Category: Biz Tech

Growing sophistication in artificial-intelligence driven video and audio forgery has sent shockwaves through financial systems and public trust alike, with 2025 emerging as a watershed year in deepfake-enabled fraud. Losses tied to deepfake scams are widely estimated at over $50 billion annually — a stark indicator of how rapidly cybercrime is evolving. Fake videos that convincingly mimic celebrities, corporate executives or even family members are now being used in a variety of scams — from bogus investment pitches to fraudulent bank

Amazon has begun shipping its most advanced phased-array terminal, dubbed Leo Ultra, to select enterprise customers as part of a preview programme for its satellite broadband service Amazon Leo — the rebranded successor to Project Kuiper. The company claims the terminal can deliver download speeds up to 1 gigabit per second and upload speeds reaching 400 megabits per second, representing a bold push to challenge incumbent players such as Starlink. Leo Ultra runs on Amazon-designed silicon and uses a full-duplex phased-array

European banking regulators are intensifying warnings that widespread use of artificial intelligence across the financial sector could expose the banking system to new, systemic vulnerabilities. The chair of supervision at the central bank of the Netherlands, Steven Maijoor, stated that the increasing reliance on AI tools supplied by non-European tech firms is creating a structural threat to financial stability. He urged swift action to reduce dependence on overseas providers and called for accelerated development of cloud and AI infrastructure within

A surge in hardware innovation has reshaped expectations for portable gaming, and the strongest performers of 2026 reflect that shift. The field has expanded beyond traditional performance leaders, drawing in machines engineered with desktop-class GPUs, advanced cooling architecture, and AI-enhanced optimisation layers that push mobile gaming to new thresholds. The landscape is defined by three broad categories: raw-power flagships that prioritise maximum performance, balanced contenders designed for versatility, and lightweight devices that combine portability with surprising capability. The resulting competition

A new study led by researchers at Stanford demonstrates that social media polarisation can be eased through modest adjustments to content ranking rather than content removal or heavy moderation. The team developed a browser-based tool that reorders users’ feeds on X to push down posts containing extreme partisan hostility, calls for political violence or antidemocratic rhetoric. When applied in a field experiment during the 2024 US election, this intervention softened negative attitudes toward opposing political groups across the partisan spectrum. The

OpenAI disclosed a data breach involving its analytics provider Mixpanel, confirming that a security lapse allowed unauthorised access to certain API user details but did not compromise ChatGPT message data or model-generated content. The company informed affected developers that the incident, traced to November 2025, exposed names, email addresses and limited account-related metadata, prompting a broader review of third-party integrations across its platform. OpenAI stated that the breach originated from Mixpanel’s systems rather than its own infrastructure, describing it as a

Rapid strides in artificial intelligence are reshaping how organisations handle field service operations across sectors ranging from utilities to manufacturing and telecom, with predictive maintenance, intelligent scheduling, and real-time technician support becoming core features of modern systems. Companies deploying advanced AI tools report gains in technician efficiency and reductions in unplanned downtime, marking a shift from reactive maintenance to proactive service strategies. A key development driving this shift is the widespread adoption of AI-enabled predictive maintenance platforms. By combining sensor

A malicious Chrome extension disguised as a trading tool has been unmasked after evidence emerged that it silently siphons cryptocurrency from users executing swaps on the Solana network. The extension, known as Crypto Copilot, inserts secret transfer instructions into swaps made via the decentralized exchange Raydium, routing a portion of users’ SOL to an attacker-controlled wallet without their awareness. Crypto Copilot appeared in mid-2024 promoted as a convenience tool offering one-click token trades directly from social media feeds. It supports popular

Amazon has launched a feature called Alexa Home Theater that lets owners of its latest Echo speakers transform their living-room setup into a full surround-sound system, linking up to five speakers plus an optional subwoofer for cinematic audio. Supporting devices include the updated Echo Studio and the newly released Echo Dot Max, both of which are engineered to deliver powerful spatial audio and deep bass while automatically tuning output to match room acoustics. The updated Echo Studio retains high-fidelity audio in

YouTube Music has introduced an updated 2025 Recap that lets users interact with an AI chatbot to explore their listening habits. The refreshed experience unfolds in a story-style interface, opening with total listening time and “longest streak,” then highlighting top songs, favourite artists and playlists. This edition revamps standard recap metrics by adding interactive and globally aware features. Users can view a “Musical Passport” showing the countries of origin for their most-played artists, while a calendar-style “Your musical bestie” section tracks

Cyber-security firms Kaspersky and VDC Research have estimated that global manufacturing organisations could incur losses exceeding US$18 billion in the first three quarters of 2025 due to ransomware attacks disabling production-line operations. According to their joint analysis, based on data from the Kaspersky Security Network, the average incident leads to around 13 days of operational disruption, with labour costs alone accounting for billions of dollars. The losses were calculated by modelling the number of manufacturing organisations that experienced detected and prevented

Data executives in the United Arab Emirates are signalling serious alarm over the lack of transparency in how their artificial-intelligence systems make decisions, according to a fresh survey. About 94 per cent of data leaders in the country say they do not have full visibility of decision-making processes in their AI systems, pointing to deep governance vulnerabilities at a time when adoption is accelerating. This revelation emerges from the Global AI Confessions Report: Data Leaders Edition by the analytics platform

Organizations are deploying artificial-intelligence-driven defences to counter increasingly sophisticated cyber threats as attackers harness the same technology to mount agile attacks. Leaders at major cybersecurity firms say the conflict between defenders and adversaries has entered a new phase, where speed, adaptability and automation are critical. The security firm Palo Alto Networks announced upgraded platforms designed to protect cloud assets and AI-based applications, citing the need to monitor and respond to infrastructure-level threats. Its CEO highlighted the human-in-the-loop design that allows oversight

Cloud-software giant Salesforce has announced that it is investigating unauthorised activity involving applications published by vendor Gainsight, which may have enabled access to customer data through the Salesforce platform. The firm said it revoked all active access and refresh tokens related to the Gainsight apps and temporarily removed those applications from its marketplace. It emphasised this incident does not stem from a vulnerability in the Salesforce core platform. Google’s Threat Intelligence team reported that more than 200 Salesforce customer instances

Google’s top infrastructure executive has informed staff that the company must double its artificial-intelligence compute capacity every six months to keep pace with escalating demand. Amin Vahdat, vice-president of AI infrastructure at Google Cloud, stated that this rapid expansion is critical if the company is to achieve the next “1,000×” increase in compute over the next four to five years. Vahdat delivered the message during an all-hands internal presentation, underscoring the scale of resources required to support next-generation AI models and

Shares of Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, surged to record territory on Wednesday as investors responded to strong underlying business momentum and easing regulatory concerns. The company’s Class A share climbed above $300 for the first time in intraday trading, a notable milestone for the tech heavyweight. The push upward was driven in part by a standout quarter in which Alphabet reported revenues exceeding $100 billion, powered by a 34 per cent growth in its cloud division

The Netherlands has surrendered the state-intervention powers over the chipmaker Nexperia and restored full control to its Chinese owner, marking a shift in the regulatory posture that had threatened global automotive supply chains. The Dutch Economy Minister Vincent Karremans described the move as “a show of goodwill” toward China, as talks between both governments remain ongoing. The intervention had been applied under the Cold War-era Goods Availability Act, a rarely used law enabling the state to seize or influence operations

  Papio Consulting recently launched an AI-powered ESG platform. As Steven Jansen, Founder of Papio Consulting, states MENA is one of the fastest-evolving regions for ESG transformation, with a long-term vision where transparent ESG performance becomes a competitive advantage. Governments are increasingly advancing sustainability agendas and innovation, and companies are ready to integrate smart tools. “Our Papio Sustainability Manager helps reduce the time and cost of ESG reporting by up to 3x, given how manual, fragmented, and resource-intensive the current process is. When regulatory, investor,

Google has introduced Gemini 3 Pro, its next-generation multimodal artificial-intelligence model, marking a significant escalation in the company’s ambitions for large-language models. The new system, which expands multimodal integration across text, image and audio inputs, is being rolled out initially to enterprise and developer channels before wider availability. The model appears underpinned by a “1 million-token” context window—according to leak reports—enabling it to process extensive documents and mixed-media inputs in one pass. Google describes improved reasoning abilities and tighter mix of

A substantial shift in sentiment around Alphabet Inc. has taken shape following the firm’s elevation to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ by Loop Capital, with the brokerage raising its price target to $320 from $260. The upgrade underscores a decisive move by Wall Street away from doubts about Alphabet’s core search business toward bullish conviction in its AI-driven future. Loop Capital’s managing director, Rob Sanderson, observed that earlier concerns over “AI cannibalisation and transition risk” no longer dominate the investor narrative around

Major online platforms including Cloudflare, Inc., ChatGPT and X experienced widespread accessibility issues after a network disruption at Cloudflare, a critical internet infrastructure provider. Cloudflare’s own status page recorded scheduled maintenance across multiple datacentres and a subsequent investigation into elevated error rates across its services. The disruption caused significant spill-over effects that impacted end-users globally and raised concerns over reliance on centralised networks. Beginning in multiple regions, users attempting to access X, ChatGPT and other services reported error messages

DoorDash, the popular food delivery service, has confirmed that a cyber attack has compromised the personal data of millions of users. The breach, which has sparked significant concern, was the result of a sophisticated social engineering attack targeting the company's systems. This incident has exposed sensitive user information, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and in some cases, delivery addresses. The breach reportedly affected users across four countries, although DoorDash has yet to disclose the exact number of individuals impacted. In

Snapchat has launched its internal Valdi framework to the public, marking a significant shift in the competitive landscape for user interface frameworks. Initially used exclusively within the company for eight years, Valdi is now available to external developers, expanding the tools and resources that could influence UI design and development across digital platforms. Valdi, which was first conceived to streamline Snapchat's app development process, has been a crucial part of the platform’s rapid evolution over the years. It allows developers to

Kubernetes maintainers have confirmed that Ingress NGINX, a cornerstone of many cloud-native infrastructures, will be retired by March 2026. This decision marks a significant change for developers and organisations relying on the popular ingress controller for managing internal and external traffic in Kubernetes clusters. Ingress controllers are essential components in cloud-native environments, facilitating the routing of traffic between external users and Kubernetes-based applications. Ingress NGINX, specifically, has been the go-to solution for many due to its flexibility, performance, and scalability. However,

EVIQ, a leading electric vehicle technology firm, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with NAVA, a prominent player in electric mobility solutions, marking a significant step forward in the development of electric vehicles and related infrastructure. This strategic partnership aims to bolster the electric vehicle sector, focusing on the exchange of technical knowledge, talent development, and the expansion of advanced EV technologies across the country. The collaboration, which formalises the shared goal of advancing sustainable transportation, highlights a

Samsung has announced a transformative investment strategy, committing $310 billion over the next five years to accelerate its artificial intelligence and technology development. This ambitious move is designed to meet the soaring demand for AI-driven innovations and strengthen Samsung’s position at the forefront of global tech advancements. The investment will be channelled primarily into developing cutting-edge AI technologies, next-generation semiconductors, and other advanced tech products. Samsung’s strategy is not just about expanding its product portfolio but also fostering breakthroughs that

Elon Musk has shared his bold vision for the future of Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, claiming it has the potential to revolutionise the global economy by eradicating poverty and providing universal high incomes. Speaking at a recent event, Musk presented an ambitious outlook for the robot, which is being developed by Tesla to perform a variety of tasks, ranging from mundane chores to complex industrial processes. Optimus, a humanoid robot designed to assist humans with physical labour, represents Tesla’s leap into

Mozilla has announced an innovative new feature set to enhance user experience in its popular Firefox browser. The company unveiled plans for an "AI Window" browsing mode, a tool that promises to transform the way users interact with the internet by integrating an AI assistant directly into their browsing environment. This pioneering mode will allow users to chat with an AI assistant while navigating websites, providing an interactive and more personalised browsing experience. The assistant, powered by cutting-edge AI technology, will

Tech companies are poised to take on massive debt as they accelerate investments in artificial intelligence, a trend that is raising concerns among lenders and investors alike. As the race to develop AI capabilities intensifies, firms are preparing to borrow vast sums, potentially stretching into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The scale of this borrowing is prompting traders to seek ways to safeguard themselves from the risk associated with such heavy debt loads, which could have far-reaching consequences for

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s Center of Digital Entrepreneurship has successfully concluded the Multiverse Summit 2025, which was held in Silicon Valley, United States. This landmark event highlighted the Kingdom’s ongoing commitment to advancing digital innovation and fostering a global digital ecosystem. The summit, which brought together industry leaders, innovators, and government officials, served as a platform to explore the convergence of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the metaverse. The goal was to showcase Saudi Arabia’s

Netskope has partnered with NEVERHACK to introduce an innovative, fully managed Security Service Edge solution aimed at enhancing zero-trust cloud security. This new offering is designed to address the growing need for comprehensive protection in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, where organisations are increasingly reliant on cloud-based infrastructure. The collaboration combines Netskope's advanced network and cloud security technology with NEVERHACK's expertise in managed security services. The integrated solution aims to provide enterprises with a more streamlined and efficient way to

A landmark agreement between Apple Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd will allow Apple to collect a 15 per cent commission on payments made within WeChat’s mini games and mini apps on iPhones, marking a significant shift in the Chinese digital ecosystem. Under the deal, Apple will handle the payment processing for qualifying “mini-apps” embedded within WeChat and take half of its standard 30 per cent App Store fee. The adjustment comes as mini apps—lightweight applications hosted inside larger platforms—have grown rapidly

A transformative new quantum research centre is set to take root in College Park, Maryland, marking a significant step in the state's push for leadership in the quantum technology sector. A strategic collaboration between Microsoft, the State of Maryland, and the University of Maryland Enterprise Corporation is driving the establishment of the centre, which promises to accelerate innovation in both quantum hardware and software development. The centre, announced earlier this year, will serve as a collaborative hub for quantum researchers,

A vast data trove compiled by threat-intelligence firm Synthient has brought to light that 1.95 billion unique email addresses and approximately 1.3 billion passwords were exposed in credential-stuffing lists drawn from multiple underground sources. The corpus, now indexed by Have I Been Pwned, signals an escalation in the reuse-of-credentials risk by cyber-attackers targeting cross-platform logins. The aggregation effort by Synthient captured data embedded in previously breached credential pairings and then redistributed via darknet forums, chat channels and other illicit vectors.