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Tech companies are struggling to fill AI-specialized roles despite a surplus of available tech talent. U.S. colleges more than doubled the number of computer science degrees awarded between 2013 and 2022. Major layoffs at Google, Meta, and Amazon flooded the job market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts businesses will employ 6% fewer computer programmers in 2034 than last year. The disconnect stems from companies seeking workers with specific AI expertise. Runway CEO Cristobal Valenzuela estimates only hundreds of people worldwide possess the skills to train complex AI models. His company advertises base salaries up to $490,000 for a director of machine learning. Daniel Park's startup Pickle offers up to $500,000 base salary and expects candidates willing to work seven days a week. The WSJ story includes the example of one James Strawn, who was laid off from Adobe over the summer after 25 years as a senior software quality-assurance engineer. The 55-year-old has had one interview since his layoff. Matt Massucci, CEO of recruiting firm Hirewell, told the publication companies can automate some low-level engineering tasks and redirect that money to high-end talent.

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Duo pledge memory for Stargate to the tune of 900k DRAM wafer starts a month

OpenAI has persuaded two of South Korea's chip titans to fuel its bid to build the biggest AI engine yet.…

Apple's bad QA or poor coding by developers?

The Electron team has fixed code that caused system-wide slowdowns on the newly released macOS 26 "Tahoe."…

More than 100,000 people were sent to hospitals due to heatstroke in Japan between May 1 and Sunday, according to preliminary data from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Bloomberg, via Japan Times: The number is the most on record, according to NHK. Transport to hospitals of patients linked to heatstroke over the period rose almost 3% to 100,143 from a year earlier as Japan saw its national temperature record broken twice in a matter of days. The country's average temperature during this summer was the highest since the statistic began being compiled in 1898, the nation's weather agency said last month. Heat waves around the world are being made stronger and more deadly due to human-caused climate change. Government officials in August pledged to boost public health protections and encouraged the installation of more air conditioners in school gymnasiums and the use of cooling centers in communal spaces like libraries. New rules came into effect this summer that require employers to take adequate measures to protect workers from extreme temperatures.

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Major health insurers are threatening to drop renowned cancer centers from their networks during contract negotiations, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's president and CEO Selwyn M. Vickers and chairman Scott M. Stuart wrote in a story published by WSJ. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center reported that both Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare prepared to terminate network agreements while patients underwent active cancer treatment. FTI Consulting found that 45% of 133 provider-payer disputes in 2024 failed to reach timely agreements. The disruptions have affected tens of thousands of patients. Research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that care disruptions lead to more advanced-stage diagnoses and worse outcomes. Similar contract disputes involved Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University and University of North Carolina Health. New York lawmakers introduced legislation this year requiring insurers to maintain coverage for cancer patients during negotiations and until treatment concludes. Memorial Sloan Kettering's leadership described the practice as using patients as bargaining chips despite record insurer profits.

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Consulting biz reckons ballooning costs a result of changes in licensing, vendor landscape, and product shifts

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is warning that organizations need to rethink their approach to buying software as the ongoing push of SaaS into the market gathers pace.…

Zero repairability rating: iFixit teardown finds earbuds glued, unfixable, and destined for recycling

Improvements in repairability might have been made elsewhere in Apple's product range, but the AirPods Pro 3 model continue to make repairs virtually impossible.…

Extortion emails name-drop Big Red's E-Business Suite, though Google and Mandiant yet to find proof of any breach

Criminals with potential links to the notorious Clop ransomware mob are bombarding Oracle execs with extortion emails, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from Big Red's E-Business Suite, according to researchers.…

Rage, rage against the dying of the free security updates

With just days remaining until Microsoft discontinues free support, Windows 10 still accounts for 40.5 percent of the Windows desktop market, At the same time, Windows 11 adoption remains at just 48.94 percent.…

Experts say Commission is ‘fanning the flames’ of the continent’s own Watergate

An arsenal of angry European Parliament members (MEPs) is demanding answers from senior commissioners about why EU subsidies are ending up in the pockets of spyware companies.…

Because 100% would just be silly

BT wants to have 5G Standalone (5G SA) mobile service available to 99 percent of the local population by the end of the decade, but it isn't the only telco with lofty ambitions.…

Google has laid off over 100 employees in design-related roles, including user experience research and cloud design teams, as part of broader cost-cutting measures to prioritize AI infrastructure. CNBC reports: Earlier this week, the company laid off employees within the cloud unit's "quantitative user experience research" teams and "platform and service experience" teams, as well as some adjacent teams, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. The roles often focus on using data, surveys and other tools to understand and implement user behaviors that inform product development and design. Google has halved some of the cloud unit's design teams, and many of those affected are U.S.-based roles. Some employees have been given until early December to find a new role within the company.

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Industry insiders whisper more about posturing than practical progress

Italian rocket company Avio has signed a €40 million contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a reusable upper stage, a project already drawing skepticism from industry watchers.…

570GB of data claimed to be stolen by the Crimson Collective

A hacking crew claims to have broken into Red Hat's private GitHub repositories, exfiltrating some 570GB of compressed data, including sensitive documents belonging to customers. …

Web host blames partner's license fee increase, but users say notice was too short and terms unfair

Exclusive Hosting biz Ionos is hiking the price of its server instances, blaming an increase in Plesk license costs. Customers have a month to accept the increase or else disable Plesk on their account.…

Some Big Blue sky thinking needed for tech that promises employment extinction for humanity

Updated The UK's pensions and benefits department has awarded IBM a contract that's worth up to £27 million to explore, deploy and support AI technologies to enhance its services.…

Group promises sandboxing of AI money management tools with 1,000 branches remaining

Lloyds Banking Group — the £18.67 billion turnover UK-based bank — has promised that it will continue to use “digitization” to power a program of branch closures.…

Scientists have discovered complex organic molecules within the icy plume erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus, strengthening the case that its hidden saltwater ocean may harbor the conditions for life. The Guardian reports: The sixth largest of Saturn's moons, Enceladus has become one of the leading contenders in the search for bodies that could harbor extraterrestrial life, with the Cassini mission -- which ended in 2017 -- revealing the moon has a plume of water ice grains and vapors erupting from beneath the surface at its south pole. The phenomenon has since been captured by the James Webb space telescope, with the plume reaching nearly 6,000 miles into space. The source of this material is thought to be a saltwater ocean that lies beneath the moon's icy crust. Now researchers studying data from the Cassini mission say they have discovered organic substances within the plume, with some types of molecule detected there for the first time. Dr Nozair Khawaja, a planetary scientist at Freie University Berlin and lead author of the work, said the results increased the known complexity of the chemistry that is happening below the surface of Enceladus. "When there is complexity happening, that means that the habitable potential of Enceladus is increasing right now," he said. Writing in the journal Nature Astronomy, Khawaja and colleagues reported how their previous work had revealed the presence of organic substances and salts within ice grains found in a ring of Saturn, known as the "E-ring," that is composed of material ejected from Enceladus. [...] While the new findings do not show that there is life on Enceladus, Khawaja said they indicate there are complex chemical pathways at play that could lead to the formation of substances that could be biologically relevant. The results, he added, support plans by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the moon for signs of life. "I think all the signals are green here for Enceladus," Khawaja said. The findings add momentum to ESA's proposed mission to directly search for biological signs around 2042. According to the ESA, the mission will consist of an orbiter around Enceladus that will also fly through the plumes, as well as a lander that will touch down in the south pole region of the moon.

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It looks like you want some horrible shoes. Would you like to win them?

Microsoft has delivered its found a way to make Crocs even uglier by using some of its own software.…

Stray signals are a no-no when you’re trying to tune into the stars

IAC 2025 Work on the datacenter that serves the Square Kilometre Array’s (SKA’s) site in Western Australia is all but complete, including the installation of two Faraday cages to ensure the equipment inside does not leak radio waves that could harm the operation of the giant radio telescope.…