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• Belkin has launched a new power bank that also includes a light
• This can function as a night light, a fill light, or even an SOS signal
• The power bank has a 10,000mAh capacity, but currently it's only available in China

It can be hard to stand out when launching a new power bank, but Belkin has certainly tried with the Belkin BoostCharge Pro Power Bank 10K, which is capable of much more than just charging your phone.

Beyond packing 10,000mAh of power, it also includes a pop-out LED light, complete with a motion sensor and controls to adjust its brightness.

One obvious use for this is as a bedside night light, which might be handy when staying in a hotel. But it also has a flashing mode, which helps it attract attention; in this mode, it could function as an SOS signal — which could be reassuring if you’re out in the wilderness. And it could also be used as a fill light for photos and video calls, when the ambient light isn’t ideal.

(Image credit: Belkin)Compact and capable

Beyond that, this Belkin power bank has a built-in braided USB-C cable and a USB-C port, so you can charge two devices at once. It outputs 45W of power; if you’re charging two devices, the primary device gets 30W, and the other gets 15W.

It also has a small circular display showing the remaining battery percentage. This screen also contains controls for the LED light — a light which is unlikely to draw much power, so you hopefully won’t be sacrificing much charging potential by using it.

It comes in at 118 x 60 x 32mm and 257g, so the light doesn’t appear to add much weight or bulk, but sadly it’s only available in China for now, with JD.com listing it for 329 yuan (roughly $50 / £35 / AU$70). Since Belkin has a global presence, though, this may well launch elsewhere too.

• A joint Insider/Der Spiegel/Le Monde investigation published leaked documents showing a Chinese-authored, three-level plan to contain and defeat Starlink
• The plan, presented to Russian officers at a secret forum in 2023, highlights a three-level approach to contain and destroy SpaceX's Starlink
• A separately signed June 2023 Moscow protocol also commits Russia and China to jointly build a hypersonic-missile-defense system based on technology Russia had never before been willing to share, even with allies

Starlink is the world's largest satellite constellation ever built, and as a result, it also doubles as the backbone for many civilian and military communications channels.

With approximately 10,400 satellites in low-Earth orbit as of June 2026, SpaceX's low-Earth-orbit satellite internet network covers nearly 160 different countries and territories while delivering low-latency communications (20-40 milliseconds) that often make it a better choice than GEO systems that have a baked-in round trip delay of 500-700 milliseconds.

Its potential for military use, until recently, was downplayed by many in the industry, but it has formed the backbone for communications for Ukraine in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war earning it the ire of the Russian government and renewed focus from China, which has already covertly begun to prepare for an eventuality where it would have to disable the network.

A secret meeting that highlighted growing Chinese-Russian military co-operation

With China affirming that its 'no limits' partnership with Russia is still very much in play as early as 2025, a year-long investigation spearheaded by The Insider, Germany's Der Spiegel, and France's Le Monde indicates that both players may have already considerably broadened its scope beyond what was visible earlier, especially when it came to their respective military ambitions.

Starlink, which Russians consider a key hindrance to their campaign in Ukraine, forms the backbone of the latter's communications even as the former are cut off from access as the conflict continues to evolve in what is now the 5th year of fighting.

For China, it represents a growing threat, underscored by the US military's increasing reliance on SpaceX, which is not only the Pentagon's most important space contractor but also helps the US government deploy and service its military-grade version of Starlink: Starshield.

Chinese military officials and engineers met with Russian officers in November 2023 at a summit in Guangzhou to discuss how to tackle Starlink, presenting a 3-pronged plan of action: diplomatic pressure, jamming, then cyberattacks, and, alternatively, physical destruction.

Not only would both China and Russia aim to leverage their considerable weight in diplomatic forums to hinder Starlink's growth by imposing regulatory pressures, but they would also invest in electromagnetic-jamming infrastructure to render existing satellites useless in certain geographic areas, even as they collaborated within each other's ecosystems.

Perhaps more troubling for Elon Musk and SpaceX would be the cyberwarfare and physical warfare component, where plans to leverage "access spoofing, virus infection, and the exploitation of vulnerabilities" meet plans to "eliminate" satellites already in orbit altogether.

Given that these plans were first discussed in 2023, one can assume they have evolved considerably since then, even as drone warfare, laser-based weaponry, and anti-satellite missiles have made major inroads, as modern militaries prepare for asymmetric warfare in future conflicts.

For example, Chinese researchers at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xi'an have reportedly built a ground-based microwave weapon capable of targeting low-orbit satellites, as per local media

With China and Russia also agreeing to deploy an air-defense solution as part of the "Working Protocol" signed in Moscow, which is expected to dwarf existing capabilities, including Russia's S-500, the revelations indicate that China is not passively but rather actively supporting Russia in its ongoing endeavors.

This makes for a tricky subject to broach for Elon Musk and a White House that backs him: the former has taken a conciliatory stance toward China even as Tesla depends on the market for sales, houses its largest and most efficient plant, and has previously resulted in favorable lease terms and loans in play from the Chinese government, while the latter might tip his hand based on 'national security' concerns that could make for an uncomfortable situation much like how it has played out for Nvidia after Beijing intervened.

Starlink might be an important piece of the pie for both the US government and Elon Musk, but the response from both to Chinese plans for the service might considerably differ as a result, given what is at stake for both entities.

• Neo Beta robot hands have human-level dexterity
• They use tendon-like controls instead of in-hand motors
• They're waterproof and can perform many skills normally reserved for human hands

Neo's new robot hands are so good and lifelike, you might assume that they're gloved human hands, and then you might wonder why someone is swinging a hammer at them.

In a new demo video recently released on YouTube by Neo Beta robot parent company 1X, you can watch a pair of Neo Hands screw in a lightbulb and pull the chain switch (before someone inexplicably shatters the bulb with a hammer), pluck grapes off a bunch and drop each one in a container, carefully pickup a screw, unzip a jacket (a bit creepy), and even open a small bag of Funyuns onion ring snacks.

In that last bit, someone swings a hammer at the hands while they work, which they pay no mind to, before the bag is unsealed.

It even expertly builds a small Lego stack. Okay, okay, they're the larger Duplo blocks, but it still does as good a job as your average kindergartner.

The hands move slowly but also with a grace and ease you might mistake for humanness. This appears to be down to the underlying technology.

As 1X described it, the rubber-covered, waterproof hands use a "closed-loop tendon-driven system". This means that 1X moves the motors or servos out of the hand and back along the arm, which keeps the hand smaller and more supple. Those motors are then connected to an intricate system of tendon-like connectors that are pulled and released to enable the robot hands' movement and manipulation. That style of control more closely resembles our own hands, which, while including muscle, are also filled with tendons that are pulled inside the forearm.

1X says the fingers, palm, and thumb have 25 degrees of freedom, but, as evidenced in the video, they can also over-extend backward in a rather unnatural or certainly more-than-human way.

The robot hands feature some impressive strength, too, lifting a 20 lb. dumbbell and then, with just one finger, curling a smaller pulley weight.

Naturally, the fingers include sensors so that the hands and robot know when it's gripping something and how much force is or should be applied. That's how the Neo robot hand avoids breaking that light bulb (unlike that hammer).

Next-level grace

I know, just last week, we heard about a pair of robots performing gall-bladder surgery on a pig. You'd think that those humanoid hands must've been far more graceful. However, those robots each simply gripped a pair of laparoscopic controls so that the finer control, where the cutting and suturing was done, happened at the end of those devices. No robot hand directly manipulated the scalpels.

While Neo's robot hands will be useful for all kinds of home helper chores when the $20,000 Neo finally arrives in consumer homes (early adopters may be receiving them now), the hands are also useful for helping itself: In the video, a Neo Beta robot uses the hands to pick up its MagSafe-style charging puck, which it carefully attaches to its robot hip.

1X writes that these hands will deliver new real-world training data to its robotic development, and one would assume this will ultimately make the Neo robots even better home helpers, companions, and enablers (all those Funyuns).

In the summer of 1995, the future of computing briefly seemed to belong to Netscape.

Netscape went public that August, barely sixteen months after it had been founded. Its stock doubled on the first day. The company had no empire of hardware, no installed operating system, no grip on the office desktop. What it had was a window into a new world.

Open Navigator, type an address, and the Internet appeared with a little throb of electricity. The browser did not feel like an application. It felt like a passage out of Microsoft's world.

Microsoft noticed.

The battle that followed was called the browser wars, a phrase that makes it sound tidier than it was. Really, it was a fight over who had the right to stand between the user and the next era of computing.

Netscape believed the browser would make the operating system less important. Microsoft believed that anything capable of making Windows less important needed to become part of Windows, preferably yesterday.

By the end of the decade, the company that had introduced so many people to the Web was no longer the Web's gatekeeper. It had been out-distributed, out-bundled, and finally absorbed into a stranger corporate afterlife.

A familiar temptation

There is a familiar temptation now to ask which artificial intelligence company is "the Netscape of AI." The answer usually offered is OpenAI, and the comparison is not wrong. ChatGPT did for artificial intelligence what Navigator did for the Web. It turned a technical architecture into a public experience. It gave the future a text box.

But the more important question is this: Who is today's Microsoft? Who understands that the winner is often the company that owns the default?

Every platform shift begins with a miracle and ends with a map of choke points. The miracle is what users remember. The choke points are where the money goes.

The early Web was sold as an escape from gatekeepers. It created new ones. Search. Browsers. Marketplaces. Mobile operating systems. Cloud platforms. Social media. The AI era is being sold with the same democratic glow.

And yet the deeper stack is already hardening. It is made of chips, power contracts, data centers, model weights, enterprise identity, workflow data, cloud credits, procurement channels, and the small tyrannies of default settings. The romance is in the chatbot. The control is somewhere colder, louder, and much more expensive.

That was true in the nineties, too. The Web looked like a page. The winners understood it was a stack.

The danger to OpenAI

OpenAI is the obvious Netscape figure because it supplied the first mass-market revelation. Before ChatGPT, artificial intelligence was a research field, a back-office tool, or a phrase executives used when they meant analytics with a larger budget. After ChatGPT, it was something anyone could talk to.

People underrate the power of the first interface that makes a new technology feel inevitable. Netscape did not invent the Internet. It made the Internet feel reachable. OpenAI did not invent the transformer. It made the transformer feel conversational.

But Netscape's story is not a founder myth. It is a warning label.

Netscape had the user's excitement but not enough control over distribution. Microsoft had the operating system. It could place Internet Explorer where users already lived. It could make the browser free. It could turn a product category into a feature.

The lesson was simple: if your rival owns the layer beneath you, your brilliance may become their menu option.

OpenAI is better protected than Netscape was, but not safely protected. It has a huge brand, astonishing usage, and deep ties to Microsoft. It also has the curse of being expensive in a way software companies used to avoid. Each improvement requires compute, chips, talent, energy, and capital. The old software dream was scaling with almost no marginal cost. AI can't do that.

That is why OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft is both strength and vulnerability. Microsoft gives it cloud computing infrastructure, enterprise access, and capital. Microsoft also sits close enough to learn from it, package it, hedge around it, and sell AI into the places where people already do work.

If Netscape's problem was that Microsoft stood underneath it, OpenAI's problem is subtler: Microsoft stands underneath it, beside it, and increasingly in front of the customer.

Netscape had the dazzling demo. Yahoo had the traffic. AOL had the subscribers. None of that was enough. The durable winners were the companies that turned their software layers into a control point and a tollbooth.

Nvidia may be doing exactly that.

The rise of Nvidia

In the nineties, Intel was the metronome inside the personal-computer boom. Microsoft owned the software platform. Intel owned the pace of the machine.

Nvidia occupies a similar place in AI, but the analogy understates the ambition. Nvidia is not merely selling chips into a boom. It is selling the industrial base of the boom: GPUs, networking, software libraries, developer habits, and a vision of the data center as an AI factory.

Every major AI player is both Nvidia customer and Nvidia escape artist. Google has TPUs. Amazon has Trainium. Microsoft is developing its own silicon. Everyone wants an alternative. The problem is that wanting one does not create an ecosystem.

Nvidia's position today may be the purest example of moving up the stack from below. A chip company becomes a systems company. A systems company becomes a software company. A software company becomes a developer environment. A developer environment becomes a tax on ambition.

For now, Nvidia is the toll collector.

The AI market will not resolve into one winner. Platform shifts rarely do. The Web did not produce one winner. It produced layers of power. Microsoft kept the desktop. Google won search. Amazon won commerce and cloud. Apple won mobile hardware and the app economy. Meta won social attention.

AI will do the same.

Microsoft may become the default enterprise AI company, not because every Copilot is brilliant, but because Microsoft sits where work already happens. Nvidia may remain the dominant compute toll collector. Amazon will likely win much of the infrastructure layer. Google must reinvent search while defending it. Meta will use AI to extend attention. Apple may yet turn personal AI into a device-native experience.

The likely losers are the companies attached to the wrong layer.

The changing landscape of AI

In the nineties, AOL looked invincible because it owned access. Broadband made that access less special. Yahoo looked inevitable because it owned attention. Search made that attention less decisive. Netscape looked revolutionary because it owned the browser. Microsoft made the browser a dependency of the operating system.

In AI, the same demotions will happen. Some model companies will become features. Some application companies will become demos. Some incumbents will decorate old products with AI and call it transformation, which is the corporate version of putting a spoiler on a minivan.

The mistake, in every technological boom, is to confuse the moment of wonder with the arrangement of power that follows it.

The wonder is sincere. The arrangement is not.

The early Web made people feel as if they had slipped the old gatekeepers. Then came the search box, the app store, the marketplace, the cloud account, the login, the subscription, the default. Each solved a real inconvenience. Each left behind a narrower path.

AI will likely travel the same road, only faster and with a larger electricity bill. It will begin as a conversation and mature into an administrative system for human intention: what we ask, what we buy, what we write, whom we trust, which choices are shown, and which never quite appear.

The future does not usually arrive wearing chains. It arrives offering to save time.

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• Zoom patches critical improper input validation flaw in multiple Windows clients and SDKs that allowed remote account takeover
• Additional high‑severity bugs fixed include CVE‑2026‑53410 (TOCTOU race condition), CVE‑2026‑53409 (privilege management flaw), and CVE‑2026‑53411 (input validation issue)
• All vulnerabilities were found internally, with no evidence of exploitation; users are urged to update Zoom Workplace and related products to the latest versions

Zoom has patched a critical-level vulnerability in multiple products that allowed threat actors to take over people’s accounts remotely.

In a security advisory, Zoom said it fixed an Improper Input Validation bug plaguing Zoom Desktop Client for Windows (before version 7.0.0), Zoom VDI Client for Windows (before versions 7.0.10, 6.6.15, and 6.5.18), and Zoom Meeting SDK for Windows (before version 7.0.0). It did not go into more details on how the flaw works.

The bug is now tracked as CVE-2026-53412, and was given a severity score of 9.8/10 (critical). To fix it, users are advised to update their software to the newest version.

More vulnerabilities

While certainly the most dangerous one, this is not the only bug Zoom recently addressed. The company also fixed a handful of less severe vulnerabilities, including a time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition bug affecting Zoom Workplace for Windows before 7.0.5, Zoom Workplace VDI Client and VDI Plugin before 6.5.17/6.6.14, Zoom Rooms for Windows before 7.0.5, and Remote Control for Zoom Contact Center before 7.0.0. This bug is tracked as CVE-2026-53410 and was given a “high” severity score of 7/10.

Other notable mentions include CVE-2026-53409 (a high-severity improper privilege management flaw in Zoom Rooms for Windows before version 7.1.0), and

CVE-2026-53411 (a high-severity improper input validation flaw affecting the Zoom Workplace VDI Plugin for Windows before version 6.6.14).

Zoom found all of these vulnerabilities in-house and says there is no evidence that any of these were abused in real-life attacks in the past.

Zoom Workplace (the company’s all-in-one collaboration platform) offers video meetings, team chat, phone, email, calendar, scheduling, whiteboards, and other productivity tools. It is an evolution of the original Zoom Meetings app which now competes with platforms such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

Via BleepingComputer

• Aston Martin just revealed the Dreadnought, a digital-only military SUV designed exclusively for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
• It features rugged armor plating and a powerful V12 engine
• The vehicle will feature in the game's DMZ mode and the free-to-play Warzone battle royale

Legendary luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin has just revealed the Dreadnought, a heavily armored all-wheel drive SUV said to offer "supercar levels of performance" and "elite tactical performance" on the battlefield.

Its Chiltern Green painted body combines rugged military armor plating with advanced aerodynamics to deliver a powerful combination of both speed and protection, while the interior includes luxury elements like an Oxford Tan leather dashboard and golden gear lever.

Under the hood, it boasts a mammoth V12 engine and comes with a unique range of combat-oriented features such as dedicated weapons storage and reserve fuel tanks.

Its name is intended to conjure images of the HMS Dreadnought, a famous 20th-century British vessel that was so significant it spawned a whole new class of battleship.

Activision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston MartinActivision / Aston Martin

The catch? It's not a vehicle that you will actually be able to buy; it's a digital-only concept that's been designed exclusively for the upcoming video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

According to the car maker's chief creative officer, Marek Reichman, designing the vehicle posed a "not inconsiderable challenge" to reimagine what Aston Martin could be in a virtual world where "the only limit is imagination."

Although the car is fictional, Reichman said that it was imagined as "a vehicle living in the real world" throughout the design process, and therefore "feels genuinely real."

You'll be able to go behind the wheel of the Aston Martin Dreadnought in Modern Warfare 4's DMZ mode when the game launches on October 20, 2026. It will also appear in the free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty Warzone.

Fans attending the upcoming Fanatics Fest in New York will be able to see a full-size model of the car in the flesh at the Call of Duty stand.

• The European Union is working on tech repairability rules...
• ... except some 'wet appliances' are now exempt now
• This puts 'devices that are worn on the body' in a very gray area…
• …and yes, that probably means AirPods

E-waste worriers (and warriors) like me have been watching the creation of EU regulations with glee, since a selection of them will require tech manufacturers to put replaceable or repairable batteries in their gadgets. But now, there are a few new key exceptions to the rule.

Some major new clarifications, listed on the European Commission's website, mute the positive impact of replaceable, upgradable tech. These exceptions mean that wearables including smartwatches and fitness trackers don't have to be repairable — and I think it's ironic that these are precisely the kinds of gadgets you're more likely to throw out and replace, rather than try to repair.

The EU has moved these products to its "wet appliances" category, for gadgets which can't be kept repairable for safety reasons (ie, because they deal with water). However, no reason was given for why wearables, especially ones not designed for wet use (based on IP ratings) are now exempt.

While the EU's rule change doesn't actually mention AirPods (or earbuds in general), what the wording essentially means is that wireless earbuds, Apple watches and smart glasses reportedly also fall into this specific wearable category. Smart glasses are, to hammer home the point, really not designed for wet use — but their wearer might get caught in a rainstorm by accident, say.

There are two key pieces of information regarding the classification of small devices exempt from adhering to the EU's battery rules, as published in the recent guidelines. The first is that "Wearable devices are portable electronic devices that are worn on the body and often have sensors and connectivity to collect and transmit data. Examples of wearables include smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart glasses or other electronic devices integrated into clothing and other accessories".

The second? It's to do with those IP ratings for water- and dust ingress and whether the addition of a replaceable battery is "compromising safety". It states that if "there is evidence in the product documentation when placing the product on the market that battery replaceability and removability by end-users would compromise the safety of the user or the appliance", the product may be exempt.

So your AirPods 4 with ANC will likely no longer need to feature replaceable batteries because of the EU, including the case itself.

An Apple a day keeps the e-waste away

(Image credit: Future)

It's no secret that e-waste is a massive issue: according to the United Nations, the amount of discarded electronics we produce is rising five times faster than our ability to recycle it.

It's why the EU recently pushed through rules to ensure tech is repairable. A pair of headphones that break might just need a new battery; you don't need to buy a whole new pair.

Apple users have been begging for removable batteries in iOS devices, especially AirPods, as we argued back in 2024. AirPods are the best-selling earbuds in the world (and it's not even close), so at least some of them end up in landfill when they stop working, despite Apple's conviction to recycle any that get returned to its stores (Apple doesn't offer any trade-in value for AirPods, but dropping them in for recycling is free).

I believe it's important for all tech to be repairable (see B&O's long-running 'Cradle to Cradle' approach, even buying back and refurbing its own kit, to give it a new life), but doubly so for the ubiquitous kind.

Apple's way is of course a viable way to keep your eco credentials, while disposing of unwanted buds, but it's not the best way. That would be replaceable batteries, small and fiddly though it might be — and it is possible, because Fairphone has been doing it for a little while.

As per the mantra drilled into school kids: reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. Reusing old earbuds, by repairing them, is much better for the environment than recycling them, and so it's a shame that the EU is giving out exemptions like candy.

If you have any broken tech, be it headphones, earbuds or something else entirely, a repair is always your first port of call before disposing of your existing ones. It's cheaper and quicker than buying new tech and, most importantly, is better for the planet. And if you do need to buy new tech, consider online or physical refurb shops such as Back Market, which repair others' gadgets.

• Google, Apple, GitHub sites are inaccessible on Russian IP since July 14
• The state regulator, Roskomnadzor, denies blocking the webistes
• A reliable VPN remains the only way for citizens to bypass outages

Russian internet users found themselves locked out of crucial digital services on Tuesday, as widespread and unexplained outages knocked Google, Apple, and GitHub offline across the country.

The network disruptions, which began around 10:00 Moscow time, prevented anyone using a domestic IP address from reaching the websites. This sudden digital blackout is the latest hurdle for citizens trying to access the open web, making the use of VPN services an absolute necessity rather than just a privacy luxury.

According to data from Russian web monitor platforms Detector404 and Sboy.rf — as reported by Novaya Gazeta — the failure rates were staggering. The tracker noted that HTTPS connections to Google broke in 26% of cases, while connections to Apple sites failed 99% of the time.

The outages sparked over a thousand user complaints within hours, heavily concentrated in regions like Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk. Users quickly discovered that accessing the sites via a foreign IP address completely restored service.

Despite the highly localized nature of the blocks, Russia's telecommunications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, denied any state involvement. In a statement reported by the Moscow Times, the regulator claimed it did not restrict access to the affected platforms.

Regardless of the official explanation, the result is the same: the only way to restore normal access to these everyday platforms is by routing your connection through a secure, foreign server using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

How a VPN helps and why VPN traffic is the next target

(Image credit: Future + Photo by Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images + Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images )

For anyone caught behind Russia's digital iron curtain, a VPN is a critical lifeline.

By encrypting your internet traffic and routing it through a secure server outside of the country, a VPN masks your real IP address. This effectively tricks the network into thinking you are browsing from a completely different location, allowing you to sidestep domestic censorship and load Google, Apple, or investigative news outlets as normal.

However, the Kremlin is well aware of this workaround, and the censorship landscape in the country is rapidly deteriorating. Russia's ongoing war against the open internet has increasingly zeroed in on the circumvention tools themselves, with Roskomnadzor wanting to block 92% of VPN apps by 2030.

The tactics go far beyond simple website bans. Earlier this year, Russian authorities ordered major mobile operators to disable the ability for users to top up their Apple ID balances via mobile phone accounts. This calculated move was designed specifically to stop citizens from paying for premium VPN apps through the App Store, compounding the payment difficulties created when Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in 2022.

Worse still, VPN traffic itself is now actively targeted. Roskomnadzor has heavily invested in deep packet inspection (DPI) technology to detect and block VPN protocols.

Over the past few months, the agency has throttled popular protocols like WireGuard and VLESS, creating a frustrating cat-and-mouse game for providers trying to keep their users online — the popular Amnezia VPN included.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to use DNS and DPI blocking to restrict YouTube, Telegram, and WhatsApp while aggressively pushing state-controlled alternatives.

As state control tightens, free access to basic tech tools is no longer guaranteed. If you are in the region, securing a tested, obfuscated VPN is the only remaining defense against an increasingly isolated Russian internet.

Artificial intelligence is moving faster than most enterprise governance models were designed to support.

Organizations are rapidly embedding AI into customer operations, internal workflows, decision-making systems, software development, supply chains, analytics, and automation initiatives.

But while adoption accelerates quickly, this creates a situation where accountability is fragmented.

That gap is creating a new category of enterprise risk.

For years, cybersecurity leaders focused on protecting systems, managing threats, and securing data. Today, that already broad mandate is expanding: as AI becomes increasingly embedded across operational environments, CISOs are pulled into broader questions of trust, assurance, resilience, and executive accountability.

A recent best practices report from Forrester noted that “CISOs will be the trust and assurance authority for the business.”

This shift reflects a growing reality: enterprises are increasingly struggling to determine who owns AI risk as decisions become distributed across systems, business functions, and autonomous processes.

Governance Models Are Struggling to Keep Pace

Most enterprise governance structures were designed around the concept of centralized oversight models. Security teams managed cybersecurity risk. Compliance managed regulatory obligations. Operations managed execution. Business leaders managed strategic outcomes. AI disrupts those boundaries.

Today, AI increasingly influences operational decisions across functions. Different tools and models may be used simultaneously for customer interactions, fraud detection, procurement, workforce management, software development, and supply chain operations internally, as well as throughout a vendor or supply chain ecosystem. As a result, visibility is limited and accountability becomes difficult to define.

When disruptions affect legal, privacy, operational, and technology functions simultaneously, many organizations lack a clear view of how those risks intersect.

Most governance frameworks were designed for software that supported decisions. Now, AI increasingly participates in making them.

The Visibility Gap Behind AI Risk

Many organizations still rely on fragmented governance processes, static documentation, spreadsheets, and disconnected reporting workflows to manage environments made even more complex by AI.

AI systems do not operate in isolation. They rely on interconnected data pipelines, third-party models, cloud infrastructure, APIs, operational systems, and business-process dependencies that continuously evolve. When visibility across those dependencies is limited, organizations struggle to understand where AI-driven decisions originate, how they propagate, and what downstream impacts they create.

That visibility gap quickly becomes a resilience problem. If organizations cannot trace how AI-driven actions connect to operational systems and business outcomes, they cannot effectively assess exposure during disruption, validate continuity plans, or demonstrate accountability under pressure.

This is where many organizations discover that AI governance is no longer just a policy challenge. It is an operational resilience challenge that can have customer and financial impact.

Because cybersecurity teams already operate at the intersection of technology risk, resilience, governance, and incident response, many organizations are increasingly looking to CISOs for enterprise-wide trust and assurance.

AI Resilience Requires Operational Context

The conversation around AI governance has centered on ethics frameworks, policies, and regulatory controls, which remain important. But resilience increasingly depends on something more operational: understanding how AI-driven actions affect real business environments during disruption.

That requires organizations to move beyond static governance models toward continuous operational visibility.

Leading organizations are increasingly focusing on questions such as:

• Which business services depend on AI-driven systems?
• What operational processes become vulnerable if AI outputs fail?
• Where do third-party dependencies create downstream exposure?
• How quickly can teams trace AI-driven decisions during an incident?
• Can leaders demonstrate operational accountability in real time?
• Can we revert back to more traditional operating models if an AI agent or capability fails?

Those questions span cybersecurity, resilience, operations, and executive governance. They also represent a broader shift occurring across enterprise risk management itself.

Trust, accountability, and resilience

Organizations are no longer being measured solely by whether governance frameworks exist. Increasingly, they are being judged by whether they can operationally demonstrate trust, accountability, and resilience when complex systems fail under pressure, and AI is accelerating this shift.

The organizations that adapt fastest will not necessarily be the ones deploying the most AI. They will be the ones that can most clearly understand, govern, and recover from the operational consequences AI can create when disruption occurs.

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• Microsoft sees itself as cheaper and more effective at bundling the full stack
• The company is clearly pushing its own internal models
• Claude also slated for being slower and less accurate

Microsoft is reportedly teaching sales workers how to compare the company's AI offerings to rival companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Per Bloomberg reporting, the company's sales staff are being told to emphasize benefits like efficiency and cost advantages when using Microsoft's offerings, which offer a much fuller picture than just the models and tools, extending to compute and other workflow tools.

"Everyone else is selling parts – we’re selling the full end-to-end system," EVP Jay Parikh reportedly told workers. "That’s the story that we all need to get out there and tell in FY27."

Microsoft sales teams up the ante against OpenAI, Anthropic

Clearly, the company wants customers to see the combination of its own models and third-party models, cloud infrastructure, applications and security as better value compared with having to piece these elements together separately.

Copilot EVP Jacob Andreou also reportedly compared Copilot to Claude, accusing Claude of being slower, less accurate and missing certain security integrations.

The sales push comes at a time of change for the company, which has started to push more of its own internal models across different apps and workflows to replace OpenAI and Anthropic models. It's also a marked shift from the company's earlier AI strategy, which leaned heavily on its multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI.

Company CEO Satya Nadella also pointed at a major customer, Unilever, which recently switched form an unnamed frontier model to one of Microsoft's own cheaper models to make significant savings.

In April, the company announced that its AI business is now worth around $37 billion annually, marking a 123% year-over-year increase.

Whether you're spending increasingly long hours working from home, or splitting your time between the home and office, the right desk accessories can make a big difference to your life.

Small upgrades won't magically make work more enjoyable, but they can help you stay more comfortable, organized, and generally more productive.

The good news is that improving your workspace doesn't have to cost a fortune. A modern mouse can reduce strain during long sessions, an ergonomic laptop stand can improve your posture, and a quality LED desk lamp makes it easier to work into the evening without harsh overhead lighting.

Even simple additions, such as a larger mouse pad or a portable charger, can make a huge difference, and keeping your workspace tidy can also help you stay focused.

To help you upgrade your setup without blowing the budget, I've rounded up a dozen of affordable office accessories currently on sale at Amazon. This collection covers everything you might require, plus more besides.

Office gear under $50

Nulaxy Ergonomic Adjustable Laptop Stand for Desk

Pzloz Led Desk Lamp for Office Home

Getpals Wireless iPhone Station: 3 in 1 Charger

Redragon M612 Predator RGB Wired Optical Mouse With 11 Programmable Buttons

Black and Decker 7 piece set, including desk pad, charger and mouse pad

Mekass Ergonomic Mouse Pad With Wrist Rest

Aeollik Wooden Organizer With Phone Stand

Iniu 45w Fast Charging Portable Charger

Civpower Portable Personal Neck Cooling Rechargeable Bladeless Fan

Huanuo Adjustable Desk Footrest

Chcore Surge Protector Power Strip

Amazon Basics 8-Sheet High Security Cross Cut Shredder

• PlayStation has delayed the launch of the FlexStrike Wireless Fight Stick
• The company says production delays have caused the hardware to be postponed
• The PlayStation 5 peripheral will no longer launch on August 6, but "at a later date"

PlayStation has issued an update on the release of its FlexStrike Wireless Fight Stick, announcing that the hardware has been postponed.

The FlexStrike was originally slated to release on August 6, but now, in an updated PlayStation Blog post, the company has confirmed that "due to unexpected production delays," it "will launch at a later date."

"We’re working to ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our players with FlexStrike, so we’re taking extra time to put the finishing touches on the product," PlayStation said.

"We apologize for this delay and look forward to bringing the FlexStrike experience to the community when it launches."

Pre-orders for the fight stick opened on June 12, but the company confirmed that players can check their order status through PlayStation Direct and will receive communications regarding their order.

"Players who pre-ordered through another retailer should look for updates directly from that retailer or contact them with any questions," it added.

The FlexStrike is a PS5 peripheral and costs $199.99 / £179.99.

TechRadar's senior reviews writer Harry Padoan got the chance to test out the fight stick earlier this year, writing that it "hits the right notes" performance-wise when tested against Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and is "approachable and straightforward to use," and "offers ultra-low latency in both wired and wireless capacities."

Elsewhere, Sony has announced plans to end physical game disc production. While remaining silent against the backlash, the company recently posted an advertisement for the FlexStrike, which received massive pushback.

If you're starting to plan for the upcoming school year and are finding your current laptop a little lacking, the good news is retailers have already launched some solid deals across a vast range of devices from the likes of Dell, Apple, Lenovo, HP, and more. So, I've taken a look and picked out what I think are eight of the best laptop deals if you're shopping for a new device for the year ahead.

I've taken a variety of budgets and needs into consideration: whether you want a cheap Chromebook for basic schoolwork and light use, or a powerful machine for more demanding needs.

One of the standouts has to be this Dell XPS 13 that drops to $599.99 with a student discount. That's a fantastic price for a brand-new version of one of our favorite laptops here at TechRadar, which boasts excellent all-around performance and a stylish design.

Apple fans will also want to check out the manufacturer's Education Store, which has just launched its college offer for the year. As well as special pricing on several devices, including the much-loved and impressive value MacBook Neo, you can also get gift cards of up to $150 on select Macs and iPads.

As someone who finds the best laptop deals regularly for TechRadar, you can browse all of my top picks below, and stick with TechRadar over the next few weeks for even more of our back-to-school coverage, featuring top tech recommendations and the best offers on must-have products.

Today's best back-to-school laptop sales

• Amazon: big savings on laptops and more tech
• Apple: up to $150 gift card with Macs & iPads
• Best Buy: up to $600 off laptops
• Dell: up to $900 off
• Walmart: laptops from $209

8 best back-to-school laptop deals

Display - 15.6 inches
Processor - Intel Core i3
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 128GB

If you want a cheap Windows laptop, then I think this Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i is a good value-for-money option for basic needs. I like it as a simple and effective device for school or college, with enough power for browsing, word processing, and other general admin tasks.View Deal

Display - 17.3 inches
Processor - AMD Ryzen 3
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 512GB

If storage is important to you, then I think this HP OmniBook 3 could be worth the price, as it features a 512GB SSD — something I don't regularly see at this price. Of course, that means some compromises have been made elsewhere, with a slightly weaker Ryzen 3 CPU and only 8GB of RAM. Still, that's perfectly fine for light use. Just be aware that the larger 17-inch form factor makes it a less portable option, too.View Deal

Display - 14 inches
Processor - Intel Core Ultra 5
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 256GB

If you want a flexible device that's just as easy to use for work and admin jobs as well as casual web browsing and streaming media, then this Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 14 is an excellent buy. It mainly features entry-to-mid-level components, but there's enough power to keep up with light daily use. Plus, you get the added benefit of a versatile 14-inch touchscreen, effectively giving you a laptop and tablet in one.View Deal

Display: 13 inches
Processor: A18 Pro
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 256GB

The MacBook Neo just got a price bump, but students can get it cheaper again thanks to Apple's education discount. The latest MacBook packs a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, an A18 Pro chip, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and up to 16 hours of battery life, all for under $600, which is fantastic value. Discounts have been better in the past, but I think these will be rarer to see over the coming months and this price likely won't be beaten over Black Friday.View Deal

Display - 14 inches
Processor - Snapdragon X
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB

This is a solid discount on a modern laptop powered by one of the efficient Snapdragon X CPUs. As well as excellent levels of all-around performance, this device boasts a huge all-day battery life, so you won't need to worry about being attached to a charger at all times. There's even 512GB of SSD storage, which you don't often see in combination with those other strong performance components at this price point. This is an all-around excellent laptop for everyday, college and business use.View Deal

Display - 13.4 inches
Processor - Intel Core 5
RAM - 8GB
Storage - 512GB

The Dell XPS 13 has regularly been one of our favorite laptops here at TechRadar, and this brand-new version continues that trend. With an Intel Core 5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, it has everything you need for solid all-around performance at work or college. Students can also save an extra $100, bringing the price down to a ridiculously low $599.99.View Deal

Display - 14 inches
Processor - Intel Core Ultra 5
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB

Here's one of the best deals on a modern, all-purpose, and well-rated laptop in Dell's latest sale. You can now get $550 off this machine, which features a powerful Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, a healthy 16GB of RAM, and a decent 512GB SSD. With all of those components, you'll have no issues with all of your everyday computing and work needs. And at 14 inches, it's an easily portable device, too. Altogether, it's an excellent value all-around option and a laptop we scored 4.5/5 in our review.View Deal

Display - 16 inches
Processor - Intel Core Ultra 7
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB

One of Samsung's latest premium laptops just got its biggest discount yet at Best Buy. While similarly powered devices can be picked up for less, you do get a gorgeous 16-inch LED screen with smooth and responsive 120Hz support with this Galaxy Book6. It's powerful elsewhere, too, with an excellent battery life of up to 24 hours, making it a great pick for college, work, and productivity needs.View Deal

• Trump says data centers are good for communities, creating jobs and funding their own power/water
• New York State just banned large projects for a year to focus on developing new guidance
• Trump worries ongoing bans could cause the US to lose out in the global AI race

US President Donald Trump has criticized New York Governor Kathy Hochul's recent executive order to introduce a year-long, statewide ban on hyperscale data centers, urging the state to change its stance "immediately."

In a post on Truth Social, Trump characterized data centers as "money machines" that create taxes and jobs comparable to "liquid gold," implying not only are they crucial for cloud computing and AI, but also for the country's economy.

Though states like "Alabama, Florida, Texas, Arizona" and others could now see more projects being relocated amid ongoing moratoriums, Trump worries about the implications of this "terrible decision."

Trump hits back at New York State moratorium

The executive order, signed by Governor Hochul on July 14 2026, makes New York the first US state to impose a statewide moratorium on new data centers – in this case, those requiring 50MW+ of power.

Despite mounting local opposition for data center buildouts across the US, and indeed the world, Trump argues they're "tremendous wins for the states and communities that are lucky enough to get them," being that they create jobs and are responsible for "their own water and power."

It's important to note that the year-long ban for New York State is exactly that – a temporary ban designed to buy the state enough time to consider environmental and social impacts, and to rewrite legislation and guidance accordingly.

Urging Governor Hochul to "change its policy, immediately," Trump argues that ongoing moratoriums like these could cause the US to lose to "China, and other countries" in what's playing out to be a global AI race.

In my eyes, Diane Morgan is a comedy genius that can never do wrong — and I will willingly lap up every single morsel of comedy TV that she gives me.

We've already known her for unmissable shows such as Mandy, Cunk On..., Motherland and After Life, alongside appearances on the likes of Last One Laughing and Mock the Week. Now, she's offering up something different in the form of new BBC iPlayer comedy, Ann Droid.

Morgan plays Linda, a secondhand AnnDroid Z58/100 Basic Eldercare Robot gifted to widow Sue (Sue Johnston) by her son Michael (Kevin Ready). Basically, it's like Channel 4's Humans meets a Royale Family and Motherland reunion that we weren't expecting.

It's as touching as it is funny, and fans have already given Morgan's character the nickname "Philomena Clank." It's an unlikely friendship that I'm incredibly here for, put it that way.

With Ann Droid episodes arriving on the streamer from July 17, I can't help but be annoyed with the abundance of hilarious comedy already on the platform that nobody seems to be talking about.

You'll no doubt binge the new Diane Morgan series in the blink of an eye, so stay on iPlayer for these three underrated comedy gems once you're done.

Funboys

Our first pick comes from the Northern Irish contingent of comedy, which in my opinion has been grossly overlooked (seriously, tell me if you've ever heard of this show before...).

In short, we follow three young, socially awkward men — Callum (Ryan Dylan), Jordan (Rian Lennon), and Lorcan (Lee R James) — as they navigate adulthood, romance, and friendship in rural Ballymacnoose.

No, Ballymacnoose is not a real place, but that doesn't stop Funboys being both fearless and beautiful, and having humor. A heart-warming ensemble, think of antics that fall somewhere between This Country and The Inbetweeners.

Smoggie Queens

On the complete other end of the comedy spectrum is Smoggie Queens, which, like Funboys, has just released its second season. Creator Phil Dunning plays Dickie, who leads a rag-tag gang of LGBTQ+ Middlesbrough natives in their local town.

From full-on drag shows courtesy of mothering queen Mam (Mark Benton) to an unexpected guest cameo from Drag Race judge Michelle Visage as Dickie's work colleague, Smoggie Queens is outrageous from start to finish. Bold, brash and always on point with its cultural references, it holds space for somewhere you can feel safe and seen.

If that isn't enough, season 2 cast Monica Dolan as Mam's ex, and there isn't a TV show on Earth that couldn't benefit from adding Dolan to its cast.

Things You Should Have Done

If you've seen Chi with a C on YouTube and TikTok, you might recognize Lucia Keskin's main character in Things You Should Have Done.

In this full-format version, stay-at-home daughter Chi is suddenly forced to fend for herself when her parents die in a car crash. She learns she will only inherit the house on the condition that she completes a list of 'Things You Should Have Done' left in her parents' will.

From there, chaos ensues. Again, we've got multiple seasons to stream here, and I think casting Bridget Christie as Ruth in season 2 was a particular stroke of genius. Much like Ann Droid, we're balancing grief and laughs here, but the careful tightrope is walked incredibly well.

• The FCC might ban anonymous phones
• This would mean the end of burner phones
• While this could help prevent certain crimes, it may also harm a lot of innocent people who require anonymity or lack the required ID or housing

It’s increasingly hard to be anonymous in the modern world — and in the US it might be about to get even harder, as burner phones could soon be effectively banned.

As reported by Fortune, a new FCC (Federal Communications Commission) proposal would require carriers and VoIP providers to collect various details from a customer, including their name, address, government-issued ID number, and an alternate phone number, before activating or renewing service.

Aside from the odd requirement to have a phone number before you can get a phone number — something which might prove challenging for anyone getting their first phone — this would effectively mean the end of anonymous prepaid phones, commonly known as burner phones.

That’s probably a bad thing, as while these might be associated with crime — with the FCC stating that this change could help them investigate “fraud, espionage, or influence operations that undermine national security” — there are also plenty of legal reasons people might want a burner.

Burner phones are usually cheap secondary or temporary handsets (Image credit: Future)Bad for privacy and dangerous for victims

(Image credit: Emir Memedovski / Getty Images)

As pointed out in a joint filing made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union: “This proposal would also prevent people from getting an anonymous phone line for safety reasons, such as a person in a domestic violence situation who does not have control over her personal phone line and needs to call a shelter, or a teenager being coerced by human traffickers who just wants to call for help.”

They further described this proposal as “a data collection regime that harms everyday, law abiding Americans”, while Sydney Saubestre, a senior policy analyst on the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, called it “misguided and counterproductive,” adding that “Americans should not have to sacrifice their privacy because the Commission hasn’t exhausted more targeted alternatives to stop robocalls.”

And it’s not just victims of domestic violence and human trafficking that may suffer due to this. It’s estimated that roughly 15 million adult US citizens don't have a driver’s license and that 2.6 million have no government-issued photo ID, while unhoused people will struggle with the requirement to provide an address.

On top of which, anyone who values privacy may also take issue with this, especially as customer accounts from phone companies have previously been hacked, revealing the data tied to them.

Many commenters on Reddit also worry about the US turning ever more into a surveillance state with rules like this, with popular comments including “tightening the grip of the police state. Bringing the Orwellian world into reality," "they care less about criminals and more about surveilling everyone,” and “gotta track em all!”

So it’s safe to say that this proposal isn’t popular, and could end up doing more harm than good. Hopefully, that might mean the FCC seeing sense and deciding against it.

• The Blood of Dawnwalker director, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, says a delayed next-generation would be beneficial for Rebel Wolves
• Tomaszkiewicz says it's "easier" to work with the current generation and PC
• He says two more builds would multiply "the amount of work you need to do"

The Blood of Dawnwalker director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz isn't worried about the impact of what a delayed next-gen could mean for Rebel Wolves because working on the current-gen consoles is "easier."

It's unclear when the next-generation hardware will launch. Rumors suggest that the PS6 could launch as late as 2028, which would make it eight years between the start of the current generation, with Project Helix, the next Xbox console, also eyeing a 2028 release.

With console prices increasing due to manufacturing costs, not to mention the RAM shortages caused by a rise in AI data centers, there's a chance the next-gen consoles will be highly expensive.

While Sony and Microsoft have yet to reveal how much their new hardware will cost, a delay in the next generation could be on the table as the companies wait for things to settle down and for consoles to become affordable again.

This would also mean studios won't have access to next-gen tech for quite some time to develop their games, which would force them to stick with current-gen.

However, for The Blood of the Dawnwalker studio, Rebel Wolves, this would actually be beneficial to the development team.

The Blood of the Dawnwalker is the first installment in Rebel Wolves' dark-fantasy role-playing game (RPG) series, launching later this year, and has already teased a sequel set in a modern timeline.

When asked by Eurogamer whether the next console generation being delayed would be an issue for the studio and the future of the game series, the director said, "It doesn't at all."

"To be honest, it's even better for us," Tomaszkiewicz explained, "Because when you have the game, and you know the systems and the features adjusted to these particular consoles, you know what you need to do. Always, a new platform is a new challenge: you need to learn it, you need to know what are your borders, what you can do, what you cannot do. And also, it's an additional build you need to create that you need to take care of later."

The director continued, saying that since The Blood of the Dawnwalker has four builds - PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and two PC builds, it's already a ton of work for testers, so another console generation to work with would be another challenge.

"Let's say we have four builds, and later on you want to deliver a patch for the players. You need to be sure that these changes work on the Xbox, on the PlayStation, PC one, and PC two," Tomaskiewicz said.

"When you have next-gen, you're adding an additional two builds, and it multiplies the amount of work you need to do. It sounds easy but you need to know that there is a group of testers who need to test every platform separately - not only this particular change but whether the whole game has no blockers, if you can finish it from the beginning to the end, and so on and so on.

"It's a huge effort, to be honest, and if we work on the consoles we have right now, it's easier, because we know how many builds we have and it's easier to manage."

The Blood of Dawnwalker launches on September 3.

• Linus Torvalds asserts Linux developers can make their own mind up about using AI
• Anti-AI developers can "fork it" and go elsewhere, he says
• AI should be used to help developers, Torvalds emphasises

Linux creator Linus Torvalds has ultimately concluded that, while developers won't be discouraged from using AI tools to help with their coding needs, artificial intelligence shall not be mandatory and nobody is being forced to use it.

"Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it," he said in a kernel mailing list update.

Torvalds himself doesn't actively advocate either way, acknowledging that the tech is more of a tool than an ideology and that proven use cases have helped solidify its uses, despite questionable economics, environmental impacts and long-term consequences.

Torvalds tells AI haters to "fork it"

Torvalds added that he also knows that AI can create serious issues for maintainers, with AI-assisted submissions increasing workloads, producing noise and potential duplication, and generally adding more workload for humans.

Speaking about AI's role in developer workflows, Torvalds criticized some for burying their heads in the sand and ignoring its impact. "The solution is to make sure those LLM tools _help_ maintainers instead of just causing them pain," he stressed.

In his message, Torvalds also rejected perfection as the standard, admitting that "natural intelligence" can be just as prone to mistakes as artificial intelligence.

The open-source project, then, is not a "some kind of 'social warrior' project" used to debate the relevance of artificial intelligence, with Torvalds welcoming all manner of viewpoints and contributions from developers regardless of whether they use AI assistance.

"The kernel project has been and will continue to be about the technology," he concluded.

Shadow AI is a security issue. When employees use unsanctioned AI tools without formal oversight, sensitive information can end up in platforms the business has not approved, monitored or secured.

The risks around data protection, compliance and governance are real, and organizations are right to take them seriously.

But if we view shadow AI only through a security lens, we risk treating the symptom rather than the cause.

Most employees are not deliberately trying to bypass policies or create risk.

In most cases, they are trying to solve a problem quickly and move their work forward. When approved tools are slow, difficult to access, limited in functionality or unclear to use, people naturally look for alternatives that help them get the job done.

That means shadow AI is not just a security challenge. It is also a signal that workplace technology is failing to meet employee needs.

For organizations, the lesson is clear: reducing shadow AI requires more than stronger controls. It requires providing employees with secure, accessible tools that are capable of supporting the way work actually happens.

When approved tools are not enough

Many organizations still frame unsanctioned AI use as a failure of employee behavior. From that perspective, the answer seems simple: issue stricter policies, block more tools and remind people of the risks.

This may reduce some exposure in the short term, but it rarely solves the underlying problem. Employees turn to AI tools because they offer speed, convenience and support with tasks that official systems may not handle well.

The challenge is not only that employees are using the wrong tools. It is that the approved route may not feel practical enough to use.

That distinction matters. If the official process is too slow, people may bypass it. If the guidance is too vague, teams may make their own decisions. If approved tools do not meet real business needs, unofficial ones will fill the gap.

Shadow AI is therefore not just a sign of poor compliance, but can also be a signal of underlying friction.

Digital friction creates hidden risk

Digital friction refers to the everyday technology barriers that make it harder for employees to do their jobs efficiently. It might be a login process that takes too long, a blocked platform that prevents a simple task, an approval workflow that slows a project or a sanctioned tool that lacks the functionality employees need.

Individually, these problems may seem minor. Together, they shape how employees behave.

When workplace technology makes work harder, employees become more likely to find their own solutions. Research has found that 80% of employees lose time to dysfunctional IT, costing them an average of 1.3 workdays per month. Almost half also say it has delayed critical operations or projects.

The risk is not only lost productivity. Digital friction can also weaken trust in approved systems, pushing work into less visible environments where security teams have less oversight.

This is why blocking tools without addressing employee needs can backfire. It may push behavior further out of sight rather than bringing it under control.

Security cannot succeed if it competes with productivity

For years, security has often been seen by employees as something that interrupts work.

Password resets, access requests, approval chains and tool restrictions all exist for valid reasons, but they can still feel like barriers when they are poorly designed.

The same is true for AI governance. A policy that simply says which tools cannot be used is unlikely to be enough. Employees need practical guidance on what they can use, what information can be entered and where to go when they are unsure.

The secure route has to be clear enough to follow and useful enough to choose.

This does not mean weakening security. It means designing security around how work actually happens. The strongest controls are often the ones that employees can follow without feeling they are being forced to choose between protection and productivity.

Authentication is a useful example. Passwords have long been a source of frustration for employees and a known weakness for organizations. Approaches such as zero trust and biometric authentication can strengthen protection while improving the user experience.

The principle is simple: good security should reduce risk without adding unnecessary friction.

AI governance needs an owner

One reason shadow AI can grow quickly is that responsibility is often unclear.

AI tools can enter an organisation through different teams for different reasons. A small experiment in one department can become part of a core workflow before anyone has assessed the risk, agreed ownership or defined the rules.

As adoption grows, that governance gap becomes harder to ignore. This is especially true when employees are already questioning whether official routes can keep pace. Research has found that 62% of employees lack confidence that their IT teams are providing the latest AI and digital tools, while 57% do not trust their IT team to resolve issues quickly or effectively and 47% fear their IT team will not adequately protect personal or work-related data.

Security teams have an important role to play, but they cannot solve this alone. AI governance needs input from IT, legal, compliance, HR and leaders across the whole organisation. It must become a core part of the organization's operating model rather than a standalone policy.

That means establishing clear ownership for how AI is introduced, used and governed across the organization. It also means recognizing that governance is not only about stopping unsafe behavior. It is about enabling safe behaviorat scale.

Human oversight remains essential. AI can process information quickly, but it does not understand every business context, regulatory requirement or reputational consequence. People still need to challenge outputs and take responsibility for decisions that carry real-world impact.

Employees need guidance they can actually use

AI policies often fail because they are too abstract. Employees may be told to avoid sharing sensitive data and use approved tools, but that doesn't always help in the moment.

A team under pressure needs practical answers. Can this document be uploaded? Can this customer query be summarized? Can this dataset be analyzed? Which tool is approved for this task? Who should be asked if the answer is unclear?

Guidance needs to be specific, accessible and easy to apply during the working day. If employees have to search through long policy documents or wait days for an answer, they may default to the fastest available option.

This is where trust becomes critical. Employees are more likely to follow security guidance when they believe approved systems will help them do their jobs effectively. If they see official processes as slow, restrictive or disconnected from reality, they are more likely to look elsewhere.

Trust also depends on transparency. People need to understand why certain tools are restricted, how data is protected and what the approved route is designed to achieve. A policy that simply says “do not use this tool” does not build confidence. It creates a rule. Rules matter, but they work best when employees understand the reason behind them.

Security-by-design must apply to the workplace

Security-by-design is often discussed in relation to products and software development, but the same principle should apply to the digital workplace.

Too often, security is bolted on after a tool or process has already been adopted. By that point, controls can feel like an extra layer rather than a natural part of the workflow. Bringing security into the conversation earlier helps organizations identify risk before behaviors become embedded.

For AI, this means involving security, IT and governance teams before tools are rolled out widely. It also means listening to employees about what they need from those tools.

If approved AI systems are too limited, employees will work around them. If the access process is too slow, adoption will fragment. If guidance is unclear, teams will interpret the rules differently.

Understanding those pressures is central to reducing risk.

The easiest path should be the secure one

Shadow AI shows that workplace systems are struggling to keep pace with how work is changing. When employees turn to unsanctioned tools, it often points to a gap between what people need to do their jobs and what approved systems allow them to do.

The organizations that respond well will not be those that only add stricter controls. They will be those that make secure behavior easier to adopt than unsafe workarounds.

That requires clear ownership, practical tools, accessible guidance and security processes designed around real workflows.

In the age of AI, reducing risk means giving employees secure routes that are practical enough to use. When the approved path is also the easiest path, businesses can protect data without slowing people down.

We've reviewed and ranked the best password managers.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

• Palit has launched a new RTX 3060 model with 12GB of VRAM
• This continues a recent theme of old GPUs being resurrected
• These GPUs may pack 12GB of video RAM at a relatively affordable price, but they don't make sense compared to current-gen pricing

We might not have seen any new graphics cards so far from Nvidia this year — and no RTX 5000 Super refreshes are in sight (although there are rumors again) — but we're continuing to witness the resurrection of some old GeForce GPUs, with Palit officially revealing a new RTX 3060.

That popular workhorse of a gaming GPU has already made something of a comeback, returning to the shelves of retailers like Newegg as an alternative budget graphics card in a RAM-starved climate where prices of many of these current-gen boards are being hiked up (alongside other PC components, of course).

As flagged by VideoCardz, Palit has trumpeted the launch of its new GeForce RTX 3060 Infinity 2 OC graphics card as "the return of a classic", which is certainly one way of putting it.

Although to be fair, even today, the RTX 3060 remains a very popular GPU, ranking second on the Steam hardware survey for June 2026 (behind only the RTX 4060 laptop GPU in a rather bizarre twist I won't get into here).

Palit observes: "Combining a massive 12GB GDDR6 memory capacity with a clean, all-black dual-fan shroud, the Infinity 2 delivers honest, dependable performance without the premium price tag."

Analysis: let's hope for a Palit-able price tag, but so far, RTX 3060 pricing has been out of whack

(Image credit: Palit)

The key selling point for these RTX 3060 models is that they're loaded with 12GB of video RAM (VRAM), as Palit emphasizes with this new Infinity 2 OC model. Where this is side-stepping the RAM crisis (to some extent) is that these past-gen Nvidia cards use GDDR6 VRAM, a different memory supply to tap than the GDDR7 used in RTX 5000 graphics cards (except the RTX 5050, which goes with GDDR6, but that's the outlier here).

This means Nvidia can get its partners to produce graphics cards that have 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM (a loadout a good few gamers put a priority on securing), but sit at the cheaper end of the market. Due to cost issues, these days it's a lot less tenable to sell lower-end GPUs which stack up the GDDR7 VRAM (like the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB).

It's sad that the RAM crisis has forced us to this point, but that's the reality of the GPU world at the moment. What's also problematic for me here is that the RTX 3060 might have 12GB of VRAM at a relatively affordable price point, but looking at current pricing in the US as an example, it's not meaningfully cheaper than the RTX 5060 with 8GB.

Yes, you're getting a lean RAM configuration with the latter current-gen graphics card, but it's still a much faster GPU — one that benefits from DLSS 4, too — and only just over 5% more expensive (at the time of writing). At this kind of price differential, the RTX 3060 12GB doesn't make a lot of sense.

If these RTX 3060 models were a lot cheaper, then there might be more of an argument. To be fair to Palit, we don't have a price tag on this new offering yet, but pricing needs to be a lot more compelling than what I'm seeing right now (especially in the UK, where the RTX 5060 8GB is actually cheaper than the 3060 at some retailers, although there isn't much stock of the latter).