July 7, 2025

Producing tangible business benefits from modern iPaaS solutions

When a historic UK-based retailer set out to modernize its IT environment, it was wrestling with systems that had grown organically for more than 175 years. Prior digital transformation efforts had resulted in a patchwork of hundreds of integration flows spanning cloud, on-premises systems, and third-party vendors, all communicating across multiple protocols.  The company needed…

Technology

Scaling integrated digital health

June 23, 2025
Around the world, countries are facing the challenges of aging populations, growing rates of chronic disease, and workforce shortages, leading to a growing burden on health care systems. From diagnosis to treatment, AI and other digital solutions can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of health care, easing the burden on straining systems. According to the…

The Download: the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s first pictures, and reframing privacy

June 23, 2025
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. See the stunning first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory The first spectacular images taken by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have been released for the world to peruse: a panoply of…

Book review: Surveillance & privacy

June 23, 2025
Privacy only matters to those with something to hide. So goes one of the more inane and disingenuous justifications for mass government and corporate surveillance. There are others, of course, but the “nothing to hide” argument remains a popular way to rationalize or excuse what’s become standard practice in our digital age: the widespread and…

See stunning first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory

June 23, 2025
The first spectacular images taken by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have been released for the world to peruse: a panoply of iridescent galaxies and shimmering nebulas. “This is the dawn of the Rubin Observatory,” says Meg Schwamb, a planetary scientist and astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. Much has been written about…

The Download: talking dirty with DeepSeek, and the risks and rewards of calorie restriction

June 20, 2025
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. It’s pretty easy to get DeepSeek to talk dirty AI companions like Replika are designed to engage in intimate exchanges, but people use general-purpose chatbots for sex talk too, despite their stricter content…

How a 30-year-old techno-thriller predicted our digital isolation

June 20, 2025
In April, Mark Zuckerberg, as tech billionaires are so fond of doing these days, pontificated at punishing length on a podcast. In the interview, he addressed America’s loneliness epidemic: “The average American has—I think it’s fewer than three friends. And the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it’s like 15 friends or…

Calorie restriction can help animals live longer. What about humans?

June 20, 2025
Living comes with a side effect: aging. Despite what you might hear on social media or in advertisements, there are no drugs that are known to slow or reverse human aging. But there’s some evidence to support another approach: cutting back on calories. Caloric restriction (reducing your intake of calories) and intermittent fasting (switching between…

It’s pretty easy to get DeepSeek to talk dirty

June 19, 2025
AI companions like Replika are designed to engage in intimate exchanges, but people use general-purpose chatbots for sex talk too, despite their stricter content moderation policies. Now new research shows that not all chatbots are equally willing to talk dirty: DeepSeek is the easiest to convince. But other AI chatbots can be enticed too, if…