Category: Technology

They want surveillance states to become the new normal

Source: Reuters

ICE plans to hire 30 contractors whose sole responsibility will be monitoring social media for posts that could lead to deportation actions.

They are seeking private vendors to run a multi-year surveillance program, scanning platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and others, using user posts and profiles as leads for enforcement raids.

Although still in early development, draft planning documents reveal a focus on 24/7 surveillance, rapid case processing under tight deadlines, and the allocation of funds for advanced surveillance software. There are also discussions about integrating AI into this system.

This discussion revolves around ICE, but it reflects a broader global trend. Our data is already being sold to the highest bidder. Recently, Meta announced they will use your personal chat data with their AI starting in December—without an option to opt out. This move exemplifies how companies are increasingly disregarding privacy and encroaching on our digital personal space, threatening our security.

Read: The risks of iRobot, privacy concerns with Meta, and Nintendo’s Lego Game Boy project

These issues won’t just go away on their own. Maybe it’s already too late to stop their escalation, but perhaps we can prevent them from worsening. Don’t accept the new normal—resist it.

Abandoned cities and empty vehicles

Source: Reuters

In Ordos, China, companies specializing in self-driving cars are actively testing their vehicles.

After the 2012 real estate crash, Ordos experienced a significant population decline, with over 70% of buildings remaining unfinished due to economic downturn. Its wealth from coal exports fuels demand for cargo logistics.

Currently, over a dozen autonomous vehicle firms have set up shop here, offering transportation services while testing their self-driving tech.

While the sparse environment provides a safe testing ground, it doesn’t reveal how these vehicles perform in crowded urban settings.

It’s reassuring that testing occurs in controlled areas, but I wouldn’t want these trucks sharing the same roads as pedestrians and city traffic without more comprehensive testing in real city conditions.

Business and AI: a digital power couple

Source: Google Gemini

AI has deeply ingrained itself within corporate life.

A recent study published in the journal Patterns found that in corporate, government, and media sectors, AI tools are routinely used to draft everything from job postings to press releases.

Even the United Nations has been using AI to prepare content over the past couple of years. The study indicates that the proportion of text likely generated by AI increased from 3.1% at the start of 2023 to 10.1% by the third quarter, peaking at around 13.7% a year later.

On LinkedIn, about 6-10% of sampled job listings contained some form of AI writing. Smaller companies tend to use AI more frequently than larger ones.

While AI’s role in press releases has stabilized around 24.3% since December 2023, AI-generated content continues to fill the digital landscape at a rapid pace.

There may soon be hardly anything online that isn’t at least partly AI-created, and this isn’t a distant future—it’s happening right now.

China’s Deep Dive into Data—Quite Literally

Underwater data center under construction at a shipyard in Nantong, eastern Jiangsu province, developed by Chinese maritime tech firm Highlander. Source: x.com/japantimes

China has truly taken this idea to a new level.

They’re building a server pod near Shanghai that will be submerged underwater to cut cooling costs by about 90%, they claim.

Highlander, the Chinese company behind this project, plans to sink the servers later this month. Once operational, China Telecom is expected to be among the first customers.

Of course, saltwater and electronics don’t play well together, so extensive safety measures had to be implemented before this venture could proceed.

While underwater data centers aren’t entirely new—Microsoft tested a similar setup off the coast of Scotland in 2024, and China has been involved in an underwater project since 2023 in Hainan—this marks an improvement. Building data centers on land is costly due to cooling expenses, but Highlander claims 95% of their energy is sourced from renewable resources.

Water and electricity are the key challenges when constructing data centers. If more nations and companies adopt this approach, it could benefit the environment and reduce operational costs. However, experts are worried about ocean warming from the continuous heat output of data centers.

Further research is essential to weigh the benefits against potential environmental tradeoffs.

Biological Warfare 2.0

Structure of the protein myosin. Source: x.com/NikoMcCarty

A team of researchers led by Microsoft uncovered a “biological zero day”—an undetected security flaw in DNA screening systems. AI can now design unique toxins that evade current biosecurity checks because they don’t match anything known.

DNA synthesis companies typically scan their transcribed sequences against databases of known dangerous substances. If anything appears suspicious, human experts step in. This method has been in place for years, with governments collaborating closely with industries to prevent new threats, expanding screening from simple sequences to larger proteins.

Problems arise because multiple DNA sequences can encode the same protein, and different proteins can perform similar functions, including toxicity. After testing various screening methods, researchers found that only 1-3% of out of 75,000 variants of 72 toxins went undetected.

This is somewhat reassuring—AI tends to generate non-functional proteins more often than dangerous ones. Overall, weaponizing this technology remains difficult, because an attacker would need to order numerous sequences to find one that both acts as a toxin and bypasses screening. Yet, as AI tools improve, they may increasingly produce toxins that are both effective and undetectable at higher rates.

To counter this threat, developing advanced biosecurity software and more sophisticated screening protocols is critical.

The Coming Crisis in Memory and Data Storage

Source: Reuters

“Today, I’ll set up thousands of data centers that demand massive resources to build and operate. Surely, this won’t lead to any unforeseen global issues.”

First, AI took our jobs. Then, data centers drove up your electricity bills. Now, there’s talk of underwater data centers and AI-generated toxic proteins that could potentially be weaponized.

The good news keeps getting trickier to find.

The worldwide memory chip market—including NAND, DRAM, and HDDs—is heading toward a severe supply shortage that could last a decade, fueled by the skyrocketing demand for AI data centers and the slow pace of production growth.

Prices for SSDs, RAM, and even hard drives are climbing again. Large firms are pre-purchasing future supplies of memory chips years in advance to support the training of large language models and more advanced AI systems, which is only tightening supply for everyone else.

Meanwhile, manufacturers are cutting back on investments in NAND and DRAM production, which take years and billions of dollars to develop.

Trade disputes and tariff wars are further constraining supply chains, exacerbating the shortage.

Experts warn that the AI industry might be experiencing another bubble, similar to the dot-com era. Much of the current investment might not pay off, and investors are growing more cautious about sinking money into AI projects.

Read: The Age of Uncertainty: AI’s Impact on Jobs and Policy

If you’re in the market for a high-performance PC—whether for work or gaming—it’s probably best to buy sooner rather than later, as prices are unlikely to drop anytime soon.

iRobot’s founder wouldn’t go near today’s robots with a 10-foot pole

Source: x.com/cb_doge

Rodney Brooks describes the billions invested in creating bipedal humanoid robots as nothing more than an “expensive pipe dream.” He argues that designing robots in our shape is inherently unsafe because larger bipedal machines could turn into bigger walking hazards. Imagine a 10-foot-tall metal-and-polymer giant slipping and falling on you—that’s not far-fetched. Plus, the current energy systems powering these robots can lead to unpredictable behavior, making them dangerous to be around.

More critically, they lack dexterity. Companies like Tesla and others rely solely on visual data to train their robots, while humans learn from multiple senses—touch, sound, sight, and more. Unless we can equip robots’ fingertips with as many sensors as human nerve endings, they’ll never match our level of fine motor skills.

We need to rethink robot design, leaning toward models like Wall-E—a small, wheeled box. Rodney suggests future robots shouldn’t mimic human appearance but instead feature wheels (like Wall-E!), multiple limbs (not like Wall-E), and specialized sensors that don’t function exactly like human eyes or ears.

In other words, we should aim for robots more like Wall-E in the future.

Meta: “Yes, we’ll use your data. No, you can’t opt out.”

Photo: Reuters

I find it frustrating when big companies keep shifting the boundaries of user privacy.

Meta announced that starting December 16th, what you say to their AI will be used to “personalize content and ad recommendations.” And the kicker? You can’t opt out.

If this sounds like a move to push the limits of data collection and privacy, it’s because it is.

Meta claims they won’t use highly sensitive information—like religious beliefs or sexual orientation—for ad targeting. However, numerous reports show that people tend to overshare with AI, and there have been incidents where ChatGPT and Meta’s systems have posted private conversations publicly or had them appear in Google search results.

This isn’t limited to the Meta app. It extends to any Meta product: smart glasses can record your surroundings, capture your voice, and use that data to push targeted ads or content.

And let’s be honest, we’ve known they’re always listening and recording. Their direct admission is a new level of audacity that should raise alarms for everyone.

Bringing Lego to life (think Game Boys)

Source: x.com/natalie_thenerd

The Lego Game Boy was released on Wednesday, and when X user @natalie_thenerd saw it, she said it was like flipping a switch inside her mind, as if a sleeper agent had been activated.

Within less than a day, she managed to convert the Lego version into a mostly working Game Boy. By designing a custom printed circuit board that fits behind the screen using a tiny CPU with its own RAM, she’s not just emulating games—she’s using actual original chips. The entire circuit fits inside a space smaller than a Dot-Matrix Game Boy cartridge.

It’s “mostly functional” because, although the buttons can be pressed, they don’t send inputs yet. No footage of gameplay exists so far, but based on what she’s created, it’s only a matter of time before a fully operational version appears.

Protecting Your Gums, One Plant at a Time

Source: REUTERS

Good news for parents: you can now use a new approach to encourage kids to eat their apples and figs—especially their peels—by tackling something unexpected: gum disease.

Yes, it’s true. A research team from São Paulo State University studied morin, a natural compound found in plants like those pictured, and found it effective against various bacteria. It exhibits anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties targeting bacteria responsible for gum disease.

However, simply eating foods containing morin won’t unlock its benefits—because it needs to be processed first. Researchers are working on ways to optimize its delivery so that it stays in contact with teeth and gums long enough to be effective, since saliva tends to wash away anything that doesn’t adhere.

Luciana Sales has created a solution designed to overcome this challenge and is now testing it with morin.

Naturally, it’ll be some time before these innovations become widely available.

A Breakthrough for Water Lovers

Source: REUTERS

One Water, a premium bottled water company, introduced its innovative interlocking bottle design at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, in January.

While the technology itself isn’t new, some media outlets are revisiting the story now, over the past few months, likely to draw more attention to their bottles.

If the goal was publicity, it certainly succeeded. But it’s a bit concerning that they keep rehashing the same story instead of providing new updates.

They claim to source their pristine spring water directly from the Canadian Rocky Mountains. They also aim to unite the world’s top water sources under one label, which sounds a lot like a move toward monopolizing a basic necessity.

That said, their bottles do stack neatly, making transportation easier. They say this design helps cut packaging waste and reduce carbon emissions from shipping by 35%.

If you’re into water, maybe their bottles are worth a try. Personally, I might stick with Pakola’s water, though.

Small Homes, Long Commutes, and No Rest

Source: REUTERS

Modern workers often seem to be at a disadvantage. Recent surveys from Japan reveal that small living spaces, lengthy commutes, and extended working hours are linked to insomnia.

Between 30% and 40% of adults report experiencing some form of sleep disturbance. Japan has the shortest average sleep duration among OECD countries, falling about an hour below the average.

Longer commutes correlate with both tiredness during the day and insomnia, while smaller homes are mainly associated with sleep issues.

So, the obvious solution? Larger homes closer to workplaces. I wonder why this isn’t already standard practice. It seems like a no-brainer that improving living conditions would be a priority.

Apparently, the real answer is simple—better housing and better locations could make all the difference.