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AI NEWS & TRENDS
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NVIDIA to Manufacture American-Made AI Supercomputers in US for First Time |
NVIDIA is working with its manufacturing partners to design and build factories that, for the first time, will produce NVIDIA AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S. Together with leading manufacturing partners, the company has commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test NVIDIA Blackwell chips at TSMC's chip plants in Phoenix. It's also building AI supercomputers in Texas, with Foxconn in Houston and with Wistron in Dallas. Mass production at both plants is expected to ramp up in the next 12-15 months. Within the next four years, NVIDIA plans to produce up to half a trillion dollars of AI infrastructure in the United States through partnerships with TSMC, Foxconn, Wistron, Amkor and SPIL. (https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-manufacture-american-made-ai-supercomputers-us/)
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81% of Field Service Technicians Believe AI Agents Can Help Them Do Their Jobs More Efficiently |
Tradespeople and technicians estimate they waste nearly a full day's worth of work every week on paperwork, according to a new Salesforce survey. Data was sourced from a double-anonymous survey of full-time tradespeople and technicians in the US. Respondents included professionals in roles such as equipment installation, maintenance and repair, skilled trades, public works, on-site medical care, and building inspection. The shortages of tradespeople and technicians also mean that service organizations must find opportunities to massively scale operational efficiencies and overall output. The key takeaways of the survey were: Scheduling is the No. 1 efficiency blocker; Administrative work is adding pressure to technicians; and AI agents can improve technician productivity and safety, with 81% of technicians believing AI agents can help them do their jobs more efficiently.
Technicians estimate that AI agents could take 35% of their administrative tasks off their plate entirely - a savings of over two hours per employee, per standard 40-hour work week. Estimates were even higher in consumer business services (39%) - which includes skilled workers like contractors, plumbers, electricians, and manufacturing (39%) sectors. In addition to agents, respondents are bullish on the impact of hands-free technology - like voice commands - that can empower them to ask questions and record information while staying focused on the task at hand. The use cases that tradespeople are most interested in with regards to AI agents include: troubleshooting with AI text and image recognition, suggesting products and services relevant to customer needs, smart scheduling, automatically summarizing appointments, predictive service needs, automatically filling out forms, automatically creating work order and job briefings, locating required parts and equipment, and filling schedule gaps. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-will-change-the-trades-too-and-field-service-technicians-cant-wait/)
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GPT-4.1 Is Here, But Not for Everyone - Here's Who Can Try the New Models |
OpenAI recently unveiled a new family of models: GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and GPT-4.1 nano, which the company says offer improvements in coding, instruction-following, and long-context understanding, and outperform GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini "across the board." The models were purpose-built for developers and, as a result, will only be available via the API. OpenAI says the GPT-4.1 models were built using developer feedback to improve areas they are particularly focused on, such as following reliable formats, adhering to response structure and order, front-end coding, and more. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/gpt-4-1-is-here-but-not-for-everyone-heres-who-can-try-the-new-models/)
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NATIONAL TECH NEWS
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Tariff Threats Spark Surge in PC Shipments |
Global PC shipments surged during the first three months of 2025, growing 4.8% year over year as vendors stockpiled inventory ahead of expected U.S. tariffs, according to preliminary Gartner analysis. Last year's relatively sluggish market grew just 1.3%. The spike was more pronounced in the U.S., which saw shipments grow 12.6% year-over-year. The U.S. accounted for more than one-quarter of the estimated 59 million units shipped in Q1, the firm said. (https://www.ciodive.com/news/trump-tariffs-spur-pc-shipments-surge-gartner-idc/745308/)
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Remote Access Tools Most Frequently Targeted as Ransomware Entry Points; ALSO, AI Agents Emerge as Potential Targets for Cyberattackers |
Remote access tools were the initial entry point in eight of every 10 ransomware attacks in 2024, according to a report released by At-Bay. VPNs accounted for about two-thirds of ransomware attack entry points. Indirect ransomware claims continue to rise, showing a 43% increase in 2024, according to At-Bay. Indirect ransomware is when an attack begins on a third-party vendor or business partner, often leading to a data breach or business interruption of a downstream client or partner. The report cites the 2023 MOVE-it breaches and the 2024 CDK attacks. Overall, the frequency of ransomware claims returned to record levels seen in 2021 after a decreased rate of attacks in 2022 and 2023, according to the report., which also notes that midmarket companies, with annual revenue in the $25 million to $100 million range, have seen sharp increases in direct ransomware claims. (https://www.ciodive.com/news/remote-access-tools-ransomware-entry/745198/)
ALSO, AI Agents Emerge as Potential Targets for Cyberattackers - Digital entities such as bots and AI agents are fast emerging as prime targets for cyberattacks as organizations rapidly increase their reliance on them, cybersecurity firm Delinea said in a recent report. For every human identity, there are about 46 so-called "non-human identities," with the number of NHIs projected to exceed 45 billion by the end of 2025, "illustrating their pervasive presence in modern infrastructures," according to the research. NHIs are digital identities for applications, services or devices, used by organizations to execute automatic machine-to-machine operations, according to a CrowdStrike article. "While human identities remain a primary attack target, non-human identities have quietly become an equally critical - and often overlooked - security risk," the article continues. (https://www.ciodive.com/news/ai-agents-cybersecurity-risks/744803/)
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Meta Faces the FTC as Blockbuster Antitrust Trial Kicks Off |
Meta is currently facing off against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in a high-stakes antitrust trial that could result in the company's forced divestiture of Instagram and WhatsApp. The trial in Washington is expected to last weeks and centers around the FTC's allegations that Meta monopolizes the personal social networking market. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom and other current and former Meta executives are expected to testify, along with top brass from rivals TikTok, Snap and Google's YouTube, according to a legal filing. The FTC claims Meta shouldn't have been allowed to buy Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, and the agency is calling for those units to be sliced off from the company. "Acquiring these competitive threats has enabled Facebook to sustain its dominance - to the detriment of competition and users - not by competing on the merits, but by avoiding competition," the FTC said in a legal filing. (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/11/ftc-meta-instagram-whatsapp-lawsuit.html)
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US Utilities Grapple with Big Tech's Massive Power Demands for Data Centers |
U.S. electric utilities are fielding massive requests for new power capacity as Big Tech scours the country for viable locations for new data centers to keep up with the compute demands of AI. A Reuters survey of 13 major U.S. electric utility earnings transcripts found nearly half have received inquiries from data center companies for volumes of power that would exceed their peak demand or existing generation capacity - that's everything they supply to homes and businesses - a metric that reflects the sheer size of oncoming data center needs. Now, the power industry is struggling with a question that will determine the course of billions of dollars in investment: how to meet the demand? Utilities have announced billions of additional dollars in capital spending already this year, with some doubling their five-year investment plans. If utilities underestimate the demand, they risk an unstable electrical grid with a higher chance of blackouts for their customers. If they overbuild, consumer rate-payers could end up with the tab. (https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-utilities-grapple-with-big-techs-massive-power-demands-data-centers-2025-04-07/)
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