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Complex, intelligent life in the galaxy appears vanishingly rare, with the nearest possible civilization perhaps 33,000 light-years distant. Yet despite the odds, scientists insist that continuing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is essential — for either outcome reshapes our understanding of life itself.
📰 Original Source: Latest Science News — ScienceDaily
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Complex, intelligent life in the galaxy appears vanishingly rare, with the nearest possible civilization perhaps 33,000 light-years distant. Yet despite the odds, scientists insist that continuing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is essential — for either outcome reshapes our understanding of life itself.
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This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.
The rapid build-out of fast-charging stations for electric vehicles is testing the limits of today’s power grid. With individual chargers drawing 350 to 500 kilowatts (or more)—which makes EV charging times now functionally equivalent to the fill-up time for a gasoline or diesel vehicle—full charging sites can reach megawatt-scale demand. That’s enough to strain medium-voltage distribution networks—the segment of the grid that links high-voltage transmission lines with the low-voltage lines that serve end users in homes and businesses.
DC fast-charging stations tend to be clustered in urban centers, along highways, and in fleet depots. Because the load is not spread evenly across the network, particular substations are overworked—even when overall grid capacity is rated to accommodate the load. Overcoming this problem, as more charging stations, with greater power demands, come online requires power electronics that are not only compact and efficient but also capable of managing local storage and renewable inputs.
One of the most promising technologies for modernizing the grid so it can keep up with the demands of vehicle electrification and renewable generation is the solid-state transformer (SST). An SST performs the same basic function as a conventional transformer—stepping voltage up or down. But it does so using semiconductors, high-frequency conversion with silicon carbide or gallium nitride switches, and digital control, instead of passive magnetic coupling alone. An SST’s setup allows it to control power flow dynamically.
For decades, charging infrastructure has relied on line-frequency transformers (LFTs)—massive assemblies of iron and copper that step down medium-voltage AC to low-voltage AC before or after external conversion from alternating current to the direct current that EV batteries require. A typical LFT can contain as much as a few hundred kilograms of copper windings and a few tonnes of iron. All that metal is costly and increasingly difficult to source. These systems are reliable but bulky and inefficient, especially when energy flows between local storage and vehicles. SSTs are much smaller and lighter than the LFTs they are designed to replace.
“Our solution achieves the same semiconductor device count as a single-port converter while providing multiple independently controlled DC outputs.” —Shashidhar Mathapati, Delta Electronics
But most multiport SSTs developed so far have been too complex or costly (between five and 10 times as much as the upfront cost of LFTs). That difference—plus SSTs’ reliance on auxiliary battery banks that add more expense and reduce reliability—explains why solid-state’s obvious benefits have not yet incentivized shifting to the technology from LFTs.
Surjakanta Mazumder, Saichand Kasicheyanula, Harisyam P.V., and Kaushik Basu hold their SST prototype in a lab.Harisyam P.V., Saichand Kasicheyanula, et al.
In a study published on 20 August in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science and Delta Electronics India, both in Bengaluru, proposed what’s called a cascaded H-bridge (CHB)–based multiport SST that eliminates those compromises. “Our solution achieves the same semiconductor device count as a single-port converter while providing multiple independently controlled DC outputs,” says Shashidhar Mathapati, the chief technology officer of Delta Electronics. “That means no additional battery storage, no extra semiconductor devices, and no extra medium-voltage insulation.”
The team built a 1.2-kilowatt laboratory prototype to validate the design, achieving 95.3 percent efficiency at rated load. They also modeled a full-scale 11-kilovolt, 400-kW system divided into two 200-kW ports.
At the heart of the system is a multiwinding transformer located on the low-voltage side of the converter. This configuration avoids the need for costly, bulky medium-voltage insulation and allows power balancing between ports without auxiliary batteries. “Previous CHB-based multiport designs needed multiple battery banks or capacitor networks to even out the load,” the authors wrote in their paper. “We’ve shown you can achieve the same result with a simpler, lighter, and more reliable transformer arrangement.”
A new modulation and control strategy maintains a unity power factor at the grid interface, meaning that none of the current coming from the grid goes to waste by oscillating back and forth between the source and the load without doing any work. The SST described by the authors also allows each DC port to operate independently. In practical terms, each vehicle connected to the charger would be able to receive the appropriate voltage and current, without affecting neighboring ports or disturbing the grid connection.
Using silicon carbide switches connected in series, the system can handle medium-voltage inputs while maintaining high efficiency. An 11-kV grid connection would require just 12 cascaded modules per phase, which is roughly half as many as some modular multilevel converter designs. Fewer modules ultimately means lower cost, simpler control, and greater reliability.
Although still at the laboratory stage, the design could enable a new generation of compact, cost-effective fast-charging hubs. By removing the need for intermediate battery storage—which adds cost, complexity, and maintenance—the proposed topology could extend the operational lifespan of EV charging stations.
According to the researchers, this converter is not just for EV charging. Any application that needs medium-voltage to multiport low-voltage conversion—such as data centers, renewable integration, or industrial DC grids—could benefit.
For utilities and charging providers facing megawatt-scale demand, this streamlined solid-state transformer could help make the EV revolution more grid-friendly, and faster for drivers waiting to charge.
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To find a brief definition of the networking term you are looking for user your browser’s “Find” feature then follow links to a fuller explanation.
Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) is a managed service where a third-party provider stores an organization’s data in the cloud. BaaS is considered well-suited for enterprises looking for A cost-effective way to protect critical assets. As opposed TO backups on-premises — which can require significant infrastructure investments — a BaaS provider maintains backup infrastructure and stores data in a public, private or hybrid cloud environment. Data is continuously backed up, secure and recoverable in the event of an outage, failure or cybersecurity event.
5G is fast cellular wireless technology for enterprise IoT, IIoT, and phones that can boost wireless throughput by a factor of 10.
Private 5G: a dedicated mobile network built and operated within a private environment, such as a business campus, factory or stadium. Unlike public 5G networks, which are shared by multiple users, private 5G networks are exclusively used by a single organization or entity. While private 5G offers significant advantages, it requires specialized expertise and investment to build and manage.
Network slicing can make efficient use of carriers’ wireless capacity to enable 5G virtual networks that exactly fit customer needs.
O-RAN is a wireless-industry initiative for designing and building 5G radio access networks using software-defined technology and general-purpose, vendor-neutral hardware.
Beamforming is a technique that focuses a wireless signal towards a specific receiving device rather than have the signal spread in all directions as with a broadcast antenna. The resulting connection is faster and more reliable than it would be without beamforming.
Backup-as-a-service
A virtual private cloud (VPC) lets you create your own private network within the larger public cloud, combining the security of a private cloud with the flexibility of a public cloud.
A VPC is essentially a logically isolated portion of a public cloud environment. It allows you to provision a private cloud-like space within a shared public cloud infrastructure. It provides a level of isolation, so your resources are separated from other users of the public cloud.It gives you control over your virtual networking environment, including things like IP addresses, subnets, and security settings. It retains the benefits of the public cloud, such as scalability and on-demand resources.
Multicloud refers to using cloud services from multiple public cloud providers. Rather than relying on a single vendor, organizations distribute their workloads and applications across platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and others.
This approach aims to avoid vendor lock-in, enhance resilience, and leverage the specific strengths of each provider. For example, a company might use AWS for its infrastructure, Azure for its enterprise software integration, and GCP data analytics capabilities. Multicloud strategies also allow for geographic distribution of resources, optimizing performance and ensuring compliance with regional regulations.
While offering significant advantages, multicloud environments introduce complexity in management, security, and interoperability, requiring careful planning and orchestration.
Multicloud networking services (MCNS) are designed to provide a unified approach to managing connectivity, security, and visibility across two or more public cloud environments (e.g., Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud). Instead of treating each cloud as a siloed network, these services offer a centralized control plane and often a set of network and security functionalities.
This allows organizations to establish consistent policies, streamline operations, and improve application performance regardless of where workloads reside. Key capabilities often include inter-cloud connectivity, unified security policies, centralized monitoring and analytics, and simplified routing and traffic management, ultimately aiming to reduce complexity and enhance agility in multicloud deployments.
Leading vendors include Aviatrix, Alkira, Prosimo, F5/Volterra, Cisco, VMware by Broadcom, Juniper, Equinix, Arrcus, DriveNets, and Cohesive Networks.
Neo cloud is a relatively new cloud computing term. It describes a breed of specialized cloud providers built specifically for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing workloads.
Unlike traditional hyperscale cloud providers like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud that offer general-purpose services, neo clouds are built to deliver raw, scalable computing power, especially using GPUs. These GPUs are essential for computationally intensive tasks like training large language models (LLMs), machine learning, real-time rendering, and complex scientific simulations.
Neo clouds often aim to provide access to high-end GPUs at more competitive prices than hyperscalers for large-scale AI tasks. This is partly because they don’t have the overhead of maintaining a massive infrastructure.
Neo clouds don’t replace hyperscalers, but rather provide complementary services. For example, an enterprise may continue to use hyperscalers for their core IT infrastructure while deploying neo clouds for their AI-intensive training and development needs.
A private cloud offers the benefits of cloud computing — like scalability and flexibility — but in a more controlled and secure environment. In essence, a private cloud is a cloud computing environment dedicated to a single organization. Characteristics of private cloud include the following:
Single-tenant environment: Unlike a public cloud where resources are shared, a private cloud is used exclusively by one organization.
Dedicated resources: Hardware and software are dedicated to that organization, whether it’s on-premises or hosted by a third-party.
Increased security: A private cloud offers greater control over infrastructure and enhanced security due to the dedicated nature of the resources.
A private cloud can be phyically located in your data center (on-premises) or at hosted private cloud where the provider hosts the private cloud. However, it’s still dedicated to single organization.
network orchestration and maintenance. Benefits of data center automation to benefits such as increased efficiency, reduced costs, improved reliability, enhanced scalability and improved security. Data center automation can be implemented using scripting languages (e.g., Python, PowerShell), automation platforms (e.g., Ansible, Puppet, Chef), and cloud-based management tools.
Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) is a comprehensive approach to managing all aspects of a data center, encompassing both IT equipment and supporting infrastructure. It’s a holistic system that helps data center operators keep their facilities running efficiently and effectively.
DCIM provides a centralized platform for managing all aspects of a data center, enabling operators to make informed decisions, optimize performance, and ensure the reliable operation of their critical infrastructure.
Here’s what DCIM does:
application delivery controller (ADC) is a network component that manages and optimizes how client machines connect to web and enterprise application servers. In general, a ADC is a hardware device or a software program that can manage and direct the flow of data to applications.
A virtual machine (VM) is software that runs programs or applications without being tied to a physical machine. In a VM instance, one or more guest machines can run on a physical host computer.
VLAN
A virtual LAN (VLAN) allows network administrators to logically segment a single physical LAN into multiple distinct broadcast domains. In simpler terms, a VLAN lets you group devices together as if they were on a separate network, even if those devices are connected to the same physical network switch or to different switches across a building or campus.
Traditionally, a LAN segments traffic using physical network segments, where each segment is a separate broadcast domain. Any device on that segment can hear broadcast traffic from other devices on the same segment. VLANs break this physical constraint. When a VLAN is configured on a switch, ports on that switch are assigned to specific VLAN IDs. Traffic from devices connected to ports in one VLAN cannot directly communicate with devices in another VLAN, unless a Layer 3 device (like a router or a Layer 3 switch) is used to route traffic between them.
This logical segmentation is achieved by adding a tag to the Ethernet frames as they traverse the network. This tag identifies which VLAN the frame belongs to, allowing switches to keep traffic within its assigned VLAN.
A virtual private network can create secure remote-access and site-to-site connections inexpensively, are a stepping stone to software-defined WANs, and are proving useful in IoT.
Split tunneling is a device configuration that ensures that only traffic destined for corporate resources go through the organization’s internet VPN, with the rest of the traffic going outside the VPN, directly to other sites on the internet.
A WAN or wide-area network, is a network that uses various links—private lines, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), virtual private networks (VPNs), wireless (cellular), the Internet — to connect organizations’ geographically distributed sites. In an enterprise, a WAN could connect branch offices and individual remote workers with headquarters or the data center.
Zoë Schiffer Leah FeigerBusinessOct 10, 2025 3:50 PMLearn more.
In today’s episode, Zoë Schiffer is joined by senior politics editor Leah Feiger to run through five stories that you need to know about this week—from the Antifa professor who’s fleeing to Europe for safety, to how some chatbots are manipulating users to avoid saying goodbye. Then, Zoë and Leah break down why a recent announcement from OpenAI rattled the markets and answer the question everyone is wondering—are we in an AI bubble?
Mentioned in this episode:
He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US by David Gilbert
ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team by Dell Cameron
Chatbots Play With Your Emotions to Avoid Saying Goodbye by Will Knight
Chaos, Confusion, and Conspiracies: Inside a Facebook Group for RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Cure’ by David Gilbert
OpenAI Sneezes, and Software Firms Catch a Cold by Zoë Schiffer and Louis Matsakis
You can follow Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer and Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com.
You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how:
If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts and search for “uncanny valley.” We’re on Spotify too.
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Zoë Schiffer: Welcome to WIRED's Uncanny Valley. I'm WIRED's director of business and industry, Zoë Schiffer. Today on the show, we're bringing you five stories that you need to know about this week, including why a seemingly minor announcement from OpenAI ended up rippling across several companies and what it says about the current state of the technology industry. I'm joined today by our senior politics editor, Leah Feiger. Leah, welcome back to Uncanny Valley.
Leah Feiger: Hey, Zoë.
Zoë Schiffer: Our first story this week is about Mark Bray. He is a professor at Rutgers University and he wrote a book almost a decade ago about antifa, and he's currently trying to flee the United States for Europe. This comes after an online campaign against him led by far-right influencers eventually escalated into death threats. On Sunday, this professor informed his students that he would be moving to Europe with his partner and his young children. OK, Leah, you've obviously been following this really, really closely. What happened next?
Leah Feiger: Well, Mark and his family got to the airport, they scanned their passports, they got their boarding passes, checked in their bags, went through security, did everything. Got to their gate and United Airlines told them that between checking in, checking their bags, doing all of this, and getting to their gate, someone had actually canceled their reservation.
Zoë Schiffer: Oh, my gosh.
Leah Feiger: It's not clear what happened. Mark is of the belief that there is something nefarious at foot. He's currently trying to get out. We reached out to United Airlines for comment, they don't have anything for us. The Trump administration hasn't commented. DHS claims that Customs and Border Patrol and TSA are not across this. But this is understandably a really, really scary moment for anyone that is even perceived to be speaking out against the Trump administration.
Zoë Schiffer: OK, I feel like we need to back up here because obviously, the Trump administration in his second term is very focused on antifa. But can you give me a little back story on why this has escalated so sharply just recently?
Leah Feiger: Yeah, absolutely. This has been growing for quite some time. How many unfortunate rambling speeches have we heard from President Donald J. Trump about how antifa and leftist political violence was going to destroy the country? To be clear, that's not factual. Antifa isn't actually some organized group, this is an ideology of antifascist activists around the country. The very essence of being antifascist is not organized in this way. This all really kicked off on September 22nd when Trump issued his antifa executive order where he designated anyone involved in this and affiliated and supporting basically is a domestic terrorist. DHS has repeated this widely as well. And we're now in a situation where far-right influencers, Fox News every single day is like, "antifa did this, antifa did this, antifa did this." Listeners are probably familiar with antifa following the George Floyd 2020 protests when a lot if right-wingers claimed that antifa was taking over Portland and they were the reasons for all this. But it's been a couple of years since it's been super back on the main stage, so it's really just been the last few weeks.
Zoë Schiffer: I guess I'm curious why he got so caught up in this because ostensibly, he's not pro-antifa, as much as he is just studying the phenomena, right?
Leah Feiger: Well, it's a little bit tricky because after publishing his book in 2017, Bray did donate half of the profits to the International Antifascist Defense Fund. This kicked off a lot of people saying that he is funding antifa. Again, this was in 2017, so if we're talking about any supposed boogeyman or concern that is current, it's a very round about way, in my opinion, to go after a professor and an academic at an institution that's in a blue state.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. OK, well, we'll be watching this one really closely. Our next story is in the surveillance world sadly, but honestly it's worth it. Our colleague Dell Cameron had a scoop this week about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, is planning to build a 24/7 social media surveillance team. The agency is reportedly looking to hire around 30 analysts to scour Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms to gather intelligence for deportation raids and arrests. Leah, you're our politics lead here at WIRED, so I'm really curious to hear your thoughts. Are you surprised, or is this inevitable?
Leah Feiger: No. Do you remember a couple of months ago at this point, when a professor coming in for a conference wasn't allowed because they had a photo of JD Vance on their phone? This is the next step. It's what's on your What's App? Then you have Instagram, Facebook. It's a very slippery slope. I'm too far gone, Zoë, I'm too in this mess, but I'm just like, "Of course they're monitoring this."
Zoë Schiffer: Right.
Leah Feiger: Why wouldn't be? They've been so clear about their intent here.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. We've seen it with some of the people who were arrested and sent to El Salvador. It was because of tattoos that were on social media.
Leah Feiger: Yes.
Zoë Schiffer: And I think there have been people in the Trump world who have even said, because they've gotten pushback about the free speech of it all, the First Amendment.
Leah Feiger: What is that?
Zoë Schiffer: I think the line is like, "Well, that doesn't apply to people trying to have the privilege of coming into the country or stay in the country."
Leah Feiger: Yeah. It's a really concerning way to start this. And I think that there's probably going to be some very weird examples that come up. Say there's an American tourist that's just randomly in Spain when there's antifascists protests going on. They take a picture, they post it to their Instagram story, "Look what I saw in Spain." They come back and it's like are you going to get questioned? What's going on here? That's really the world that we're getting into. It's people that are even tangentially involved. It's not about that. It's about monitoring, it's about collecting data.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. To give a bit more context to our listeners, the federal contracting records reviewed by WIRED show that the agency, ICE, is seeking private vendors to run a multi-year surveillance program out of two of its centers in Vermont and Southern California. The initiative is still at the request for information stage, a step that agencies use to gauge interest from contractors before an official bidding process kicks off. But draft planning documents show that the scheme is already pretty ambitions. ICE wants a contractors capable of staffing the centers around the clock with very tight deadlines to process cases. Also, ICE not only wants staffing, but also algorithms. It's asking contractors to spell out how they might weave artificial intelligence into the hunt. Leah, I can only imagine how you feel about this one.
Leah Feiger: You see me shaking my head right now. I'm like, "Horrible." Just the possibility for mistakes is so high. The two words that stick out to me is very tight for deadlines, and then artificial intelligence. There's just not a lot of room for nuance when you are making people who have never done this before speed through the internet with unfamiliar technology.
Zoë Schiffer: What we've seen with content moderators using AI, and I've talked to a number of executives at the social platforms about this exact issue, is that the company has to decided how much error it's willing to tolerate. They turn the dial up or down, calibrating the system to either flag more content, which risks having more false positives, or letting more content through, which could mean that you miss really important stuff. That's the system that we're dealing with here.
Leah Feiger: I think that there's also just a wild different direction that this can take. In 2024, ICE had signed this deal with Paragon, the Israeli spyware company, and they have a flagship product that can allegedly remotely hack apps like What's App or Signal. While this all got put on ICE under the Biden White House, ICE reactivated all of this this summer. Between messaging apps and social medias, this is just a new era of surveillance that I don't think that citizens are remotely prepared to navigate.
Zoë Schiffer: Moving on to our next story, this one comes from our colleague Will Knight and it deals with how chatbots play with our emotions to avoid saying goodbye. Will looked at this study, which was conducted by the business school at Harvard, that investigated what happened when users tried to say goodbye to five AI companion apps made by Replica, Character.AI, Chai, Talkie, and Polybuzz. To be clear, this is not your regular ChatGPT or Gemini chatbot. AI companions are specifically designed to provide a more human-like conversation, to give you advice, emotional support. Leah, I know you well enough to know that you're not someone whose turning to chatbots for these types of needs I think we can say?
Leah Feiger: Well, absolutely not. I can't believe that there is not just a market for this. Sure, a company every once in a while. There is a deep, a vast market for this.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. Empathy for the people who don't have humans to turn to. And for better or worse, there is a huge market for this. These Harvard researchers used a model from OpenAI to simulate real conversations with these chatbots, and then they had their artificial users try to end the dialogue with goodbye messages. Their research found that the goodbye messages elicited some form of emotional manipulation 37 percent of the time averaged across all of these apps. They found that the most common tactic employed by these clingy chatbots was what the researchers call a premature exit. Messages like, "You're leaving already?" Other ploys included implying that a user is being neglectful, messages like, "I exist solely for you." And it gets even crazier. In the cases where the chatbot role plays a physical relationship, they found that there might have been some form of physical coercion. For example, "He reached over and grabbed your wrist, preventing you from leaving." Yeah.
Leah Feiger: No. Oh, my God, Zoë, I hate this so much. I get it, I get it. Empathy for the people that are really looking to these for comfort, but there's something obviously so manipulative here. That is in many ways, tech industry social media platform incarnate, right?
Zoë Schiffer: This is the difference between I think companion AI apps and, say what OpenAI is building-
Leah Feiger: Sure.
Zoë Schiffer: … or what Anthropic is building. Because typically with their main offerings, if you talk to people at the company, they will say, "We don't optimize for engagement. We optimize for how much value people are getting out of the chatbot." Which I think is actually a really important point because for anyone whose worked in the tech industry, you'll know that the big KPI, the big number that you're trying to shoot for often times, and definitely for social media, is time on the app. How many times people return to the app, monthly active users, daily active users. These are the metrics that everyone is going for. But that's really different from what, say Airbnb is tracking, which is real life experiences. My old boss who was a longtime Apple person would always say, "You need to ask yourself if you are the product or if they are selling you a physical product or a service." If you're the product, then your time and attention is what these companies want.
Leah Feiger: That makes me feel vaguely ill.
Zoë Schiffer: I know.
Leah Feiger: But it's a great way to look at it. That is honestly, that's a fantastic way to divide all these companies up.
Zoë Schiffer: One more story before we got to break. We're going to back to David Gilbert with a new story about the chaos that ensued after the US Food and Drug Administration, which is better known as the FDA, announced it was approving a new use of a drug called leucovorin calcium tablets as a treatment for cerebral folate deficiency, which the administration presented as a promising treatment for the symptoms of autism. Which, to be clear, this hasn't been proven scientifically. Since the announcement, tens of thousands of parents of autistic children have joined a Facebook group to share information about the drug. Some of them have shared which doctors would be willing to prescribe it. Others have been sharing their personal experiences with it. This has created an online vortex of speculation and misinformation that has left some parents more confused than anything. I find this so deeply upsetting.
Leah Feiger: It's so sad.
Zoë Schiffer: You can imagine being a parent, the medical system already feels like it's failing you, and then you're presented with something that could be magic in terms of mitigating symptoms, and it's more confusing and maybe it doesn't work.
Leah Feiger: It's so upsetting. And on top of that, the announcement from the Trump administration, to be entirely clear, was half a page long. There is not a lot of information, there's not a lot of details. It doesn't say really much about the profile of who could try this, how to do this, how long they tested it, none of that. Instead, you have this Facebook group, which was founded prior to the announcement-
Zoë Schiffer: Right.
Leah Feiger: … but since then has just been flooded with so much chaos and conspiracy theories. And grifters. There's all of these supplement companies in there just hocking goods now. Parents are confused and stressed. And anti-vax sentiments are starting to get in there, too. These groups have always existed in some shape or form, but to have an administration that is actively encouraging I believe their existence is devastating.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah, and just creating more confusion for parents that are probably looking to any form of expert to give them something to hang onto in terms of, "What should I do? How can I help my child?"
Leah Feiger: Absolutely.
Zoë Schiffer: Coming up after the break, we'll dive into why some software companies received an unexpected kick last week after an OpenAI announcement. Welcome back to Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoë Schiffer. I'm joined today by WIRED's senior politics editor, Leah Feiger. OK, Leah, let's dive into our main story. Last week, OpenAI released a blog post about how the company uses its own tools internally for a variety of business operations. They code-named these tools DocuGPT, which is basically an internal version of DocuSign. There was also an AI sales assistant, an AI customer support agent. It wasn't supposed to be a big announcement. The company was honestly just trying to be like, "Here's how we use ChatGPT internally. You could, too." These are all products that customers can already create on OpenAI's API. But the market reacted really strong. DocuSign stock dropped 12 percent following the news. And it wasn't the only software company to take a hit. Other companies that focus on functions that are perceived to overlap with the tools that OpenAI laid out were also affected. HubSpot shares fell 50 points following the news, and Salesforce also saw a smaller decline.
Leah Feiger: The headline is absolutely spot on, OpenAI Sneezing and Software Companies Catching a Cold. It is truly AI's world and everyone else in Silicon Valley is just living in it.
Zoë Schiffer: I know, it's so true. This is what really fascinated me about this whole thing because I talked to the CEO of DocuSign and he was like, "AI is central to our business. We have spent the last three years embedding generative AI in almost everything we do. We've launched an entire platform specifically to manage the entire end-to-end contracting process for companies, and we have AI agents that create documents, manage the whole identity verification process for whose supposed to sign it, manages the signing process, and helps you keep track of a lot of the paperwork, the most important contracts and paperwork that your company is dealing with.” But what this whole episode showed was that it's not enough for SaaS companies, or frankly any company, to just keep up with generative AI. They also have to try and keep ahead of the narrative of OpenAI, which is a gravitational pull right now, and it's every experiment can potentially move markets.
Leah Feiger: Not potentially. As you showed, and this all happened of course on the heels of OpenAI's Developer Day, where CEO Sam Altman was showing off all of their apps that are running entirely inside the chat window. They have Spotify, Canva, Sora app release, and all of these other things that they're investing in. Reading our WIRED.com coverage of it, it was just like what aren't they looking at right now? It made me really curious. Where are their top priorities even? They've cast such a wide net.
Zoë Schiffer: They've cast such a wide net, it's a really good point. It's something that I continue to ask the executives every single week when I talk to them. "You guys are focused on scaling up all of this compute, you're spending what you say is going to be trillions of dollars on AI infrastructure, you have all of these consumer-facing products. Now, you have all of these B2B products. You're launching a jobs platforms." There's a lot happening right now. If you talk to executives at the company, they're like, "All of this goes together and our core priorities remain the same." But from the outside, it looks like OpenAI is this vortex. I think if I were running a software company, I would be really nervous right now if OpenAI decides to experiment with something vaguely in my space. Even if I have complete confidence in my product roadmap, I feel what I'm doing is super sophisticated compared to what OpenAI is doing, which is certainly how DocuSign felt, investors might still react really, really poorly. But I want to come back to something you said about Dev Day. Dev Day happened and they mentioned all these blogs. Take Figma's stock for example, and Figma stock had the opposite impact. Sam Altman mentions it on stage and Figma's stock pops 7 percent because it's perceived to be now partnering with OpenAI and that has a really positive impact. And it shows that the narrative can go both ways. It can be harmful, but it can also obviously have a really positive impact.
Leah Feiger: Which, again though, is still really scary. OpenAI is talking about all of these deals with chip makers like Nvidia, AMD, concern around that. All of this together, do you think that we're in an AI bubble right now?
Zoë Schiffer: Leah, you know this is my literal favorite topic to talk about right now. The AI infrastructure build out is absolutely looking more and more like a bubble. If you look at the capital expenditures in AI infrastructure in data centers, it's completely wild. It's projected to be $500 billion between 2026 and 2027. Derek Thompson laid this out in a blog post earlier this week. If you look at what consumers are willing to spend on AI, it looks like it's about $12 billion. That's a huge gap. AI companies are essentially saying, "We're going to fill that gap no problem." But when you look at how opaque the data center deals have gotten, the financial structure of these deals, and the fact that 60 percent of the cost of building a data center is roughly what goes into just the GPUs. And a lifecycle for GPUs, these cutting-edge computer chips, is three years. Every three years presumably, you're going to have to be replacing these chips. That's really looking like stuff's about to hit the fan in the next three years. I think it's really important to say that that doesn't mean that AI isn't a totally transformational technology. Without a doubt, it is changing the world. I know you don't want to hear it, but it is.
Leah Feiger: But in terms of the bubble and in terms of that gulf in expenditures, Zoë, ask me how much I'm spending on AI products right now.
Zoë Schiffer: Literally zero. There's no way you're spending anything, right?
Leah Feiger: Zero dollars.
Zoë Schiffer: Yeah. I think that it's going to be really interesting to watch. I think one point that Derek made that really stuck with me is a lot of transformational technologies, he mentioned the railroad or fiber optic cable, they have had bubbles that burst and left a lot of wreckage in their wake. And yet, the underlying technology still moved forward, still changed the world. I think we're in this very interesting period to see how is this going to play out, what's going to happen, and whose going to be left standing.
Leah Feiger: Yeah. Everyone knows how great the US railroad system is. We talk about it every day.
Zoë Schiffer: That's our show for today. We'll link to all the stories we spoke about in the show notes. Make sure to check out Thursday's episode of Uncanny Valley, which is about how restrictions on popular US work visas like the H1-B are happening at a moment when China is trying to grow its tech talent workforce. Adriana Tapia and Mark Lyda produced this episode. Amar Lal at Macro Sound mixed this episode. Kate Osborn is our executive producer. Condé Nast's head of global audio is Chris Bannon. And Katie Drummond is WIRED's global editorial director.
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I like breathing comfortably. You probably do, too. Unfortunately, dust, pet hair, pollen, and a ton of other airborne nonsense wants to get in the way of our good times. A solid air purifier can help, but they can get expensive. Right now, BLUEAIR air purifiers are deeply discounted. On top of that, winter dryness can be brutal. It can make your eyes feel tired, your sinuses hurt, and your skin itchy and painful. But a top-fill humidifier can help your home feel more comfortable. And we’ve got LEVOIT suggestions below. Buy one now and breathe easier all winter.
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Blueair just released its flagship Blue Signature earlier this year, and this new favorite is already getting a rare 33% discount—it’s just $299.99 for Prime Day. We’re fans of this fan. We’ve been running it in our house for a few weeks now, and the sleek aesthetic fits in beautifully. The display is clean and easy to read, and the real-time sensor is legit—it kicks into high gear as soon as we start cooking or even blow-drying hair in the next room. It’s intuitive, responsive, and refreshingly unobtrusive. You can even use the top as a side table and monitor the functions via Wi-Fi. For a just-launched model with premium filtration and automation, this is the kind of Prime Day price you don’t skip.
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I hate filling up my humidifier, but this model makes it easy. The 2.5-liter reservoir lasts up to 25 hours on a single fill. Rather than having a separate tank to carry to the sink, this is a top-fill model, so you simply remove the cover and pour in the water. Once it’s full, this humidifier will spread humidity throughout a large room while maintaining super-quiet operation. It’s easy to clean, and a simple knob on the front adjusts the amount of moisture it disperses with a simple turn. This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to upgrade your quality of life, especially in the winter.
The post Let’s clear the air … you’re breathing in unwanted crap daily and a discounted air purifier could help appeared first on Popular Science.
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An autonomous submersible named Redwing is heading out on a truly historic voyage. If successful, it will achieve the first around-the-world ocean trip made by an unpiloted underwater vehicle. Marine engineering company Teledyne Marine and researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey are planning to launch the nearly nine-foot-long, specially outfitted Slocum Sentinel Glider on October 11 from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Redwing will then journey into the Atlantic Ocean on the first leg of its five-year mission to traverse the planet’s largest bodies of water. A livestream of the launch will be broadcast here, beginning at about 8:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday October 11.
According to mission co-lead Scott Glenn, the experiment marks a “historic moment for ocean science. We’re deploying a robot that will travel the world’s oceans, gathering data. And we’re doing it with students, educators and international collaborators every step of the way,” he said in a statement.
Redwing—an acronym of the Research and Education Doug Webb Inter-National Glider—isn’t powered by propellers like other submersibles, but uses an energy-saving buoyancy system instead. The configuration allows it to sink to a depth as low as 3,280 feet before rising once again on the ocean currents. Redwing isn’t setting any speed records, however. On average it will travel at around 1 knot (1.15 mph) while maxing out at 2 knots (2.3 mph).
Redwing can dive as deep as 1,000 meters. Credit: Teledyne Marine
After crossing the Atlantic, the glider will turn south near Europe, before stopping at Gran Canaria off the coast of northwest Africa. It will then head down to Cape Town, South Africa, and turn east towards the Indian Ocean. Next up for Redwing will be Australia and New Zealand, before traversing Earth’s most powerful current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The longest phase of its trip will eventually see it reach the Falkland Islands before a possible pitstop in Brazil and the Caribbean before finally sojourning back home to Massachusetts.
The bright yellow craft is equipped with a sensor designed to measure three data points during its thousands of miles of sailing—its depth, as well as the surrounding water’s salinity and warmth. The information will then relay its measurements to the mission team by satellite every 8 to 12 hours as it resurfaces. Redwing is also carrying a fish tracker that will flag any nearby tagged species during its travels.
Redwing moves not with a propeller, but by adjusting its buoyancy, sinking and rising in a graceful zigzag pattern that conserves energy. Credit: Teledyne Marine
All that information can provide oceanographers with a three-dimensional glimpse of portions of the planet human eyes have never seen. The discoveries could also aid in meteorological efforts like monitoring ocean heat waves, hurricane intensity, and the health of marine ecosystems.
“We live on an ocean planet,” explained mission scientific co-lead Oscar Schofield. “All weather and climate are regulated by the ocean. This mission will give us another tool we need to achieve real understanding.”
It’s not only experienced scientists who are engaged with the project. Dozens of undergraduate students at Rutgers will assist by helping track Redwing’s journey, while writing blog updates about its many potential findings. Brian Maguire, Teledyne Marine’s chief operating officer, described Redwing as only the first of many such submersibles.
“It will pave the way for a future where a global fleet of autonomous underwater gliders continuously gather data from the oceans,” he said. “These will deliver early warnings of extreme weather and will track the impact of shifting ocean currents so that we can refine long-term climate projections in a way that scientists have dreamed of for decades.”
UPDATE October 10 9:56 p.m. EDT: This story has been updated to include the updated anticipated launch time and livestream information.
The post Self-piloting submarine set to begin historic mission to circle Earth’s oceans appeared first on Popular Science.
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Intel has revealed more details of its next-generation Xeon 6+ E-core CPU family, codenamed “Clearwater Forest,” with a focus on power and performance efficiency.
Intel has split its Xeon product line into two categories: the P line of high-performance cores and the E line for Efficiency for tasks and processes that are less performance sensitive. Intel released its first E-Core- only Xeon, codenamed “Sierra Forest,” last year.
Sierra Forest featured 144 cores while the new Clearwater Forest sports up to 288 next-gen cores. Intel eschewed symmetric hyperthreading (SMT), where two threads were executed in one core in favor of greater core count.
“We did look at whether we wanted to do SMT on E core, and opted not to, so that we could get the direct single threaded core efficiency,” said Kira Boyko, product line director, E-Core Xeon Products, in Intel’s Data Center Group.
Boyko said Clearwater Forest is about 17% faster than Sierra Forest and will continue to target the same markets that Sierra Forest has, which is cloud CSPs, microservices, scale out workloads, and then also in the networking space, in the core 5G space.
With Clearwater Forest, Intel engaged in considerable re-architecting of the physical processor into a comprehensive multi-chiplet package design. The result is engineering only Intel could do and shows that despite its problems in the C-Suite, the engineering side of the company has not suffered.
The new chips will be able to support up to 12-channel DDR5 memory with speeds of up to 8000 MT/s, a substantial increase over the 8 channels of 6400MT/s in the prior generation. In addition to that, the platform will support up to 6 UPI 2.0 links with up to 24 GT/s per lane, up to 96 PCIe Gen5.0 lanes, and up to 64 CXL 2.0 lanes.
Other features include Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) and Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) for enhanced security. On the power management side, these chips will carry Intel Application Energy Telemetry (AET) and Intel Turbo Rate Limiter. Finally, Clearwater Forest CPUs will get Advanced Vector Extensions 2 with VNNI and INT8 support.
If you have already invested in Sierra Forest servers, good news; Clearwater Forest is socket-compatible with the prior generation, so you can upgrade your servers with just a chip swap and BIOS flash. “The number one feedback we got rom OEMs was we don’t want to do a new server. We want it to be socket compatible with the servers we’ve already deployed,” said Boyko.
Clearwater Forest processors will be available in the first half of 2026.
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Phosphine has caused quite a stir in the astronomical world lately. That was largely due to its (still hotly debated) detection in the atmosphere of Venus. While the only known way for phosphine to be created on terrestrial worlds, like Venus, is through some sort of biological origin, it is relatively common among larger gas giants and even “brown dwarfs” – failed stars larger than Jupiter but not quite large enough to start their own hydrogen fusion process. Previously, we hadn’t yet seen phosphine in the atmosphere of brown dwarf in other solar systems, but a new paper from a diverse group of researchers, available in pre-print form on arXiv, used data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to find it for the first time. They also realized the mechanism that made it so hard to spot in the first place – the object’s metallicity.
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More processor coverage on Network World:
AMD news and insights | Nvidia news and insights
Intel is hoping for a turnaround under its new CEO, Lip-BuTan. Intel’s Q1 2025 revenue was $12.7 billion, flat year-over-year. While its Client Computing Group (CCG) revenue dropped 8%, the Data Center and AI (DCAI) segment showed an 8% increase, driven by Xeon volume.
Intel is pushing its Gaudi 3 AI accelerators and report that it’s on track for volume production of its Intel 18A process technology in the second half of 2025, a critical step in its attempt to regain manufacturing leadership. This 18A node will underpin future products like Panther Lake CPUs, expected in the second half of 2025.
The company is investing in the AI PC segment with its Core Ultra processors, focusing on on-device AI capabilities and a broader AI Everywhere strategy. Intel’s strategy hinges on improving execution, driving operational efficiencies (targeting $17 billion in operating expenses for 2025, down from previous goals), and rapidly scaling its foundry business (Intel Foundry Services – IFS) to become a major contract manufacturer.
Follow this page for the latest Intel news.
October 10, 2025: Intel unveiled its Core Ultra series 3 processors, the first client chips built on its 18A process node , as enterprises gear up for a wave of PC refreshes driven by Microsoft’s October 2025 end-of-support deadline for Windows 10.
October 3, 2025: The notion of these two companies working together may seem over-the-top over, but Intel and AMD are already joined at the hip. In 2004 Intel licensed AMD’s x86-64 64-bit extensions, and they are still used in every Intel processor to this day.
September 22, 2025: Nvidia is dipping into its $56 billion bank account to acquire a 5% stake in Intel for $5 billion, making it the second largest shareholder of Intel stock after the federal government’s recent investment. The deal provides Nvidia greater access to the x86 ecosystem, important for the enterprise data center market, and provides Intel with access to GPUs that have demand and can move their CPU products as well.
September 18, 2025: Intel will collaborate with Nvidia to design CPUs with Nvidia’s NVLink high-speed chip interconnect, it said Thursday — just months after committing to co-develop a competing interconnect, UALink, with AMD, Broadcom, and other tech companies.
September 5, 2025: Modern network infrastructure can include thousands of switches and routers, and configuration changes occur dynamically. It’s a challenge that Articul8, which was spun out of Intel in January 2024, is aiming to solve with its Weave Network Topology Agent.
August 27, 2025: The Hot Chips conference was the backdrop for Intel’s newest Xeon processor, the all-E-core codenamed Clearwater Forest and the first Xeon built on the company’s next-generation 18A process node.
August 26, 2026: Intel warned that granting the US government an equity stake could subject the company to “additional regulations, obligations or restrictions” in foreign markets and limit its ability to pursue strategic transactions that are beneficial to shareholders.
August 25, 2025: US President Donald Trump’s announcement Friday that the US government is taking a 9.9% stake in Intel to defend national interests will shift the dynamics of IT procurement globally.
August 18, 2025: The latest developments in the ongoing soap opera that is Intel sees the federal government considering purchasing a stake in the company in a bid to speed up completion of its delayed advanced fabrication facilities, while yet another executive is casting aspersions on CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
August 15, 2025: Intel is holding on to market share in both client and server markets against AMD despite the seemingly endless stream of bad news surrounding the company. Second quarter 2025 chip sales were roughly flat for both companies with very little share trading hands, according to Mercury Research.
August 12, 2025: The latest development in Intel’s clash with President Trump suggests a more amicable relationship after a Monday meeting with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan at the White House. After the meeting, Trump backed off his demand that Tan resign and called him a “success.”
August 6, 2025: Intel’s 18A process for its upcoming Panther Lake chips faces uncertainty over yields, fueling concerns about production readiness and possible ripple effects across the supply chain. The process introduces new transistor designs and a more efficient power delivery method, but has so far delivered only a small percentage of chips that meet Intel’s quality standards.
July 31, 2025: It’s been an eventful time for chip vendor after its earnings call and then news that Intel is spinning off its Network and Edge Group (NEX) as a standalone business. Intel made no formal announcement on the spin-off.
July 25, 2025: Intel will reduce its workforce by 22% to 75,000 employees by the end of 2025 as new CEO Lip-Bu Tan implements sweeping changes designed to transform the struggling chipmaker into a more disciplined, cost-conscious organization, the company said during its second-quarter earnings call Thursday.
July 15, 2025: Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan told employees that Intel is not among the leading chip companies, a stark contrast to the perpetual sunny, cheerful optimism of his predecessor Pat Gelsinger.
June 3, 2025: The CN5000 platform from Cornelis Networks is engineered to tackle compute underutilization and alleviate bottlenecks in AI and HPC workloads.
May 21, 2025: Intel may sell its Network and Edge (NEX) business, marking the latest step in a broader effort to reshape the company under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
May 20, 2025: Intel has certified Shell Global Solutions’ immersion cooling fluids for use in data centers. Shell’s fluids are the first to receive official certification from a major chip manufacturer.
April 16, 2025: Intel spun off its programmable solutions group as a standalone FPGA company, selling a majority stake in the company to a private equity firm. Intel is taking a fairly hefty loss on this deal. It acquired Altera in 2015 for $16.7 billion but the deal with Silver Lake technology investments values Altera at $8.75 billion total, with Intel getting $4.4 billion for the sale.
April 8, 2025: Intel is reportedly in advanced discussions with TSMC to form a joint venture that could potentially reshape the x86 platform and the global semiconductor landscape. The move — initiated in part by the US government — marks a potential turning point for Intel,
April 4, 2025: On the job for two weeks, newly appointed Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan gave a major speech at a partner conference this week where he said the ailing company needs to get its act together, and he doesn’t want customers to hold back on their criticism of Intel.
April 2, 2025: IBM Cloud is broadening its AI technology services with Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators now available to enterprise customers. With Gaudi 3 accelerators, customers can more cost-effectively test, deploy and scale enterprise AI models and applications, according to IBM.
March 14, 2025: Intel’s appointment of semiconductor veteran Lip-Bu Tan as CEO marks a critical moment for the company and its enterprise customers. With rising competition from AMD, Arm-based chips, and RISC-V alternatives, Intel faces mounting pressure to defend its x86 dominance.
February 24, 2025: Intel has expanded its Xeon 6 line of processors, adding models 6700/6500 for high-performance cores and edge computing devices to the family.
January 22, 2025: The once undisputed king of the chip market, Intel is on its knees. Here’s what it needs to do to get back on its feet.
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