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Mark Zuckerberg freezes AI hiring amid bubble fears

Stock market volatility was largely prompted by a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which claimed that 95pc of companies were getting “zero return” on their AI investments. A Meta spokesman sought to downplay the freeze, saying: “All that’s happening here is some basic organisational planning: creating a solid structure for our new superintelligence efforts after bringing people on board and undertaking yearly budgeting and planning exercises.” It comes after the company h

Best Standing Desks of 2025

What I like: When cable organization is the goal, the Autonomous SmartDesk 5 Pro is the desk. All of the cable management items, like a 3M cable organizer, cable management tray and magnetized cable runner, come included with the desk. With all the cables managed and out of the way, you have a lot of desktop space to play with. The SmartDesk 5 Pro is an electric motor desk that is quiet, quick and very easy to use and has three memory options. When you're choosing your heights and free-adjusti

AI Is Failing at an Overwhelming Majority of Companies Using It, MIT Study Finds

With AI software increasingly hogging the enterprise spotlight, companies and investors are spending like never before. In the first half of 2025, AI startups raised over $44 billion, more than all of 2024 combined. By the end of this year, a Goldman Sachs analysis estimates that total investments in AI will soar to almost $200 billion. But all that money is, to put it gently, a reckless gamble. In the US at least, investors have essentially bet the farm on the idea that AI will soon lead to ga

14.ai (YC W24) is hiring engineers in SF to build an AI-native Zendesk

We are an intense, tightly-knit team based in the heart of San Francisco. Our customers range from fast-growing startups to established enterprise companies, and we obsess over listening to each of them and helping them succeed. Our development pillars are security, reliability and performance, combined with pragmatism to always find working solutions and be ultra-responsive to customer feedback and requests. Working both at the infrastructure and product level, we strive to build correct, futur

The AI Report That’s Spooking Wall Street

A new report from MIT is casting doubt on the hype around the financial value AI brings to businesses, and may be triggering a small tech stock sell-off on Tuesday. The report, The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025, found that the promised AI gold rush isn’t paying off for most companies yet. Despite the major push to adopt AI tools in the corporate world, fewer than one in ten AI pilot programs have generated real revenue gains. The rest are having no impact on a company’s bottom lin

SoftBank Group shares plunge over 9% as Asian tech stocks track declines in U.S. peers

The logo of Japanese company SoftBank Group is seen outside the company's headquarters in Tokyo on January 22, 2025. Other Japanese tech stocks also declined, with semiconductor giant Advantest falling as much as 6.27%. Meanwhile, shares in Renesas Electronics and Tokyo Electron were last seen trading 2.46% and 0.75% lower, respectively. The tech-focused investment firm saw shares drop for a second consecutive session, following its announcement of a $2 billion investment in Intel . Intel shar

We’re Not So Special: A new book challenges human exceptionalism

The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters by Christine Webb • Avery • 2025 • 336 pages • $32 Suppose that you are walking at night, and you see someone on your side of the street coming toward you, about to pass you. Is his face angry, or is he just thinking seriously about something? Your answer to that question may well depend on the faces that you are used to seeing. If you tend to encounter a lot of very angry faces, your threshold for considering a face “angry”

The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

by Ben Lindbergh at the Ringer asks “When did jerk stop meaning ‘stupid’?” He starts with the Steve Martin movie The Jerk, saying of its protagonist: Navin is oblivious, not obnoxious. He’s ignorant, not intolerant. He’s naive, not intentionally cruel. He’s a bumpkin, a rube, and a moron, maybe, but a jerk? For the most part, no, I wouldn’t say so. There he is, of course, using the current sense of jerk: “There’s definitely been a semantic shift in ‘jerk’ over the years,” says linguist, lexi

Forklifts require training

A lot gets covered in today's discourse about AI in software development. Most of it is noise, ranging from nihilism that we're all writing mediocre code anyway so why does it matter to endless wannabe AI influencers doing engagement bait on Twitter. Every new model release gets a bunch of threadicles 👇 amounting to the 2025 version of "Safari feels snappier". Some of it is useful, mostly crafty developers in the community sharing novel ways they're using it to solve hard problems or draw inspir

Two Years After Oceangate, Another Billionaire Hears the Siren Call of the Titanic

Two years ago, a guy named Stockton Rush was killed while piloting his “experimental” submarine towards the site of the Titanic. On board the “Titan” were four other unfortunate victims, including Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood (described as a billionaire) and his teenage son. Rush’s company, Oceangate, had made its money by courting wealthy clients and taking them on trips to the undersea site, but that all ended with an unfortunate implosion. Now, yet another billionaire has reportedly

FromSoft's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is becoming an anime

Adaptations of video games continue to be big business. During Opening Night Live at Gamescom 2025, we learned that the punishing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice by FromSoftware will be turning into an anime show. Sekiro: No Defeat will be available exclusively on Crunchyroll some time during 2026. The show will be directed by Kenichi Kutsuna, who previously worked as an animator on the One Punch Man and Naruto: Shippuden series. The vibe in the No Defeat trailer does feel distinct from its source ma

Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

In the weeks since Zohran Mamdani’s New York City Democratic primary win on June 20, a slew of tech executives who do not have a primary residence in the city or state of New York have been panicking about the prospect of him becoming mayor. Every member of the popular All-In podcast, including current White House “AI and crypto czar” David Sacks, has raised alarms on X about the prospect of a Mamdani mayoralty. “Wake up, Silicon Valley,” Sacks posted on June 29, sharing a video of Mamdani on

Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC’s Tech Scene Is Not

In the weeks since Zohran Mamdani’s New York City Democratic primary win on June 20, a slew of tech executives who do not have a primary residence in the city or state of New York have been panicking about the prospect of him becoming mayor. Every member of the popular All-In podcast, including current White House “AI and crypto czar” David Sacks, has raised alarms on X about the prospect of a Mamdani mayoralty. “Wake up, Silicon Valley,” Sacks posted on June 29, sharing a video of Mamdani on

All-In Podcast Boys Poke Fun at Uber Founder’s ‘AI Psychosis’ (Which They Encouraged)

Remember when the guys over at the All-In podcast talked with Uber founder Travis Kalanick about “vibe physics“? Kalanick told viewers that he was on the verge of discovering new kinds of science by pushing his AI chatbots into previously undiscovered territory. It was ridiculous, of course, since that’s not how an AI chatbot or science works. And Kalanick’s ideas got ridiculed to no end by folks on social media. But the gentlemen of All-In now seem to be distancing themselves from Kalanick’s i

How web scraping actually works - and why AI changes everything

Getty/panithan pholpanichrassamee ZDNET's key takeaways Web scraping powers pricing, SEO, security, AI, and research industries. AI scraping threatens site survival by bypassing traffic return. Companies fight back with licensing, paywalls, and crawler blocks. Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers. In the world of industrial web scraping, there are a few major players. Oh, you did not know there was a world of industrial

95% of AI Pilots Failing

Good morning. Companies are betting on AI—yet nearly all enterprise pilots are stuck at the starting line. The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025, a new report published by MIT’s NANDA initiative, reveals that while generative AI holds promise for enterprises, most initiatives to drive rapid revenue growth are falling flat. Despite the rush to integrate powerful new models, about 5% of AI pilot programs achieve rapid revenue acceleration; the vast majority stall, delivering little to

OpenAI's Sam Altman sees AI bubble forming as industry spending surges

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman thinks the artificial intelligence market is in a bubble, according to a report from The Verge published Friday. "When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth," Altman told a small group of reporters last week. "Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes," he was quoted as saying. Altman appeared to compare this

This Country Is Teaching Children How to Build and Operate Deadly Drones

Now well into its third year, it's safe to say the Russo-Ukraine war has ushered in a new type of warfare fit for this decade. As resources run low and manpower becomes irreplaceable, combatants on both sides have resorted to McGuyver-esque tactics, such as jury-rigged drone cages, improvised wooden armor, and eScooter cavalry. One especially important development has been the deployment of various drones, from hobbyist models flung up to do recon flights, to drone boats in the Black Sea. But

Living with Williams Syndrome, the 'opposite of autism' (2014)

"I get so anxious if I want to go out to things. I live with my Mum because I don't want to live on my own. I can't do money. I wish I could." Chris Steel is 40 years old. He is remarkably friendly and engaging, and is happiest when he is on stage acting in plays such as George Orwell's Animal Farm. As a child, his caring nature led him to take to the bedside of a victim of the Hillsborough disaster, with such compassion and diligence he was given an award by former UK Prime Minister Margaret

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The AI Industry Is Still Light-Years From Making a Profit, Experts Warn

Were you to glance at the trajectory of top AI stocks — OpenAI, Microsoft, Nvidia, and the like — you'd be convinced the industry is making money hand over fist. Look a bit deeper, however, and cracks start to show in that facade, betraying one massively inconvenient truth: that the AI industry has not yet figured out how to be profitable, and possibly never will. In interviews with the New York Times, even the most enthusiastic AI proponents were unable to spin the technology (and the industr

This Country Wants to Replace Its Corrupt Government With AI

With so much buzzy tech floating around these days, it's only natural for national governments to experiment as well. For the past few years, the country of El Salvador's been experimenting with Bitcoin as legal tender, a woefully ineffective system that's had he opposite of its stated effects. In the United States, president Donald Trump is experimenting with a $500 billion AI infrastructure project, a massive campaign that's sat dormant for half a year. And in Albania, which is home to 2.7 m

Tech IPOs are roaring after 'years of Prohibition' — it may be too good

Brendan Blumer, Chairman of of Bullish and Tom Farley, CEO of Bullish, Bullish a cryptocurrency exchange operator, pose with staffs during the company's IPO at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, U.S., August 13, 2025. The Bullish IPO this week took on added significance, perhaps because of the company name. When shares of the Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange more than doubled out of the gate on Wednesday before finishing the day up 84%, it was the latest sign that the tech

Trump Admin Has Dropped a Third of All Investigations Into Big Tech, Advocates Say

Trump talked a big game during the election about taking the fight to Silicon Valley. But, since taking office, the former reality star seems to have done little to make good on that promise. In fact, a recent survey of his actions claims that Trump, whose political victory was partially propelled by gargantuan gobs of cash from tech firms and their executives, has dropped a third of all investigations and enforcement actions against tech companies since taking power. The report, published by t

The White House Keeps a ‘Loyalty’ Scorecard for Companies: Report

The White House has created a spreadsheet that rates hundreds of companies for their loyalty, according to a new report from Axios. And while that may not be entirely shocking news, given Donald Trump’s way of doing business, it’s worth stepping back and asking how news of a loyalty scorecard by a sitting president would’ve been received in the pre-Trump era. The rankings on the loyalty spreadsheet are currently determined by a given company’s perceived support of the so-called Big Beautiful Bi

Narwal’s New S30 Series Improves on Wet-Dry Vacuuming with AI Dirt Detection and Self-Cleaning

Together with robot vacuums that can mop, wet-dry vacuums are becoming a common tool for saving time and effort when cleaning your home. As the name suggests, wet-dry vacuums like the Dyson Submarine V15s -- one of our top cordless picks -- can vacuum dirt and debris from carpets while also wet-mopping hard floors with a cleaning solution. The S30 and S30 Pro, first announced at CES 2025, are two of the latest wet-dry vacuums from Narwal and they improve on the previous generation, the S20 and S

Time to End Roundtripping by Big Pharma

Sometimes a news story makes your case for you. That happened this past week, when the Wall Street Journal published a remarkable story on surging U.S. imports of peptides and protein-based hormones from Ireland. Chelsey Dulaney and Jared Hopkins wrote: “Planes have been jetting from Ireland to the U.S. this year carrying something more valuable than gold: $36 billion worth of hormones for popular obesity and diabetes drugs … The peptide- and protein-based hormones feed into a category of drug

Big Tech's A.I. Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone

But even with their expressed good will, getting the companies to make consumers whole will not be easy because determining how much large users like data centers should pay is not straightforward. The business of keeping America’s lights on is mostly about two things: supplying reliable electricity and figuring out what to charge to deliver it. In recent years, big tech companies have inserted themselves into debates over both. They lobby lawmakers and regulators, and they are pitching their o

Consumer safety groups are demanding an FTC investigation into Grok’s ‘Spicy’ mode

is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. A new letter to the Federal Trade Commission, and US attorneys general for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, calls for an urgent investigation into Elon Musk’s Grok — especially its new “Imagine” tool for AI-generated image and video. The tool, released by xAI earlier this month, encourages users to create NSFW conten

My favorite lens and screen-cleaning kit keeps my tech smudge-free, and it costs $8

The Koala cleaning kit with a pair of glasses. Kayla Solino/ZDNET I've been wearing prescription glasses since I was 18 months old, so trust me when I tell you I know a lot about keeping lenses clean and protected -- I've had over 20 years of practice. While it may seem like you can clean your sunglasses or glasses with any old "glass cleaner," or something as simple as soap and water, I am here to tell you that it can be a huge (and costly) mistake. Most glass cleaning products (even dish soa

Andrew Lloyd Webber Is Turning ‘Phantom of the Opera’ Into an Anime Epic

First came Masquerade, an immersive production of The Phantom of the Opera. Now Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group has announced a rebrand and a slate of new franchise expansions for the musical maestro’s universe of stories. Including… anime? Deadline reports that the company, now known as LW Entertainment, has plans for a Phantom of the Opera anime, an idea so wild it’s bound to work. And it’s not completely out of left field: Sailor Moon‘s Tuxedo Mask is already so Phantom-coded. (We