56% of Companies Have Seen Zero Financial Return From AI Investments, PwC Survey Says
More than half of companies haven’t seen any financial benefit from their AI investments, according to PwC’s latest Global CEO Survey [PDF], and yet the spending shows no signs of slowing down. Some 56% of the 4,454 chief executives surveyed across 95 countries said their companies have realized neither higher … ⌘ Read more

Setapp Mobile To Close in February as Alternative iOS App Store Economics Prove Untenable
MacPaw, the Ukraine-based developer, has announced that Setapp Mobile – its alternative iOS app store for European Union users that launched in open beta in September 2024 – will shut down on February 16, 2026, citing “still-evolving and complex business terms” for alternative marketplaces that … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic CEO Says Government Should Help Ensure AI’s Economic Upside Is Shared
An anonymous reader shares a report: Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei predicted a future in which AI will spur significant economic growth – but could lead to widespread unemployment and inequality. Amodei is both “excited and worried” about the impact of AI, he said in an interview at Davos Tuesday. “I don’t think … ⌘ Read more

AI Agents ‘Perilous’ for Secure Apps Such as Signal, Whittaker Says
Signal Foundation president Meredith Whittaker warned that AI agents that autonomously carry out tasks pose a threat to encrypted messaging apps [non-paywalled source] because they require broad access to data stored across a device and can be hijacked if given root permissions.

Speaking at Davos on Tuesday, Whittaker said the deeper integrat … ⌘ Read more

Palantir CEO Says AI To Make Large-Scale Immigration Obsolete
AI will displace so many jobs that it will eliminate the need for mass immigration, according to Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Bloomberg: “There will be more than enough jobs for the citizens of your nation, especially those with vocational training,” said Karp, speaking at a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday. “I do think these trends re … ⌘ Read more

Crypto News Outlet Cointelegraph Loses 80% of Traffic After Google Penalty For Parasitic Blackhat SEO Deal
Cointelegraph, once one of the most-visited cryptocurrency news sites, has seen its monthly traffic plummet from roughly 8 million visits to 1.4 million – an 80% drop in three months – after Google issued a manual penalty in October 2025 for the outlet’s partnersh … ⌘ Read more

He Went To Prison for Gene-Editing Babies. Now He’s Planning To Do It Again
He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who served three years in prison after creating the world’s first gene-edited babies in 2018, is now preparing for another attempt at germline editing – this time to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In an interview, He said he has established an independent lab in south Beijing and raised $7 m … ⌘ Read more

Europe Must Invest in Open Source AI or Cede To China, Schmidt Says
An anonymous reader shares a report: Europe must invest in its own open source artificial intelligence labs and address soaring energy prices, or it will quickly find itself dependent on Chinese models, former Google chief executive and tech investor Eric Schmidt said.

“In the US, the companies are largely moving to closed source, which means th … ⌘ Read more

Ukraine To Share Wartime Combat Data With Allies To Help Train AI
An anonymous reader shares a report: Ukraine will establish a system allowing its allies to train their AI models on Kyiv’s valuable combat data collected throughout the nearly four-year war with Russia, newly appointed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has said. Fedorov – a former digitalisation minister who last week took up the post to drive ref … ⌘ Read more

Energy Costs Will Decide Which Countries Win the AI Race, Microsoft’s Nadella Says
Energy costs will be key to deciding which country wins the AI race, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said. CNBC: As countries race to build AI infrastructure to capitalize on the technology’s promise of huge efficiency gains, Nadella told the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Tuesday that “GDP growth in any place … ⌘ Read more

Amazon CEO Jassy Says Tariffs Have Started To ‘Creep’ Into Prices
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are starting to be reflected in the price of some items, as sellers weigh how to absorb the shock of the added costs. From a report: Amazon and many of its third-party merchants pre-purchased inventory to try to get ahead of the tariffs and keep prices low for customers, but mos … ⌘ Read more

Sony Is Ceding Control of TV Hardware Business To China’s TCL
Sony plans to spin off its TV hardware business to a new joint venture controlled by Chinese electronics giant TCL, the two said Tuesday, a significant retreat for the Japanese giant whose Bravia line has long occupied the premium end of the television market. TCL would hold a 51% stake in the venture and Sony would retain 49% under a nonbindin … ⌘ Read more

‘Just Because Linus Torvalds Vibe Codes Doesn’t Mean It’s a Good Idea’
In an opinion piece for The Register, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols argues that while “vibe coding” can be fun and occasionally useful for small, throwaway projects, it produces brittle, low-quality code that doesn’t scale and ultimately burdens real developers with cleanup and maintenance. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt: Vibe co … ⌘ Read more

Ocean Damage Nearly Doubles the Cost of Climate Change
A new study from Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that factoring ocean damage into climate economics nearly doubles the estimated global cost of climate change, adding close to $2 trillion per year from losses to fisheries, coral reefs, and coastal infrastructure. “It is the first time a social cost of carbon (SCC) assessment – a key measure of economic ha … ⌘ Read more

Bank of England ‘Must Plan For a Financial Crisis Triggered By Aliens’
A former Bank of England analyst has urged contingency planning for a potential financial shock if the U.S. government were to confirm the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. The argument is that “ontological shock” alone could destabilize confidence and trigger crisis dynamics. The Independent reports: [Helen McCaw, w … ⌘ Read more

The Fastest Human Spaceflight Mission In History Crawls Closer To Liftoff
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Preparations for the first human spaceflight to the Moon in more than 50 years took a big step forward this weekend with the rollout of the Artemis II rocket to its launch pad. The rocket reached a top speed of just 1 mph on the four-mile, 12-hour journey from the Vehicle … ⌘ Read more

The World’s Longest-Running Lab Experiment Is Almost 100 Years Old
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: It all started in 1927, when physicist Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland in Australia filled a closed funnel with the world’s thickest known fluid: pitch, a derivative of tar that was once used to seal ships against the seas. Three years later, in 1930, Parnell cut the funne … ⌘ Read more

Germany’s EV Subsidies Will Include Chinese Brands
Germany is reinstating EV subsidies after a sharp sales drop, rolling out a 3 billion-euro program offering 1,500-6,000 euros per buyer starting in May and running through 2029. Unlike some neighboring countries, the incentives are open to all manufacturers with a focus on low- and middle-income households. From a report: “I cannot see any evidence of this postulated major i … ⌘ Read more

A Second US Sphere Could Come To Maryland
Sphere Entertainment plans to build a second U.S. Sphere near Washington, D.C., with a smaller 6,000-seat “mini-Sphere” proposed for National Harbor in Maryland. The venue would retain the signature LED exterior and immersive 4D tech of the Las Vegas Sphere, just at a more compact scale. The Verge reports: The second US sphere would be built in an area known as National Harbor in Prince Geor … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Contacted Anna’s Archive To Secure Access To Millions of Pirated Books
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: NVIDIA executives allegedly authorized the use of millions of pirated books from Anna’s Archive to fuel its AI training. In an expanded class-action lawsuit that cites internal NVIDIA documents, several book authors claim (PDF) that the trillion-dollar company directly … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI CFO Says Annualized Revenue Crosses $20 Billion In 2025
According to CFO Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s annualized revenue surpassed $20 billion in 2025, up from $6 billion a year earlier with growth closely tracking an expansion in computing capacity. Reuters reports: OpenAI’s computing capacity rose to 1.9 gigawatts (GW) in 2025 from 0.6 GW in 2024, Friar said in the blog, adding that Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s … ⌘ Read more

Threads Usage Overtakes X On Mobile
New data from Similarweb shows Threads has overtaken X in daily mobile users. However, X still dominates on the web with around 150 million daily web visits compared to Threads’ 8.5 million daily visits. TechCrunch reports: Similarweb’s data shows that Threads had 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android as of January 7, 2026, after months of growth, while X has 125 million daily active users … ⌘ Read more

Congress Wants To Hand Your Parenting To Big Tech
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): Lawmakers in Washington are once again focusing on kids, screens, and mental health. But according to Congress, Big Tech is somehow both the problem and the solution. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing [Friday] on “examining the effect of technology on America’s youth.” Witnesses war … ⌘ Read more

Rackspace Customers Grapple With ‘Devastating’ Email Hosting Price Hike
Rackspace’s new pricing for its email hosting services is “devastating,” according to a partner that has been using Rackspace as its email provider since 1999. From a report: In recent weeks, Rackspace updated its email hosting pricing. Its standard plan is now $10 per mailbox per month. Businesses can also pay for the Rackspace Email P … ⌘ Read more

The Rise and Fall of the American Monoculture
The American monoculture – the era when three television networks, seven movie studios, and a handful of record labels determined virtually everything the country watched and heard – is collapsing under the weight of algorithmic recommendation engines and infinite streaming options. An estimated 200 million tickets were sold for “Gone With the Wind” in 1939 when the U.S. population … ⌘ Read more

Asus Confirms It Won’t Launch Phones in 2026, May Leave Android Altogether
Asus won’t release any new smartphones this year, and that may signal the brand’s exit from the Android space altogether. From a report: Asus Chairman Jonney Shih confirmed the news at an event in Taiwan on Jan. 16. According to a machine-translated version of quotes reported by Inside, Shih said, “Asus will no longer add new … ⌘ Read more

WhatsApp Texts Are Not Contracts, Judge Rules in $2M Divorce Row
A British painter who argued that her ex-husband had signed over their $2 million north London home through WhatsApp messages has lost her High Court appeal after the judge ruled that the sender’s name appearing in a chat header does not constitute a legal signature.

Hsiao-mei Lin, 54, presented messages from her former husband Audun Mar Gudmundsso … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming May Soon Let You Stream Your Own Games for Free - If You Watch Ads
Microsoft appears to be preparing an ad-supported tier for Xbox Cloud Gaming that would let players stream games they’ve purchased digitally without needing a Game Pass subscription, according to a Windows Central report citing sources familiar with the plans. Users last week began n … ⌘ Read more

ERP Isn’t Dead Yet - But Most Execs Are Planning the Wake
Seven out of ten C-suite executives believe traditional enterprise resource planning software has seen its best days, though the category remains firmly entrenched in corporate IT and opinion is sharply divided on what comes next. A survey of 4,295 CFOs, CISOs, CIOs and CEOs worldwide found 36% expect ERP to give way to composable, API-driven best-of-breed systems, w … ⌘ Read more

Valve Has ‘Significantly’ Rewritten Steam’s Rules For How Developers Must Disclose AI Use
Valve has substantially overhauled its guidelines for how game developers must disclose the use of generative AI on Steam, making explicit that tools like code assistants and other development aids do not fall under the disclosure requirement. The updated rules clarify that Valve’s focus is not on “ … ⌘ Read more

Netflix Wants Plots Explained Multiple Times Because Viewers Are on Their Phones, Matt Damon Says
Netflix has begun asking filmmakers to adjust their storytelling approach to account for viewers who are scrolling through their phones while watching, according to Matt Damon. The traditional action movie formula involves three major set pieces distributed across the first, … ⌘ Read more

Dumbphone Owners Have Lost Their Minds
The growing enthusiasm among Gen Z for ditching smartphones in favor of basic “dumbphones” may be overlooking a significant cognitive reality, according to a WIRED essay that draws on the 1998 “extended mind hypothesis” by philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers. The hypothesis argues that external tools can extend the biological brain in an all but physical way, meaning your phone isn’t just a … ⌘ Read more

NYSE Eyes 24/7 Tokenized Stock Trading With Weekend Access and Same-Day Settlement
BrianFagioli writes: The New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange, is developing a platform for trading tokenized versions of U.S. listed stocks and ETFs around the clock, pending regulatory approval. The system would combine the NYSE’s existing matching engine with blockchain-based settlement … ⌘ Read more

IMF Warns Global Economic Resilience at Risk if AI Falters
The “surprisingly resilient” global economy is at risk of being disrupted by a sharp reversal in the AI boom, the IMF warned on Monday, as world leaders prepared for talks in the Swiss resort of Davos. From a report: Risks to global economic expansion were “tilted to the downside,” the fund said in an update to its World Economic Outlook, arguing that growth was … ⌘ Read more

China Birth Rate Falls To Lowest Since 1949
China’s birth rate fell to 5.6 per 1,000 people in 2025, the lowest figure since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, and the country’s total population contracted by 3.39 million, the sharpest decline since the Mao Zedong era. The drop marks the fourth straight year of population decline and comes despite government efforts to encourage childbearing, including subsidies of abou … ⌘ Read more

China Consumed 10.4 Trillion Kilowatt-Hours of Electricity In 2025 - Double the US
Slashdot reader hackingbear summarizes this report from Bloomberg: China consumed totally 10.4 trillion kilowatt hours (10.4 petaWh) in 2025 according to data from the National Energy Administration. That’s the highest annual electricity use ever recorded by a single country, and doubled the amount used by th … ⌘ Read more

More US States are Putting Bitcoin on Public Balance Sheets
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNBC:

Led by Texas and New Hampshire, U.S. states across the national map, both red and blue in political stripes, are developing bitcoin strategic reserves and bringing cryptocurrencies onto their books through additional state finance and budgeting measures. Texas recently became the first state to purchase bitc … ⌘ Read more

Is the Possibility of Conscious AI a Dangerous Myth?
This week Noema magazine published a 7,000-word exploration of our modern “Mythology Of Conscious AI” written by a neuroscience professor who directs the University of Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science:
The very idea of conscious AI rests on the assumption that consciousness is a matter of computation. More specifically, that implementing the right kind of computation, … ⌘ Read more

EHT Astronomers Will Film Swirling of a Supermassive Black Hole for the First Time
“Astronomers are preparing to capture a movie of a supermassive black hole in action for the first time,” reports the Guardian:

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) will track the colossal black hole at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy throughout March and April with the aim of capturing footage of the swirli … ⌘ Read more

Porsche Sold More Electrified Cars in Europe Last Year than Pure Gas-Powered Models
Porsche made an announcement Friday. In Europe they sold more electrified Porsches last year than pure combustion-engined models, reports Electrek:

in Europe, a majority (57.9%) of Porsche’s deliveries were plug-ins, with 1/3 of its European sales being fully electric. For models that have no fully electric … ⌘ Read more

Young College Graduates Suddenly Aren’t Finding Jobs Faster Than Non-College Graduates
U.S. college graduates “have historically found jobs more quickly than people with only a high school degree,” writes Bloomberg.

“But that advantage is becoming a thing of the past, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.”

“Recently, the job-finding rate for young college-edu … ⌘ Read more

SpaceX Launches New NASA Telescope to Help JWST Study Exoplanets
Last week a University of Arizona astronomy professor “watched anxiously…as an awe-inspiring SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried NASA’s new exoplanet telescope, Pandora, into orbit.”

In 2018 NASA had approached Daniel Apai to help build the telescope, which he says will “shatter a barrier — to understand and remove a source of noise in the data … ⌘ Read more

Hundreds Answer Europe’s ‘Public Call for Evidence’ on an Open Digital Ecosystem Strategy
The European Commission “has opened a public call for evidence on European open digital ecosystems,” writes Help Net Security, part of preparations for an upcoming Communication “that will examine the role of open source in EU’s digital infrastructure.”

The consultation runs from January 6 to Februa … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Forced to Issue Emergency Out-of-Band Windows Update
The senior editor at the blog Windows Central decries two serious Windows issues “that were not spotted by Microsoft during testing, and are so severe that the company has now issued an emergency fix to address the problems.”

Microsoft’s first update for Windows 11 in 2026 has already caused two major issues that saw users unable to fully shutdown t … ⌘ Read more

Astronomers Finally Explain How Molecules From Earth’s Atmosphere Keep Winding Up On the Moon
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNN:

Particles from Earth’s atmosphere have been carried into space by solar wind and have been landing on the moon for billions of years, mixing into the lunar soil, according to a new study [published in the journal Nature Communications Ea … ⌘ Read more

Acer Sues Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, Alleging Infringment on Acer’s Cellular Networking Patents
Slashdot reader BrianFagioli writes: Acer has filed three separate patent infringement lawsuits against AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, taking the unusual step of hauling the nation’s largest wireless carriers into federal court. The suits, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, claim t … ⌘ Read more

China Builds ‘Hypergravity’ Machine 2,000X Stronger Than Earth
Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shared this report from Futurism:

China has unveiled an extremely powerful “hypergravity machine” that can generate forces almost two thousand times stronger than Earth’s regular gravity.

The futuristic-looking machine, called CHIEF1900, was constructed at China’s Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Exper … ⌘ Read more

Could We Provide Better Cellphone Service With Fewer, Bigger Satellites?
European satellite operator Eutelsat “plans to launch 440 Airbus-built LEO satellites in the coming years to replenish and expand its constellation,” Reuters reported Friday. And last week America’s Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX’s request to deploy another 7,500 Starlink satellites, while Starlink “projects it … ⌘ Read more

Retailers Rush to Implement AI-Assisted Shopping and Orders
This week Google “unveiled a set of tools for retailers that helps them roll out AI agents,” reports the Wall Street Journal,
The new retail AI agents, which help shoppers find their desired items, provide customer support and let people order food at restaurants, are part of what Alphabet-owned Google calls Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. Major reta … ⌘ Read more

53% of Crypto Tokens Launched Since 2021 Have Failed, Most in 2025
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”More than half of all cryptocurrencies ever launched are now defunct,” reports CoinDesk, citing a new analysis by cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko.

And most of those failures occurred in 2025:

The study looked at token listings on GeckoTerminal between mid-2021 and the end of 2025. Of the nearly 20.2 million tokens that entered … ⌘ Read more