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Finding it hard to concentrate? Are you glued to social media for longer than you’d like? Well, maybe it’s not you… maybe it’s the phones. Brittany is joined by Magdalene Taylor, writer, cultural critic and senior editor at Playboy, and Fio Geiran, producer at TED Radio Hour and a writer of their Body Electric newsletter, to discuss this phrase: “it’s the phones.” They get into the effects that smartphones have on our brains and our culture, why some people are returning to “dumbphones,” and why it might take more than willpower to manage our relationships with our phones.

(Image credit: Nanzeeba Ibnat)

‘Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should’. While this famous line from Jurassic Park is a poignant reminder of the dangers of unchecked ambition, it can also be applied to today’s rapidly evolving and fragmented AI landscape.

The mainstream availability of AI has compounded issues with shadow IT, as employees increasingly sidestep governance to deploy powerful, self-service AI tools. In this environment, many businesses are faced with how to manage the element of control when unmanaged AI systems start making critical business decisions based on fragmented, unverified data.

Like John Hammond’s ambitious yet doomed theme park, some organizations are now creating something powerful without fully understanding the risks or having proper containment measures in place.

It’s become a business imperative to find ways to ensure AI-ready data is trusted, compliant, and seamlessly connected. Here we explore the unintended consequences of AI-driven shadow IT and why businesses need a structured approach to data management to avoid costly mistakes.

The rise of AI-powered shadow IT

Shadow IT is not a new challenge, but AI takes it to a new level. With so many generative tools now readily available, employees can solve problems, generate content, or make recommendations at speed. This happens often without needing any technical expertise or approval.

This speed is both a blessing and a risk. In their enthusiasm to experiment and move fast, teams often pull data from disparate sources, bypassing enterprise-grade controls in favor of quick, isolated fixes. Over time, these short-term solutions accumulate, and organizations are left with a patchwork of systems, models and insights that don’t speak the same language.

The risk isn’t just that teams are duplicating efforts or misinterpreting data. Business-critical decisions affecting customers, supply chains, product development and strategic direction are increasingly being made based on unverified siloed information. When AI systems operating on flawed data foundations make recommendations that influence growth strategies, the potential for bias or error multiplies exponentially.

Unify and trust your data

The antidote to this growing risk is not to clamp down on experimentation. It’s to build the right data foundation, one that supports innovation while maintaining context and integrity.

This means giving employees access to high-quality, AI-ready data from across the business. It’s essential to build one harmonized layer that connects all business AI applications and ensures that everyone from developers to decision-makers can rely on a single source of truth.

This foundation keeps context intact, so the entire business can see where, how, when and why data was produced, building trust and accurately informing decisions. When data is unified, it also supports regulatory demands and keeps the business agile to future compliance requirements.

The cost of siloed data and duplicated spend

There’s a significant cost benefit to this too. When growth is the unanimous business goal, organizations cannot afford to hemorrhage spend on an inefficient IT landscape.

It’s estimated that organizations today spend up to 50% of their IT budgets on data and analytics, with a significant portion of that going on attempts to harmonize disconnected data sources. Yet, despite these efforts, many businesses still lack a continuous, unified data layer that brings these sources together in a coherent, usable way.

That’s not just inefficient, it’s a missed opportunity. In the age of AI, the power of data lies not just in how much you have, but in how well it’s connected. Without a shared foundation, AI models risk drawing the wrong conclusions or being trained on outdated information.

This in turn leads to additional budgetary pressures. Businesses need to confidently scale AI across functions, knowing insights are accurate, secure and compliant.

From raw data to business outcomes

To move from raw data to real business outcomes, organizations need more than just infrastructure. They need a strategic approach to data and analytics that supports decision-making at every level.

This means combining new technologies with existing business processes to create enriched, curated data products that deliver meaningful value. It means equipping users with advanced analytics, benchmarking tools and AI-powered insights applications that can both interpret the data and recommend actions.

This strategic approach helps limit the spread of shadow IT by reducing the need for employees to seek out unapproved tools or shortcuts. By aligning data initiatives with established governance frameworks and cultural values, organizations can ensure consistency, compliance and trust in the data being used. At the same time, it creates space for innovation and agility, enabling teams to move quickly and confidently within a well-defined structure.

When done right, the benefits are clear: smarter decisions, faster responses and better outcomes across the board.

Creating a culture of AI confidence

Ultimately, the question businesses need to ask is not whether they’re prepared to use AI, but whether they’re ready to do it responsibly and reliably.

Readiness starts with a strong data foundation, ensuring that information is accurate, accessible and well-governed. It means empowering teams with tools and guidance to innovate responsibly, creating a culture where experimentation with the right tools is encouraged.

The lesson from Jurassic Park was not that innovation is dangerous. It’s that innovation without structure, without guardrails and without consideration of the bigger picture can quickly spiral out of control.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

The U.S. Air Force said Thursday it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits.

(Image credit: Mark Schiefelbein)

Israel's Security Cabinet approved a plan to take over Gaza City despite demands by families of hostages and mounting international calls for Israel to end the war.

(Image credit: Jehad Alshrafi)

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Aug. 8

• OpenAI's GPT-5 debut included the reveal of a new integration that allows ChatGPT Pro users to link their Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts directly to the chatbot
• ChatGPT can summarize your day, create a schedule, and flag important emails
• Though an opt-in feature requiring user confirmation, privacy issues are likely to be raised

The spectacle of GPT-5 may have overshadowed some of OpenAI's other news during its livestream on Thursday, but the demonstration of ChatGPT's new ability to directly peruse and analyze a user's Google data caught my eye as a major moment in ChatGPT's development and OpenAI's battle for supremacy among AI chatbots.

The new feature enables ChatGPT users to connect the AI chatbot to their Gmail, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar data. The demo showed ChatGPT responding to a request to see a schedule of the following day by going through the user's calendar and email inbox, then rapidly compiling a complete and complex schedule, including important unread emails to respond to.

This may not sound like a breakthrough to anyone who’s already overwhelmed with their digital list of things to do, but ChatGPT sorting that information and putting it in front of you might actually lower your stress, at least judging by the demo.

It's easy to imagine an AI outline for your day, or a nudge to handle that still-unread message, reducing the mental workload by cutting out the tedious sorting and linking of scheduled events to relevant emails. You might say, “What’s on my plate today?” and see your calendar paired with that flagged email. That would mean no more toggling between Gmail and your calendar, squinting at what's urgent.

Further, the data could help ChatGPT learn more about you and your needs by reading the meeting invites you've sent, deadlines you've barely hit, and RSVPs you sent the second you got the invite. For now, this option is only available to ChatGPT Pro users, though OpenAI promised it would become more widely available soon.

ChatGPT won't sneak a peek at your messages

That said, the idea of handing over Gmail and Calendar data to ChatGPT might raise an eyebrow or two for good reason. Gmail could hold confirmation of doctor appointments and secret romantic rendezvous plans.

Don't worry about inadvertently sharing those details with ChatGPT, though. You'll need to opt in to link your accounts to ChatGPT and confirm actions before they occur, which will prevent any emails from being sent automatically.

Then again, there are plenty of smart scheduling bots and email add-ons that automatically pull event details or remind you about missed invites. But ChatGPT’s integration adds actual conversation to the mix. You don’t forward an email or set up complex rules of how the automated system should respond to certain family members. You just type in regular language, and it will act more like a human secretary.

Assuming you're okay with the concept, you can see how those who use Google and ChatGPT might value linking the two. Especially if you're not a fan of Google Gemini for one reason or another. You might long to have an AI chatbot connected to your Google account, but simply prefer ChatGPT to Gemini. OpenAI wants to give you that option.

If Google doesn't have an exclusive claim to linking your email and calendar to an AI chatbot, then OpenAI can hope to win out in other areas where it may feel it has the advantage, like the power of GPT-5. You just have to be okay with letting ChatGPT see which weddings you'll be attending in the next few months.

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The New York City mass shooter had been diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses and had been the subject of two "mental health holds" in Las Vegas, but none of that limited his legal right to own firearms.

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Businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr became the head of Haiti's transitional presidential council tasked with restoring order as gangs underscored the challenges facing the Caribbean nation.

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• Hard drives sold as new contained decade-old internals from previously used Seagate and Western Digital units
• SMART data was manipulated to hide prior usage, masking serious mechanical and read error issues
• Attingo analysis revealed leftover user data, proving zeroing only touched the start of storage sectors

A recent case involving UnionSine-branded external hard drives has raised serious questions about the integrity of some products sold through Amazon’s marketplace.

An investigation by data recovery company Attingo uncovered supposedly "new" hard drives contained 2.5" HDDs from major brands like Seagate and Western Digital manufactured over a decade ago.

These findings contradict the product labelling, which lists a manufacturing date from spring 2025.

Used drives masquerading as new

The drives were sold under the identifier HD2510 during Amazon’s Tech Week promotional period, and were assumed by buyers to be new portable HDDs suitable for regular backup and storage use.

Attingo’s teardown of the drives revealed not just their age, but also signs of previous use, with the evidence extending beyond the hardware identifiers.

The company said some of the HDDs still contained fragments of user data, with only the beginning of the data fields zeroed out.

This practice, commonly used to simulate full data erasure, failed to eliminate all traces of prior use.

One recovered XML file even contained a timestamp from May 2024, pointing to very recent activity inconsistent with a supposedly unused device.

Some of the data traces were linked to TV recording systems, suggesting that the drives had once been in operational environments.

Attingo also noted inconsistencies in SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data, which is used by operating systems to assess hard drive health.

Although the displayed operating hours suggested zero usage, other key metrics, such as the read error rate, told a different story.

This kind of manipulation has been seen before in fraud cases involving repurposed HDDs, especially those sold through gray market channels.

The presence of numerous read errors and mechanical anomalies conflicted with the SMART status, indicating a fresh drive.

The fact that this issue emerged from a well-known retail platform, rather than a niche marketplace or obscure online store, is of particular concern.

Attingo CEO Markus Häfele expressed alarm at the findings, saying the situation was not only misleading to consumers but also potentially dangerous from a data protection standpoint.

"It's unfortunately well known that used hardware is occasionally declared as new on platforms like eBay or in direct imports from Asian retailers – but the fact that this is happening systematically as part of a widely advertised Amazon campaign is truly scandalous," Häfele said.

Though the incident has sparked renewed concern about the reliability of NAS HDDs and external storage devices offered through third-party sellers online, Amazon has yet to respond to the allegations.

Via Computerbase

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Thursday's move would compel colleges to report more data about the students they enroll and those who apply, including applicants' race and standardized test scores.

(Image credit: LA Johnson)

Using advanced DNA-analysis techniques researchers in New York City identified three more victims of the 9/11 terror attacks that occurred nearly 24 years ago.

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OpenAI’s much‑anticipated livestream reveal of GPT‑5 crammed a lot into about an hour and a half of announcements and demonstrations. CEO Sam Altman didn't show any of the fear he claimed to feel about the new AI model, just a lot of pride at what he and his team had accomplished.

Much of the presentation showed off GPT-5's technical milestones and how they translate into powerful new and upgraded AI features for users. Altman also had some lighter fare to unveil for ChatGPT, offering more customization options and ways for users to link their existing online footprint to ChatGPT.

Here are the five most notable pieces to emerge from GPT-5's debut.

GPT-5 arrives

(Image credit: OpenAI)

GPT-5 is the next iteration of OpenAI's models, bigger and more powerful, but not dissimilar in its basic form. Even so, GPT-5 is big and complex enough to reach a new level in how it seems to reason.

Essentially, you no longer have to spoon-feed it context or restate complex prompts three times, or at least not nearly as often. Multifaceted questions like how changing interest rates might affect Gen Z homeownership trends in mixed markets might take several prompts refined multiple times to provide the answers you seek with earlier ChatGPT models, but GPT‑5 can unpack the whole thing.

Based on the demonstrations, GPT‑5 seems to parse each part separately and stitch it together. And it flags when there's a gap in its knowledge, which is far better than confidently hallucinating. It applies that way of thinking to how it interacts with users, too. While obviously not 'thinking', it does appear to read between the lines well enough to reflect a user's mood and even adjust its response to an expressed emotion.

The model is supposed to be particularly good with math and coding software. Good enough to handle the increasingly popular pursuit of 'vibe coding,' where you simply describe a feeling or a mood of a piece of software, and the AI produces the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to match your design vision.

GPT-5 sizes

(Image credit: OpenAI)

GPT-5 comes in many sizes in addition to the standard version. There's also the smaller gpt-5-mini, and an even leaner gpt-5-nano, which lives solely in the API. The big news is that free ChatGPT users now get access to both GPT-5 and mini, while ChatGPT Plus subscribers enjoy higher usage limits across the board.

If you’re a Pro user paying $200 a month, you’ll now get unlimited GPT-5 access, along with access to the more powerful gpt-5-pro model and gpt-5-thinking. These both take longer to provide answers, but come back with deeper, more thoughtful responses.

There is no need to pick and choose yourself, either, though. ChatGPT now picks the right model automatically based on what you're asking and what plan you’re on.

ChatGPT custom personalities and colors

ChatGPT has a default, pleasantly bland personality, but GPT‑5 is advanced enough to offer more variety in the tone and style of the AI chatbot. If you don't want the usual neutral mode, you can choose “Cynic” for sarcasm with your answer, “Listener” if you’re venting and just need it to echo back understanding, "Nerd" for a side of geeky trivia, and "Robot" for the purely mechanical response.

These personalities don’t undercut the answers you get, but they do flavor the response. Therefore, you might get dry wit with productivity tips from the “Cynic” tone or gentle encouragement in your goals from “Listener.”

Additionally, the chatbot's appearance can now be altered with the new color themes. If you're a paid subscriber, you'll soon be able to adjust the look of ChatGPT instead of switching between the usual black or white.

Voice Mode

(Image credit: Future)

ChatGPT's Voice Mode is getting an audio glow-up of its own. OpenAI is rolling out a much-improved version that not only works with custom GPTs but also adapts its tone and speech style based on your instructions and overall vibe.

You can ask it to be snappier, slower, warmer, or whatever else you want. For ChatGPT Plus users, voice responses are now nearly unlimited. Free users still get access, too, with a few hours a day to chat hands-free.

To streamline things, the old Standard Voice Mode is being phased out entirely within 30 days. After that, everyone will be on the same upgraded experience.

Google connections for ChatGPT

(Image credit: Future)

Next week, ChatGPT Pro users will be able to hook up their Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts directly to ChatGPT. That means no more switching tabs to check if you're free next Tuesday or digging through threads to find that one email you definitely forgot to reply to.

Once connected, ChatGPT will pull in what it needs to help respond to your queries. OpenAI assured users that it will only pull in the minimum needed and only when it’s helpful.

You don’t need to say “check my calendar” or “pull that contact.” The AI will do so based on whether you request something that requires it, like scheduling a meeting. It will pick a time that works for you and write the email on your behalf. Other subscription tiers are scheduled to get access to the connections in the near future, so this won't be limited to Pro forever.

All of these upgrades leveraging GPT-5 point to OpenAI's bigger plans to make its AI models an intimate part of your life, not just a tool you occasionally turn to and feel annoyed about having to carefully parse answers. Smarter reasoning means less cleanup for the user. Vibe coding shifts AI from merely aping code to interpreting your intended use with software. The personalities and colors make the AI feel like it's more unique to you, not just a one-size-fits-all tool, especially with the more realistic voice and access to your email account and calendar

GPT‑5 mimics awareness better than any of its predecessors. That means it could blend into our routines and become as second nature to use as our smartphones. Or at least, that's what OpenAI and its investors likely hope to see happen.

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Prepare to get away from city lights if you want to see the colorful sky show.

The FBI is investigating at least 250 people who may be tied to online networks that target children.

These networks encourage kids to hurt themselves, other minors or even animals. In some countries, they have been tied to mass casualty and terrorism plots.

NPR's domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef has spoken with a family that experienced this firsthand.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

No release date, no buildup, just a straight-up launch on the Switch.

You can watch the ISS astronauts return home on Friday.

A photo of an emaciated child in Gaza has gone viral, with many in Israel claiming it depicts false information. Our producer in Gaza meets the child and his family, we hear about how he is doing now and about the food insecurity many in Gaza are facing.

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President Trump plans to nominate Stephen Miran to fill a vacant seat on the Federal Reserve's board of governors, but only for the next six months.

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