic hand system available today. The design is sleek and customizable with more than 50 cover options in different colors and patterns, allowing users to swap looks to match their style and personality. Hero PRO (Open Bionics) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Waterproof and wireless freedomThe Hero PRO is the only bionic hand that is both fully wireless and waterproof. Rated IPX7, which means it can be submerged in water up to about 3 feet deep for 30 minutes without damage, it can handle splashes and even submersion, so users do not have to worry about getting it wet during daily activities. Wireless MyoPods, placed on the skin, pick up muscle signals to control the hand, eliminating the need for invasive implants or bulky wires. A woman using Hero PRO under running water (Open Bionics) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Speed, strength and precisionThis bionic hand is twice as fast as leading competitors, with fingers that open and close rapidly to keep up with busy lives. It can carry up to 57 pounds, doubling the load capacity of previous models, making tasks like carrying groceries or lifting heavy objects much easier. The patented thumb design uses a single motor for powerful and precise grips, while the index finger features a touchscreen-compatible tip for seamless device use on the go. A woman carrying a basket using Hero PRO (Open Bionics) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Unmatched flexibility and grip modesHero PRO offers more wrist flexion and rotation than any other bionic hand, with up to 45 degrees of manual flexion in both directions and a full 360-degree rotation. Users can quickly switch between work and sports modes, thanks to a USMC-standard wrist connector and more than 50 compatible activity attachments. With seven grip modes, including a precision key grip, users can handle everything from typing and cooking to pushing a stroller or tying shoelaces. These grips can be customized and updated wirelessly through the Sidekick App. A woman picking up produce using Hero PRO (Open Bionics) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Battery life and chargingA single four-hour charge powers the Hero PRO for a full day. The battery is cleverly miniaturized and integrated directly into the hand, helping to keep the weight down. USB-C charging makes powering up quick and easy, whether at home or on the go. Hero PRO being charged (Open Bionics) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)How user feedback and a young influencer helped shape the bionic hand technologyThe development of Hero PRO was shaped by feedback from around 1,000 users, including influencer Tilly Lockey, who lost both hands to meningitis as a child. Tilly played a key role in testing and refining the technology, and her experience highlights just how transformative the Hero PRO can be. She describes being able to multitask effortlessly, like pulling a suitcase and drinking hot chocolate at the same time, and even detaching the hand to control it remotely using muscle signals. Influencer Tilly Lockey wearing Hero Pro (Open Bionics) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)How much does the Hero Pro cost?Pricing for advanced bionic hands like the Hero PRO is not always straightforward. Open Bionics, the company behind this technology, does not list a fixed price on its website. Instead, they encourage interested users to contact them directly for a personalized quote, since each device is custom-made to fit the individual's needs.For context, most high-end bionic arms on the market can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $80,000, depending on the features and customization required. Open Bionics aims to make their devices more affordable than traditional options, with some of their earlier models reportedly costing about five times less than conventional robotic prosthetics. However, the exact price for the latest models, including the Hero PRO, will depend on factors like insurance coverage, customization and specific user requirements.If you are interested in learning more about pricing or the process, it is best to reach out directly to Open Bionics for a detailed quote tailored to your needs.Kurt's key takeawaysTechnology like the Hero PRO is not just about gadgets and gears. It is about helping people do more of the things they love with less hassle. For those who rely on prosthetic hands, every improvement can mean a world of difference, whether that is carrying a heavy bag, using a smartphone or simply feeling more confident in daily life. Even if you do not need a prosthetic yourself, it is inspiring to see how far this technology has come and how it continues to open new possibilities for so many people.What everyday challenges do you think advanced bionic technology could help overcome, and what would you most want to see in the next generation of prosthetic devices? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.