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• A hacker has allegedly listed 20 million OpenAI logins for sale
• However the origins of these credentials are disputed
• OpenAI says its investigation has found no evidence of a compromise

A hacker claims to be selling the login credentials of 20 million OpenAI users accounts - but the company says its own investigation has found no evidence of a hack.

A report from Malwarebytes Labs discovered a cybercriminal who goes by the name ‘emirking’ had listed a dataset for sale on a cybercrime forum claiming to contain, ‘20 million access codes to OpenAI accounts’.

OpenAI responded, stating, “We take these claims seriously. We have not seen any evidence that this is connected to a compromise of OpenAI systems to date.” Breaches like these can have catastrophic consequences for both the company and the users, but there are a few red flags that point to this incident being less than genuine, here’s what we know.

An unlikely story?

In Malwarebytes Lab’s initial report, there was some doubt cast over the origins of the information, with the report outlining

“It seems unlikely that such a large amount of credentials could be harvested in phishing operations against users, so if the claim is true, emirking may have found a way to compromise the auth0.openai.com subdomain by exploiting a vulnerability or by obtaining administrator credentials.”

The report also pointed out that the cybercriminal allegedly responsible for the leak was a relatively new user of the forums - which wouldn’t mean much on its own, but KELA cybersecurity also assessed the available data, and concluded the credentials were obtained via infostealer malware.

The analyzed sample by KELA showed the compromised logins related to OpenAI services, and contained authentication details to ‘auth0.openai.com’.

The security researchers then cross-referenced these details with its own data lake of "compromised accounts obtained from infostealer malware, which contains more than a billion records, including over 4 million bots collected in 2024."

“All credentials from the sample shared by the actor ‘emirking’ were found to originate in these compromised accounts, likely hinting at the source of the full 20 million OpenAI accounts that the actor intends to sell,” the security company confirmed.

Ultimately, the investigation concluded, "the majority of compromised credentials of OpenAI services offered for sale on BreachForums by emirking are not related to a breach of OpenaAI systems."

The credentials were deemed to be a part of a larger dataset "scraped from a mix of private and public sources that sell and share infostealer logs" - not from an unreported compromise.

Staying safe

No matter how the leaked credentials were acquired, anyone who has had their details leaked is at risk. The primary danger with this incident is social engineering attacks and identity theft.

Because many users of AI chatbots will (sometimes unwittingly) hand over personal information, anyone with access to their accounts could use the compromised email address to engineer personal and specific phishing attacks designed to steal even more information.

Just asking a chatbot for restaurant recommendations in your city, advice on budgeting, or work-specific questions or summaries can give attackers all the information they need to craft a convincing way to reach out pretending to be a colleague, trusted company, friend, or family member.

Being vigilant is the most effective way to combat this. Don’t give out any information to an unknown person or unexpected contact that you haven’t thoroughly vetted first, and make sure not to click any links you don’t 100% trust.

Make sure to also create a strong and secure password, and it's important that you do not reuse passwords from one site to another - this helps by quarantining any account that has been breached.

It’s a similar process when mitigating the risk of identity theft. Keeping an eye on your accounts, statements, and bills to make sure there’s nothing you don’t recognize, and let your bank know immediately if there is anything suspicious.

We’ve also listed some software which can essentially do the work for you, monitoring your credit files, warning about suspicious activity, and alerting you if any personal information is used (such as new bank accounts being opened in your name). Some even offer identity recovery and insurance policies up to $1 million, so check out our picks for best identity theft protection for families if you’re concerned about your information.

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Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Tuesday, February 11 (game #1114).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1115) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1115) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.

Quordle today (game #1115) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1115) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1115) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• G

• P

• S

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1115) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1115, are…

• SHOOK
• GRADE
• POLAR
• SEEDY

A mixed bag for me. I got extremely lucky with one common word combination (there are 143 words that begin with S and end in Y, according to Merriam-Webster) and unlucky with another, guessing Scoop and Swoon before I finally got SHOOK.

For GRADE, I guessed that the word ended RADE and with T already used there was only one option left.

Too close for comfort, but still an enjoyable victory.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1115) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1115, are…

• DOZEN
• PIXEL
• GLEAN
• EATER

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1114, Tuesday 11 February: HEAVY, CIRCA, PESKY, SCION
• Quordle #1113, Monday 10 February: TWIXT, FRESH, GUISE, TABBY
• Quordle #1112, Sunday 9 February: TAPIR, SHAKE, TOKEN, SEVEN
• Quordle #1111, Saturday 8 February: AFOOT, ALIKE, HUMUS, TOWEL
• Quordle #1110, Friday 7 February: PETAL, ABASE, AMONG, CORER
• Quordle #1109, Thursday 6 February: MADAM, SCAMP, FAUNA, TRACK
• Quordle #1108, Wednesday 5 February: SIXTH, VERVE, BLURB, CACTI
• Quordle #1107, Tuesday 4 February: BIRTH, DRAWN, MILKY, JOIST
• Quordle #1106, Monday 3 February: SLEET, TENSE, SEIZE, SCAMP
• Quordle #1105, Sunday 2 February: LOUSY, PENNE, CHUMP, SALVE
• Quordle #1104, Saturday 1 February: FACET, BLISS, FLUFF, FRANK
• Quordle #1103, Friday 31 January: PARER, SYNOD, BRAWN, BANJO
• Quordle #1102, Thursday 30 January: WEEDY, CHIRP, STALE, SUGAR
• Quordle #1101, Wednesday 29 January: CROWN, SCENE, AGILE, CRANK
• Quordle #1100, Tuesday 28 January: TOKEN, DAISY, INANE, PLIED
• Quordle #1099, Monday 27 January: ANGEL, GLOBE, MAYOR, BRAVE
• Quordle #1098, Sunday 26 January: WATER, ORBIT, BRIDE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1097, Saturday 25 January: GIVER, GROOM, GUSTO, MAKER
• Quordle #1096, Friday 24 January: GRIND, STOCK, SERVE, TOUCH
• Quordle #1095, Thursday 23 January: RUGBY, SASSY, WORRY, BANAL

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, February 11 (game #611).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #612) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• SHAKESPEARE 
• RATTLESNAKE
• ANDROID
• ROLLERBLADE
• SONG
• TITLE
• SKATEBOARD
• SKETCH
• DONUT
• DANCE
• DEED
• SAXOPHONE
• CERTIFICATE
• MONOLOGUE
• PACIFIER
• RECEIPT

NYT Connections today (game #612) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Official paperwork
• GREEN: Types of performance 
• BLUE: Homer, Bart, Lisa and Maggie
• PURPLE: Start of words make a rock song

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #612) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: DOCUMENTS OF OWNERSHIP 
• GREEN: BITS IN A VARIETY SHOW 
• BLUE: PROPS FOR CHARACTERS ON "THE SIMPSONS" 
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH "SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL" 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #612) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #612, are…

• YELLOW: DOCUMENTS OF OWNERSHIP CERTIFICATE, DEED, RECEIPT, TITLE
• GREEN: BITS IN A VARIETY SHOW DANCE, MONOLOGUE, SKETCH, SONG
• BLUE: PROPS FOR CHARACTERS ON "THE SIMPSONS" DONUT, PACIFIER, SAXOPHONE, SKATEBOARD
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH "SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL" ANDROID, RATTLESNAKE, ROLLERBLADE, SHAKESPEARE

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 2 mistakes

The appearance of the words SKATEBOARD and ROLLERBLADE took me on a mental detour, thinking that four of the words were describing skating tricks. DONUT must be a trick, I thought, and RATTLESNAKE sounds like it could be too, and well SAXOPHONE could be riding through a pipe or something. You may be able to tell, my skating knowledge is zero.

Meditating on the word DONUT finally got me to the last two groups. Think of donuts for long enough and it It’s hard not to think of Homer Simpson and his love of a pink glazed ring. The other three PROPS all appear in the still-brilliant opening titles.

Meanwhile, STARTING WITH “SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL” was a lovely piece of word trickery. Well done, Connections, and to all who got that one in the top three tiers.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, 11 February, game #611)

• YELLOW: WREST JERK, TUG, WRENCH, YANK
• GREEN: BUSTER BUB, BUD, JACK, MAN
• BLUE: YOGA ACCESSORIES BLOCK, BOLSTER, MAT, STRAP
• PURPLE: _ CAP HUB, KNEE, MAD, NIGHT

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, February 11 (game #345).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #346) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Don't stop believin'

NYT Strands today (game #346) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• TALL
• LOSE
• HIND
• ROLL
• DINE
• LION

NYT Strands today (game #346) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Well-traveled rock group

NYT Strands today (game #346) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: right, 4th row

Last side: left, 7th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #346) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #346, are…

• TRAIN
• TOOK
• GIRL
• TOWN
• SMALL
• LONELY
• WORLD
• MIDNIGHT
• SPANGRAM: JOURNEY

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 1 hint

Today’s Strands included keywords from the Journey classic Don’t Stop Believin.

“Just a SMALL TOWN GIRL/ Livin' in a LONELY WORLD/ She TOOK the MIDNIGHT TRAIN going anywhere”.

It’s one of those songs that has had multiple lives beyond its original release in 1981 – used by Chicago White Sox during the 2005 World Series, as the closing music to the final episode of The Sopranos, sung by the cast of Glee, Peter Griffin’s karaoke song in Family Guy, as the title of Olivia Newton-John’s biography…

The song has become a motivational anthem, but aside from the chorus many questions remain – such as what small town was this small town girl catching a midnight train from exactly? If it had a midnight train, it’s more likely it was a city. And presumably having bought a ticket she would surely know where it was going.

Meanwhile, as for the city boy from South Detroit also getting the train to anywhere – there is no area called South Detroit, so no wonder he’s confused and just climbing on random trains. Journey, we need answers.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, 11 February, game #345)

• GARDEN
• BEAUTY
• HOME
• BATH
• KITCHEN
• TOYS
• ELECTRONICS
• SPANGRAM: BIG BOX

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

• The Jura J10 is a new coffee machine with 42 hot and cold drink options
• Its cold extraction process pulses water slowly through fresh ground coffee
• It can also infuse your coffee drinks with flavored syrups

Jura has launched a new bean-to-cup coffee machine, the Jura J10, which can brew 42 different hot or cold drinks and can even add flavored syrup to recreate your most complicated coffee shop orders.

This isn't Jura's first cold brew coffee maker – the Jura Z10, which we reviewed back in 2023, also offered a choice of chilled options – but the J10 does things a little differently. The new machine has an updated cold extraction process that pulses water slowly through freshly ground beans under high pressure for a more rounded flavor.

If you want even more flavor, the J10's Sweet Foam system can infuse milk foam with your preferred type and quantity of syrup. The iced vanilla latte of your dreams is only a few touchscreen taps away.

The J10's grinder has a feature called Aroma Control, which actively monitors the size of the grind for consistency and can be adjusted manually at any time to tweak the speed at which water permeates the coffee. Like the KitchenAid Fully Automatic Espresso Machine K8, the J10 also has a chute for ground coffee, meaning you can try a different bean or blend without emptying the hopper.

(Image credit: Jura) Your home barista

The J10 also offers a new feature called Coffee Eye, which detects whether you've placed your cup under the central coffee spout or the cappuccino spout and helps you position it correctly to avoid accidental spillage (something that's all too easy with even the best coffee makers).

There's a one-touch milk cleaning function to keep the lines clean and hygienic, and on-screen instructions guide you through every step of the coffee-making and maintenance process.

The Jura J10 has a list price of £1,795 (about $2,200 / AU$3,500), which puts it firmly in at the premium end of the spectrum when it comes to bean-to-cup coffee machines but is far less than the Jura Z10, which sold for $3,999 / £2,450 / AU$4,650 when it launched. We'll be testing the J10 soon, so stick with TechRadar to see how well it recreates the coffee shop experience at home.

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• Compact and powerful, Planck SSD offers 1,050 MB/s transfer speeds
• USB-C hub enables dual SSD use and external monitor support
• Direct-to-SSD recording eliminates dropped frames in 4K ProRes footage

ShiftCam has announced the Planck SSD, a mini external storage solution for business smartphones and business laptops, connecting via USB-C and offering up to 2TB of storage.

The Planck SSD is powered by NVMe technology, enabling read and write speeds of up to 1,050 MB/s and a transfer speed of up to 10Gbps. This level of performance supports, for instance, direct-to-SSD recording for Apple’s 4K ProRes video at 60 or 120 frames per second without dropped frames.

Given such videos at 120fps consume around 264GB for just ten minutes of footage, this external storage solution is essential for those working with high-resolution content in video editing software.

Durable and reliable for any environment

The name "Planck" is inspired by the scientific term associated with incredibly small quantities in physics; the SSD's minimal form factor should mean that it can also accommodate a gimbal used for stabilized video records.

Despite its compact size, the company claims the Planck SSD will have IP65 dust/water resistance and be drop-proof up to three meters, making it ideal for outdoor shoots.

It also supports a USB-C hub that allows two Planck SSDs to be used simultaneously. This hub also includes an HDMI port, enabling users to connect an external monitor for direct media playback.

Per Shiftcam, the suggested retail prices for the Planck are expected to be $129 for 1TB and $199 for 2TB, with the launch expected in Spring 2025.

ShiftCam’s CEO Benson Chiu said in a press statement, “[its] mission with Planck is to eliminate the barriers of traditional storage and empower creators to focus on their craft. We’ve designed a tool that’s so portable and powerful, it becomes an invisible yet essential part of any creators workflow.”

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• Figures show Google’s search dominance remains largely unchallenged, 24 times bigger than its closest rival
• Microsoft's AI-powered search gains traction, but global market shifts remain minimal
• Elsewhere, Perplexity.ai continues to play catchup to ChatGPT

Google has dominated search for years, generating the vast majority of organic traffic worldwide - but while its grip remains firm, new data suggests that cracks are beginning to form.

A new Seranking report crowning 2024's top search engine claims Google saw a 0.91% decrease in its global market share - however, it still drives nearly 95% of all organic search traffic, and no other platform comes close.

Bing, the second-largest search engine, also saw a 0.17% increase, bringing its total share to just 3.51% while DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and other search tools remain below 1%.

AI integration threat?

The report further reveals AI-driven platforms such as ChatGPT and Perplexity sparked interest in 2024, particularly in the latter half of the year. ChatGPT’s referral traffic rose from negligible levels to 0.09% by December, while Perplexity experienced steady but slower growth, reaching 0.02%.

These numbers suggest AI-driven search platforms are gaining ground, but at nowhere near the scale of Google. Even if AI search adoption accelerates, it would take years before it could significantly challenge the traditional model.

Microsoft's Bing has also integrated AI tools into its search experience, hoping to draw users away from Google. However, its incremental growth shows that AI alone is not enough to disrupt established habits.

While other brands are integrating AI to fight against Google, the tech giant is not folding its arms. It has rolled out AI-driven features like AI Overviews and Gemini 2.0, which have helped it maintain its edge.

These advancements, coupled with its vast infrastructure and user trust, ensure that Google remains the go-to search engine for the foreseeable future.

Although AI-generated responses provide a new way to access information, they do not fully replace traditional search. For now, Google remains unshaken at 24 times the size of its nearest rival.

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• You can now search through your chat history with ChatGPT on the web

Sony looks set to launch new headphones (likely the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones) according to two recent product filings with the US' FCC and Singapore's IMDA.

While the device isn't called the XM6 explicitly in either filing – instead, both filings label it the equally easy-to-remember YY2984 – the device looks an awful lot like an updated Sony WH-1000XM5, and the few details the filings share suggest it is indeed a new entry in Sony's flagship headphones line.

We say few details because short-term confidentiality agreements prevent these regulatory agencies from sharing all but the most basic specs info and a few diagrams of the upcoming products. That means we’re still in the dark on many specifics and won’t have a clearer picture until Sony shows it off officially.

Saying that, from what little info we do have, we can start to paint a picture of what the XM6s could be capable of and when we might get to try them out for ourselves.

What do we know about Sony's new headphones? 1. The release date could be close

While none of the filings tease a precise release date for the new Sony headphones, they do at least suggest we won’t be waiting much longer to try these cans out for ourselves. That’s because the confidentiality of the FCC’s filing is set to expire in July this year, at which point more precise specifics on the device would be revealed to the public and spoil any surprise Sony has in store.

As such, we expect the new headphones will land sometime before then in the first half of 2025. Previous headphones from Sony have launched months ahead of this expiration date, so we could be on track for an April or May release. However, your guess is as good as ours when it comes to nailing things down further.

How much of an upgrade will the new cans be over the XM5s? (Image credit: Future) 2. Fast charging and Bluetooth 5.3

Because of confidentiality, many specs are still a secret, but we have gleaned a few details from the filings. First is support for fast charging, as we’ve seen from Sony headphones before with a reference to 9V charging alongside 5V, though there’s no word on what capacity the battery has to help clue us into its runtime.

We have, however, seen the new headphones are set to get Bluetooth 5.3, a step up for from the 5.2 used in the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones, which should deliver a more stable and energy-efficient connection. While it might initially seem disappointing that the headphones don’t support the latest Bluetooth 5.4 standard, they are more aimed at commercial and smart home Internet of Things products. The advantages it offers wouldn’t do much for the XM6s, sonically speaking.

3. Possibly no driver change

This one is tough to judge, but as The Walkman Blog also suggests, the diagrams of the WH-1000XM6 appear to show a driver size unchanged from its predecessor—30mm. Compared to the 40mm drivers in the XM4s, the smaller hardware in the XM5s led to a more detailed and tighter sound, so while it’s likely not much will change audio-wise between the XM6 and what came before, that’s not necessarily going to be a bad thing.

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• Nvidia stays king of AI chips, buying millions of HBM from Samsung in 2026
• Google’s TPU push makes it Nvidia's closest rival for HBM
• Amazon, AMD, and Microsoft fight for scraps while Intel fades into obscurity

High-bandwidth memory is essential for AI and cloud computing, offering high-speed data transfer and efficiency for demanding workloads.

The HBM space is currently dominated by South Korean memory giant SK Hynix and its chief rival (and neighbor) Samsung, although other players, like Micron, are also looking to grow their share of the market.

Tech giants like Nvidia, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are among the biggest purchasers of HBM, and an internal Samsung roadmap spotted by ComputerBase provides a fascinating insight into their projected shopping lists for 2026.

Google in second place

As you would expect, AI darling Nvidia remains the top purchaser of HBM from Samsung, with demand expected to grow from 5.8 million units in 2024 to 11 million units by 2026.

This increase is fueled by Nvidia's expanding lineup of AI accelerators, as the H200, equipped with 144GB of HBM3, is projected to need 1.7 million units in 2026. The B200 and GB200, using 192GB of HBM3e (8hi), will require 3.15 million units. The B300 and GB300, with 288GB of HBM3e (12hi), are forecast to take 2.7 million units, while the GB300A, using 144GB of HBM3e (12hi), is estimated to take 1.8 million units. The R100, expected to sport 384GB of HBM4 (12hi), will need 1.5 million units.

Based on the roadmap, which ComputerBase says "probably dates from the beginning of 2024", so is therefore not fully up to date, Google is expected to become the second-largest buyer of HBM, driven by its investment in Tensor Processing Units (TPUs).

Google's total HBM demand is projected to grow from 2.4 million units in 2024 to 2.8 million units by 2026. TPU v7p alone is expected to require 1.7 million units in 2026. Alphabet has allocated $75 billion in capital expenditures this year, a portion of which will likely be spent on HBM procurement and AI infrastructure.

Amazon’s demand for HBM is also growing steadily, as the company’s Inferentia and Trainium chips are projected to need 1.3 million units of HBM by 2026. Trainium 3 alone is expected to require 900,000 units that year.

AMD is largely seen as Nvidia’s closest rival, but it trails far, far behind. The company’s total HBM demand is projected to reach 820,000 chips in 2026. The MI400, expected to launch in early 2026 with 384GB of HBM4 (12hi), will be responsible for 400,000 units that year.

While Microsoft integrates HBM3 in its Maia AI chips, its total HBM demand is expected to reach just 240,000 units in 2026, indicating that it remains a minor player in this space.

Intel is also struggling to compete. The roadmap shows that its Gaudi3 accelerator is losing traction, with chip demand declining from 128,000 units in 2025 to none currently forecast in 2026 (although bear in mind that might have changed since this roadmap was created).

Of course, these numbers only cover HBM supplied by Samsung. Factoring in memory supplied by SK Hynix and Micron could paint a different picture, albeit one in which Nividia is still comfortably the top purchaser of HBM.

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• ViewState code injection attacks can lead to remote code execution, Microsoft warned
• Many devs are not generating their own machine keys for ViewState
• There are thousands of publicly available keys cybercriminals can use

Cybercriminals are abusing a weakness in ASP.NET websites to remotely execute malicious code, according to Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence team, which has published an in-depth analysis on the new method.

In the article, Microsoft explained threat actors were injecting malicious code through a method called ViewState code injection attacks.

ViewState is a feature in ASP.NET websites that helps remember user input and page settings when the page is refreshed. It stores this information in a hidden part of the webpage so that when the user interacts with the page again, it can reload the saved data without losing anything.

Accepting malicious code

As it turns out, many developers are using machine keys (security codes designed to protect the website’s ViewState data) that they find online, rather than generating their own. These machine keys are intended to prevent tampering with ViewState, which tracks data on web pages as users interact with them.

However, if developers can find these keys, so can criminals. When they do, they can use them to inject harmful content into a website’s ViewState. Because the machine key is the same as the one the website expects, the server decrypts and processes the malicious code, allowing attackers to run their own commands on the server. This can lead to remote code execution, Microsoft warned.

The researchers found more than 3,000 publicly disclosed keys that can be used in these attacks. In some cases, the researchers added, developers might unknowingly push these public keys into their code, as well.

To prevent these attacks, Microsoft advises developers to generate their own machine keys, avoid using default or publicly available ones, and secure sensitive data by encrypting parts of their configuration files.

Upgrading to a newer version of ASP.NET is also recommended, as is using security features such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

Microsoft also provided instructions on how to remove or replace the insecure machine keys from the server's configuration files and removed examples of these keys from its public documentation to discourage the insecure practice.

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• Sony has seemingly removed a number of "spam" PS4 and PS5 games from the PS Store
• This follows recent comments made by developers criticizing the
  "slop" games featured on the digital storefront
• Developer RandomSpin has had most of its games removed, including Bodycam Shooter, Supermarket Simulator Pro, and more

It looks like Sony may have quietly removed a number of "spam" shovelware games from its PlayStation Store.

This comes after a recent investigation from IGN which featured interviews from developers criticizing the lack of quality control across the PlayStation Store and the Nintendo eShop in comparison to the Xbox store, as well as the never-ending list of "spam" and "slop" games, and poor discoverability.

Now, a number of these low-quality PS4 and PS5 games have seemingly disappeared from the digital storefront (via True Trophies).

Over on PSNProfiles, players have found evidence to suggest that developer RandomSpin - which released over 40 titles in just 2024 alone - has had most of its games removed, including Bodycam Shooter, Supermarket Simulator Pro, Backrooms Brotherhood, and Backrooms Inside The Escape.

These titles in particular all seemed to use recycled assets, along with AI-generated images, to copy other popular games currently available, like Reissad Studio's Bodycam or Supermarket Simulator from Nokta Games.

It's unclear if the sudden delisting of these games was made by Sony as a result of the recent criticism, and it could be purely coincidental. Sony hasn't commented on the removal at this time.

In other news, Sony has announced that its first State of Play livestream of 2025 will air this week on February 12, 2025. The showcase will run for 40+ minutes and offer "news and updates on great games coming to PS5", which hopefully means we'll learn the release dates for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yōtei.

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• New research examines battery degradation in different devices
• Design might make more of an impact than you expect
• Understanding the issues might lead to longer-lasting tech

It looks like it’s official: batteries may well be running out of juice at an unpredictable, somewhat alarming rate. And we’re not talking about the bunny-branded AAs you stick in the remotes of one of the best TVs.

Instead, new research suggests internal batteries are suffering from escalating battery degradation due to real-world factors that can’t easily be measured in a lab, with batteries in wireless earbuds used as the big test case example.

All lithium-ion rechargeable batteries will degrade and lose their maximum charge over time. but using X-ray infrared tech, international researchers at the University of Austin Texas (as reported by SciTechDaily) are trying to get to the bottom of why some devices devices may drop charge faster than you expect.

The quest to discover why lifetime battery length is now seemingly diminishing at a faster rate in buds was inspired by Yijin Liu’s frustrations with his headphones. After only wearing the right one, the associate professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering discovered “that after two years, the left earbud had a much longer battery life.”

This then prompted Liu to spearhead fresh research that has since been published in Advanced Materials (a weekly scientific journal that has been going for over three decades).

Batteries not included

(Image credit: The University at Austin)

According to the team’s findings, it appears real-world factors, such as sudden temperature changes and air quality can fundamentally damage long-term battery life in your favourite tech. And that’s despite the fact internal batteries are normally tested under extreme lab conditions.

Other internal components can also have a negative effect on earbuds battery health; such as the positioning of internal mics and other circuitry causing subtle conflicts with your buds’ battery chemistry.

The fact we all use wireless earbuds and our smartphones in vastly different environments under varying degrees of stress levels has led the researchers to rethink how they can redesign electronic devices to withstand a greater variety of real-world conditions.

“They [electronic devices] could be exposed to different temperatures,” says Guannan Qian, who posted the first paper as part of Yijin Liu’s study. “One person has different charging habits than another, and every vehicle owner has their own driving style,” which “all matters” according to Qian.

Cue a battery (sorry, not sorry) of experiments where Liu’s team joined forces with various international labs to learn more about real-life battery degradation. Working with the likes of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s National Light Source II (phew!), and France’s European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, their goal has to be to unearth the secrets of how and why batteries are reacting differently to real-world conditions compared to lab environments.

So what does this mean for you and the best earbuds going forward? Well, advanced X-ray imaging seems to hold the key. According to Brookhaven’s National Laboratory, physicist Xiaojing Huang believes that they must “understand the differences between lab conditions and the unpredictability of the real world and react accordingly” in order to “discover and develop new types of batteries,” according to Huang.

That's easier said than done, of course – solid-state batteries (generally considered to be the next big thing) remain elusive. But if Liu and his fellow energy-obsessed researchers can make progress in their experiments in how real-world factors affect – and in the case of earbuds in particular – diminish battery health, we can maybe at least make current batteries last longer. Or acknowledge more than ever the need for easily replaceable batteries, such as those in the Fairbuds.

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Sony just announced a new State of Play event, and the good news is that it arrives tomorrow (June 4). So far, little is known about what's going to be shown, but with Ghost of Yōtei, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and Wolverine on the horizon, we're hoping for some gameplay.

Since the series of shows began in 2019, Sony has used the State of Play presentations to reveal big-hitting games and details such as the initial reveal of Saros, debut gameplay footage for Death Stranding 2, and more. So, it's always worth tuning in to the State of Play live streams if you want to be alerted to any big announcements for new PS5 games.

Following the release of the PS5 Pro console, all eyes have turned back to the next State of Play - a new console will need new games to play on it, after all, even if it is a mid-gen refresh machine. Here's what we know.

When is the next Sony State of Play?

(Image credit: Kojima Productions)

The next Sony State of Play event will air June 4, 2025. This was revealed via a Tweet, which you can view below. The 40+ minute show begins June 4 at 2PM PT / 5PM ET / 10PM BST | June 5 at 6AM JST on YouTube and Twitch, and will be broadcast in English. Visit our coverage of how to watch the show live.

State of Play returns tomorrow, June 4!Watch live at 2pm PT / 11pm CEST on YouTube and Twitch for news and updates on great games coming to PS5: https://t.co/OmJsMMc1GT pic.twitter.com/SjZ2uQlXGVJune 3, 2025

What can we expect from the next Sony State of Play?

(Image credit: Sucker Punch)

We just had a State of Play event focusing entirely on upcoming looter shooter Borderlands 4. That means we'll be waiting a while for the next one, though I'd expect to see more on Marathon, Ghost of Yōtei, and perhaps even Saros, the next game from Returnal developer Housemarque that's due in 2026. We'll have to wait and see.

What was revealed at the last Sony State of Play?

The last State of Play event aired Wednesday, April 30, 2025 at 5PM ET / 2PM PT / 10PM BST. This was announced earlier that week (April 29), along with the tease that it'd run for 20 minutes and feature a deep-dive on Borderlands 4.

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The Witcher 4 has now been officially revealed, with a new trailer confirming that the game will focus on Ciri as the main protagonist. This latest look does give us an idea as to the overall darker vibe of this new game, though it doesn't contain any hints on a possible release window.

Ever since developer CD Projekt Red announced The Witcher 4 and referred to the game with its codename of 'Polaris', fans have been studying the teaser image shared alongside the upcoming game's announcement. It depicts a Lynx medallion, and could point to a new Witcher school that'll feature in what is set to be the first in a new trilogy.

While we wait for further news on The Witcher 4, here's everything that's been revealed about the game so far. As more details are shared by the developer, you'll find this page updated - we're as excited as you are so can't wait to get more details.

The Witcher 4: cut to the chase

• What is it? The next mainline game in The Witcher series
• When can I play it? TBC
• What can I play it on? TBC
• Who is making it? CD Projekt Red

The Witcher 4 - what we know so far

(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

There are few details available about The Witcher 4. The announcement official blog post only confirms it's in development and that it's being built in Unreal Engine 5. We do now have a trailer, which confirms Ciri as the protagonist. Even so, aside from an admittedly gorgeous cinematic sequence, the trailer holds few concrete details related to the story.

Unfortunately, you're probably not playing The Witcher 4 until 2027 at the earliest, according to CD Projekt's latest financial update. Hopefully it'll be well worth the wait.

Over the years, CD Projekt Red has said plenty about what a future Witcher game would involve:

"The first three 'Witchers' were by definition a trilogy, so we simply could not name the next game 'The Witcher 4'," Kiciński said in an interview. "This does not mean, of course, that we will leave the world of The Witcher."

It would appear that the team has since had a change of heart in this regard, with the game having been officially revealed as The Witcher 4. It's possible that this could be a placeholder name, but seeing as we're following an older Ciri, it does seem to follow The Witcher 3.

At the end of The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, monster hunter Geralt was alive and well. Well, he was alive, at least. But his story arc had ended, the Wild Hunt was over. That doesn't mean he won't return in this new Witcher game, though we do now know that he won't be the main character.

The developer said as much back in 2013: "We are not killing the world and walking away from it, but we will definitely want to make this game the finale in a big way," executive producer John Mamais told Polygon. "We might even include Geralt in later games potentially. We just need to talk about it and figure out what we're going to do next."

In 2015, speaking to IGN, Senior Writer Jakub Szamałek confirmed that the studio felt that The Witcher 3 was a natural endpoint for Geralt: "[he] has had such an amazing adventure, and his saga is already so long and complex that this seemed like a good point to think about an appropriate finale for the story.”

The confirmation that the medallion shown in the game's announcement picture is a lynx certainly suggests that the game will take things in a new direction. Potentially, that introduces an entirely new Witcher school.

The author of the Witcher books, Andrzej Sapkowski, signed a new deal with the company to "further solidify their relationship". So. the studio is free to pull from any one of his short stories or novels. (If you want to get caught up, here's how to read The Witcher books in order.)

The Witcher 4 trailer

The Witcher 4 was fully revealed during The Game Awards 2024. The cinematic trailer, which can be viewed above, shows a young girl being prepared for sacrifice to a monster. Ciri intervenes, following the young girl and facing off against the creature. It's clear that Ciri is early on in her Witcher journey, but manages to best the monster in combat, making use of some new abilities.

So far, we've only had one trailer for The Witcher 4. Keep an eye on the official The Witcher YouTube channel for new trailers, or find them in this section once they are released.

The Witcher 4 engine

(Image credit: Unreal Engine)

This is a relatively massive factor that's confirmed for The Witcher 4, and one we're certainly excited about. Back in the Spring of 2023, the development team confirmed that The Witcher 4 would be built on Unreal Engine 5 - instead of the studio's own engine, REDengine.

The latter was used on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 so has its merits, but, in brief, moving to Unreal Engine 5 means the studio has more access to wider features, solutions, and tools that can make environments more detailed, more realistic, and have a great sense of overall visual fidelity than ever before.

As a note, this does mark the beginning of a partnership with Epic but does not mean the game will be an Epic Game Store exclusive. This partnership lead to a technical demo reveal for The Witcher 4, showing off an early technical build of the game running on a base PS5 at 60fps (June 3, 2025). You can check out some screenshots from the presentation below, and we'll be sure to add the full video once it goes live for the public.

Thanks for tuning in to The Witcher 4 — Unreal Engine 5 tech demo and joining us during the State of Unreal 2025! #UnrealFestThe full presentation will be uploaded and shared with everyone later today, but in the meantime, here's four screenshots straight from the demo to tide… pic.twitter.com/LL7bJH1biVJune 3, 2025

The Witcher 4 FAQ

(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)Who will be the main character in The Witcher 4?

Ciri will be the main character in The Witcher 4. This was confirmed following the official reveal trailer that aired at the end of The Game Awards 2024.

Will The Witcher 4 be on PS5?

CD Projekt RED is yet to confirm The Witcher 4 platforms. Given that there's no release window, it's possible that we could be waiting until next-gen for it to launch. The Witcher 3 originally launched for PS4, Xbox One and PC, so we're expecting The Witcher 4 to be multi-platform as well, at least until the developers reveal otherwise.

Will Geralt be in The Witcher 4?

While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its two expansions rounded off Geralt's trilogy incredibly well, there has been a constant desire from fans to know whether Geralt will be in The Witcher 4.

Thanks to recent comments from Geralt's voice actor, it does seem that the character will feature in The Witcher 4, but won't be the protagonist. Spotted by VGC, Geralt's voice actor, Doug Cockle, spoke as a guest on a YouTube channel known as Fall Damage. During the spot, he revealed some rather interesting tidbits about the upcoming game.

"What we know is that Geralt will be part of the game, we just don't know how much," Cockle said during the interview. "The game won't focus on Geralt - it's not about him this time. We don't know who it's about, I'm excited to find out, I wanna know!"

Of course, we now know that The Witcher 4 will focus on Ciri, though hopefully we'll see Geralt in some form or another.

Has Ciri been recast for The Witcher 4?

Eagle-eared fans were quick to notice that Ciri sounds very different in the recent The Witcher 4 cinematic trailer, which debuted at The Game Awards 2024 last week. This led many to speculate online that the character has been recast.Now we know that this is definitely the case as, in a new statement given to gaming blog The Gamer, developer CD Projekt Red confirmed that Irish actor “Ciara Berkeley was cast as Ciri for The Witcher 4 Cinematic Reveal Trailer.”

The Witcher 4 news

(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

Geralt voice actor says CD Projekt Red's decision to make Ciri the star of The Witcher 4 is 'really exciting'
Doug Cockle, the voice behind Geralt in the first three The Witcher games, has shared his enthusiasm for the switch to Ciri, saying there are "all kinds of reasons" that make the choice exciting, mainly for how her role in the books is portrayed.

The Witcher 4 officially announced at The Game Awards 2024
In a surprise turn of events, CD Projekt Red has unveiled the first official look at The Witcher 4 at The Game Awards 2024, and yes, Ciri is the playable protagonist.

CD Projekt Red announces The Witcher 4 has now entered "full-scale production"
CD Projekt Red has provided an update on the development of The Witcher 4, stating that the upcoming game is now in "full production".

The Witcher 4 will have a focus on freedom
Sebastien Kalemba, game director at CDPR, was speaking at the very end of 2023 about creating new takes on RPG gameplay and features for The Witcher 4. The intent is to push the boundaries of RPG games and there's a desire to "tell something more intense, with also more intense gameplay."

A huge chunk of CD Projekt Red's workforce is now working on The Witcher 4
At the end of November 2023, CDPR revealed via an earnings report that the production team working on The Witcher 4 had grown to around 330 people actively working on the game. This number is set to grow to over 400 by mid-2024 as production gathers real steam. As first reported at the time of this news, 330 represents just under half of CDPR's development staff.

CDPR is already running internal demos of The Witcher 4 on consoles
Learning its lesson from Cyberpunk 2077, the devs at CDPR are already going to great lengths to test their next project - and do so from the early stages. As reported by our sister site GamesRadar+, in an interview with Inven Global, CD Projeckt Red engineering director Colin Walder has confirmed that, learning from Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch on consoles in 2020, "For our next project, Polaris, we're already running our demos and internal reviews on the console from the very beginning." This means that The Witcher 4 is already being tested on consoles to ensure that when the day comes, it'll have a better chance at sticking its landing.

The Witcher 4 has its Game Director
Sebastian Kalemba, the former Lead Animator on The Witcher 3, has been announced as the Game Director for The Witcher 4. They announced this on Twitter, stating that they aim to 'raise the bar.'

Polaris, and a brand new trilogy
In early October 2022, CD Projekt RED announced a bunch of new titles via Twitter, including a new The Witcher trilogy. Polaris (what we've been calling The Witcher 4) will kick off the new saga, which will then play out over 6 years from the first release. This is obviously a huge undertaking, so we'll have to wait and see whether it pays off.

The Witcher 4 teaser image sparks many theories
When The Witcher 4 was first announced it used the image we have as our header here - that of a partially snow-covered Witcher medallion - and it sparked much debate about which school it was, and whether that gave anything away. As reported by our brethren at GamesRadar+ at the time, the medallion was initially thought to be of the School of the Cat - which would imply a connection to Ciri as she came into possession of one after seizing it from Leo Bonhart. However, this was then debunked on Twitter when community director Marcin Momot reacted positively to a fan asking whether it was actually the medallion from the School of the Lynx.

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