CRUNCHY TECH
YESTERDAY, STILL WORTH KNOWING
The tech world grapples with AI safety debates, corporate upheavals and hardware price hikes.
The global conversation on artificial intelligence safety took centre stage, with Microsoft issuing a humanist code of conduct that explicitly rejects the idea of AI consciousness. The company stated that people matter more than AI, setting rules for readable reasoning and external audits. This stance contrasts with the warnings from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who called for a coordinated slowdown in development. Sam Altman of OpenAI also called for a national safety framework, insisting that progress will not slow down despite the need for pacing. Meanwhile, China fired back at U.S. warnings, dismissing them as fearmongering intended to stifle its own progress. The debate was further highlighted when Nvidia chief Jensen Huang put President Donald Trump on speakerphone at a tech summit to dismiss robot fears as a hoax.
In the corporate sphere, Automattic faced a significant leadership shake-up after its board was removed following a failed attempt to place CEO Matt Mullenweg on leave. The power struggle has roiled the WordPress owner, potentially impacting the future direction of the open-source ecosystem. Separately, the U.S. National Security Agency announced a thorough reorganisation into five mission centres, including dedicated units for China, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. The move aims to break down slow-moving bureaucracy and speed up intelligence delivery to the battlefield, a priority for the dual-hat leader of both the NSA and US Cyber Command.
The hardware sector saw a mix of performance updates and pricing adjustments. AMD launched the Ryzen 5 5500F, a chiplet processor that offers a compelling upgrade path for older AM4 builds, outperforming its monolithic sibling by up to 16 per cent in some gaming titles. Dell introduced the Pro 5 16 (AMD) laptop, a midrange business machine powered by the Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 470 processor, signalling a shift in OEM strategy. In gaming, Blizzard confirmed that no further Diablo 4 expansions will be released until the next mainline game arrives. Valve also unveiled the Steam Frame VR headset, priced at nearly £900, with engineers citing broad supply chain inflation as the reason for the high cost.