Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Amazon is betting on agent interoperability and model mixing to make its new Alexa voice assistant more effective, retooling its flagship voice assistant with agentic capabilities and browser-use tasks. This new Alexa has been rebranded to Alexa+, and Amazon is emphasizing that this version “does more.” For instance, it can now proactively tell users if a new book from their favorite author is available, or that their favorite artist is in town — and even offer to buy a ticket. Alexa+ reasons through instructions and taps “experts” in different knowledge bases to answer user questions and complete tasks like “Where is the nearest pizza place to the office? Will my coworkers like it? — Make a reservation if you think they will.” In other words, Alexa+ blends AI agents, computer use capabilities and knowledge it learns from the larger Amazon ecosystem to be what Amazon hopes is a more capable and smarter home voice assistant.  Alexa+ currently runs on Amazon’s Nova models and models from Anthropic. However, Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s VP of Alexa and Echo, told VentureBeat that the device will remain “model agnostic” and that the company could introduce other models (at least models available on Amazon Bedrock) to find the best one for accomplishing tasks. “[It’s about] choosing the right integrations to complete a task, figuring out the right sort of instructions, what it takes to actually complete the task, then orchestrating the whole thing,” said Rausch. “The  big thing to understand about it is that Alexa will continue to evolve with the best models available anywhere on Bedrock.” What is model mixing? Model mixing or model routing lets enterprises and other users choose the appropriate AI model to tap on a query-by-query basis. Developers increasingly turn to model mixing to cut costs. After all, not every prompt needs to be answered by a reasoning model; some models perform certain tasks better.  Amazon’s cloud and AI unit, AWS, has long been a proponent of model mixing. Recently, it announced a feature on Bedrock called Intelligent Prompt Routing, which directs prompts to the best model and model size to resolve the query. And, it could be working. “I can tell you that I cannot say for any given response from Alexa on any given task what model it’s using,” said Rausch.  Agentic interoperability and orchestration Rausch said Alexa+ brings agents together in three different ways. The first is the traditional API; the second is deploying agents that can navigate websites and apps like Anthropic’s Computer Use; the third is connecting agents to other agents.  “But at the center of it all, orchestrating across all those different kinds of experiences are these baseline, very capable, state-of-the-art LLMs,” said Rausch.  He added that if a third-party application already has its own agent, that agent can still talk to the agents working inside Alexa+ even if the external agent was built using a different model.  Rausch emphasized that the Alexa team used Bedrock’s tools and technology, including new multi-agent orchestration tools. Anthropic CPO Mike Krieger told VentureBeat that even earlier versions of Claude won’t be able to accomplish what Alexa+ wants.  “A really interesting ‘Why now?’ moment is apparent in the demo, because, of course, the models have gotten better,” said Krieger. “But if you tried to do this with 3.0 Sonnet or our 3.0 level models, I think you’d struggle in a lot of ways to use a lot of different tools all at once.” Although neither Rausch nor Krieger would confirm which specific Anthropic model Amazon used to build Alexa+, it’s worth pointing out that Anthropic released Claude 3.7 Sonnet on Monday, and it is available on Bedrock.  Large investments in AI  Many user’s first brush with AI came through AI voice assistants like Alexa, Google Home or even Apple’s Siri. Those let people outsource some tasks, like turning on lights. I do not own an Alexa or Google Home device, but I learned how convenient having one could be when staying at a hotel recently. I could tell the Alexa to stop the alarm, turn on the lights and open a curtain while still under the covers.  But while Alexa, Google Home devices, and Siri became ubiquitous in people’s lives, they began showing their age when generative AI became popular. Suddenly, people wanted more real-time answers from AI assistants and demanded smarter task resolutions, such as adding multiple meetings to calendars without the need for much prompting. Amazon admitted that the rise of gen AI, especially agents, has made it possible for Alexa to finally meet its potential.  “Until this moment, we were limited by the technology in what Alexa could be,” Panos Panay, Amazon’s devices and services SVP, said during a demo.  Rausch said the hope is that Alexa+ continues to improve, add new models and hopefully make more people comfortable with what the technology can do.  source

Last week’s inaugural conference of the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI in Paris started with a dire warning from renowned computer scientist Stuart Russell: “There are two potential futures for humanity — a world with safe and ethical AI or a world with no AI at all. We are currently pursuing a third option.” He said we’re in a moment where the entire human race is about to board an airplane that needs to stay aloft forever, and we have no safety standards in place. This sense of existential urgency was echoed throughout the event by AI luminaries as diverse as recent Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton, Margaret Mitchell from Hugging Face, Anca Dragan from DeepMind, and Turing Award recipient Yoshua Bengio from the University of Montreal. The overwhelming consensus among these experts was that we should not be pursuing artificial general intelligence without knowing how to control it. While most enterprises aren’t immediately concerned with AI’s existential questions, the conference also touched on several themes that are relevant to businesses today: AI alignment. At this point, most folks in the AI world are familiar with the paperclip maximizer thought experiment that demonstrates the catastrophic potential of AI misalignment. At the same time, they tend to discount it as science fiction. During her keynote, Anca Dragan demonstrated, “There is a clear technical path to misalignment.” Forrester’s research shows that misalignment is inevitable and poses an existential threat to your business today. Avoid catastrophe by adopting an align by design approach. Fairness. The intractable problem of bias in AI was a hot topic at the event, and opinions ranged from fatalistic (“there is no way to remove bias; we need to live with it”) to slightly more sanguine. One of the more compelling potential solutions to the problem came from Derek Leben, professor at Carnegie Mellon, who proposed a Rawlsian approach to algorithmic justice that combines and prioritizes several fairness metrics. While participants disagreed on the correct way to measure bias, there was widespread agreement that the best way to mitigate it is through proactive stakeholder engagement. Explainability. Fortunately, the fatalism around fairness did not extend to explainability, as well. Large language models are massive, complex, and entirely opaque … today. But promising research in mechanistic interpretability may eventually yield explanations of how large language models work. In the meantime, companies should strive for traceability and observability in their generative AI deployments. While the event brought together academics, governments, and thought leaders from top AI vendors, enterprises were conspicuously absent. This was an unfortunate miss. It is the companies investing in AI that have the most leverage today in demanding that it is safe and ethical. Right now, these companies have the most to win and the most to lose. By demanding safety and ethical standards from AI vendors today, you may not only safeguard the future of your business … but potentially the future of humanity. source

By Nadia Dreid ( February 27, 2025, 5:31 PM EST) — Phone service providers up and down the call path will now be responsible for blocking calls coming from the Federal Communications Commission’s “do not originate” list after the agency ushered in new rules to that effect Thursday…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

TL;DR: Improve your productivity and comfort with the Tetra Ergonomic Split Keyboard — at home, at the office, or on vacation — for $299.99. If you’ve been looking for  ways to work smarter, have you considered  how a smart ergonomic keyboard could make a big difference to your productivity? Even if you keep up with the latest  computing and consumer electronics trends, you might have missed just how far keyboard technology has advanced. Enter the Tetra Ergonomic Split Keyboard with Touchscreen. Tetra’s most striking feature is its 8-inch Multi-Touch Display, which basically serves as a secondary screen — similar to Apple’s Touch Bar — perfect for displaying chat windows, apps, notes, music controls, and more without adding clutter to your main monitor. The next standout feature is its ergonomic split layout, which was designed specifically to reduce strain and increase comfort by defaulting to a natural wrist position. Your ideal wrist position may vary depending on the task, but the Tetra adapts with multiple typing modes. Splice Mode connects the three components into a straight line with the screen in the center, serving as a secondary display, workspace manager, or shortcut hub. Split Mode allows you to separate the keyboard modules, creating more space between your hands to improve your posture and reduce wrist strain. Stacked Mode keeps the keyboard halves together while the screen remains independent, offering the familiar keyboard layout with added flexibility. When work is done, this keyboard switches into Game Mode, which will improve both precision and comfort even during long gaming sessions by repositioning the right keyboard module, creating extra space for your mouse, and reducing shoulder and wrist strain. Editors, graphic designers, and other professionals can supercharge their productivity with fully customizable hotkeys for launching apps, programming macros, executing commands, and just streamlining workflows in general. Wirelessly connect up to three devices and instantly switch between them to conveniently multitask with multiple systems. The Tetra keyboard is compatible with macOS, Windows, and Ubuntu. It has a long-lasting battery and a travel-friendly design, making it perfect for work trips and vacations. Get the Tetra Ergonomic Split Keyboard and Touchscreen for only $299.99 — but act fast, as this  limited offer won’t last. Prices and availability are subject to change. source

Government inefficiency has been a long-term gripe in America. Seemingly to the rescue is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk. DOGE is moving rapidly to cut costs, by eliminating some organizations, like USAID, entirely and slashing the workforce of others. Though many lawsuits have been filed to stop the slashing and burning, DOGE continues, setting its sights on “optimizing” federal agencies. These moves will likely affect tech sales and contracts, as well as the relationships between federal agencies and tech vendors. DOGE is also siphoning highly-sensitive information from various federal organizations that could compromise individuals, and potentially, the entire country.   “The speed with which Musk and his team are moving to extract information from sensitive government databases and affect longstanding government programs is unprecedented and potentially illegal. We still don’t know the policy implications,” says Rita McGrath, Columbia University Business School professor and C-suite strategist, in an email interview. “We can expect disruptions in what would otherwise be ‘normal’ procurement, contracting and payment processes. Bills will not get paid in a timely way and with dismissals and employee buyouts on the horizon, a government already hard-pressed to provide essential services is going to function even less well.”  Related:Questionable Oversight: Who Watches the Watchers on Sensitive Data? Relative to the size of the US population and economy, the federal workforce has been in decline since the Reagan administration basically declared war on it, she says.   “The doctrine that high-functioning, effective government is worth making investments in, that followed the post-World War II ‘golden age’ has largely disappeared and the workforce remaining is often overworked and frustrated at accomplishing even basic tasks in a timely way,” says McGrath. “Government procurement processes are already glacially slow and complex, which means that larger firms with staffs that can cope tend to have an advantage in government procurement.”  Whether Musk’s team will be able to override traditional protections against theft of government resources in the name of ‘efficiency’ is an open question.  “It really comes down to whether institutional rules will intervene,” says McGrath. “There is, however, likely to be a permanent shift in how services, such as consulting, are being managed.  We’ve already seen a shift in demand for management consulting and legal services to depart from a time-based model to more of a value-based model, which would have huge implications for the billing structures and organizational forms of these [companies] – from a leverage model to some kind of outcome-focused approach.  We’re watching it as a potential inflection point very closely.”  Related:Tidal Wave of Trump Policy Changes Comes for the Tech Space Ben Walker, CEO at transcription services provider Ditto, says DOGE budget cuts will probably cause federal agencies to be more cautious about tech purchases and consulting contracts, which could lead to longer procurement cycles and stricter requirements for vendors.  “To adapt, my company is looking at offering flexible contract structures and more ways to provide long-term value. Strong performance and trust will matter more than ever as agencies justify their spending,” says Walker in an email interview. “One way to think of it is that the federal government is becoming more like a private-sector company. Agencies may demand clearer return-on-investment metrics and push for performance-based contracts. Vendors that can clearly articulate the necessity and efficiency of their services will have an edge.”  Tips to Weather the Storm  Columbia University’s McGrath believes enterprises should do several things to protect themselves. For example, it’s important to have cash on hand.   “You don’t want to be caught in a cash flow crunch if suddenly your invoices aren’t getting paid.  So, work proactively with your bank or other customers to make sure you have some buffers in the bank,” says McGrath.  Also lean into existing relationships to better understand the potential impacts.  “[T]his will be a scary time for those under the microscope by DOGE and it could be an opportunity to both learn what’s going on and deepen trust in existing relationships,” says McGrath. “Connect with peers — perhaps lightning check ins — to keep on top of what is really going on. Something like a daily call where you share information about what you’re learning and what they are learning could be helpful.”  And finally, don’t assume that business as usual will return any time soon. Following the USAID purge, agencies that have existed for many decades are facing instant changes that will disrupt their operations. Processes, however efficient or inefficient, will change and tech companies need to be prepared for the financial impacts.  Bottom line, proceed with eyes wide open and caution, and embrace scenario planning. Such efforts helped organizations weather the whipsaw effects of the pandemic. Such scenario planning is even more important at a time when virtually anything can happen, especially under a cloak of opacity.  It’s also important to nurture current relationships and to monitor how procurement processes and requirements are changing. Once again, agility will be critical to navigating the changes.  source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has announced the release of GPT-4.5, which CEO Sam Altman previously said would be the last non-chain-of-thought (CoT) model.  The company said the new model “is not a frontier model” but is still its biggest large language model (LLM), with more computational efficiency. Altman said that, even though GPT-4.5 does not reason the same way as OpenAI’s other new offerings o1 or o3-mini, this new model still offers more human-like thoughtfulness.  Industry observers, many of whom had early access to the new model, have found GPT-4.5 to be an interesting move from OpenAI, tempering their expectations of what the model should be able to achieve.  Wharton professor and AI commentator Ethan Mollick posted on social media that GPT-4.5 is a “very odd and interesting model,” noting it can get “oddly lazy on complex projects” despite being a strong writer.  OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla AI head Andrej Karpathy noted that GPT-4.5 made him remember when GPT-4 came out and he saw the model’s potential. In a post to X, Karpathy said that, while using GPT 4.5, “everything is a little bit better, and it’s awesome, but also not exactly in ways that are trivial to point to.” Karpathy, however warned that people shouldn’t expect revolutionary impact from the model as it “does not push forward model capability in cases where reasoning is critical (math, code, etc.).” Industry thoughts in detail Here’s what Karpathy had to say about the latest GPT iteration in a lengthy post on X: “Today marks the release of GPT4.5 by OpenAI. I’ve been looking forward to this for ~2 years, ever since GPT4 was released, because this release offers a qualitative measurement of the slope of improvement you get out of scaling pretraining compute (i.e. simply training a bigger model). Each 0.5 in the version is roughly 10X pretraining compute. Now, recall that GPT1 barely generates coherent text. GPT2 was a confused toy. GPT2.5 was “skipped” straight into GPT3, which was even more interesting. GPT3.5 crossed the threshold where it was enough to actually ship as a product and sparked OpenAI’s “ChatGPT moment”. And GPT4 in turn also felt better, but I’ll say that it definitely felt subtle. I remember being a part of a hackathon trying to find concrete prompts where GPT4 outperformed 3.5. They definitely existed, but clear and concrete “slam dunk” examples were difficult to find. It’s that … everything was just a little bit better but in a diffuse way. The word choice was a bit more creative. Understanding of nuance in the prompt was improved. Analogies made a bit more sense. The model was a little bit funnier. World knowledge and understanding was improved at the edges of rare domains. Hallucinations were a bit less frequent. The vibes were just a bit better. It felt like the water that rises all boats, where everything gets slightly improved by 20%. So it is with that expectation that I went into testing GPT4.5, which I had access to for a few days, and which saw 10X more pretraining compute than GPT4. And I feel like, once again, I’m in the same hackathon 2 years ago. Everything is a little bit better and it’s awesome, but also not exactly in ways that are trivial to point to. Still, it is incredible interesting and exciting as another qualitative measurement of a certain slope of capability that comes “for free” from just pretraining a bigger model. Keep in mind that that GPT4.5 was only trained with pretraining, supervised finetuning and RLHF, so this is not yet a reasoning model. Therefore, this model release does not push forward model capability in cases where reasoning is critical (math, code, etc.). In these cases, training with RL and gaining thinking is incredibly important and works better, even if it is on top of an older base model (e.g. GPT4ish capability or so). The state of the art here remains the full o1. Presumably, OpenAI will now be looking to further train with reinforcement learning on top of GPT4.5 to allow it to think and push model capability in these domains. HOWEVER. We do actually expect to see an improvement in tasks that are not reasoning heavy, and I would say those are tasks that are more EQ (as opposed to IQ) related and bottlenecked by e.g. world knowledge, creativity, analogy making, general understanding, humor, etc. So these are the tasks that I was most interested in during my vibe checks. So below, I thought it would be fun to highlight 5 funny/amusing prompts that test these capabilities, and to organize them into an interactive “LM Arena Lite” right here on X, using a combination of images and polls in a thread. Sadly X does not allow you to include both an image and a poll in a single post, so I have to alternate posts that give the image (showing the prompt, and two responses one from 4 and one from 4.5), and the poll, where people can vote which one is better. After 8 hours, I’ll reveal the identities of which model is which. Let’s see what happens 🙂“ Box CEO’s thoughts on GPT-4.5 Other early users also saw potential in GPT-4.5. Box CEO Aaron Levie said on X that his company used GPT-4.5 to help extract structured data and metadata from complex enterprise content.  “The AI breakthroughs just keep coming. OpenAI just announced GPT-4.5, and we’ll be making it available to Box customers later today in the Box AI Studio. We’ve been testing GPT4.5 in early access mode with Box AI for advanced enterprise unstructured data use-cases, and have seen strong results. With the Box AI enterprise eval, we test models against a variety of different scenarios, like Q&A accuracy, reasoning capabilities and more. In particular, to explore the capabilities of GPT-4.5, we focused on a key area with significant potential for enterprise impact: The extraction

One-third of U.S. adults say they attend religious services in person at least once a month, including 25% who report going at least once a week. Far more Americans (67%) say they attend religious services in person a few times a year or less often. This includes about half of U.S. adults who seldom or never attend services. In response to a separate question, the new survey finds that 23% of Americans watch religious services online or on TV at least once a month, while the majority (76%) do so a few times a year or less often. Looking at these two questions together allows us to see, more broadly, how many Americans participate in religious services. The 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) finds that 40% of U.S. adults say they do so at least once a month, either in person or online, or both ways: 16% say they participate both ways, 17% attend only in person, and 8% watch only online or on TV. Why we don’t compare these findings with 2014 In 2014, the last time we conducted a Religious Landscape Study, we asked a single question about religious participation – “How often do you attend religious services?” – without asking separately about in-person attendance and virtual participation. We did not begin asking respondents whether they watch religious services online/on TV until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused many congregations to restrict in-person attendance and begin livestreaming their services. Another difference between this survey and the previous RLS is that the 2014 study was conducted entirely by telephone, while the new survey was conducted mainly online and on paper. Research shows that telephone surveys tend to produce higher estimates of religious attendance than web/paper surveys do. Because of these changes, the results of the two surveys on religious service attendance are not directly comparable. What might appear to be a sharp drop from 50% of U.S. adults describing themselves as regular (at least monthly) attenders in 2014 to 33% describing themselves that way in 2023-24 does not necessarily reflect a real change in behavior. The difference between the two surveys is caused, at least in part, by changes in the ways the surveys were conducted. That said, the Center’s telephone surveys were picking up a decline in religious attendance in the years before we switched over to online/paper surveys. The share of Americans who reported attending religious services at least monthly dropped from 54% in 2007 to 50% in the 2014 RLS and had fallen to 45% by the time the Center transitioned away from phone surveys in 2018-19. This chapter covers the new RLS findings about: Attending religious services in person One-third of U.S. adults say they attend religious services in person at least once or twice a month, while 18% report attending services a few times a year, and 49% seldom or never attend religious services in person. Most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) say they attend religious services in person at least monthly (76%), as do 60% of evangelical Protestants. Fewer Muslim Americans (46%), members of the historically Black Protestant tradition (46%), Catholics (40%), Orthodox Christians (37%), Hindus (35%) and mainline Protestants (34%) say they go to religious services once a month or more often. Jewish adults (23%) and Buddhists (17%) are among the least likely groups of religiously affiliated Americans to say they attend religious services in person at least monthly. Among religiously unaffiliated adults – those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – very few regularly attend religious services in person. Watching religious services online or on TV Overall, 16% of U.S. adults say they watch religious services online or on TV at least once a week. An additional 7% say they participate virtually once or twice a month, and 11% do so a few times a year. Most Americans (65%) say they seldom or never watch religious services online or on television. Members of the historically Black Protestant tradition are among the most likely to say they watch religious services online or on TV at least monthly. Participating in religious services either in person or online/on TV When we combine these two questions about attending religious services in person and watching them online or on television, we find that 40% of U.S. adults say they participate in religious services at least once a month in some way – whether in person, online or both. Latter-day Saints (80%), evangelical Protestants (71%) and members of the historically Black Protestant tradition (66%) report the highest rates of participation in religious services, one way or another, at least monthly. Latter-day Saints are especially likely to say they attend religious services monthly in person but do not watch services online (52%). Members of historically Black Protestant churches are especially likely to do the reverse (20%). Participation varies somewhat across demographic groups: Older Americans are more likely than younger Americans to say they participate in religious services in some way – in person, online or both – at least monthly. A higher percentage of Black Americans than White, Hispanic or Asian Americans report that they participate at least monthly in religious services in person and/or online. Generally, women are more likely than men to say they participate (one way or another) in religious services. The survey did not include enough interviews with people who belong to many other U.S. religious groups – such as Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus – to be able to subdivide them and analyze their attendance patterns by most demographic variables like sex, age, education, or race and ethnicity. Belonging to religious and nonreligious organizations Overall, 37% of U.S. adults say they, personally, are members of a church, synagogue, mosque or other house of worship, including 54% of Christians. A large majority of Latter-day Saints (86%) belong to a congregation, as do 61% of evangelical Protestants and 56% of members of the historically Black Protestant tradition. While Jewish Americans

An AI-powered note-taking app developed by Munich-based startup Bliro could offer a more secure way to transcribe audio. Bliro uses natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to extract relevant information from in-person or virtual conversations. It then generates structured meeting notes and automates follow-up tasks. So far, pretty standard.  However, unlike popular transcription tools like Otter, Fireflies, or Notta, Bliro isn’t a bot that hops onto your call, records an audio file, and then transcribes it. Instead, the platform transcribes in real-time, ensuring that no audio recordings of conversations are ever created.  This guarantees compliance with strict privacy and security requirements like GDPR, the company said. That also means you don’t need the other party’s consent to record, streamlining the note-taking process.  The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! Maurice Schweitzer, Bliro’s co-founder, told TNW that the approach eliminates risks associated with audio and video recordings. “A transcript lacks personally identifiable elements like voice or facial recognition, making it impossible to verify who said what with absolute certainty,” he said. For those transcripts that do contain personal information like names, the company “prioritises compliance” at every step, Schweitzer added. Schweitzer co-founded Bliro in 2022 alongside data scientist Martin Thoma, as a privacy-first transcription tool, spun out from AI research at the Technical University of Munich.  In addition to eschewing the recording process, Bliro encrypts all data processed in the app and stores it on servers in Frankfurt. It does not share data with third parties, including its own employees, without explicit consent. Nor does it use user data to refine its AI models, the company said. “Many large companies avoid recording-based solutions due to privacy and compliance concerns — making Bliro the only viable option for them,” said Schweitzer. Bliro targets customer-facing teams who use the app to automate meeting transcriptions, generate AI-driven summaries, and create follow-up actions — while maintaining privacy and compliance. The app currently supports 15 languages.  Today, Bliro announced it has raised €2.8mn in a funding round led by German early-stage VC LEA Partners, with participation from 468 Capital and Dutch seed investor Rockstart. Bliro also launched its iOS app, which transcribes and analyses face-to-face conversations. The new funding will be used to accelerate product development and win more customers. Schweitzer said more than 1,000 companies already use Bliro, including well-known German brands such as ImmoScout24, OMR, and Telefónica Germany. source

Choosing the best web hosting provider can make or break your website’s success, affecting everything from loading speeds to reliability and security. Whether you’re launching a small business site or managing a high-traffic platform, the right hosting solution ensures performance, scalability, and protection for your data. With a wide range of options available, comparing key features, pricing, and use cases is important. Some providers focus on affordability, while others offer advanced security, speed, and scalability. Selecting a solution that aligns with your needs lays a strong foundation for your online presence. Best web hosting services comparison Web Hosting Provider Our Rating Web Hosting Services Starting price Money-Back Guarantee DreamHost 4.2 Shared Hosting VPS Hosting Dedicated Server Hosting Managed WordPress Hosting Cloud Hosting First three months at $4.95 per month 97-day period Hostinger 4.1 Shared Hosting Cloud Hosting VPS Hosting WordPress Hosting $11.99 per month for a one-month term 30-day period Wix 4 Website Builder with Hosting $17 per month 14-day period Squarespace 3.9 Website Builder with Hosting $25 per month 14-day period (not applicable to monthly plans) GoDaddy 3.7 Shared Hosting WordPress Hosting VPS Hosting Dedicated Server Hosting Business Hosting Reseller Hosting $5.99 per month for basic websites 30-day period for annual contracts or longer ScalaHosting 3.7 Shared Hosting Managed VPS Hosting Self-Managed Cloud VPS Hosting WordPress Hosting Dedicated Server Hosting $12.95 per month for a one-month term 30-day period for new clients Bluehost 3.6 Shared Hosting VPS Hosting Dedicated Server Hosting Managed WordPress Hosting $2.95 per month for a 12-month term for 10 websites. 30-day period DreamHost: Best overall Image: DreamHost DreamHost is a renowned web hosting provider that offers shared, VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting services to cater to diverse users’ needs and budgets. This provider has options to support the hosting requirements of SMBs, web developers, eCommerce businesses, and even bloggers. These offerings extend beyond basic hosting to include website creation, management, and security tools. While well-regarded for its WordPress support, DreamHost also delivers flexible hosting environments for other CMS platforms, like Joomla, and custom-built websites. It has a strong uptime guarantee of 100 percent and prioritizes customer data control, something to consider if you want reliable, privacy-focused hosting. DreamHost also provides 24/7 support via email and chat, as well as an extended money-back guarantee of 97 days — so you can try their services risk-free. Why I chose DreamHost DreamHost is my top overall pick for its reliability, versatility, and scalability to fit any business size. Free SSL and seamless integrations keep websites secure and high-performing. With hosting options ranging from shared to dedicated, businesses can scale as needed. While Hostinger is best for startups on a budget, DreamHost stands out with a 100% uptime guarantee, a 97-day money-back period, and broad CMS support. Additionally, it offers excellent performance for WordPress, Joomla, and other CMS solutions. Its 24/7 service brings peace of mind. Pricing DreamHost provides several web hosting plans for Shared Hosting, WordPress Hosting, and VPS Hosting services. You can choose from the plans below based on the type and number of sites you have and your business size. Shared Hosting for Multiple Sites: First three months at $4.95 per month, then $7.99 per month. DreamPress for WordPress: First three months at $19.95 per month, then $23.99 per month. VPS Hosting for Growing Businesses: First month at $15.00 per month, then $37.99 per month. Standout features 1-Click Installer for select webapps, like WordPress. Intuitive custom control panel. Solid State Drives (SSDs) for accelerating website, caching, and database queries. Free SSL certificate. SEO Toolkit. Top integrations DreamHost integrates seamlessly with popular platforms to improve your website’s performance and security. It simplifies WordPress installation and updates and supports WooCommerce for online stores. It also integrates with Cloudflare for faster loading times and protection against cyberattacks. Image: Screenshot DreamHost interface. Source: DreamHost Pros and cons Pros Cons 100 percent uptime guarantee. Free automated WordPress migrations. AI website builder. Generous money-back guarantee period. Lacks phone support. Steep learning curve. Hostinger: Best for startups Image: Hostinger Hostinger is a reputable web hosting service with user-friendly features, making it an ideal choice for startups. With discounted pricing plans, this provider allows new businesses to establish their online presence without any initial investment. It delivers a free domain registration, unlimited bandwidth, and a user-friendly website builder, facilitating quick and effortless website creation. Its intuitive control panel makes management tasks much easier, so you can focus on growing your business rather than dealing with technical matters. Hostinger also offers cloud hosting, VPS hosting, and specialized managed hosting for WordPress and WooCommerce. With a promise of 99.9 percent uptime and daily backups, Hostinger provides the reliability that startups need to build trust with their audience. Why I chose Hostinger Why I chose Hostinger I highly recommend Hostinger for startups seeking feature-packed web hosting without breaking the bank. While DreamHost offers a broader range of advanced services, Hostinger’s lower-cost plans and AI website builder make it perfect for new businesses. Its shared, cloud, and VPS hosting provide flexible options, and the free malware scanner and regular backups keep your data safe. Pricing Hostinger has multiple pricing options with additional features like AI tools, enhanced security, and priority support available on more expensive plans. It also gives a 75 percent discount for longer 12-month and 24-month terms and an 80 percent discount for a 48-month term for the following tiers: Premium: $11.99 per month for a one-month term Business: $13.99 per month for a one-month term Cloud Startup: $27.99 per month for a one-month term Standout features LiteSpeed technology that manages server maintenance, security updates, and backups. AI-powered website building tools available on higher-tier plans. Free malware scanner. Weekly, daily, and on-demand backups. NVMe SSD storage. Top integrations Hostinger’s integrations include Cloudflare for better security and quicker loading times, Elementor for easy website building, and Flock for team collaboration. It also integrates with important platforms, such as Google AdSense, Meta Pixel, and Hotjar. Image: Screenshot Hostinger interface. Source: Hostinger Pros and cons Pros Cons 99.9

As technology leaders in the US Federal Government, you are no strangers to the complexities and challenges of machinery-of-government (MoG) changes. These changes, akin to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the private sector, involve restructuring agencies, merging departments, and redistributing functions to align with evolving mission priorities. The recent directives from the Trump Administration, particularly under the guidance of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have intensified these changes, prompting significant upheaval across federal agencies. Regardless of political views or legal basis, leaders must be prepared and remain true to the core values of the US civil service.  As President John F. Kennedy said in 1958, “Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past – let us accept our own responsibility for the future.“  Understanding MoG Changes  MoG changes, even in jurisdictions where they are common, are often sudden, rarely smooth, and can reduce morale or worse burnout. But if actively managed by public service leaders, they can enhance organizational effectiveness and efficiency by tailoring structures to serve current mission needs. In my latest report, Master The Public Sector’s Machinery-Of-Government Change), my colleague Bobby Cameron and I identified three major mission shifts that US federal agencies are facing and need to respond to:  Establishing a new mission. This involves creating new agencies or reorienting existing ones to address emerging priorities. For example, the establishment of the DOGE itself is a response to the administration’s focus on eliminating government waste and improving efficiency.  Reinforcing an existing mission. This includes merging or rebranding agencies to strengthen their mission. Recent news highlights the consolidation efforts within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where significant workforce reductions are being planned to streamline operations.  Modifying the mission objective. This occurs when the scope of an agency’s work changes, often leading to the splitting or abolishing of departments. The recent memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) instructing agencies to submit reorganization plans and prepare for significant reductions in force (RIF) is a clear example of this type of change.  Common Challenges In MoG Changes  Regardless of the type of mission shift that is driving the MoG change, IT departments in impacted agencies face common challenges:  Duplicate systems and infrastructure. Each agency has its own set of applications and technology, leading to increased costs and complexity when integrating systems. Addressing this duplication is crucial for achieving operational efficiency.  Legislative and policy barriers. Government policies for data protection, security, and privacy can inhibit successful integration. Ensuring that supporting legislation is in place or exceptions are obtained through proper channels is essential for smooth transitions.  Distinct IT organizations. Different agencies have unique operating processes and decision-making structures. Transitioning to a unified IT organization requires careful planning and coordination.  Diverse criteria for success. While IT management focuses on operational stability, agency management looks for mission effectiveness. Aligning these criteria is vital for achieving overall success.  Strategies For Successful MoG Changes  To navigate these challenges, we recommend technology leaders in the US Federal Government, and their stakeholders, adopt the following strategies:  Early planning and due diligence. Begin planning as soon as a MoG change becomes probable. Some patterns are already emerging that can predict the areas DOGE will focus on. Assess existing IT capabilities and develop integration principles and templates to guide decision-making in response to evolving directives.  Align IT with mission goals. Understand the IT investments required by the new mission and revise the IT strategy accordingly. Develop a clear investment plan to build the necessary capabilities and technologies or decommission others.  Establish robust governance. Define the decision-making structure and fill key organizational positions early. Form an integration project team to manage the transition and ensure knowledge transfer or preservation.  Stage integration deliverables. Plan critical milestones in phases to manage implementation risk. Prioritize early savings and synergies while balancing long-term goals. Iterate if necessary, or if directed, to reduce the risk of unintended consequences of the rapid reform models adopted by DOGE.  Measure success based on intentions: Evaluate the success of MoG changes based on improved customer and employee experiences, reduced risk exposure, cost efficiency, and mission success.  Remain Committed To Serving The People  The current wave of MoG changes under the Trump Administration presents both challenges and opportunities for the US Federal Government. By mastering the principles of high-performance IT and aligning technology strategies with mission goals, you can navigate these changes effectively and ensure continuity of operations. Throughout these transformations, it is crucial to remain steadfast in upholding the core values of civil service, ensuring integrity, accountability, and dedication to the public. Stay proactive, plan early, and focus on delivering value through well-managed change. Forrester remains committed to being at your side, and by your side.  Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need further insights on managing changes in your agency. Forrester has a proud team of analysts that make up our public sector and government community of practice.  Let’s work together to help you achieve mission success.  source