Your Gmail inbox should now be back to normal after Saturday’s hiccups. Google said in an update on X on Saturday night that the issue, which affected the automatic filters that keep Gmail users’ inboxes free from the clutter of promotional emails, non-urgent updates and spam, “is now fully resolved for all users.” On its Workspace status dashboard, it added that an investigation is underway, and an analysis will be published once complete.
Gmail users on Saturday reported that their inboxes were flooded with promotional emails that had not been properly sorted out of the main tab, and some said they were seeing notices that emails had not been scanned for spam. On social media and DownDetector, some Gmail users also reported delays in receiving messages, leading to issues with two-factor authentication logins. After confirming the issue, Google noted in an update on its Workspace dashboard that the problem resulted in the "misclassification of emails in their inbox and additional spam warnings," including a banner that says, “Be careful with this message. Gmail hasn't scanned this message for spam, unverified senders, or harmful software.”
In a statement to Engadget, a Google spokesperson echoed the message from its dashboard, saying, "We are actively working to resolve the issue. As always, we encourage users to follow standard best practices when engaging with messages from unknown senders."
Update, January 25 2026, 9:53AM ET: This story has been updated to reflect that the issue has been resolved.
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Federal employees received high marks for their work. At the same time, the public also wants more from them, and federal agencies more broadly, especially around technology.
These are among the top findings of a survey of a thousand likely voters from last August by the Center for Accountability, Modernization and Innovation (CAMI).
Stan Soloway, the chairman of the board for CAMI, said the findings demonstrate at least two significant issues for federal executives to consider.
“It very clear to us from the survey was that public actually has faith, to a certain extent, in public employees. The public also fully recognizes that the system itself is not serving them well,” Soloway said on Ask the CIO. “We found well over half of the folks that were surveyed said that they didn’t believe that government services are efficient. We found just under half of respondents had a favorable impression of government workers. And I think this is very much I respect my local civil servant because I know what they do, but I have a lot of skepticism about government writ large.”
CAMI, a non-partisan think tank, found that when it comes to government workers:
At the same time, when it comes to government services, CAMI found 54% of the respondents believe agencies aren’t as efficient or as timely as they should be.
John Faso, a former Republican congressman from New York and a senior advisor for CAMI, said the call for more efficiencies and timeliness from citizens echoes a long-time goal of bringing federal agencies closer to the private sector.
“People, and we see this in the survey, look at what government provides and how they provide it, and then to what they’re maybe accustomed to in private sector economy,” Faso said. “Amazon is a prime example. You can sit home and order something, a food product, an item of clothing or something else you want for your house or your family, and oftentimes it’s there within a day or two. People are accustomed to getting that kind of service. People have an expectation that the government can do that. I think government is lagging, obviously, but it’s catching up, and it needs to catch up fast.”
Faso said it’s clear that a solid percentage of the reason for why the government is inefficient comes back to Congress. But at the same time, the CAMI survey demonstrated that there are things federal executives could do to address many of these long-standing challenges.
CAMI says respondents supported several changes to improve timely and efficient delivery of benefits:
“Whether it’s the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Medicaid and Medicare, the feds set all the rules for the administration and governance of the programs. So the first question you have to ask is, what is the federal role?” Soloway said. “Even though we have now shifted administrative responsibility for many programs to the states and to some cases, the counties, and reduced by 50% the financial support for administration of these programs, while the states have a lot to figure out and are somewhat panicked about it, because it’s a huge lift. The feds can’t just walk away. This is where we have issues of policy changes that are needed at the federal level, which we can talk about some of the ones that are desperately needed to give the states kind of the flexibility to innovate.”
Soloway added this also means agencies have to break down long-established siloes both around data and processes.
The Trump administration, for example, has prioritized data sharing across the government, especially to combat concerns around fraud. The Office of Management and Budget said in July it was supercharging the Do Not Pay list by removing the barriers to governmentwide data sharing.
Soloway said this is a prime example of where the private sector has figured out how to get different parts of their organization to talk to each other and where the government is lagging.
“What is the federal role in helping to break down the silos and integrate applications, and to the certain extent help with the administration of programs with like beneficiaries? The data is pretty clear that there’s a lot of commonality across multiple programs, and when you think about the number of different departments and the bureaucracy that actually control those programs, there’s got to be leadership at the federal level, both on technology and to expand process transformation, otherwise you’re not going to solve the problem,” he said. “The second thing is when we talk about issues like program integrity, there are ways you can combat fraud and also protect the beneficiaries. But too often, the conversations are either/or any effort to combat fraud is seen as an effort to take eligible people off the rolls. Every effort to protect eligible people on the rolls is seen as just feeding into that so that’s where the federal leadership, and some of that is in technology, some of it’s in policy. Some of it’s going to be in resources, because it requires investments in technology across the board, state and federal.”
Respondents say technology can play a bigger role in improving the delivery of federal services.
CAMI says respondents offered strong support for using AI to improve government service delivery:
Soloway said CAMI is sharing its survey findings with both Congress and the executive branch.
“We’re trying to get the conversations going and get the information to the right people. When we do that, we find, by and large, on both sides, there’s a lot of support to do stuff. The question is going to really be, where’s the leadership going to come from that will have the enough credibility on both sides to push this ball forward?” Soloway said.
Faso added state governments also must play a big role in improving program delivery.
“You have cost sharing between the federal and state governments, and you have cost sharing in terms of the administrative burden to implement these programs. I think a lot of governors, frankly, are now really looking at themselves and saying, ‘How am I going to implement this?’” he said. “How do I collaborate with the federal government to make sure that we’re all enrolling in the same direction in terms of implementing these requirements.”
The post AI can improve federal service delivery, citizen survey says first appeared on Federal News Network.
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A private-sector tech leader tapped by the Trump administration to improve the federal government’s online presence is setting an ambitious goal — overhauling about 27,000 dot-gov websites.
Joe Gebbia, chief design officer of the United States and co-founder of Airbnb, said in a podcast interview Tuesday that the White House set out this goal when President Donald Trump signed an executive order last summer creating the National Design Studio.
“We’re fixing all of them,” Gebbia said Tuesday on the American Optimist show. Many of the federal government’s websites, he added, “look like they’re from the mid-90s.”
Gebbia began working with the Department of Government Efficiency in the early days of the Trump administration. At the Office of Personnel Management, he oversaw a long-anticipated modernization of the federal employee retirement system.
The National Design Studio so far has launched several new websites that serve as landing pages for some of the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, law enforcement and prescription drug prices.
As for next steps, Gebbia said his office will deliver “major updates,” including a refresh of existing federal websites, by July 4.
“It’s working, because we are really pulling in veterans of Silicon Valley from a talent perspective, I think it’s working because this president really deeply cares about how things look, because he knows that esthetics matter,” he said.
The White House estimates that only 6% of federal websites are rated “good” for use on mobile devices. About 45% of federal websites are not mobile-friendly.
As part of the President’s Management Agenda, the Trump administration is looking to leverage technology to “deliver faster, more secure services” and “reduce the number of confusing government websites. “
The administration has already taken steps to eliminate websites that it deems unnecessary. Federal News Network first reported that the 24 largest federal agencies are preparing to eliminate more than 330 websites — about 5% of an inventory of 7,200 websites reviewed.
The National Design Studio is still recruiting new hires. Gebbia estimated that his office will eventually have a team of about 15 engineers and 15 designers.
“We’re still ramping up the team,” he said, adding that the National Design Studio has been able to “recruit some of the best and brightest minds of our era.”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment where we have a shot on goal to actually upgrade the U.S. government the way we present ourselves to the nation and to the world,” Gebbia said.
The idea for the National Design Studio began when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asked Gebbia to improve Recreation.gov, a website for booking campsites, scheduling tours and obtaining hunting and fishing permits on federal lands. The site serves as an outdoor recreation system for 14 federal agencies.
“There’s a lot to be desired for when you have this incredible feature of the American experience, our national parks. They were being undersold in a way that they were showcased,” Gebbia said.
After working on Recreation.gov, Gebbia said he was getting similar requests from other Cabinet secretaries.
“I started to see there’s demand here for better design. There’s demand here for modernizing the digital surfaces of the government,” he said.
At that point, Gebbia said he made his pitch for the National Design Studio to Trump during a meeting at the Oval Office.
“What would it look like to have a national initiative to actually go in and up level and upgrade, not just one agency, not just one website, all the websites, all the agencies, all of the digital touch points between us, government and the American people?” he recalled.
According to the America by Design website, the White House is drawing inspiration from the Nixon administration’s beautification project in the 1970s. That project led to the creation of NASA’s iconic logo, branding for national parks and signage for the national highway system.
“My vision is that, at some point, somebody’s working at a startup and they go look at a dot-gov website to see how they did it. And we can actually create references for good design in the government, rather than be the butt of a joke,” Gebbia said.
So far, the National Design Studio has launched SafeDC.gov, a website meant to facilitate the Trump administration’s surge of federal law enforcement agents to Washington, D.C. It’s also launched TrumpCard.gov, a program meant to fast-track the green-card process for noncitizens seeking permanent residency in the United States — and who are able to pay a $15,000 processing fee and a $1 million or $5 million “gift” to the Commerce Department.
Its most recent website, https://trumprx.gov/, is still in the works. The website supports an administration goal of connecting consumers with lower-priced prescription drugs.
Gebbia said private-sector tech experts are interested in working with National Design Studio and overcoming institutional barriers to change.
“Of course, you bump into things and all the processes and people saying, ‘Well, it’s always been done this way. Why would we change it?’ I think, though, there’s an incredible amount of momentum behind this — the excitement around America by Design, the excitement around the National Design Studio, and the excitement on the demand side of secretaries and people and agencies — ‘Yes, please fix this for us. We’re so happy you’re here to make us make this look good,'” he said.
The post National Design Studio looks to overhaul 27,000 federal websites — and is hiring a team to do it first appeared on Federal News Network.
© AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Interview transcript
Terry Gerton We’re going to talk about one of everybody’s favorite topics, FedRAMP. It’s been around for years, but agencies are still struggling to get modern tools. So from your perspective, why is the process so hard for software and service companies to get through?
Irina Denisenko It’s a great question. Why is it so hard to get through FedRAMP? It is so hard to get through FedRAMP because at the end of the day, what is FedRAMP really here to do? It’s here to secure cloud software, to secure government data sitting in cloud software. You have to remember this all came together almost 15 years ago, which if you remember 15 years ago, 20 years ago, was kind of early days of all of us interacting with the internet. And we were still even, in some cases, scared to enter our credit card details onto an online website. Fast forward to today, we pay with our face when we get on our phone. We’ve come a long way. But the reality is cloud security hasn’t always been the, of course, it’s secure. In fact, it has been the opposite. Of course, its unsecure and it’s the internet and that’s where you go to lose all your data and all your information. And so long story short, you have to understand that’s were the government is coming from. We need to lock everything down in order to make sure that whether it’s VA patient data, IRS data on our taxpayers, obviously anything in the DoW, any sort of information data there, all of that stays secure. And so that’s why there are hundreds of controls that are applied to cloud environments in order make sure and double sure and triple sure that that data is secure.
Terry Gerton You lived the challenge first-hand with your own company. What most surprised you about the certification process when you tackled it yourself? What most surprise me?
Irina Denisenko When we tackled FedRAMP ourselves for the first time was that even if you have the resources and specifically if you $3 million to spend, you know, $3 million burning a hole in your pocket doesn’t happen often, but even if have that and you have staff on the U.S. Soil and you have the willingness to invest all of that for a three-year process to get certified, that is still not enough. What you need on top of that is an agency to say yes to sponsoring you. And when they say yes, to sponsoring you what they are saying yes to you is to take on your cyber risk. And specifically what they’re saying yes to is to spend half a million dollars of taxpayer money of agency budget, typically using contractors, to do an initial security review of your application. And then to basically get married to you and do something called continuous monitoring, which is a monthly meeting that they’re going to have with you forever. They, that agency is going to be your accountability partner and ultimately the risk bearer of you, the software provider, to make sure you are burning down all of the vulnerabilities, all of these CVEs, every finding in your cloud environment on the timeline that you’re supposed to do that. And that ends up costing an agency about $250,000 a year, again, in the form of contractors, tooling, etc. That was the most surprising to me, that again, even as a cloud service provider, who’s already doing business with JP Morgan and Chase, you know, healthcare systems, you name it, even that’s not enough, you need an agency sponsor, because at the end of the day, it’s the agency’s data and they have to protect it. And so they have do that triple assurance of, yes, you said you’re doing the security stuff, but let us confirm that you’re doing the the security stuff. That was the most surprising to me. And why, really, ultimately, we started Knox Systems, because what we do at Knox is we enable the inheritance model. So we are doing all of that with our sponsoring agencies, of which we have 15. Knox runs the largest FedRAMP managed cloud. And what that means is we host the production environment of our customers inside of our FedRAMP environment across AWS, Azure, and GCP. And our customers inherit our sponsors. So they inherit the authorization from the treasury, from the VA, from the Marines, etc., Which means that the Marines, the Treasury, the VA, didn’t have to spend an extra half a million upfront and $250k ongoing with every new application that was authorized. They are able to get huge bang for their buck by just investing that authorization, that sponsorship into the Knox boundary. And then Knox does the work and the hard work to ensure the security and ongoing authorization and compliance of all of the applications that we bring into our environment.
Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Irina Denisenko. She’s the CEO of Knox Systems. So it sounds like you found a way through the maze that was shorter, simpler, less expensive. Is FedRAMP 20X helping to normalize that kind of approach? How do you see it playing out?
Irina Denisenko Great question. FedRAMP 20X is a phenomenal initiative coming out of OMB-GSA. And really the crux of that is all about machine-readable and continuous authorization. Today, when I talked about continuous monitoring, that’s a monthly meeting that happens. And I kid you not, we, as a cloud service provider, again, we secure Adobe’s environment and many others, we come with a spreadsheet, an actual spreadsheet that has all of the vulnerabilities listed from all the scans we’ve done over the last month, and anything that is still open from anything prior months. And we review that spreadsheet, that actual Excel document, and then after the meet with our agencies and then, after that meeting, we upload that spreadsheet into a system called USDA on the FedCiv side, eMass, DOW side, DISA side. And then they, on their side, download that spreadsheet and they put it into other systems. And I mean, that’s the process. I think no one is confused, or no one would argue that surely there’s a better way. And a better would be a machine readable way, whether that’s over an API, using a standard language like OSCAL. There’s lots of ways to standardize, but it doesn’t have to be basically the equivalent of a clipboard and a pencil. And that’s what FedRAMP 20X is doing. It’s automating that information flow so that not only is it bringing down the amount of just human labor that needs to be done to do all this tracking, but more importantly, this is cloud security. Just because you’re secure one second doesn’t mean you’re secure five seconds from now, right? You need to be actively monitoring this, actively reporting this. And if it’s taking you 30 days to let an agency know that you have a critical vulnerability, that’s crazy. You, you got to tell them in, you know, five minutes after you find out or, you know to put a respectable buffer, a responsible buffer to allow you to mitigate remediate before you notify more parties, maybe it’s a four day buffer but it’s certainly not 30 days. That’s what FedRAMP20X is doing. We’re super excited about it. We are very supportive of it and have been actively involved in phase I and all subsequent phases.
Terry Gerton Right, so phase II is scheduled to start shortly in 2026. What are you expecting to see as a result?
Irina Denisenko Well, phase I was all about FedRAMP low, phase II is all about FedRAMP moderate. And we expect that, you know, it’s going to really — FedRAMP moderate is realistically where most cloud service offerings sit, FedRAMP moderate and high. And so that’s really the one that the FedRAMP needs to get right. What we expect to see and hope to see is to have agencies actually authorized off of these new frameworks. The key is really going to be what shape does FedRAMP 20x take in terms of machine readable reporting on the security posture of any cloud environment? And then of course, the industry will standardize around that. So we’re excited to see what that looks like. And also how much AI does the agency, the GSA, OMB and ultimately FedRAMP leverage because there is a tremendous amount of productivity, but also security that AI can provide. It can also introduce a lot of risks. And so we’re all collaborating with that agency, as well as we’re excited to see what, you know, where they draw the bright red lines and where they embrace AI.
Terry Gerton So phase II is only gonna incorporate 10 companies, right? So for the rest of the world who’s waiting on these results, what advice do you have for them in the meantime? How can companies prepare better or how can companies who want to get FedRAMP certified now best proceed?
Irina Denisenko I think the end of the day the inheritance model that Knox provides — and, you know, we’re not the only ones, actually there’s two key players.; it’s ourselves and Palantir. There’s a reason hat large companies like Celonis like OutSystems like BigID like Armis who was just bought by ServiceNow for almost $8 billion. There’s reason that all those guys choose Knox and there’s a reason Anthropic chose Palantir and Grafana chose Palantir, because regardless, FedRAMP 20X, Rev 5, doesn’t matter, there is a massive, massive premium put on getting innovative technology in the hands of our government faster. We have a window right now with the current administration prioritizing innovative technology and commercial off-the-shelf. You know, take the best out of Silicon Valley and use it in the government or out of Europe, out of Israel, you name it, rather than build it yourself, customize it until you’re blue in the face and still get an inferior product. Just use the best and breed, right? But you need it to be secure. And we have this window as a country. We have a window as country for the next few years here to get these technologies in. It takes a while to adopt new technologies. It takes awhile to do a quantum leap, but I’ll give you a perfect example. Celonis, since becoming FedRAMPed on August 19th with Knox — they had been trying to get FedRAMPed for five years — since getting FedRAMPed on august 19th, has implemented three agencies. And what do they do? They do process mining and intelligence. They’re an $800 million company that’s 20 years old that competes, by the way, head on with Palantir’s core product, Foundry and Gotham and so on. They’ve implemented three agencies already to drive efficiency, to drive visibility, to drive process mining, to driving intelligence, to drive AI-powered decision-making. And that’s during the holidays, during a government shutdown, it’s speed that we’ve never seen before. If you want outcomes, you need to get these technologies into the hands of our agencies today. And so that’s why, you know, we’re such big proponents of this model, and also why, our agencies, our federal advisory board, which includes the DHS CISO, the DOW CIO, the VA CIO are also supportive of this because ultimately it’s about serving the mission and doing it now. Rather than waiting for some time in the future.
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Written by Vivek Ramachandran, SquareX Founder, for Forbes Technology Council. This article originally appeared here.
If you lived through the 1990s, you’ll remember the first of the “ browser wars,” where Netscape and Internet Explorer fiercely competed for market dominance. Then Google launched Chromium in 2008, and this battle effectively ended. The past 17 years have been relatively quiet in the browser space-most new challengers, including Edge, are built on Chromium, and Chrome has slowly grown to own over 70% of the market. Until now.
This is the year of AI browsers. Following the release of Perplexity’s Comet and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas, Atlassian made a deal to acquire The Browser Company. Even incumbents like Chrome, Edge and Firefox have released their own AI features for their consumer browsers. So, what’s driving this sudden browser renaissance?
Thanks to hyperscalers and the pandemic, the past decade has seen a major shift in the modern way of working. Most enterprise applications are now SaaS apps, and, in 2022, around 62% of enterprise data was stored in the cloud (with that number expected to be much higher today)-both of which are accessed through browsers. Effectively, the browser has become the new endpoint.
In other words, by owning the browser space, one owns an essential infrastructure layer-the single point of access to every application, workflow and data that users interact with online. This is partly why the U.S. Department of Justice attempted to force Google to divest Chrome, and why the proposition of owning the browser space is so compelling to many technology companies.
Since ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022, generative AI (GenAI) has evolved through three distinct generations, each expanding AI’s scope of action and potential impact. The first generation introduced LLM-powered AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude, as well as specialized API wrappers like Grammarly and GitHub Copilot. However, it wasn’t until January 2025 that OpenAI released Operator, the first true browser AI agent that can autonomously act on the user’s behalf, performing tasks like booking flight tickets and scheduling meetings. This served as the foundation for AI browsers.
For many technology companies, AI browsers became an unprecedented strategic opportunity to enter the browser race-a market that had been virtually impenetrable for over a decade due to Google’s dominance. With the release of agentic AI, it’s now possible to build AI browsers capable of autonomous reasoning, decision making and executing complex multistep tasks. New entrants can now offer value by changing the way people fundamentally browse the internet, making the AI browser a more compelling differentiator from incumbent consumer browsers than any browser innovation we’ve seen in recent years.
Yet, one major security implication of AI browsers is that security teams are now dealing with autonomous agents that complete tasks on the user’s behalf without the security awareness of an employee. Already, we’ve been seeing attacks on AI browsers that lead to these AI agents exfiltrating data, downloading malware and providing unauthorized access to enterprise apps without the user knowing. These AI browsers have the same privilege level as users, allowing them to access every enterprise app and sensitive information that the user can access.
Unfortunately, traditional security solutions like SASE/SSEs have no way to differentiate between tasks performed by a user and those performed by the AI browser, as the network traffic originates from the same browser. As AI agents and AI browsers become the new “weakest link,” this calls for the security industry to rethink the way enterprise security infrastructure is built, taking into account agentic identity, agentic data loss prevention (DLP) and attacks on agentic workflows.
In an increasingly agentic future, the browser won’t only act as a window to the web but as the primary workspace for autonomous agents and human-AI collaboration. This shift will make browsers more powerful, intelligent and deeply personalized, but also heighten the urgency for advanced browser security, as more sensitive actions and data flow through them than ever before.
SquareX’s browser extension turns any browser on any device into an enterprise-grade secure browser. SquareX’s industry-first Browser Detection and Response (BDR) solution empowers organizations to proactively defend against browser-native threats including rogue AI agents, Last Mile Reassembly Attacks, malicious extensions and identity attacks. Unlike dedicated enterprise browsers, SquareX seamlessly integrates with users’ existing consumer browsers, delivering security without compromising user experience.
Visit sqrx.com to learn more or sign up for an enterprise pilot.
Browser Wars, Continued: Why Everyone Is Building Their Own AI Browser was originally published in SquareX Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
The post Browser Wars, Continued: Why Everyone Is Building Their Own AI Browser appeared first on Security Boulevard.
NASA has selected ADNET Systems, Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, to provide global modeling and data assimilation support at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The Global Modeling and Assimilation Support contract is a single-award, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum ordering value of approximately $84 million with a five-year period of performance beginning March 15, 2026.
Under this contract, the contractor will be responsible for supporting and maintaining NASA Goddard’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model and data assimilation system. Tasks include supporting the development and validation of individual model components within GEOS and the development and integration of external components like sea and land-ice models within the modeling and assimilation system.
For information about NASA and other agency programs, visit:
-end-
Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
Rob Garner
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-5687
rob.garner@nasa.gov
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Meta will no longer allow teens to chat with its AI chatbot characters in their present form. The company announced Friday that it will be "temporarily pausing teens’ access to existing AI characters globally."
The pause comes months after Meta had said it was working on chatbot-focused parental controls following reports that some of Meta's character chatbots had engaged in sexual conversations and other alarming interactions with teens. Reuters reported on an internal Meta policy document that said the chatbots were permitted to have "sensual" conversations with underage users, language Meta later said was "erroneous and inconsistent with our policies." The company announced in August that it was re-training its character chatbots to add "guardrails as an extra precaution" that would prevent teens from discussing self harm, disordered eating and suicide.
Now, Meta says it will prevent teens from accessing any of its character chatbots until "the updated experience is ready." Those updates will include parental controls, according to a Meta spokesperson. The new restrictions, which will be starting "in the coming weeks," will apply to those with teen accounts, "as well as people who claim to be adults but who we suspect are teens based on our age prediction technology." Teens will still be able to access the official Meta AI chatbot, which the company says already has "age-appropriate protections in place."
Meta and other AI companies that make "companion" characters have faced increasing scrutiny over the safety risks these chatbots could pose to young people. The FTC and the Texas attorney general have both kicked off investigations into Meta and other companies in recent months. The issue of chatbots has also come up in the context of a safety lawsuit brought by New Mexico's attorney general. A trial is scheduled to start early next month; Meta's lawyers have attempted to exclude testimony related to the company's AI chatbots, Wired reported this week.
Correction, January 23, 2026, 11:18AM PT: This post was updated to clarify that Meta’s planned chatbot parental control features have not yet rolled out.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-temporarily-pulling-teens-access-from-its-ai-chatbot-characters-180626052.html?src=rss
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Sennheiser has unveiled its RS 275 TV Headphones, which are bundled with a BTA1 digital receiver. These headphones use Auracast technology to provide low-latency audio at a range of up to 50 meters, and can connect to other devices enabled with Auracast or Bluetooth Classic. For those unfamiliar, Auracast is broadcast Bluetooth audio; we have an explainer about it after CES 2024 put this audio tech onto the big stage. The digital receiver introduces an Auracast signal in a physical space for any other compatible devices, which might include hearing aids or loudspeakers as well as other headphone sets.
The company promises 50 hours of listening with the RS 275 TV Headphones on a single charge, and the set can be powered up from the receiver's USB-C port. Sennheiser designed the headset for long-term comfort; the ear cushions and battery can be replaced by the device's owner. The headphones can be further personalized with the Sennheiser Smart Control Plus App. In addition to finding lost headphones, the app provides controls such as transparency mode, left-right balance, hearing profiles and device-type audio modes.
The RS 275 TV Headphone bundle will retail for $300, while a standalone BTA1 receiver will cost $130. Pre-orders will open on February 3 and the audio gear is expected to start shipping on February 17.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/sennheiser-introduces-new-tv-headphones-bundle-with-auracast-233735294.html?src=rss
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House lawmakers are discussing a reauthorization of the National Quantum Initiative, with lawmakers eyeing agency prize challenges, workforce issues and supply chain concerns among other key updates.
During a hearing hosted by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Thursday, lawmakers sought input from agencies leading quantum information science efforts. Chairman Brian Babin (R-Texas) said he is working with Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on a reauthorization of the NQI.
“This effort seeks to reinforce U.S. leadership in quantum science, technology and engineering, address workforce challenges, and accelerate commercialization,” Babin said.
The National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018 created a national plan for quantum technologies spearheaded by agencies including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation and the Energy Department.
As the House committee works on its bill, Senate lawmakers earlier this month introduced a bipartisan National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act. The bill would extend the initiative for an additional five years through 2034 and reauthorize key agency programs.
The Senate bill would also expand the NQI to include National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) research initiatives, including quantum satellite communications and quantum sensing.
Meanwhile, in September, the White House named quantum information sciences as one of six priority areas in governmentwide research and development budget guidance. “Agencies should deepen focused efforts, such as centers and core programs, to advance basic quantum information science, while also prioritizing R&D that expands the understanding of end user applications and supports the maturation of enabling technologies,” the guidance states.
During the House hearing on Thursday, lawmakers sought feedback on several proposals to include in the reauthorization bill. Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) said the Energy Department had sent lawmakers technical assistance in December, including a proposal to provide quantum prize challenge authority to agencies that sit on the quantum information science subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council.
Tanner Crowder, quantum information science lead at Energy’s Office of Science, said the prize challenges would help the government use “programmatic mechanisms” to drive the field forward.
“We’ve talked a little bit about our notices of funding opportunities, and the prize challenge would just be another, another mechanism to drive the field forward, both in potential algorithmic designs, hardware designs, and it just gives us more flexibility to push the forefront of the field,” Crowder said.
Crowder was also asked about how the reauthorization bill should direct resources for sensor development and quantum network infrastructure.
“We want to be able to connect systems together, and we need quantum networks to do that,” Crowder responded. “It is impractical to send quantum information over classical networks, and so we need to continue to push that forefront and look to interconnect heterogeneous systems at the data scale level, so that we can actually extract this information and compute upon it.”
Lawmakers also probed the witnesses on supply chain concerns related to quantum information sciences. James Kushmerick, director of the Physical Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, was asked about U.S. reliance on Europe and China for components like lasers and cooling equipment.
“One of the things we are looking for within the reauthorization is to kind of refocus and kind of onshore or develop new supply chains, not even just kind of duplicate what’s there, but move past that,” Kushmerick said. “Through the Quantum Accelerator Program, we’re looking to focus on chip-scale lasers and modular, small cryo-systems that can be deployed in different ways, as a change agent to kind of move forward.”
Several lawmakers also expressed concerns about the workforce related to quantum information sciences, with several pointing out that cuts to the NSF and changes to U.S. immigration policy under the Trump administration could hamper research and development.
Kushmerick said the NIST-supported Quantum Economic Development Consortium polled members in the quantum industry to better understand workforce challenges.
“It’s not just in quantum physicists leading the efforts,” Kushmerick said. “It’s really all the way through to engineers and technicians and people at all levels. So I really think we need a whole government effort to increase the pipeline through certificates to degrees and other activities.”
The post Workforce, supply chain factor into reauthorizing National Quantum Initiative first appeared on Federal News Network.
© AP Photo/Seth Wenig
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