Here’s the one thing you should never outsource to an AI model
One of the biggest dangers in letting AI take the reins of your product ideation
process is that AI processes content — be it designs, solutions or technical
configurations — in ways that lead to convergence rather than divergence. Given
the overlapping bases of training data, AI-driven R&D will result in
homogenized products across the market. Yes, different flavors of the same
concept, but still the same concept. Imagine this: Four of your competitors
implement gen AI systems to design their phones’ user interfaces (UIs). Each
system is trained on more or less the same corpus of information — data scraped
from the web about consumer preferences, existing designs, bestseller products
and so on. What do all those AI systems produce? Variations of a similar result.
What you’ll see develop over time is a disturbing visual and conceptual cohesion
where rival products start mirroring one another. ... In platforms like ArtStation, many
artists have raised concerns regarding the influx of AI-produced content that,
instead of showing unique human creativity, feels like recycled aesthetics
remixing popular cultural references, broad visual tropes and styles. This is
not the cutting-edge innovation you want powering your R&D engine.
How much capacity is in aging data centers?
Individual data centers have considerable differences between them, and one of
the most critical is their size. With this weighting factor, the average moves
— but not by much. The “average megawatt” is 10.2 years old. Whereas older
data centers (10-plus years) represent 48 percent of the survey sample, they
contain 38 percent of the total IT capacity — still a large minority.
Interestingly, a more dramatic shift occurs within the population of data
centers that have been operating for less than 10 years — well within the
typical design lifespan. By facility count alone, there is an even split
between the data centers that are one to five years old and those that have
been in operation for six to ten years. But when measuring in megawatts, the
newest data centers hold significantly more capacity (38 percent) than those
with six to ten years of service. This is intuitive; in the past five years,
some data center projects have reached unprecedented sizes. Very recent builds
are overshadowing the capacity of data centers that are only slightly older,
even though the designs are not dramatically different. However, the weighted
figures above suggest that even this massive build-out has not yet overcome
the moderating influence of much older, potentially less efficient
facilities.
Generative AI is making traditional ways to measure business success obsolete
Often touted as the “iron triangle” from the perspective of operational
efficiency, this equation implies that, in order to attain a degree of
quality, firms must balance cost with the time spent to achieve that level of
quality. ... AI has upended this thinking, as firms can now achieve both speed
and accuracy at the same time by leveraging AI. This can enhance productivity
and drive innovation without losing out on quality. Likewise, through
generative AI, smaller companies with fewer resources are able to rub
shoulders and compete with larger firms using AI-powered tools. They can do
this by streamlining operations, creating cost-effective marketing content and
delivering personalised customer experiences. This can make existing
businesses more efficient, competitive and creative. It can also lower the
barriers to entry into markets for prospective small and medium-sized business
owners. ... The UK government’s recent autumn budget included a number of tax
rises that will hit businesses, especially some small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) that don’t have the financial buffers to weather severe
economic challenges. Generative AI has reconfigured the Cost x Time = Quality
formula and has enabled firms to do things both quickly and accurately without
a trade off.
UK Cyber Risks Are ‘Widely Underestimated,’ Warns Country’s Security Chief
“What has struck me more forcefully than anything else since taking the helm
at the NCSC is the clearly widening gap between the exposure and threat we
face, and the defences that are in place to protect us,” he said. “And what is
equally clear to me is that we all need to increase the pace we are working at
to keep ahead of our adversaries.” ... Horne added that the
guidance and frameworks drawn up by the NCSC are not widely used. Ultimately,
businesses need to change their perspective on cyber security from a
“necessary evil” or “compliance function” to “an integral part of achieving
their purpose.” ... “The defence and resilience of critical infrastructure,
supply chains, the public sector and our wider economy must improve” to
protect against these nation-state threats, Horne said. Ian Birdsey, partner
and cyber specialist at law firm Clyde & Co, told TechRepublic in an
email: “The UK has increasingly become a target for hostile nations due to the
redrawing of geopolitical battle lines and the rise in global conflicts in
recent years. In turn, threat actors based in those territories are
increasingly launching more severe and sophisticated cyberattacks on UK
organisations, particularly within critical national infrastructure and its
supply chain.
5 JavaScript Libraries You Should Say Goodbye to in 2025
jQuery is the grandparent of modern JavaScript libraries, loved for its
cross-browser support, simple DOM manipulation, and concise syntax. However,
in 2025, it’s time to officially let go. Native JavaScript APIs and modern
frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular have rendered jQuery’s core utilities
obsolete. Not to mention, vanilla JavaScript now includes native methods such
as querySelector, addEventListener, and fetch that more conveniently provide
the functionality we once relied on jQuery to deliver. Also, modern browsers
have standardized, making the need for a cross-browser solution like jQuery
redundant. Not to mention, bundling jQuery into an application today can add
unnecessary bloat, slowing down load times in an age when speed is king. ...
Moment.js was the default date-handling library for a long time, and it was
celebrated for its ability to parse, validate, manipulate, and display dates.
However, it’s now heavy and inflexible compared to newer alternatives, not to
mention it’s been deprecated. Moment.js clocks in at around 66 KB (minified),
which can be a significant payload in an era where smaller bundle sizes lead
to faster performance and better UX.
How media, publishing and entertainment organizations can master Data Governance in the age of AI
One of the reasons AI governance has proven to be such a challenging new
discipline is that it’s so multifaceted. Tiankai explained that it’s comprised
of several key elements: Ownership and stewardship: AI models need ownership,
and so does AI governance. The right people must be accountable for ensuring
AI models are used in the right ways. Cross-functional decision-making: A
cross-domain thinking and decision-making model is essential. One central
function can’t make every AI-relevant governance decision, so you need ways to
bring the accountable people together. Processes and metadata: Teams must make
their models explainable, so everyone can understand the quality of their
outputs and the root causes of any negative outcomes. Technology enablement:
Technology must support governance frameworks and make them work at scale.
This shows that AI governance requires a combination of people, process and
technology change. The panel agreed that the ‘people’ element is the toughest
to manage effectively. Nathalie Berdat, Head of Data and AI Governance, BBC,
explained some of the people-specific challenges that she has encountered
along its AI governance journey.
5 ways to tell people what to do at work
Nick Woods, CIO of airport group MAG, said dialogue is the priority for any
professional who wants to avoid ambiguity. "If you're telling somebody what to
do, you're already in the wrong place," he said. "Success is about a coaching,
conversational dialogue that you need to have that ultimately comes down to a
handshake on, 'Are we clear on what's next?'" Woods told ZDNET that most
management decisions involve an ongoing debate. He doesn't believe in being
directive about outputs and telling people what they need to go and do. "I
think I'm much more in a space of, 'Actually, I've hired good people. I'm
going to allow you to go and tell me what we need to do, and then we're going
to have a dialogue about it,'" he said. ... Niall Robinson, head of product
innovation at the Met Office, said talented staff should be given space to
express their creativity. "There's a temptation as a leader to tell people how
to do stuff -- and that can be a trap," he said. Robinson told ZDNET that he
focuses on avoiding that problem by trusting his staff to generate recommended
actions. "A habit I've been trying to practice is to tell people what success
looks like and then giving them the agency to describe the options to me
because they're closer to many of the solutions. So, success is about giving
people the power to advise me."
Navigating NextGen Enterprise Architecture with GenAI
GenAI can modernize technology architecture by facilitating optimal
best-of-breed solutions selection based on diverse criteria deep analyses. It
offers tailored guidance aligned with business requirements as well as key
capabilities such as scalability, resilience, and reversibility. This dynamic
capacity adapts to evolving IT landscapes and business requirements,
continuously refining recommendations based on the changing need and
technological state-of-art. Moreover, GenAI accelerates homemade solutions
development by generating code snippets. It produces-free functions and classes
code segments written in any programming language, which improves efficiency and
reduces manual coding efforts. This capacity improves developers' productivity
and allows teams to focus more on high-level design. It also ensures that
generated code is aligned with coding standards related to maintainability,
readability, collaboration, and consistency. GenAI has amazing advantages, but
it also has some major challenges. One of them is sustainability issues, which
are increasingly important in technology adoption. In fact, many enterprises
take this criterion into account in their technology architecture principles and
assess it when they select a new solution to enhance their IT landscape.
The 7 R's of cloud migration: How to choose the right method
The R's model isn't new, but it has evolved significantly over the years. Its
genesis is usually attributed to Gartner, who came up with the 5 R's model back
in 2010. The original five were rehost, refactor, revise, rebuild and replace.
As the cloud continued to evolve and more diverse workloads were being migrated
to the cloud, AWS added a sixth R -- retire -- and eventually, a seventh, for
retain. This seventh R is effectively an acknowledgment that not all workloads
are suited to being hosted in the cloud. ... Rehosting can be done in a few
ways, but it often means creating cloud-based virtual machines that mimic the
infrastructure an application is currently running on. ... Rehosting an
application requires you to create a cloud VM instance and then move the
application onto that instance. Relocating, on the other hand, involves moving
an existing VM from an on-premises environment to the cloud without making
significant changes to it. ... A workload might be suitable for retirement if it
is no longer actively supported by the vendor. In such cases, it's important to
make sure you have a workaround before retiring an application the organization
still uses. That might mean adopting a competing application that offers similar
functionality or developing one in-house.
Evolving Your Architecture: Essential Steps and Tools for Modernization
Tech debt, lack of modernization can also get you out there in the news, and not
as a very good thing, as we could see for SWA a couple years ago when they had a
pretty huge meltdown with their booking systems and all that. It damaged their
image, but also got them pretty down on their plans in revenue and all that, and
still, nowadays they are facing the consequences of that meltdown, which was
basically because of ignoring and putting aside the conversations about tech
debt and application modernization as a whole. ... It's basically looking at the
inventory of applications that you have in your organization, and understanding,
what are the critical ones? What is the value that it adds? Alignment with the
business goals. Really like, is it commodity? Can I just go and buy one out of
the shelf, two? Then it's fine, go and buy it. If it's something that
differentiates you, you got to innovate, then it might be worth looking at
building it and hence modernizing it. ... The other thing is the age of
technology. If you have outdated technology, you very likely have
vulnerabilities. If you have lack of support, either from the community or the
vendors, there is a security vulnerability there, but there is no security patch
being released because there is no support anymore.
Quote for the day:
"Do something today that your future
self will thank you for." -- Unknown
