By Deepti Pathak There are millions of games available for the PS5, and if you have a kid at…
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By Hisan Kidwai Smooth Stone in Minecraft is a rare variation of the regular stone, which is only found…
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By Thomas Macaulay Five standout scaleups from the Baltics have made it into TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.”  Representing Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, the quintet will now challenge rivals from six other regions for the title of Europe’s hottest scaleup. To earn their place in TECH5, the Baltic contenders have already had to fend off stiff competition. For a combined population of just over six million, the region is the birthplace of a remarkable range of innovations, startups, and scaleups. Collectively, the three states are renowned for strong digital infrastructure, tech-savvy populations, global mindsets, and government policies that support innovation. Individually,…This story continues at The Next Web

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By Nick Godt The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is once again eligible for the full $7,500 federal tax credit.

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By Hisan Kidwai Garena Free Fire Max is one of the most popular games on the planet, and for…
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By Siôn Geschwindt Spain and Portugal have largely restored power after Monday’s unprecedented blackout — the worst in recent European history. The fallout has put the region’s reliance on renewables under fire. Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party, even called on the country to abandon “climate fanaticism” in response to the power cut. Yet, experts stressed to TNW that the problem isn’t green energy, but the outdated grid infrastructure and technology it relies upon.  “What’s happened this week should serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of failing to invest in a more resilient energy grid,” Amsterdam-based Taco Engelaar, managing…This story continues at The Next Web

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By Deepti Pathak Ever looked at a person in Roblox with a nice hat or a rare accessory and…
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Despite the hype that AI is going to fundamentally reinvent work, it has, as yet, had little to no effect on workflows, according to new research.

A report by economists from the University of Chicago and the University of Copenhagen, Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects, found that AI chatbots only saved workers about an hour a week, and in some cases, actually created new tasks.

“AI chatbots have had no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation,” wrote researchers Anders Humlum and Emilie Vestergaard. “Our findings challenge narratives of imminent labor market transformation due to Generative AI.”

Offering a different narrative on AI

The study specifically looked at the Danish labor market in 2023 and 2024, gathering data from 25,000 workers and 7,000 workplaces. The researchers chose 11 “exposed” occupations: software developers, IT support, financial advisors, HR, accountants, customer-support, legal, marketing, office clerks, journalists and teachers.

The study found that, by late 2024, AI chatbots were widespread: most firms surveyed were encouraging chatbot use, while 38% had their own in-house models, and 30% of employees said they received training on AI tools. Research also revealed that, even with the wide variety of AI tools on the market today, ChatGPT remains the dominant player.

Notably, the researchers found that AI created new tasks for 8.4% of workers, even some who don’t personally use chatbots. These tasks tend to be more sophisticated, such as designing prompts and analyzing outputs, suggesting AI may restructure jobs.

The overwhelming majority of chatbot users — between 64% and 90% in each occupation — did report that AI saved them time. On average, employees said they recouped about 25 minutes per day.

But calculating AI usage frequency and per-day savings actually only equaled about 2.8% in saved time, or roughly an hour a week, according to the researchers.

Further, they estimated that just 3% – 7% of productivity gains translated into higher wages. That status quo applies at the company level, too: There is not yet evidence of job cuts or hiring tied to chatbots.

“Although the paper hasn’t been peer-reviewed and should be treated as such, it does offer a different narrative than that we hear in other circles,” said Justin St-Maurice, technical counselor at Info-Tech Research Group.

Use goes up dramatically when employer-endorsed

The study also revealed the importance of employer encouragement. When supported and trained by employers, 83% of workers used AI, compared to 47% without encouragement. Similarly, daily adoption was 21% when employers promoted AI use, compared to 8% of those using the tools of their own accord.

“This underscores the importance of firm-led complementary investments in unlocking the productivity potential of new technologies,” Humlum and Vestergaard wrote.

However, they said, it should be noted that even when encouraged, more experienced/older workers were less likely to adopt the technology, reflecting habit inertia (sticking to the established way of doing things).

AI research is more grounded than widespread hype

While the findings seem to contradict bolder claims about AI’s impact, they do align with other, more grounded assessments of AI in the workplace.

“The measured value of generative AI in the workplace so far has been quite mixed,” said Hyoun Park, CEO and chief analyst of Amalgam Insights. For instance, his firm estimates that less than 10% of employees have been able to integrate AI into more than 10% of their work.

Park also pointed out that one of the biggest value propositions for generative AI so far is code creation, yet less than 1% of all US employees are developers, and not every developer can fully integrate genAI into their work.

Similarly, Microsoft has suggested that people may save 14 minutes per day, or 2.9% of their daily working time, using Copilot, noted St-Maurice.

“This is different from other sources suggesting that jobs are under threat, and that job losses have started as a result of the technology,” he said.

AI outputs are remarkable, but need to be customized

One of the challenges in workplace AI adoption is that the value propositions that do exist around data and research summarization are not necessarily applicable to the majority of workers across white collar and blue collar jobs, Park noted.

The reality is that effective AI use requires training and organization-specific configuration, he said. Vendors like to say that employees just need to ask questions and will promptly get answers from AI, but there is still much work to do around designing prompts, accessing data, and contextualizing AI outputs.

“Although the outputs coming from foundation AI models are remarkable compared to what we were able to do two or three years ago, they have not been customized to the vast majority of jobs,” said Park. “Until that happens, AI will not be extremely productive in the workplace.”

Similarly, agentic AI requires ongoing management and maintenance, which can be guided by frameworks such as Model Context Protocol and Agent2Agent. Companies also need to invest in documenting and defining processes to maximize value.

St-Maurice noted that AI may make it easier to complete some tasks, but it also raises the bar in terms of expectations, just as when the personal computer replaced the typewriter, and sped up typing, improved document formatting, and enabled managing files and the use of spreadsheets. Similarly, genAI is not just speeding up existing work, but redefining what “competent output” looks like.

“It changes the nature of work, but doesn’t necessarily make us more productive,” said St-Maurice.

Ultimately, Park emphasized, enterprises should make a conscious effort to identify the higher level and strategic work to be done by AI once mundane and Tier 1 tasks are automated.

“Ideally, companies should look at AI as an opportunity to improve the quality of work rather than to replace employees,” he said.

Source:: Computer World

By Nick Godt Uber and May Mobility will offer driverless rides in the U.S.

Source:: Digital Trends

Although the nation’s overall unemployment rate held steady in April, technology worker hiring slowed and unemployment rose markedly.

Tech sector companies reduced staffing by a net 7,000 positions in April, an analysis of data released today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed.

“Employers are no longer aggressively expanding their workforce, fewer individuals are leaving their jobs, and those who do are finding it challenging to re-enter the job market,” said Ger Doyle, U.S. Country Manager at employment firm ManpowerGroup. “This highlights a significant shift in labor market dynamics, where churn and confidence are low.”

Hiring gains in the tech services sector were not enough to offset job losses in tech manufacturing, telecommunications and cloud infrastructure, according to a report from tech industry association CompTIA.

Across the economy, tech employment fell by an estimated 214,000 jobs, pushing the sector’s unemployment rate up to 3.5% from 3.1% in March. “It was not a great month of data, but expected given the circumstances,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer. “Employer tech job postings continue to hold up, so [that’s] a possible sign that hiring will resume as companies find their bearings.”

CompTIA

Across all job sectors, employers added 177,000 jobs in April despite economic uncertainty around President Donald J. Trump’s international tariffs, BLS data showed. The overall unemployment rate remained unchanged from March at 4.2%.

“Our real-time data shows job openings down 11% year-over-year, signaling a cooling environment,” Doyle said.

Hiring remains slow as employers focus on talent retention and adopt a “wait-and-watch” approach, closely monitoring economic signals, Doyle said. While sectors like medical and executive management grow, concerns about future hiring and AI’s impact on roles persist, he said.

“While our data shows a 13% month-over-month decline in traditional software developer postings, this doesn’t tell the whole story. Developers are evolving into strategic technology orchestrators who harness AI to drive unprecedented business value,” said Kye Mitchell, head of tech employment firm Experis North America, a ManpowerGroup subsidiary.

The impact from AI on hiring was stark, as companies grapple with cleaning, organizing, and sharing data stores for potential use by the technology. Demand for database architects skyrocketed, leaping 2312%, Mitchell said. Jobs for statisticians also rose sharply (up 382%).

In today’s economy, IT leaders must invest in AI to deliver measurable outcomes, not just for the sake of technology, according to Mitchell. “Tech leaders must be incredibly precise about where they allocate resources. This isn’t about AI for AI’s sake; outcomes [must] justify the investment, even during uncertain times,” she said.

Among vertical industries, employment continued to trend up in healthcare, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and social assistance. But federal government employment declined amid cuts by the Trump Administration and its unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Employers continue to pursue skills-based hiring strategies. About one-half of all April tech job postings did not specify a need for a four-year academic degree, according to CompTIA.

Skills-based hiring has been on the rise for several years, as organizations seek to fill specific needs for big data analytics, programing (such as Rust), and AI prompt engineering. In fact, demand for generative AI (genAI) courses is surging, passing all other tech skills courses spanning fields from data science to cybersecurity, project management, and marketing.

GenAI projects will move from pilot phase to production for many companies this year, which means workers are likely to be affected in ways never before imagined, according to Sarah Hoffman, director of AI research at AlphaSense.

“As AI automates more processes, the role of workers will shift,” Hoffman said in an earlier interview. “Jobs focused on repetitive tasks may decline, but new roles will emerge, requiring employees to focus on overseeing AI systems, handling exceptions, and performing creative or strategic functions that AI cannot easily replicate. The future workforce will likely collaborate more closely with AI tools.”

When considering new hires, 80% of corporate executives are expected to prioritize skills over degrees, with half planning to boost freelance hiring this year to fill in for a gap in AI and other skills, according to a recent study from freelancing platform Upwork.

The top 10 highest-paid skills in tech can help workers earn up to 47% more — and the top skill among them is genAI, according to employment website Indeed and other sources. “Let’s be honest, the job opportunities in the AI field for AI scientists has gone up massively,” said Julie Teigland, global vice chair for alliances and ecosystems at Ernst & Young. “There is a huge skills gap in terms of the number of people that can do that and that is not changing. Those are still in massive demand.

“Everywhere else we can talk about what jobs are changing and where the future is, but AI scientists and data scientists continue to be the top two in terms of what we’re looking for,” she said.

Geographically, when it comes to tech job postings, California topped all states in April with 26,280, up 1,037 from March. Texas, Virginia, and New York followed in total postings, while Arizona, West Virginia, and Maryland saw the largest month-over-month percentage gains, CompTIA data showed.

Source:: Computer World

By Hisan Kidwai Horror games are a very tricky business, considering they have to pack in both the horror…
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By Hisan Kidwai If you’re a fan of Blue Lock-inspired Roblox games like Blue Lock Rivals and Azure Latch,…
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By Kath Easthope Amid the economic malaise that followed the 2008 financial crisis in the UK – record unemployment, sluggish growth, tight fiscal consolidation – a game-changing policy drive was beginning to take shape.  This shift, driven by the Conservative-led coalition government at the time, was designed to transform the UK into “Incubator Britain” – attracting software and tech entrepreneurs with generous tax breaks, government-backed early-stage funding, and a thriving ecosystem, laying the foundations for the startup hub we recognise today. But while these initiatives succeeded in spurring startup growth, they did little to help those businesses scale. Despite having near-zero costs of…This story continues at The Next Web

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As it stands to potentially lose ad revenue after being ruled a monopoly, and also to maintain an edge in the digital ad space as generative AI use soars, Google is purportedly now injecting ads into third party chatbot conversations.

It’s not a surprising move, particularly given Google’s antitrust loss that could eventually lead to the breakup of its ad business (although there are likely years of appeals to come before any tangible changes). The tech giant is also in fierce competition with the likes of OpenAI, Perplexity, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and a slew of others to get enterprise users to adopt its genAI platforms.

“Google knows its long-dominant search funnel is leaking,” said Julie Geller, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group. “If conversational AI becomes the way people discover, decide, and buy, Google needs a revenue engine ready before regulators or rivals box it out.”

More than a money move

According to reports, the Google AdSense network expanded to include chatbot conversations earlier this year, after it tested the capability last year. Particularly, according to anonymous sources, it is working with AI search startups iAsk and Liner.

The move comes as Google grapples with the fallout of not just one, but two, antitrust trials in which it was found guilty of establishing “monopoly power.” Most recently, in April, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that the company monopolized two online advertising markets: publisher ad servers and the ad exchanges that sit between buyers and sellers. Google reportedly earned nearly $265 billion in 2024 alone through ad placement and sales.

Incorporating ads into generative AI is a “risky move at a fragile moment,” noted Ria Delamere, chief technology and product officer at Traject Data. “This isn’t just about making money. It’s about trying to hold onto ground as Google faces pressure from AI-native competitors and antitrust regulators.”

An opportunity for hyper-personalization

Of course, Google isn’t the first to do this. Meta, for one, shows ads in “private” messenger chats, David B. Wright, president and chief marketing officer at W3 Group Marketing, pointed out.

“Google and other companies inserting ads in AI chatbots are just jumping into the next available space to place ads,” he said.

Geller pointed out that, in 2022, company leaders acknowledged that about 40% of Gen Z in the US were turning to TikTok or Instagram, not Google, for local recommendations on where to eat or shop, and that behavior has only accelerated since. Incorporating ads into generative AI sets the stage for “hyper-local, persona-level targeting” which could  pull advertisers back from social platforms and keep both discovery and dollars inside Google’s walls, she said.

Enterprises will be able to deliver more relevant ads “at the right time to the right person,” Wright agreed. Consider conversing with an AI chatbot as a very long-tail search, he said: Ad servers can take the data from the conversation and use it to craft hyper-targeted ads.

“In an ideal world, we’d only see the ads we want to see when we’d want to see them: when we’re at the right stage of a buying decision for something we want to buy,” he said. “This could be a step closer to that.”

Preserving trust will be paramount moving forward

Experts emphasize that trust is imperative to all this. Notably, it hinges on “knowing when money changes the message,” said Geller. If users suspect an answer is ranked by revenue over relevance, “confidence tanks,” and they may migrate to more “neutral” assistants.

Google will need to flag sponsored content in real-time, explain why it surfaced the ads it did, and prove that organic answers aren’t “quietly demoted,” she said. “Anything less invites skepticism and churn.”

Delamere agreed that when ads start showing up as part of an “answer,” it gets harder to tell where information ends and influence begins. When AI is driving decisions, transparency and explainability aren’t an option, she said.

“This may help Google in the short term, but credibility is hard to earn and easy to lose,” Delamere emphasized.

From a user interface perspective, if ads distract or cause delays, consumers won’t go near the app, noted Melissa Copeland of Blue Orbit Consulting. “Consumers may try it, but if they don’t get the efficient and effective answer they are looking for, they will abandon the channel or brand.”

Meanwhile, when it comes to privacy, Geller pointed out that chat transcripts are stored and, at times, reviewed by humans, creating a “durable record of anything sensitive a user blurts out.”

“While Google offers opt-outs and deletion tools, they’re far from intuitive,” she said, emphasizing that enterprises must offer secure contract-level clarity on retention windows, human-review policies, and encryption standards, and should also insist on audit rights to verify compliance.

Look beyond a single-vendor strategy

This type of capability could help companies offer chatbot functionality at a lower cost, and potentially surface new insights about customers, noted Neil Chilson, head of AI policy with the Abundance Institute.

Like all ad media, he said, when considering the volume and type of ads, companies will need to balance short-time incentives to monetize and long- term financial incentives to keep customers coming back.

“Google is good at helping companies evaluate those trade offs in other advertising channels; it will be interesting to see how that expertise translates to this new area,” said Chilson.

Info-Tech’s Geller pointed out that the search and discovery landscape is evolving too quickly for a single-vendor strategy. She advised enterprise leaders to stay agile, demand full transparency around data use and monetization, and keep an eye on how AI-driven personalization opens new micro-market opportunities.

It’s also important to build flexibility into customer experience and marketing roadmaps, as ads are “only the opening salvo,” she noted. Further, companies should watch for new revenue models from app providers, such as subscription tiers or usage fees, and potentially embrace the benefits of hyper-local targeting. At the same time, she said, “keep exit routes open and your data governance questions sharp.”

Source:: Computer World

Google is making changes to its venerable search interface so users can more naturally interact with its AI features.

“AI Mode,” a project brewing in Google’s Search Labs, will slowly roll out to general users within the company’s current search interface. (A new “AI Mode” tab will appear alongside its search box.)

“With AI Mode, you can truly ask Search anything — from complex explanations about tech and electronics to comparisons that help with really specific tasks, like assessing insurance options for a new pet,” Soufi Esmaeilzadeh, director of product management for Google’s search products, said in a blog post.

The new features will migrate from the experimental AI Mode features already being tested by users in Google’s Search Labs. Google has also added features to the experimental AI Mode so users get better search results.

With AI Mode now ready for the real world, Google promises the tool will offer more than AI Overviews; it provides basic insights for questions plugged into the search box. AI Mode is based on the Gemini 2.0 AI model.

“Because our power users are finding it so helpful, we’re starting a limited test outside of Labs. In the coming weeks, a small percentage of people in the US will see the AI Mode tab in Search,” Esmaeilzadeh said.

Google’s experimental AI Mode app had been available only to limited users. The app is available for Apple’s iOS and Android.

A Google spokesperson declined to offer further details about AI Mode search.

Google has been talking about integrating AI into search results more comprehensively since the day it launched its first large language model called Bard. The early models hallucinated and malfunctioned, so Google has been cautious in rolling out AI into its general search features.

But the company had to roll out core AI features to its search tools as soon as possible, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J Gold Associates.

OpenAI and Anthropic have built search into their AI interfaces, and Meta recently launched its own chatbot based on Llama 4. Microsoft was already ahead of Google in integrating AI search into Bing results.

“It’s seeing increasing competition for AI from companies like Meta and OpenAI that could take some share away from them…, but it’s not clear that a competent AI model couldn’t essentially duplicate and enhance search functions for many users — see Perplexity, as an example,” Gold said.

Google attaching Gemini closer to its search tools offers several benefits, including feedback from users on how well the answers resonate. Enhancing search with AI could also drive down Google’s compute power and infrastructure costs as it could limit the number of searches needed before users get desired results.

“It can better tune its models for accuracy. It also enhances their ability to target ads at users, as AI will show complementary topics that can then be advertised about,” Gold said.

The experimental AI Mode in the search labs already delivered useful information about products and places. Google is now adding more rich results and multimedia features. A search for destinations, results, and products will show in a more organized format.

“Rolling out over the coming week, you’ll begin to see visual place and product cards in AI Mode with the ability to tap to get more details,” Esmaeilzadeh said.

Shopping, dining, and services results will have more options, real-time pricing, promotions, and ratings. And a new left-side panel on the desktop will make it easier to jump back into past searches on longer-running tasks and projects.

Typically, Google requires consent to record search history to understand user trends. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on whether AI Mode would require that.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt Danish startup Teton has used Gefion, one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers, to turbocharge the development of its AI “care companion” for hospital staff.  Teton installs cameras and sensors in hospital rooms to gather real-time data. This gets fed to an AI algorithm, creating a virtual “digital twin” of the room. The model monitors patient and staff behaviour such as movement, breathing, or posture changes. If it sees a problem, the system alerts nurses via an app.  To protect privacy, all processing takes place on-device and none is sent to the cloud. No personal data or raw video footage is…This story continues at The Next Web

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By Deepti Pathak If you’re working on a research paper or essay, MLA format is a common way to…
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By Nick Godt Waymo and Toyota are exploring fully-automated driving for personally owned vehicles.

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By Siôn Geschwindt Unprecedented power cuts swept across Portugal, Spain, and parts of France on Monday — instantly unravelling the tech-dependent lives of me and tens of millions of others.  At first, I wasn’t worried. Then the owner of my Lisbon apartment forwarded me a link: an article in The Sun newspaper titled “Spain & Portugal hit by huge power cuts…” I tried to open it, but the page wouldn’t load. After a few minutes of backup power, the mobile networks were dead. I walked down to my local café, hoping to get some more information. “We have no idea what’s going on…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web