Amid the AI onslaught, a few silver linings for US tech jobs
AI continues gobbling up IT jobs, but hints about how the technology is now influencing hiring are becoming more visible. About 130,000 jobs were created in the broader US economy in January, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Wednesday. The growth was driven by hiring in the healthcare, social […] more…Google fears massive attempt to clone Gemini AI through model extraction
Google detected and blocked a campaign involving more than 100,000 prompts that it claimed were designed to copy the proprietary reasoning capabilities of its Gemini AI model, according to a quarterly threat report released by Google Threat Intelligence Group. The prompts looked like a coordinated attempt to perform model extraction or distillation, a machine-learning process […] more…Why there’s no ‘screenless’ revolution
Apparently, Silicon Valley has declared a “war on screens,” according to a Jan. 1 headline. The article highlighted OpenAI’s hardware project, which is expected to be a screenless device crafted by former Apple designer Jony Ive. OpenAI acquired Ive’s company, io, last May for $6.5 billion and Foxconn has reportedly been hired to make as many as […] more…‘Dead’ Outlook add-in hijacked to phish 4,000 Microsoft Office Store users
A blind spot in Microsoft’s app and add-in marketplace security allowed an eagle-eyed hacker to hijack an abandoned Outlook add-in to carry out phishing attacks that compromised 4,000 users, researchers have discovered. The app in question, AgreeTo, is, or was, a meeting scheduling tool that first appeared in 2022 but was abandoned at some point […] more…11 steps to smarter Google account security
There are important accounts to secure, and then there are important accounts to secure. Your Google account falls into that second category, maybe even with a couple of asterisks and some neon orange highlighting added in for good measure. I mean, really: When you stop and think about how much stuff is associated with that […] more…Companies are using ‘Summarize with AI’ to manipulate enterprise chatbots
That handy ‘Summarize with AI’ button embedded in a growing number of websites, browsers, and apps to give users a quick overview of their content could in some cases be hiding a dark secret: a new form of AI prompt manipulation called “AI recommendation poisoning.” So says Microsoft, which this week released research on a […] more…Task management software gets an agentic boost
The digital workplace has outgrown the simple project checklists you may have once associated with task management apps. The software has moved from passive repositories for to-do lists to active participants in workflows. In 2026, the biggest shift in task management applications is the rise of agentic AI. The category has moved from simple automation […] more…A trio of tasty new Android notification enhancements
If I told any average person that my Android phone’s notifications could now be sticky, shareable, and extra-smart about snoozing, they’d probably look at me like I was a lunatic. And, let’s be honest: They’d probably be justified in that conclusion — even if it weren’t for what I’d just told them. (In case we […] more…Microsoft to roll out a ‘consent first’ model to protect Windows
Windows serves as the backbone of enterprises around the world, powering more than a billion devices and supporting millions of apps. However Microsoft acknowledges that apps are increasingly going rogue, overriding settings, installing additional components, or altering critical Windows capabilities without user awareness or approval. In response, the tech giant plans to roll out what […] more…Gartner: European spending on sovereign cloud IaaS to nearly double in 2026
European organizations will nearly double their spending on sovereign cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) this year, as geopolitical tensions cause them to rethink their reliance on US hyperscalers. European investments in sovereign IaaS are expected to grow from $6.9 billion in 2025 to $12.6 billion in 2026, according to a forecast by Gartner published […] more…Apple gets ready to bite at the mid-range
While competitors face increasing component coats and shrinking demand, Apple’s spring 2026 collection seemingly strikes a far more optimistic note. Apple is broadening its market, while others contract, and right now appears focused on delivering faster, better products at mid-range prices. The company is on the cusp of introducing new Macs, tablets, and smartphones aimed […] more…How the EU’s trade ‘bazooka’ could hit the US tech sector
When the Trump Administration threatened tariffs last month against countries looking to block any plan to annex Greenland, European leaders debated responding with the region’s trade “bazooka” – a retaliation mechanism that could target US tech firms selling into the European Union. The anti-coercion instrument, introduced in 2023 and so far unused, is designed to deter […] more…OpenClaw: The AI agent that’s got humans taking orders from bots
Well, that escalated quickly. I’m talking, of course, about OpenClaw (a.k.a. Moltbot a.k.a. Clawdbot), which not only represents a headlong rush into unchecked agentic AI, but also an emerging ecosystem that reads like every dystopian cautionary cyberpunk novel ever written. As my colleague and friend Steven Vaughan-Nichols detailed earlier this week, it’s a “security nightmare.” […] more…OpenAI responds to Claude Cowork with its own platform to help build, deploy, and manage AI agents
Less than a week after Anthropic released 11 open-source plugins that enable Claude Cowork to execute a series of automated processes in areas ranging from customer support to IT operations, OpenAI responded Thursday with a similar platform it calls Frontier. It said that its offering “gives agents the same skills people need to succeed […] more…Microsoft aims to reward publishers for content used by AI
Microsoft thinks it has a win-win-win answer to the problem of AI chatbots delivering unreliable information: let them pay publishers for access to information that users can trust. Its Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM) has the triple aim of improving the quality of material provided to AI systems, providing revenue to those who provide the information, […] more…Q&A: How AI could transform corporate meetings — for better or worse
Rebecca Hinds has studied office meetings and collaboration efforts for more than 15 years and most recently she’s seen how AI can make corporate get-togethers better — or worsen existing problems. In a study commissioned by Read.AI, Hinds found that AI, when correctly implemented, can encourage more participation by women and lower-level employees. At the […] more…More information
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