By default, Microsoft 365 saves files in the environment where you opened them and reopens them in the environment where you last saved them. This can quickly lead to confusion — like finding yourself in Word for the web when you thought you were working in the desktop app. If you prefer using desktop apps, even when accessing files through your online Office account or Edge’s new Office 365 dashboard, you can adjust a simple setting to make it happen. SEE: Windows, Linux, and Mac Commands Everyone Needs to Know In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to determine your environment at any given time. Then, I’ll present a quick way to force Office 365 to always open a file in the desktop environment, regardless of where you open or save it. I’m using Office 365 on a Windows 10 64-bit system. I’m using Word, but this behavior also applies to Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. How to determine which environment you’re in with Microsoft 365 If you open a file while working online, you might find it difficult to tell whether you work online or in a desktop app. Fortunately, it’s quite easy to discover which environment is active. To do so, click the File tab and then click Info. The document shown below is open in Word for the web. Word will switch to the desktop version if you click Open in Desktop App. This file is open in Word for the web. How to manually choose an environment in Microsoft 365 The online apps are convenient. You can open a file quickly, make changes, and save those changes in SharePoint or OneDrive automatically. Despite the convenience, if you need to use the desktop app, you can choose that environment from the online environment as follows. Sign into your Office account as you normally would. Select the file you want to open in Word, but don’t double-click it to open it. With the file selected, choose one of the options shown in the Open dropdown. Choose the environment when you’re working online with your Office account. You must be working with a system that has Microsoft 365 installed to choose that option. Use this option when you’re unsure of the file’s default environment setting. What’s hot at TechRepublic How can I set Microsoft 365 to always open files in desktop apps by default? Microsoft 365 apps for the web are incredibly convenient despite their limited functionality. Those limitations are why most users prefer to work in the full-featured desktop environment. Thanks to the easy-to-use Office online and Microsoft 365 dashboard in Edge, many of us are now working in one of those environments. That means it’s easy to open a file in the web app without realizing it until you try to perform a task the web app doesn’t support. It’s not a huge deal, but it is frustrating and unnecessary. SEE: How to Download and Install Microsoft 365 Apps on Mac, iPad or iPhone When you know you want to use a desktop app when working most of the time, you can force the issue with a simple setting. If you open the file online, Microsoft 365 will open it on the desktop by default, so you can skip the manual process without worry. To set this default setting, follow these steps. Open the file on the Word desktop. Click the File menu. Choose Options from the left pane. Choose Advanced from the left pane. Scroll down to the Link Handling section. Check the Open Supported Hyperlinks to Office Files in Office Desktop Apps option. Click OK to return to the Word document. Enable this setting so that Microsoft 365 always opens the file in Word for the web. Regardless of where you created or saved the file, once you enable this setting, Word will always open the file in the desktop environment if available. To my knowledge, Microsoft 365 doesn’t offer a setting for always defaulting to Word for the web. However, if you create the file online and never save it to the desktop app, Microsoft 365 will always open the file in Word for the web. If you can’t make this setting stick, talk to your administrator. If the feature is available to your organization, an administrator can make it available. Why are my Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files not opening in their desktop applications? If your files aren’t opening in their dedicated desktop applications, it’s likely for one of three reasons: Your default program settings are incorrect. You are opening the files from a web browser in online mode. There is an issue with file associations on your system. Even if your computer did open Office files in desktop apps at one point, an update to the program or your operating system can change the default settings. You can fix this by right-clicking on an Office file, selecting Open with → Choose default program, then choosing the desired Office application and checking the “Always use this app to open .docx” (or relevant file extension) box. You can make a similar change within an Office application. When it’s open, go to File → Options → Advanced, then, under File Open Preference, select Desktop from the dropdown menu. A corrupted file or partially installed Office suite can also lead to opening issues. To perform a Quick Repair, open your computer’s Control Panel and choose Programs → Programs and Features. Then, select the Office product you desire, and click Change → Quick Repair → Repair. Furthermore, to open Office files in desktop apps, your license must be up-to-date and activated, the files must be compatible with the version of Office on your device, and your account must have sufficient permissions to access the files. Got a question about Microsoft 365? Ask in the TechRepublic forum. Fiona Jackson updated this article in January 2024. source

Ah, quantum computing… that moonshot technology full of potential, full of promise — and jam-packed with enough jargon to make the average person cry.  Qubits, entanglement, superposition, trapped-ions, Schrödinger’s cat. These terms sound strange because the world of quantum mechanics — where things can exist in multiple states at once — is strange.  And that’s why I want you to bear with me while I relay this latest piece of news from the buzzing quantum computing startup scene.  ZuriQ, a spin-out from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, has raised $4.2mn to commercialise a new chip architecture that could dramatically increase the number of qubits a trapped-ion quantum computer can handle, supercharging its computational power. 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! “The space for few-qubit devices that act as toy models is already saturated, and devices with 20-40 qubits won’t drive large profits,” said Pavel Hrmo, CEO of ZuriQ. “We need to focus on long-term scalability.”  ZuriQ wants to build a quantum computer with thousands of qubits, powerful enough to solve wickedly complex problems and revolutionise fields from medicine to cryptography.  How can it do that, you ask? Well, it’s got something vaguely to do with aeroplanes, cars, and magnetic fields. But first, a quick science lesson.   Qubits are the basic units of information in a quantum computer. Unlike bits in a regular computer, which can only be 0 or 1, qubits can be 0, 1, or both at the same time. This allows quantum computers to solve many problems simultaneously, making them light-years faster than even the top supercomputers of today.  Now, there are two main kinds of quantum computers in development. The first and most common are superconducting quantum computers, pioneered by the likes of Google and IBM. They use tiny loops of supercooled metal to create qubits. These machines are lightning-fast. However, they must be kept at −273°C at all times and are more error-prone than their main rival, the trapped-ion machine.  Trapped-ion quantum computers use charged atoms (ions) as qubits. Electric and magnetic fields trap these ions in place, and lasers control them to perform calculations. They’re very stable and precise but slower than superconducting quantum computers due to one fatal flaw: ions arranged in a line, like cars in a traffic jam, become overcrowded and inefficient as more qubits are added.  That’s why scaling up the number of qubits in a trapped-ion quantum computer has proved a major roadblock for companies developing them, like IonQ and Quantinium — putting a cap on their abilities. That is, perhaps, until now.  Setting qubits free ZuriQ has developed a completely new way to design trapped-ion quantum computers by allowing ions (the qubits) to move freely in two dimensions on a quantum chip instead of being restricted to one-dimensional chains. This allows qubits to move in all spatial directions like an aeroplane, instead of like cars driving along roads and through junctions. If the startup’s technology is all it is cracked up to be, it could enable trapped-ion quantum computers to far exceed the capabilities of their superconducting counterparts. Fuelled by fresh funding, ZuriQ is on track to demonstrate its first prototype machine by the end of this year. The startup said it aims to become the flagship provider of quantum computing worldwide. “We have been highly impressed by the speed of execution of ZuriQ’s founding team and the pace of progress towards technical milestones that have been elusive in the community so far,” said Pascal Mathis, partner at Switzerland-based VC Founderful, which led the investment round.  The funding arrives at exciting times for quantum computing. Interest in the field has been abuzz since Google unveiled an experimental machine that was able to solve a mathematical equation in five minutes that a traditional supercomputer could not master in 10 septillion years — that’s older than the universe. The breakthrough brought the dream of quantum computing a step closer to reality. Nevertheless, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang was quick to pour cold water on the hype, cautioning at CES 2025 that practical quantum applications are still 15-30 years away. source

By Emilie Ruscoe ( January 21, 2025, 7:31 PM EST) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has argued that digital assets referenced in its fraud case in Texas against the principals of a purported cryptocurrency mining operation are “immaterial to the economic reality” of the allegedly fraudulent securities transactions at the heart of its action…. 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

The global ecommerce landscape projects global sales to surpass $7 trillion by 2025 and account for 24% of global retail sales by 2027. As consumer preferences shift towards online shopping, ecommerce merchants are presented with enormous opportunities for growth in operations, such as high volumes of sale transactions, omnichannel selling, and even cross-border or global transactions. Along with great growth opportunities, ecommerce growth can also bring plenty of challenges to ecommerce merchants that hinder scaling. Fortunately, there are solutions and processes that can help address these challenges. Streamlining operations, automating processes, and partnering with industry leaders like Shopify are some key steps merchants can take. This article will explore these challenges as well as present actionable solutions to enhance growth instead of hinder it. Ecommerce Growth Opportunities Using Shopify as an ecommerce platform enables merchants to scale operations seamlessly and efficiently. Shopify is a very robust and popular ecommerce platform highly-reviewed by real-world users and experts alike. On top of all the features needed for ecommerce operations, some ecommerce growth opportunities you can easily handle with Shopify are the following: High volume of sales transactions With 270.11 million online shoppers in the US, ecommerce has made the world smaller for buyers, and bigger for sellers. Ecommerce merchants can process sales orders across locations (states and other countries) and in different channels, too. Online sales have huge profit potential for businesses of all sizes. Shopify expertly handles high transaction volumes via its scalable cloud-based infrastructure that can easily adapt to traffic spikes without compromising speed. Its latest report from the Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) stated, “Shopify handled 57.3 PB of data from our infrastructure, 1.19 trillion edge requests, 10.5 trillion database queries, and 1.17 trillion database writes over the weekend—peaking at 284 million requests per minute on edge, and more than 80 million on app servers pushing 12TB per minute on Black Friday.” Sell anywhere (omnichannel sales) ECcommerce has allowed merchants to sell anywhere. With online shopping as the preferred buying method of nearly 60% of consumers, the Internet has also given merchants more channels to sell their products—marketplaces, mobile apps, and lately, even social media. In-person selling hasn’t gone away, too, making it a relevant sales channel even for primarily ecommerce businesses. Presently, consumers expect a seamless and consistent buying experience regardless of the sales platform they use. This is why omnichannel selling has become the new standard of selling. Tracking inventory and syncing across multiple channels is a must, and delivering personalized experiences are expected. Shopify provides built-in integrations with multiple sales channels that merchants can sync with and manage inventory, process orders, and fulfill purchases all from their Shopify dashboards. Ecommerce Growth Challenges Scaling ecommerce operations also presents a plethora of challenges, namely the need for an efficient and wholly integrated business system, automation of workflows, and compliance with federal and state laws, especially when it comes to sales tax. Siloed business systems Usually when businesses scale, there are certain features that are better off serviced by another provider. Ecommerce platforms provide integration capabilities for this need. The challenge is ensuring that all providers are compatible working with one another. Sales tax calculation software, for example, ideally should seamlessly integrate with a merchant’s accounting software and ecommerce platform. Siloed business systems are prone to errors, operational inefficiencies, and declining sales. Processes and workflows prone to human error Ecommerce businesses that have high sales volumes also have high orders to fulfill and ship, and so are the rest of operations—customer service, marketing, and website operations. Workflows can become more complex, requiring more steps to ensure accuracy, and if not automated, can lead to more errors due to human error. Compliance complexities Tax compliance is one of the biggest ecommerce growth challenges for most businesses. Selling in different states, across different jurisdictions, and multiple sales channels can quickly become a huge administrative task when it comes to calculating and filing the correct sales tax. There are also associated processing fees involved that need to be taken into account for proper filing. While all these are usually automated, having  tax software that can provide support a bit further than just automatic calculations can spell the difference between just staying compliant and being compliant and addressing other ecommerce growth challenges mentioned above. Achieving Seamless Tax Compliance with Tax Automation Software When evaluating tax automation software for your ecommerce business, it’s essential to look beyond just automatic tax calculations. A robust solution should also offer key features, such as: Calculate VAT and sales tax based on regularly updated rates Know liabilities and obligations for cross-border transactions, including shipping goods Simplify tax returns filing and file on your behalf Collect, verify, renew, and access tax documents on demand Provide guidance on how to effectively use the tools to streamline tax compliance processes As a long-standing Shopify partner, Avalara has supported Shopify Plus customers with advanced tax calculation services. Now, Avalara offers seamless integration for Shopify merchants across all plans. Avalara for Shopify is equipped to handle international tax calculation, including VAT, and provide supplementary solutions for tax return preparation, filing, and seamless exemption certificate management. Using Avalara as tax automation software can help merchants: Save time: Avalara automatically updates tax calculations with frequent rate and rules changes Expand compliance coverage: Calculate taxes accurately across 13,000+ U.S. sales and use tax jurisdictions and 192 VAT jurisdictions worldwide. Streamline integrations: Break down silos by connecting Avalara with thousands of business applications, including Shopify. Signing up with a tax automation software need not only let you achieve tax compliance, it should also help you achieve ecommerce growth. With Avalara, Shopify merchants can automate calculations, stay on top of compliance changes, and achieve an integrated business system.  Simplify tax compliance for your Shopify store. Avalara integrates seamlessly with Shopify to automate tax calculations, streamline returns, and help you stay compliant as your business grows. Learn more today. source

The new administration has the opportunity to pave the way for a U.S.-backed crypto reserve, which could conceptually function as a strategic asset akin to traditional reserves like gold markets, hedge against economic instability, and influence global crypto adoption, say attorneys at Duane Morris. source

When it comes to protecting yourself online, having a secure password has been the default recommendation. However, you may be surprised to know that having a secure username is just as important as using a strong password. Serving as your identity online, usernames are prized assets for hackers to acquire. Even if they’re not as coveted as your passwords, they can be used to get hold of your online data.  In this sense, it’s essential to craft a unique and safe username that will keep your accounts away from threat actors and prying eyes. In this article, we discuss what a username is, why it’s important to have a unique and secure username, and some tips and tricks to get there. NordPass Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Micro (0-49 Employees), Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees) Micro, Small, Medium, Large, Enterprise Features Activity Log, Business Admin Panel for user management, Company-wide settings, and more Dashlane Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Micro (0-49 Employees), Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees) Micro, Small, Medium, Large, Enterprise Features Automated Provisioning ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Access Management, Compliance Management, Credential Management, and more What is a username? A username is a group of characters that serve as your identity for an account or service, either in a computer system or on the internet. They’re also called login names, user IDs, login IDs, and account names. As identifiers, usernames help distinguish and set you apart from other people or accounts. This is in contrast to passwords, which are used to authenticate or verify that you are who you say you are when logging into an account. Below is a quick description of both and their main difference: Usernames: Identifies who you are, either in a computer, a network, an online service, or an application. Passwords: Authenticates or confirms that you are who you claim to be, enabling you access to an account after it’s correctly provided. These days, most online sites, social media networks, games, and applications require a username before you can continue using their service. Some websites allow you to use your email address as a username, but that isn’t always the case and, at times, isn’t the recommended practice. SEE: SMB Security Pack (TechRepublic Premium) Why is it important to create a secure username? While it seems like a no-brainer to have a strong password, having an equally secure username is crucial for these reasons: They’re often included in data leaks and breaches In a massive data breach, a hacker aims to get as much information on you as possible. This means they not only target passwords but also eye your phone number, address, email, and of course, your username. Since usernames and passwords go hand-in-hand, a hacker having your username technically means they have 50% of your login credentials. This makes it significantly easier for cybercriminals to use strategies like brute force attacks or credential stuffing, i.e., a high-powered form of trial and error, to try and steal your account. Usernames are public information It’s essential to remember that most usernames are available to the public because they act as identifiers. Think about your business’ LinkedIn account, your Amazon account, or even your personal username for gaming. All of these can be viewed by both you, other people, and hackers alike. In this regard, they don’t have the same type of security as passwords regarding private information. With this, I strongly recommend creating unique usernames for each account you have. Why? Let’s say you regularly use one username for many of your accounts — including your email address. Here, hackers can use your public username to track down all your other accounts. This leaves you highly susceptible to social engineering tactics, scams, or phishing attempts. They can help build your anonymity online While usernames are public, they don’t necessarily have to include your full name. In this regard, having a secure username can be a great way for you to strengthen your online privacy. If you do it right, no one technically knows which username is tied to your account. This allows you to browse the internet without worrying about others looking into what you’re doing online. Another way usernames can help strengthen privacy is by using them to separate your work and personal life online. Like the example above, you can use a completely different username for your personal accounts. This allows you to keep your personal feed private and maintain your business account at the same time. How do I create a secure username? Fortunately, creating a secure username can be a straightforward process, provided you follow some key steps. Here’s what I recommend: 1. Avoid including your full name, address, or other personal information Most accounts, except work accounts perhaps, won’t require you to use your full name — and for good reason. Having your name in your username will make it much easier for hackers to identify you and subsequently find your other accounts. For example, if both your name is John Doe and you have “JohnDoe” as your Amazon account, it would be a breeze for cybercriminals to put two and two together and conclude that this Amazon username is yours. Similarly, any personally identifiable information also shouldn’t be in your username, as you’re inadvertently giving hackers more data to work with to hack your account. Here’s a list of data you should definitely avoid including in your username: Date of birth. Address. Email address. Phone number/s. ID numbers or PINs. Social security number. Your hometown. Remember, since usernames are public info, hackers have the same access to them as you do. If you include something like your home address in your username, a savvy

Remember to keep the lights on With all the commotion around gen AI, many IT leaders aren’t spending enough time on the other things they should be doing. “The emphasis on efficient operations needs to come back,” says Prasad. “At some point, it’ll come back to you if you lose sight of the fundamentals of your job.” IT leaders should never forget that keeping the lights on (KTLO) remains a foundation of success, says Neal Sample, SVP and CIO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. While AI may be an exciting proposition, KTLO often offers a more certain payoff. Modernizing systems, consolidating platforms, and retiring obsolete solutions reduce complexity and create a more agile environment. “These steps not only lower costs and improve productivity, but also make IT more capable of supporting priorities like AI,” says Sample. For example, AI thrives on clean, reliable data, making traditional IT practices like data governance and integration indispensable. Poor-quality data undermines even the best AI models, reinforcing the importance of foundational IT work. “Stable IT operations ensure that AI-embedded tools work as intended, minimizing disruptions and preserving trust,” says Sample. “The exciting potential of AI simply can’t be realized without the solid groundwork KTLO provides.” source

The U.K. government has unveiled a set of digitisation plans within the public sector to save £45 billion each year in productivity. The headline announcement is “Humphrey,” a set of AI tools to speed up policy-making activities. Most Humphrey tools summarise government data, including debates, meetings, policies, laws, and responses to consultations, so civil servants can search through it more quickly when making decisions. Before this, the collation of consultation responses was outsourced to contractors, costing the taxpayer £100,000 a pop. Another plan is to establish a new team within the Department for Science, Technology, and Innovation that will be in charge of identifying how tech can be used to improve the efficiency of public services. Current systems result in the U.K. tax authority taking 100,000 phone calls daily and the driving licence agency processing 45,000 physical letters, making response times unnecessarily long. This team will start by developing solutions to help people with disabilities or long-term illnesses more quickly access the services they need, such as financial support or healthcare. The tech will connect the relevant government departments or local authorities so individuals don’t have to be passed between up to 40 of them in a series of phone calls. Other initiatives, announced on Jan. 21, include: A full roadmap of these plans on how the government will renew its £23 billion a year tech spend will come in the summer. SEE: UK Trails Behind Europe in Technical Skills Proficiency More must-read AI coverage UK public services are plagued by legacy technology European companies tend to specialise in mature technologies, meaning the region is often seen as technologically behind, particularly compared to the U.S. The U.K. is a top culprit, particularly in critical national infrastructure, which is difficult and expensive to update without downtime. SEE: 99% of UK Businesses Faced Cyber Attacks in the Last Year A government report published this week found that nearly half of public services, such as those offered by the NHS and local councils, cannot be accessed online. For example, registering a death must be done in person and, businesses must place a newspaper advert when they want to buy a lorry. The report found that a quarter of all digital systems used by the central government are outdated, leading to high maintenance costs and a heightened risk of cyber attacks. NHS England alone saw 123 critical service outages last year, leading to missed appointments and disruptions relating to staff being forced to use paper-based systems. Cybercrime disruption can have even more severe consequences. In June, a ransomware attack on pathology company Synnovis led to months of NHS disruption and, according to Bloomberg. This resulted in harm to dozens of patients, with long-term or permanent damage in at least two cases. Government is dedicated to making the UK an AI leader, reaping economic growth This announcement comes just a few days after the government’s “AI Opportunities Action Plan,” outlining the 50 ways it will build out the AI sector and turn the U.K. into a “world leader.” The strategy involves boosting public computing capacity twentyfold, creating a training data library, and building AI hubs in deindustrialised areas. Last year, the U.K. signed an agreement committing to explore how AI can improve public services and boost economic growth, along with the other Group of Seven nations. SEE: UK Government Announces £32m of AI Projects Science Secretary Peter Kyle said in a press release: “We will use technology to bear down hard to the nonsensical approach the public sector takes to sharing information and working together to help the people it serves. We will also end delays businesses face when they are applying for licenses or permits, when they just want to get on with the task in hand – growth.” A “Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence” will also be forged as part of the overhaul, which will look at how public sector firms can invest in U.K. tech startups and scaleups, simultaneously boosting their efficiency and creating jobs. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More President Donald Trump unveiled an ambitious plan to reshape America’s artificial intelligence landscape this week, coupling a massive $500 billion private-sector initiative with sweeping executive actions that strip away regulatory barriers — while simultaneously sparking controversy over both funding claims and environmental concerns. The centerpiece of Trump’s AI strategy, dubbed “Project Stargate,” brings together an unlikely alliance of tech giants: Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Larry Ellison’s Oracle, and SoftBank under Masayoshi Son. The initiative aims to construct up to 20 massive AI data centers across the United States, with the first facility already under construction in Abilene, Texas. “This is a resounding declaration of confidence in America’s potential,” Trump declared at the White House announcement. However, the bold initiative immediately faced skepticism from an unexpected quarter: Trump’s own adviser and tech billionaire Elon Musk. Elon Musk questions Stargate’s $500 billion funding as OpenAI rivalry intensifies “They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote on X.com (formerly Twitter), claiming SoftBank had secured “well under $10B.” This public clash between Musk and Altman, former collaborators turned rivals, highlights the complex dynamics within Trump’s tech coalition. Altman swiftly countered Musk’s claim, inviting him to visit the Abilene site while pointedly noting that “what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies” — a reference to Musk’s competing AI ventures. They don’t actually have the money — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025 Industry analysts note that the funding structure remains opaque. While the initial commitment is $100 billion, the path to $500 billion appears to rely heavily on future fundraising and market conditions. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose company is notably absent from the main announcement despite its OpenAI partnership, offered measured support: “All I know is, I’m good for my $80 billion,” he told CNBC at Davos. Emergency powers and deregulation: Trump’s strategy to fast-track AI infrastructure The initiative arrives alongside an executive order that fundamentally reshapes the federal government’s approach to AI development. The order explicitly prioritizes speed over regulation, with Trump declaring he will use emergency powers to fast-track power plant construction for the energy-hungry data centers. “I’m going to get the approval under emergency declaration. I can get the approvals done myself without having to go through years of waiting,” Trump told the World Economic Forum. This approach marks a sharp departure from the Biden Administration’s emphasis on AI safety guidelines. Environmental concerns loom large. While the Abilene facility plans to use renewable energy, Trump’s order allows the data centers to “use whatever fuel they want,” including coal for backup power. This has alarmed climate activists, who warn about the massive energy requirements of AI infrastructure. Corporate DEI programs clash with White House policy as tech giants navigate Trump Era The initiative also faces potential contradictions with Trump’s other policy priorities. Many of the participating companies maintain diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs that clash with Trump’s day-one executive order ending such initiatives in federal agencies. The initiative represents a striking paradigm shift in how the U.S. approaches technological development. While previous administrations carefully balanced innovation with oversight, Trump’s approach essentially throws out the regulatory playbook in favor of a move-fast-and-fix-later strategy. This creates an unprecedented experiment in AI development: Can Silicon Valley’s biggest players, freed from regulatory constraints but bound by new social restrictions, deliver on the promise of U.S. AI dominance? The contradictions are difficult to ignore. Trump is simultaneously declaring AI development a national emergency while constraining the very companies building it through restrictions on their internal practices. Tech giants like OpenAI and Oracle must now thread an increasingly narrow needle — racing to build massive AI infrastructure while potentially dismantling their DEI initiatives that have become deeply embedded in their corporate cultures and hiring practices. More concerning for AI researchers is the absence of safety guidelines in this new framework. By prioritizing speed and scale over careful development, the administration risks repeating the mistakes of previous technological revolutions, where unforeseen consequences emerged only after systems became too entrenched to easily modify. The stakes with AI are arguably much higher. America’s AI gamble: A race against China with uncertain odds For now, the tech industry appears willing to navigate these contradictions in exchange for unprecedented support for AI infrastructure development. Whether this gamble pays off may determine not just the future of American AI, but also the shape of the global tech landscape for decades to come. The stakes couldn’t be higher. As China continues its own aggressive AI development, Project Stargate represents America’s biggest bet yet on maintaining its technological edge. The question remains: Will this moonshot approach create the “golden age” Trump promises, or will regulatory rollbacks and internal conflicts undermine its ambitious goals? source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More As of a few days ago, only the nerdiest of nerds (I say this as one) had ever heard of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI subsidiary of the equally evocatively named High-Flyer Capital Management, a quantitative analysis (or quant) firm that initially launched in 2015. Yet within the last few days, it’s been arguably the most discussed company in Silicon Valley. That’s largely thanks to the release of DeepSeek-R1, a new large language model (LLM) that performs “reasoning” similar to OpenAI’s current best-available model o1 — taking multiple seconds or minutes to answer hard questions and solve complex problems as it reflects on its own analysis in a step-by-step, or “chain of thought” fashion. Not only that, but DeepSeek-R1 scored as high as or higher than OpenAI’s o1 on a variety of third-party benchmarks (tests to measure AI performance at answering questions on various subjects), and was reportedly trained at a fraction of the cost (reportedly around $5 million), with far fewer graphics processing units (GPU) that are under a strict embargo imposed by the U.S., OpenAI’s home turf. But unlike o1, which is available only to paying ChatGPT subscribers of the Plus tier ($20 per month) and more expensive tiers (such as Pro at $200 per month), DeepSeek-R1 was released as a fully open-source model, which also explains why it has quickly rocketed up the charts of AI code sharing community Hugging Face’s most downloaded and active models. Also, thanks to the fact that it is fully open-source, people have already fine-tuned and trained many variations of the model for different task-specific purposes, such as making it small enough to run on a mobile device, or combining it with other open-source models. Even if you want to use it for development purposes, DeepSeek’s API costs are more than 90% lower than the equivalent o1 model from OpenAI. Most impressively of all, you don’t even need to be a software engineer to use it: DeepSeek has a free website and mobile app even for U.S. users with an R1-powered chatbot interface very similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Except, once again, DeepSeek undercut or “mogged” OpenAI by connecting this powerful reasoning model to web search — something OpenAI hasn’t yet done (web search is only available on the less powerful GPT family of models at present). An open-and-shut irony There’s a pretty delicious, or maybe disconcerting irony to this, given OpenAI’s founding goals to democratize AI for the masses. As Nvidia senior research manager Jim Fan put it on X: “We are living in a timeline where a non-US company is keeping the original mission of OpenAI alive — truly open, frontier research that empowers all. It makes no sense. The most entertaining outcome is the most likely.” Or as X user @SuspendedRobot put it, referencing reports that DeepSeek appears to have been trained on question-answer outputs and other data generated by ChatGPT: “OpenAI stole from the whole internet to make itself richer, DeepSeek stole from them and give it back to the masses for free I think there is a certain british folktale about this” But Fan isn’t the only one to sit up and take note of DeepSeek’s success. The open-source availability of DeepSeek-R1, its high performance, and the fact that it seemingly “came out of nowhere” to challenge the former leader of generative AI, has sent shockwaves throughout Silicon Valley and far beyond, based on my conversations with and readings of various engineers, thinkers and leaders. If not “everyone” is freaking out about it as my hyperbolic headline suggests, it’s certainly the talk of the town in tech and business circles. A message posted to Blind, the app for sharing anonymous gossip in Silicon Valley, has been making the rounds suggesting Meta is in crisis over the success of DeepSeek because of how quickly it surpassed Meta’s own efforts to be the king of open-source AI with its Llama models. ‘This changes the whole game’ X user @tphuang wrote compellingly: “DeepSeek has commoditized AI outside of very top-end. Lightbulb moment for me in 1st photo. R1 is so much cheaper than US labor cost that many jobs will get automated away over next 5 yrs,” later noting why DeepSeek’s R1 is more enticing to users than even OpenAI’s o1: “3 huge issues w/ o1:1) too slow2) too expensive3) lack of control for end user/reliance on OpenAIR1 solves all of them. A company can buy their own Nvidia GPUs, run these models. Don’t have to worry about additional costs or slow/unresponsive OpenAI servers” @tphaung also posed a compelling analogy as a question: “Will DeepSeek be to LLM what Android became to OS world?” Web entrepreneur Arnaud Bertrand didn’t mince words about the startling implications of DeepSeek’s success either, writing on X: “There’s no overstating how profoundly this changes the whole game. And not only with regards to AI, it’s also a massive indictment of the US’s misguided attempt to stop China’s technological development, without which Deepseek may not have been possible (as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of inventions).” The censorship issue However, others have sounded cautionary notes on DeepSeek’s rapid rise, arguing that as a startup operated out of China, it is necessarily subject to that country’s laws and content censorship requirements. Indeed, in my own usage of DeepSeek on the iOS app here in the U.S. I found it would not answer questions about Tiananmen Square, the site of the 1989 pro-democracy student protests and uprising, and subsequent violent crackdown by the Chinese military, which resulted in at least 200, possibly thousands of deaths, earning it the nickname “Tiananmen Square Massacre” in Western media outlets. Ben Hylak, a former Apple human interface designer and cofounder of AI product analytics platform Dawn, posted on X how asking about this subject caused DeepSeek-R1 to enter a circuitous loop. As a member of the press itself, I of course take