Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

This first-person essay was written by Sean James, a distinguished engineer in energy systems at Nvidia, where he works on the power and energy infrastructure needed to support AI data centers. He previously spent more than two decades at Microsoft designing and building data centers.Chances are you passed an electrical substation today that delivers power to thousands of homes at hundreds of thousands of volts. It was so unremarkable that you didn’t even notice. Sometime in the past, these marvels of engineering simply vanished into the background.For most of my career, when asked, I told people I built data centers.…

Before Silicon Valley’s robots take over, they have to learn to fold your underwear.In recent months, some of the buzziest robotics startups — including Figure AI, Sunday Robotics, and Weave Robotics — have shown off robots that autonomously fold clothes. Together, the companies have raised billions of dollars at lofty valuations, as investors bet that home robots are finally nearing a commercial breakthrough.We were promised robot butlers. For now, Silicon Valley would like to help you match your socks.Home robotics companies are focusing on laundry because it’s an ideal first task. It is difficult enough to showcase a machine’s intelligence…

On a gloomy July evening, Dean Ball is appraising the political theory shelf in the basement of San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore. It’s the end of his second day at OpenAI, and he’s arrived straight from orientation in a cashmere zip-up hoodie, carrying a company-issued tote bag. He pulls a copy of Friedrich Hayek’s “The Pure Theory of Capital” from the shelf, notes how rare it is to see it in the wild, and flips through its pages. It’s a fitting choice.Ball has landed in a distinctly Hayekian role at OpenAI. The 20th century economist, as Ball recounts to me,…

Government officials are warning about a wave of cyberattacks on water utilities in the US.At least seven states have reported incidents to the FBI since July 27. The agency hasn’t identified the attackers’ motivation or identity, calling them only “malicious cyber actors” and saying they were remotely accessing internet-facing computers used by water utilities. The hackers changed settings, IP addresses, and passwords, the FBI said. In some cases, the attacks weakened the plant operators’ ability to monitor and control their equipment.Cybersecurity experts have voiced concerns for years about cyber vulnerabilities in water systems and other critical infrastructure, such as energy…

As part of a planned data center in Pecos County, Texas, Amazon is investing in an on-site power plant that could become the largest source of climate pollution in the United States, according to The New York Times. The NYT says the plant would burn natural gas and is permitted to release 33 million tons of carbon dioxide per year — more than any other power plant in the U.S. In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the data center will “be powered by new on-site generation that won’t raise electricity costs for Texas families.” (Data centers face growing…

NextSlide recently announced that it’s joining OpenAI, with the presentation startup’s team members now working on ChatGPT. The NextSlide website currently displays a note from founder Ahmed Beshry describing the startup’s product as one “that could turn prompts, notes, documents, or research into a polished, editable presentation.” The ultimate goal, Beshry said, was “to make visual communication more accessible and help more people express their ideas clearly.” So by joining OpenAI, the team will “continue pursuing that same mission: building AI products that help people create, communicate, and turn their ideas into meaningful work.” The financial terms of the deal…

OpenAI job seekers, listen up.Ty Geri joined the AI lab in 2025 as a product manager. Business Insider asked for his advice on landing a job at OpenAI — and he said that enthusiasm was key.”I think OpenAI tries to hire people who are really passionate, and care, and want to be a part of this mission,” he said.Geri’s advice is agnostic of role, he said: engineer, researcher, product manager, data scientist, whatever.His other advice was to use the company’s products. That doesn’t mean he expects all the products to work instantaneously. Some will be “a little rough today,” he said,…

Companies don’t know which side to choose in AI, the leader of one of the largest model evaluators said.”It’s not only true that they’re terrified of working with the frontier labs, but they’re also terrified of working with the Chinese open source,” Arena CEO Anastasios Angelopoulos said during a recent episode of the “20VC” podcast.Angelopoulos said the companies he talks to are struggling to figure out where to build their AI future.”I think we’re in a really tricky situation for enterprises because just the way that the cards have landed,” Angelopoulos told Business Insider during an interview where he expanded…

Replit CEO Amjad Masad says AI is making software engineering at his company more cerebral and fun.That’s a surprising take, given the widespread concern about the so-called “SaaSpocalypse” and fears that AI is replacing coding jobs at software companies.Speaking on tech journalist Casey Newton’s podcast, Masad said coding agents have changed the day-to-day environment at his company, freeing up engineers for more imaginative tasks.”You are trying a lot of things, you are ideating very quickly,” Masad said. “Two years ago, everyone is hands on keyboard, you hear clicking all the time.””Now, actually, it’s a lot more vibrant environment,” he added.Others,…

In over a decade as a health journalist, I’ve interviewed people about some deeply personal health experiences, but this was a first.On a video call, Scott Hickle, CEO and cofounder of the startup Throne Science, held his phone up to the camera to show me a detailed diary of his bowel movements.He pointed to a stretch of blue (“that’s healthy”), then an erratic jumble of colors — yellow (hard), orange (loose), blue again.These were the findings from the smart camera in his toilet in early January, when he returned from Christmas break to the stress and buzz of preparing Throne’s…