Author: InfoForTech
OpenAI and Synopsys just struck a deal to train AI on chip-building software- a sign that handing silicon design to AI is a bigger deal than it sounds. Building a computer chip is insanely hard. Engineers spend months (or sometimes years) squinting at software, placing billions of microscopic transistors, and praying nothing breaks when the physical chip goes to manufacturing. Now, OpenAI and chip-design giant Synopsys want to allow AI to do the heavy lifting. Under a new multi-year partnership, OpenAI is using Synopsys’ specialized software to train a new model called “GPT-Synopsys.” The goal is pretty straightforward: teach AI…
Ravie LakshmananOct 03, 2026Cyber Espionage / Artificial Intelligence The U.K.’s domestic intelligence and security agency has warned that more than 100 academics have helped China boost its intelligence gathering efforts on behalf of Beijing’s state security service. In a “Security Service Espionage Alert” issued on September 30, 2026, MI5 said the “primary purpose of the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) 中国通用技术研究院 is to fund research that directly improves Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) technical capability for espionage.” CGTRI, also known as the China Academy of General Technology (CAGT), is assessed to be a front company for MSS. The…
From left: Allison Arnold, co-director of the Opalene Climate Challenge; David Gory, co-founder and CEO of AirBuild; and Aina Abiodun, president and executive director of VertueLab. (Opalene Photo) Some climate tech startups tied to the AI boom are still attracting investors, but deals are fewer overall and times are tougher for companies addressing sustainability issues that don’t align with data center needs. Concerns about those trends inspired a one-time Washington state initiative called the Opalene Climate Challenge, which was led by the nonprofit VertueLab. The effort announced six investments from a pool of nearly 40 applicants. The program planned to…
The era of generative AI has upended technology supply chains, and there is one ironclad rule in 2026: If it has memory or storage, it’s getting more expensive. Even devices with years-old tech inside are still apparently subject to that unwritten rule. Nvidia has just announced that the Shield TV Pro is getting $100 more expensive, effective immediately.The most recent version of the Shield streaming box debuted in 2019, running Android TV with AI upscaling and hardware decoding for almost any type of media. While it ran an aging Tegra X1+ processor, that was (and still is) fast for a…
What makes InstructMesh so adept at following such unique prompts? It pairs Microsoft’s TRELLIS system, which creates 3D models from text and image prompts, with the large language model (LLM) GPT-4, which supports ChatGPT — in other words, visual and textual knowledge combined.“We wanted to bring together the talents of 3D generators and the reasoning skills of LLMs in an interactive space to make objects that people actually want,” says Faraz Faruqi SM ’22, PhD ’26, lead author on a paper presenting the project, graduate of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and recent CSAIL affiliate. “Language models are great at…
The companies featured at the recent Bank of America Private Tech Trailblazers Conference point to where the next wave of AI growth is taking shape: specialized technology built around proprietary data, industry-specific workflows and, increasingly, purpose-built hardware. From restaurants and construction sites to hospitals, cross-border payments and defense, these companies are targeting defined problems where AI can produce measurable results. That specialization is becoming more important as foundation models become increasingly interchangeable. Competitive advantage is shifting toward domain-specific data, vertical integration, trust and the capital required to build at scale. Companies controlling more of the stack, from GPU infrastructure and…
For many people, using AI chatbots is incredible at first. It makes them feel productive, confident, maybe even smarter. But later, there’s a hangover. Perhaps there are problems with their memory, or certain skills, like writing or coding, don’t seem to be as sharp as they once were. Maybe they feel like they can’t solve problems or make decisions or remember facts as well as they could before they had the help of AI.Susette Brooks, a marketing director living in Philadelphia, said she started using AI tools reluctantly but ultimately relented. She let AI write some of her emails, which…
Google claims Gemini 4 Argon is its most powerful AI model yet. What’s the hype all about? Google dropped its newest heavyweight contender, Gemini 4 Argon, claiming the top spot in its artificial intelligence lineup. This release signals a clear shift in tech strategy. Instead of chasing viral chat moments, Google designed Argon for high-stakes tasks like autonomous software engineering and enterprise research. The headline numbers look impressive. Google boasts a 77.9 percent benchmark score in software engineering and automated security patching. On paper, these figures frame Argon as a major leap toward fully autonomous agents. However, the selective rollout…
Not every USB-C port is Thunderbolt, and features can vary wildly. Michael Derrer Fuchs/Shutterstock If you’ve wondered whether Thunderbolt is the same as USB-C, the simple answer is “not exactly.” USB-C isn’t a charging standard or speed; it simply describes the shape of the port and connector. Thunderbolt is a standard that uses the USB-C connector for its modern iterations. So on a modern Mac, every Thunderbolt port is USB-C, but not every USB-C port supports Thunderbolt. (Older Thunderbolt versions used the now-obsolete Mini DisplayPort.) Picture USB-C as a door. On a modern Mac, every door looks…
Featuring: Cybersecurity is being reshaped by the expansion of cloud infrastructure, AI, distributed systems, and increasingly complex digital environments. As organizations manage more identities, devices, data, and internet-facing infrastructure, security is shifting toward continuous visibility, control, and the ability to respond to risk at scale. This report examines how core areas of cybersecurity are evolving in response to that shift. Across identity security, telemetry management, human security, endpoint management, human risk intelligence, exposure management, email and domain security, connected device security, AI-native security operations, and cloud security, it explores how organizations are adapting to threats that increasingly move across systems,…