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AI's impact on tech business is complicated

Donald Trump Jr. made a surprise appearance at Tyler Robinson's hearing today as the 23-year-old stands accused of murdering Charlie Kirk.

Another round of protests have erupted in the Spanish hotspot, with around 10,000 people involved.

The next version will have 32,000 MCUs

The 36-year-old slipped as he jumped over an advertising board during the celebrations following England's 3-2 win at the Azteca Stadium.

Chandler Harrod marketed his bungalow in Ormesby St Margaret - nicknamed by locals as 'Orgy St Margaret' - in Norfolk as a perfect getaway spot for couples.

The singer, 35, revealed in January her now one-year-old twins, Ocean and Story, had been diagnosed with SMA Type 1, a rare muscle-wasting condition.

Simon Tilley, 45, was reportedly found dead in his hotel room in Corby, Northamptonshire, on Friday after failing to check out.

Charlotte, 11, was captured beaming as she embraced her mother Catherine, 44, in a heartwarming post uploaded to Instagram as she crossed the finish line.

OLIVER HOLT: Until one enchanted evening in Mexico City, I would have told you that the best match I had ever seen was the 2022 World Cup final, the 3-3 draw between Argentina and France.

Speaking at the White House, the President offered no apologies for his unprecedented move but insisted he did not demand Balogun's ban was overturned.

Annabelle Rogers, from Nottingham, first began building her 'dream' pergola during the pandemic - fit with an outdoor fire and even a small stock tank pool.

Scientists may have finally solved the 2,200-year-old mystery of Hannibal's legendary Alpine crossing.

Bumblebees stick out their tongue and 'lick their lips' after tasting a sweet treat, scientists have revealed. But when they gave the bees bitter drinks, they shook their heads in disgust.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Anthropic quickly removed a tracker secretly monitoring Claude Code users in China after a security researcher exposed the hidden code and condemned the spyware-like tracking as a "serious breach of user trust." Last week, a web developer known as "Thereallo" was researching privacy issues in Claude Code and was shocked to find that the AI firm was using "prompt steganography" to hide code that tracks Chinese users "in plain sight." This code wasn't malicious, but it was sending information to Anthropic that most users wouldn't detect, relying on shorthand markers to quietly flag users' timezone, proxy, and potential connection to Chinese AI labs that Anthropic has accused of distillation attacks. On X, Anthropic engineer Thariq Shihipar confirmed that the tracker was added to Claude Code as an "experiment" in March. According to Shihipar, the code "was meant to prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against distillation." Regarding the former, The Washington Post found unauthorized retailers have sold access to free models for $1 a month, and pro subscriptions that can cost $100 monthly sell for "as little as $12." Supposedly, Anthropic has "actually been meaning to take this down for a while," Shihipar said of the hidden code, because engineers have "landed stronger mitigations since then." Privacy advocates were not happy with the explanation, though, warning that the code is evidence that Anthropic is willing to cross lines to surveil users. That's perhaps especially surprising, considering that Anthropic riled the Trump administration by refusing to allow the US government to use Claude to surveil US users. The AI firm has since sued the White House over the clash. The Post suggested that the tracker incident is a sign that US firms like Anthropic are taking "increasingly aggressive measures" to block Chinese AI firms from copying their models. A more defensive stance has apparently become critical. In the past year, Chinese firms have "consistently matched" US firms' model capabilities "within months," the Post reported. Most recently, "a new, free AI model from Chinese company Zhipu AI was better at finding computer vulnerabilities than Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 model, which was released in May," the Post reported.

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Richard Keys appears to be enjoying life away from football broadcasting after sharing photos of himself and his wife relaxing on the Isle of Wight during the World Cup.

A 13-year-old boy has died following a house fire in Blackpool - amid fears an e-bike charger exploded.

A purported jab of Sony's physical media phase-out blows up on GitHub itself

Tennis royalty brushed shoulders with the real deal today, as Roger Federer made an appearance at Wimbledon, alongside the Princess of Wales's mother Carole and sister Pippa.

Microsoft is laying off about 4,800 employees, including 1,600 from Xbox, as it restructures around AI investments and tries to reset its struggling gaming business. "Our business is changing because the world around it is changing. The way technology is built, deployed, and used is transforming faster than at any point in my time here," said Amy Coleman, EVP and chief people officer at Microsoft. "Our customers' needs are shifting, the business models that serve them are shifting, and that means the work itself -- what we do, where we focus, and how we're organized -- has to transform too." She continued: "Companies don't get to choose whether their industry changes; they only get to choose whether they change with it. That means we will need to adjust resources and roles and shift how we operate so we can have the greatest impact for our customers." TechCrunch reports: Coleman stressed that the roles being eliminated today "are not being replaced by AI," but noted, "what is true is that AI is changing how work gets done." "Some of the tasks we do every day can now be automated, and that means we all need to keep learning, keep building new skills, and keep adapting as the work evolves," Coleman wrote. [...] Speaking about the Xbox layoffs, Coleman said little: "We are restructuring to position the business for long-term success. Engineering teams across the company will also evolve their structure and priorities to meet customer needs and innovate for the future." Of today's 4,800 layoffs at Microsoft, 1,600 will hit Xbox, with about 3,200 cuts in total expected through fiscal year 2027, according to Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox. In an email she sent to employees on Monday, Sharma called this "the most significant restructure in Xbox history." "Our business today is not healthy," Sharma wrote. "We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses." She added that Xbox made bets like its monthly subscription service Game Pass, alongside moves to grow its portfolio of content and invest in multi-platform, among other attempts to breathe life into the business. None of those strategies grew at the expected pace, leading to the core business weakening even as Xbox added more teams and investment. "And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history," Sharma said. "We must reset Xbox." As part of the shift, Microsoft will transition four of its gaming studios to operate under new management, ensuring preservation of intellectual property and ongoing projects. Specifically Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to independent studios, according to Sharma. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are coming under new ownership with funding to complete and grow some of their more popular games. According to Sharma's memo, Xbox is also flattening management hard, cutting the current 14 management layers to no more than five, but ideally three. As part of this major organization redesign, Xbox is making longtime executive Helen Chiang chief operating officer with end-to-end profit and loss authority across content, hardware, platform, and services. Xbox's restructuring plan centers around narrowing focus by dropping sprawling creative bets that don't produce platform-scale returns, and instead homing in on core strategic pillars like Mojang and King, the businesses behind Minecraft and Candy Crush.

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