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Artificial intelligence has moved from experimentation to everyday business use faster than almost any technology in recent memory.
For small businesses, AI adoption needs no convincing as most already see the benefits. The real challenge is now transforming isolated AI use into consistent business value.
Goldman Sachs found that 76% of small businesses are using AI, and among those users, 93% say it has had a positive impact. Yet only 14% have fully integrated AI into core operations.
That gap is where the next stage of AI adoption will be won or lost.
The question is no longer whether small businesses can access AI. It is how they can make it part of their business.
For me, that means moving beyond AI as a feature list and toward AI as a trusted experience employees can rely on in the flow of work.
The focus now should be on helping small businesses progress from deploying AI in everyday tasks, to reshaping workflows, to eventually inventing new services, business models and revenue streams.
Start where the work gets stuckThe temptation is to start with the technology, but the better starting point is the work itself. A modern AI-ready device, collaboration setup or workplace platform can promise faster content creation, more productive meetings or automated reporting. Those capabilities matter, but the question is more basic: what problem is slowing the business down?
The problem might be missed customer follow-ups, teams spending too much time turning raw information into action, or even just slow response times. AI becomes valuable when it is pointed at a specific bottleneck and measured against a business outcome: time saved, errors reduced, revenue protected, customers retained, or employees freed up for higher-value work.
This outcome-first mindset is critical because the goal should not be to optimize an old process simply because it exists. It should be to ask what the business needs to achieve, then design the workflow and the technology around that result.
Discipline is important because small businesses do not have much room for technology theater. The most useful AI projects are rarely the flashiest. They are the ones tied to work that happens every day.
Redesign the workflow, not just the taskThe next step is to move beyond individual productivity. Many employees are already using AI in small, informal ways, with a 156% increase between 2023 and 2025 in shadow AI usage. Shadow AI refers to employees using AI tools without formal approval, oversight or integration into company systems.
Employees ask AI to clean up an email, summarize a document or prepare a first draft. While those use cases can help, they usually create isolated gains. The bigger opportunity comes when AI is built into the workflow itself.
Consider a customer-facing team. AI can draft a response. But the bigger opportunity is redesigning a process around it. Let AI help categorize the request, identify urgency, suggest the next best action, and leave important judgment calls to a person.
For a lean operations team, AI can turn meetings, documents and business data into clearer next steps, helping reduce the manual follow-through that often slows momentum. Over time, this will become less about a single AI tool assisting with a single task and more about groups of AI agents working across connected workflows, with people shaping the strategy, setting the guardrails and orchestrating the work.
This is where many organizations still struggle. McKinsey’s 2025 State of AI research found that 88% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, but only about one-third have begun scaling AI across the enterprise. The same research found that AI high performers are nearly three times as likely as others to have fundamentally redesigned workflows.
In other words, the return comes less from sprinkling AI over old processes and more from rethinking how work should move. That is the difference between deploying AI, reshaping work and ultimately inventing new ways for the business to grow.
Train people to use AI with judgmentIt’s not enough to invest in tools. Businesses must also invest in helping employees use them effectively. AI works best when employees understand what it is good at, where it can fail and when human judgment is required. Not every small business needs a large training program, but it does need practical guidance: which tools are approved, what information should stay protected and when outputs need human review.
Clear guardrails allow a business to scale AI with confidence. Goldman Sachs found that small businesses using AI cite data privacy and security concerns, lack of technical expertise and difficulty choosing tools among their top challenges. 73% said they would benefit from more training and resources to implement and evaluate AI successfully.
When employees are trained to use AI responsibly, technology becomes less of a risk to manage and more of a capacity builder that helps small teams work with greater speed, confidence and focus. It also builds the trust employees need to treat AI not as another feature to try, but as a dependable part of how work gets done.
Make AI a capacity builderAI is often framed as a replacement story. In practice, many small businesses are using it as a force multiplier. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that 58% of small businesses use generative AI, up from 40% in 2024 and 23% in 2023. It also found that 82% of small businesses using AI increased their workforce over the past year. For lean teams, AI can create breathing room: less time spent chasing notes or repeating manual tasks and more time spent with customers and employees.
None of this happens automatically. Small businesses need to choose technology with integration in mind, not just features in isolation. They need to understand where data lives, how systems connect and whether employees can use new tools without adding more complexity.
They also need the confidence to seek outside guidance, whether from technology partners, managed service providers, industry peers or local business networks. The right support can help small businesses see where AI should simply deploy, where it should reshape the way people work and where it may create room to invent something entirely new.
The bottom line: AI should change how work gets doneThe small businesses that get the most from AI will not necessarily be the ones that adopt the most tools. They will be the ones that ask sharper questions: Where are we losing time? Where are decisions too slow? Where are customers waiting? Where are employees doing work that software could support safely and reliably?
AI has already changed what small businesses can do. The next challenge is changing how work gets done. For small businesses, the real opportunity is not to add AI everywhere, but to apply it with purpose: deploy it where it helps today, reshape the workflows that define the business and invent new ways to create value tomorrow.
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AI can already write production code, review pull requests, generate documentation, diagnose bugs, and propose architectural changes. Its influence now extends beyond developer productivity, affecting how engineering teams are organized, how decisions are made, and where technical authority rests.
CTOs, meanwhile, have always acted as orchestrators. Company growth gradually pulled their attention toward hiring leaders, setting architecture, resolving trade-offs, and improving team performance. Their influence flowed through the organization they built and the people they developed.
AI now changes the organization beneath technical leaders. As of May 2026, Claude authored more than 80% of the code merged into Anthropic’s codebase, while the typical engineer merged eight times as much code per day during the second quarter of 2026 as in 2024. Engineers increasingly direct and review AI-generated work, while retaining responsibility for technical judgment, goal selection, and higher-level decisions.
Implementation and debugging can increasingly pass to coding agents, leaving engineers responsible for defining tasks, reviewing results, and deciding when human intervention is required.
The middle management tier consequently faces compression, while the CTO comes closer to execution because agent access, architectural rules, security controls, and release criteria affect the entire company.
The CTO’s responsibility is building a verification machine capable of producing sound technical decisions at high speed.
The middle tier compressesTraditional engineering organizations have always grown through coordination. A CTO worked through vice presidents, directors, and engineering managers, each translating company priorities into technical plans. Managers assigned work, tracked delivery, resolved blockers, and kept teams aligned.
AI reduces much of this coordination burden. An engineer can describe a feature, ask an agent to inspect the codebase, generate an implementation, write tests, and prepare a pull request. More advanced systems can divide work across several agents and combine their output.
The engineer increasingly manages an AI development team, which compresses roles centered on task distribution and progress tracking. Human leadership retains its value through coaching, conflict resolution, recruitment, and professional growth, while coordination as a standalone function carries less leverage.
Responsibility, therefore, spreads in two directions:
Engineers gain greater ownership because they command far more productive capacity; CTOs become more involved in the systems governing this capacity because one weak permission rule or review gate can expose the entire company.
The distance between technical leadership and execution narrows. A CTO may write little application code, yet needs a precise understanding of how agents create, inspect, test, and deploy it. The role owns the engineering operating system governing people, agents, and software delivery.
The CTO’s verification machineVerification is now the central technical challenge.
An AI system can generate several possible implementations during the time a human engineer once needed to produce one. This abundance creates a selection problem because companies must identify which implementation fits the architecture, meets security requirements, remains maintainable, and serves the product goal.
The CTO must design a system capable of making these judgments consistently.
Scoped permissions confine each agent to the files, databases, and services required for its assigned task. Automated evaluations test security, performance, and reliability, while agents review one another’s work before sensitive actions reach a human reviewer.
Human approval, however, loses value when engineers face a constant stream of requests that rarely require intervention. After several rounds of autonomous testing and review, most proposed changes arrive in acceptable condition.
Engineers grow accustomed to approving them, attention declines, and the exceptional case becomes harder to detect. Aviation, medicine, and nuclear operations have studied the same effect: repeated exposure to routine confirmations can turn oversight into habit.
Effective verification therefore depends on reducing the volume presented to humans. Routine and reversible actions can pass through automated controls, while unusual, irreversible, or high-impact decisions receive focused review. The interface should present evidence, alternatives, uncertainties, and possible consequences in a form that encourages scrutiny rather than a reflexive approval.
Firm boundaries remain essential. An agent may propose a database migration while execution requires human authorization. It may generate a deployment plan while production credentials remain outside its permissions. It may identify a vulnerability while changes to authentication controls receive senior review.
The system should also measure the quality of oversight through rejection rates, review times, escalation patterns, and the frequency with which human intervention changes an outcome. Human judgment offers the greatest value when attention is reserved for decisions where experience can alter the result.
Audit trails, rollback procedures, and ownership rules complete the machine by making every autonomous action attributable, inspectable, and reversible. These controls determine how an AI-enabled engineering organization behaves and require architectural judgment, security knowledge, product awareness, and an understanding of human behavior under pressure.
The CTO increasingly designs the conditions under which technical decisions emerge, turning individual judgment into a system capable of producing consistent quality without exhausting the people responsible for its highest-risk decisions.
Coding is abundant; judgment is notAI lowers implementation costs, while software quality still depends on judgment.
A company can now produce more features, integrations, and experiments than its customers need. It can create technical debt faster than any human team and fill a codebase with locally correct changes capable of weakening the system over time.
Planning, testing, and prioritization consequently become the main constraints on engineering output. Strong organizations will know which problems deserve attention, how each feature supports the product, and where technical compromises create long-term costs.
Technical strategy gains value as implementation capacity grows.
Security is more important because agents can act across more systems at greater speed, while testing carries greater responsibility because generated code can appear persuasive while hiding subtle errors. Maintainability is harder as software volume grows faster than human comprehension.
AI commoditizes implementation and raises the value of technical judgment.
The strongest CTOs will turn judgment into repeatable mechanisms by encoding standards into evaluation suites, review policies, deployment gates, and agent instructions.
Privacy, trust, and securityAI systems increasingly retrieve information, make decisions, call external services, modify records, and trigger actions across business systems. Risk therefore depends on authority as much as intelligence.
An agent with access to customer records, payment systems, private repositories, and production environments carries enormous operational power. Prompt injection, compromised model providers, manipulated data sources, and unintended autonomous actions can become entry points into critical systems.
Privacy and trust become architectural concerns. CTOs must define model governance, data permissions, identity controls, and approval requirements. They also decide which information can enter third-party models, which tasks require isolated environments, and which actions always need human confirmation.
Agent identity is essential because companies need to know which agent performed an action, who authorized the task, which data informed the output, and which rules governed the process. Capability provides an incomplete standard because permission determines the level of risk.
After all, a mediocre model with production credentials is more dangerous than a brilliant one in a sandbox.
A strong AI engineering organization treats every agent as an active participant with a defined identity, a limited role, and an auditable history.
Users judge the productCompanies often present AI as a product feature because it attracts attention, although the largest gains may come from using it inside the development process.
Customers judge software by quality, reliability, safety, and speed of improvement. The number of agents contributing to a codebase carries little relevance to their experience. Competitive advantage comes from turning increased engineering capacity into better products while preserving trust.
AI therefore belongs primarily to the production side of the company. It helps engineers explore more implementations, test changes more thoroughly, respond to incidents faster, and improve existing features with greater frequency.
Product design still determines how much complexity reaches the customer and how effectively the software handles permissions, routing, configuration, and other operational decisions.
Customers experience the value of AI through faster product improvement, fewer defects, more responsive support, and software capable of adapting more effectively to their needs. The technology itself can remain largely invisible.
The CTO must ensure increased engineering capacity serves the product and strengthens the customer experience.
CTOs as product leadersWhen implementation was expensive, product teams defined requirements and engineering teams built them. Limited development capacity made the division easier to maintain.
AI weakens this boundary because technical capability can influence product direction almost immediately. A CTO can explore several product concepts with agents, create working prototypes, and evaluate constraints before a conventional development cycle begins, bringing engineering into product decisions earlier.
The CTO must decide where automation improves the experience and where human involvement remains essential. Some decisions benefit from speed and consistency, while others require empathy, context, accountability, and careful interpretation of consequences.
These choices combine product judgment with technical judgment. Breadth gains value because AI can help technical leaders acquire deep knowledge of unfamiliar domains quickly, while the advantage comes from connecting engineering, security, customer needs, and business strategy into one coherent system.
Future CTOs will need to understand the complete product environment, including how the company operates, how customers experience it, and how autonomous systems participate in both.
From organization builder to machine builderEarlier generations of CTOs were remembered for the organizations they created. Their legacy lived in the people they hired, the leaders they developed, the culture they established, and the engineers who continued advancing the company after they left.
AI adds another durable artifact through the agent fleet, permission model, evaluation systems, deployment gates, architectural constraints, and feedback mechanisms left behind by technical leadership. These components determine whether a company can continue producing software safely after senior leaders depart.
The Industrial Revolution expanded physical production by embedding human knowledge into machines and processes. AI can create a comparable expansion in software development by turning parts of technical reasoning into systems capable of continuous operation.
Small teams can build products once requiring entire departments, while established companies can test ideas and improve software at exceptional speed. The outcome depends on the quality of the machinery surrounding the models, because code generation alone can increase software volume while strong verification systems convert AI capacity into reliable innovation.
The next generation of CTOs will be remembered for the machine they leave behind, whose agents, permissions, gates, and evaluations allow humans and AI to keep producing better software long after its architect has gone.
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- New Beats headphones teased during 2026 World Cup...
- ... and Beats has been silent for following two months
- Reddit fans think they'll come some time after iOS 27, in September
It's been two months since the sporting event of the summer began: the 2026 World Cup kicked off on June 11. That means it's also been two months since Beats started teasing its new headphones, putting them onto footballers like Lamine Yamal and Lee Kang-in to drum up some publicity.
"Publicity for what?" you may well be asking, and it's a fair question. Since then, we've heard neither hide nor hair about these cans, even though we infiltrated Beats impressive HQ to see what was going on, last month.
However, if you were hoping for an imminent release, Redditors have some bad news.
In a post on the r/beatsbydre subreddit, which is currently awash with question regarding these headphones, one forum mod has a theory about when they'll come. User jforsander points out that every previous pair of Beats headphones had iOS support added months prior to their release.
Of course, this new pair of headphones hasn't, suggesting that they're still a long time away from an official launch. In fact, the user thinks that we won't even see this software support until September, because that's when iOS 27 will come.
It follows that the headphones will be released a few months later; perhaps even up to six months later. Gulp. Unfortunately, that tracks with what we heard when we visited Beats HQ — or rather, what we didn't hear. Clearly, Beats is in no rush to strike while the iron's hot.
Will we have to wait that long?(Image credit: Beats)It's worth taking this missive with a slight pinch of salt. If there's no existing software support for the Beats headphones, how were those footballers using them? Surely they weren't just decoration — not at such an important sporting event, where the right pre-match playlist would surely be of paramount importance?
The cynics among you might rightly point out that the players weren't ever photographed listening to the headphones, just wearing them around their necks or attached to their bags. And it's also possible that Apple found a temporary solution for their headphones, rather than a full software rollout.
But it still stands to reason that Beats would give them a way to sporting stars who could actually listen to the headphones, and so it's possible that software support exists and online sleuths… missed it?
Something that the Reddit poster points out is that Apple might simply have become better at hiding its updated software support for new Beats devices (Apple, of course, owns Beats). They call it unlikely, but feasible.
If we are waiting past September to hear any more about these new headphones, all the money spent on soccer players might have been wasted; the buzz garnered by the move is already dying down (that is, in most places beyond the r/beatsbydre subreddit). Hopefully Beats will shift into action sooner than that.
- Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick says more fans are pre-ordering the Grand Theft Auto 6 Ultimate Edition over the Standard Edition
- He says the sales are "skewing more" to the $100 Ultimate Edition
- Zelnick also can't guarantee whether the game will get a discount for Black Friday or Christmas
According to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, the Grand Theft Auto 6 Ultimate Edition is selling more than the Standard Edition.
In a recent interview with CNBC (via IGN), when asked whether the pre-order numbers could be equal across both versions, the CEO said the game's $99.99 / £89.99 Ultimate Edition, which features the base game and additional bonus content, is being pre-ordered by more fans than the $79.99 / £69.99 Standard Edition.
"Actually, it is skewing more to the premium edition," Zelnick said, and suggested that it may be a result of die-hard fans pre-ordering it. "That might be a reflection of the fact that the most avid consumers are the ones who are pre-ordering now."
We don't have the actual sales numbers at this time, but if what Zelnick said is accurate, it suggests the Ultimate Edition is performing extremely well despite the initial backlash from fans.
When Rockstar Games announced the editions in June alongside pre-orders, fans called out the studio for its "scummy" tactics, which see exclusive content locked behind the game's Ultimate Edition. It's understood that a separate upgrade will be available at some point for those who purchase the Standard Edition, but Rockstar has yet to announce the add-on.
Unlike the Standard Edition, which comes with the base game, the more expensive Ultimate Edition features a ton of extra goodies, including premium and exclusive content such as missions, Vice City shops, locations, and outfits.
GTA 6 launches on November 19, before Black Friday and Christmas, and in the same interview with CNBC, Zelnick was asked whether we could see a discount on the upcoming game.
The CEO couldn't say, but explained that GTA 5's price was "preserved" for years, saying, "We obviously establish our pricing, and storefronts can do what they wish."
"We don't have any capability to control that," Zelnick continued. "So if they reduce their price, they reduce their margin on the sale. There are situations where certain retailers will price down to drive demand for other things they will sell. I can't tell you what will happen. I will tell you we preserved our pricing on Grand Theft Auto 5 for a very long time, much longer than a standard release of an entertainment property."
During Take-Two's most recent earnings report, the Rockstar parent company reported earnings of $1.39 billion during GTA 6's pre-order period, which Zelnick called an "exceptional start to pre-orders."
Fans can also look forward to 'Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look,' which will premiere on Netflix on August 27.
Epson's EcoTank ink tank printer have consistently impressed us during tests, with the format using bottled ink that's much cheaper than traditional inkjet printer cartridges. For an office upgrade or a new back-to-school set-up, I recommend checking out the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 for $200 (was $240) at Amazon.
If you're sick of buying overpriced ink cartridges, this is the cure. It includes four bottles of ink in the box that Epson says can last up to two years, and it's one of the best-selling cartridge-free printers on Amazon for a reason.
Should you buy it?✅ Buy the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 if...
You print a steady mix of documents and photos and want to escape the cartridge cycle. You want the lowest-cost entry point into Epson's EcoTank lineup. You're fine with manual double-sided printing and scanning one page at a time.
❌ Skip the Epson EcoTank ET-2800 if...
You need automatic two-sided printing (look at the ET-2850 instead). You regularly scan or copy multi-page documents — there's no automatic document feeder here. You print only occasionally — infrequent use can dry out the print heads.
Cartridge-free printing, wireless setup, flatbed scanner and copier, up to 10 ppm, with up to 2 years of ink included in the box.View Deal
Why we recommend itWe've tested the best home printers and best ink tank printers, and Epson's EcoTank line has delivered consistent performance results, topping our lists. Quick, cheap and easy refills, with good text and photo printing results.
The EcoTank system is the whole pitch here: instead of replacing small cartridges every few weeks, you refill from ink bottles, and each set is rated for up to 4,500 black-and-white pages or 7,500 color pages. Epson estimates that's roughly two years of ink for an average household.
At $199.99, this is one of the most affordable ways into that ecosystem, and it comes with wireless printing, a flatbed scanner, and a copier built in, so it covers the basics most home users need without extra bulk.
Price Context & Historical Value$199.99 matches this printer's going rate at other major retailers, including Best Buy, Staples, and direct from Epson, where it's currently listed at the same price after a $40 discount from $239.99.
The cheapest I've seen for the EcoTank ET-2800 is $175, which is typically around big shopping events like Black Friday and the Christmas sales.
At a cent under $200, that makes this less of a rare price drop and more of a reliably good, currently live price, and $40 off is still a meaningful percentage saving on a printer in this range. It's the lowest we've seen this bundle land since January.
The Catch: What to know before you buyThis is a basic model, and Epson kept costs down by omitting a couple of features that some buyers will miss. There's no automatic document feeder, so scanning or copying multi-page documents means feeding them one sheet at a time. It also doesn't support automatic double-sided printing — you'll need to flip pages manually for duplex. If either is a dealbreaker, Epson's ET-2850 adds both for more money. For most home printing — school paperwork, tax documents, the odd batch of photos — the ET-2800 covers it comfortably.
- CEVA Logistics hack disrupted European warehouses and exposed some customer data
- Retailers and Valve reported compromised delivery information and service delays
- Clients warned of targeted scams while awaiting fuller incident details from CEVA
CEVA Logistics, one of the biggest shipping and logistics companies in the world, has suffered a major cyberattack, the effects of which are trickling down to many of its clients.
The details of the hack itself, however, are not yet publicly available and what little information is out there came from the affected clients themselves.
CEVA has not yet issued an official statement, or filed a report with the regulators, but confirmed to TechCrunch that the attack most likely started on July 29, 2026, and affected at least eight warehouses across Europe.
Technical details missing, affected customers step forwardCEVA Logistics is a global logistics and supply-chain company and a wholly owned subsidiary of CMA CGM, a French shipping giant. It provides freight forwarding, contract logistics, warehousing and transportation services to thousands of customers, including major companies in the consumer and retail, automotive, industrial and aerospace sectors.
The company operates in more than 170 countries around the world and last year it generated $18.3 billion in gross revenue, so it is a major player and a key target for attackers.
The details about the incident itself are scarce right now. We don’t know how the crooks broke in (via a successful social engineering attack, or by abusing a software vulnerability, for example), how much data they stole, or if they demanded a ransom payment in exchange for deleting the stolen goods. From one of the victims, though, we have learned that some data was most likely compromised.
When the effects of a cyberattack spill into the physical realm (as is the case here with eight affected warehouses) we can speculate the attack was either ransomware, or disruptive malware. Companies shut down parts of their IT infrastructure only when there is no other way to clear an infection or remove malicious outsiders.
In the meantime, a small number of CEVA’s customers confirmed suffering an attack and losing sensitive data.
Among them is Bol, a Dutch online retail company, which said the incident affected two systems used for processing orders from one of its fulfillment
“No bol systems were affected,” it said. “However, data of customers whose orders were processed via this location may have been viewed or copied.”
Bol also said restoring operations at one of CEVA’s locations was taking longer than anticipated. As a result, the assortment stored at the affected location was taken offline, and the products were unavailable for sale. Also, Bol is currently unable to receive goods from suppliers and sales partners at that location.
A similar announcement was given by De Bijenkorf, another Dutch luxury retailer, who said that order processing, returns, and refunds, might take longer, but stressed that its stores remained open. It also said that some customer data may have been compromised, including names, contact details, online orders data and, in some cases, VAT numbers. Payment information, bank account numbers (IBANs), credit card information, usernames, or passwords, were not compromised, it was confirmed.
Valve steps forwardRetail giants aside, PC gaming powerhouse Valve also notified its customers about the incident. It said CEVA ships Steam hardware to its European customers and as such, receives specific delivery-related information from Steam.
This information, which CEVA retains for up to 90 days after the order, was most likely compromised. It includes names, street addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and the type and price of ordered products.
Valve warned its customers to expect fake messages, either via email, SMS, or phone, that might mention recent hardware orders.
“They may quote your address back to you to prove they're genuine. They may ask you to confirm a delivery, pay a small customs or redelivery fee, or sign in somewhere to “verify” your order. Treat all of them as fake,” Valve warned. The company also stressed that customer accounts are safe and that users need not do anything to secure them.
Other details are missing, not just for the general public, but for the affected CEVA clients, as well. Valve said it was “pressing” the company for the full scope of what was taken and how, and added that it is notifying the relevant authorities, as well.
A spokesperson of the Dutch data protection authority, Mark Schenkel, told TechCrunch the agency so far received 10 incident reports. Given the size of CEVA, it’s safe to assume there will be others.
- Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has defended the 'Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look', which premieres on Netflix
- He said it's a "first-of-its-kind partnership with Netflix" and it's a "great marketing partner for us"
- Zelnick suggested the timed exclusivity isn't an issue, as it will arrive on YouTube hours later
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has defended the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 extended look video being available exclusively on Netflix for a time.
During a Q&A after the publisher's Q1 FY27 financial report, the CEO was asked why the decision was made to have the 'Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look' be a timed Netflix exclusive when it releases on August 27.
The premiere, which kicks GTA 6's marketing into top gear ahead of the game's launch later this year, was criticised by some because it means fans without a Netflix subscription will need to pay a fee to watch. However, this doesn't seem to be a concern for Take-Two, since it will arrive six hours later on YouTube for free.
"This is a first-of-its-kind partnership with Netflix," Zelnick said. "They're a great marketing partner for us and distribution partner, as you know.
"We also work with virtually every social media outlet on Earth. This is part of Rockstar Games' marketing strategy. We're excited for everyone to see an extended look of Grand Theft Auto 6."
As for what fans can expect, Zelnick couldn't offer any hints, although it's speculated that the extended look could finally feature the long-awaited gameplay trailer.
"I'm not prepared to tell you how it's going to go," he said, "but I feel really good about it. And of course, some six hours after the initial launch on Netflix will be available on [the] Rockstar Games channel on YouTube, and I think ultimately many other outlets."
GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Series S, and according to Zelnick, the game's $100 Ultimate Edition is selling more than the Standard Edition, despite some controversy regarding the price.
After testing Geekom's Intel-powered IT13 Max, we found it a good, robust machine that's ideal for office work and light creative tasks. And right now, the Geekom IT13 Max AI mini PC is discounted to $679 (was $799) at Amazon with code TRT13DFF.
This mini PC pairs a genuine Core i9 mobile chip with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, in a chassis smaller than most external hard drives. In the UK, Geekom's mini PC is down to £637 (was £749) at Amazon.
Should you buy it?✅ Buy the GMKtec IT13 MAX if...
You want strong CPU performance for office work, coding, or light creative tasks in a tiny footprint. You need to drive multiple 4K monitors from one small box.
❌ Skip the GMKtec IT13 MAX if...
You want to game beyond light, reduced-settings titles — this runs integrated graphics only. It also uses DDR4 RAM, so skip it if you need DDR5 bandwidth for memory-intensive workloads. And if you're on a tighter budget, Geekom's lower-tier i5 configs cost meaningfully less.
Intel Core Ultra 9 185H | 24GB DDR4 | 1TB SSD
14-core, 20-thread Core i9-13900HK, 24GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, dual USB4 (40Gbps), dual HDMI, quad 4K display support, Windows 11 Pro. For the full discount use code TRT13DFF
In the UK: now £637 (was £749)View Deal
Why we recommend itThe GMKtec IT13 Max earned 4-stars in our review, where it proved a capable mini PC. We said, "for office and light creative work the IT13 Max is an excellent option," as well as use as a workshop or production-line machine.
The i9-13900HK is a genuine high-end mobile chip — 14 cores, 20 threads, and clock speeds up to 5.4 GHz — and it's unusual to see it in a mini PC this size and at this price. It handles everyday office work, code builds, and multitasking comfortably, and Geekom's cooling keeps things quiet under sustained load.
24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD are both generous starting points (but opt for the 16GB RAM model if you want to expand that memory up to 96GB). Connectivity is solid: dual USB4 ports at 40 Gbps, dual HDMI, Wi-Fi 7, and support for driving four displays simultaneously, making it a capable multi-monitor workstation for the price.
Price Context & Historical ValueGeekom lists this configuration with an MSRP north of $800, and it's typically discounted through coupon codes rather than site-wide sales — $679 with code TRT13DFF is a solid price for the 24GB/1TB tier, in line with what this model has landed at during previous promotions. This is the lowest price in the UK that the IT13 Max has been. Worth noting the code expires August 30, so this isn't a standing price.
For more savings, every week we track the best mini PC deals.
The Catch: What to know before you buyThere are two sticking points with the IT13 Max. First, the 24GB RAM model features fixed memory, so you can't upgrade it. If that's what you want, look for the version with 16GB RAM (available direct from Geekom US and Geekom UK).
This lets you expand both memory and storage — RAM to 64GB, plus room for a second M.2 drive and a 2.5-inch SATA bay.
Second, the IT13 uses Intel's Iris Xe integrated graphics, not a dedicated GPU, and it runs on DDR4 rather than DDR5 — a deliberate cost-saving choice that keeps the price down but caps performance in games and GPU-bound creative work.
It'll handle 4K video playback and light gaming at reduced settings, but it's not built for modern titles at high settings. If gaming or GPU-accelerated tasks are the priority.
Also considerAMD Ryzen 5 7640HS | 32GB DDR5 | 1TB SSD
This compact mini PC features an AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS processor, 32GB DDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD, triple 4K display support, USB4, dual 2.5G Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E, and Windows 11 Pro pre-installed.
Check our full reviewView Deal
AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB SSD
The K8 Plus packs a high-performance Ryzen 7 8845HS processor, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. I recommend upgrading the memory and storage to unlock max power. With OCuLink eGPU support, dual 2.5GbE LAN, USB4, and 8K display output, it’s a powerful compact desktop alternative.
Read our full reviewView Deal
- A modder has taken the innards of a Steam Deck and put them into a Game Boy-style case
- The end result is the 'SteamBoy', although it's not quite finished (the screen doesn't yet work)
- There's a lot of excitement about this DIY project, and some gamers have even said they'd be keen to buy a retro handheld like this
Ever wished the Steam Deck looked a bit more retro — or indeed a lot more retro? Meet the 'SteamBoy', which takes the innards of Valve's handheld and transplants them into a case styled on the Game Boy.
Steam Deck HQ noticed this clever piece of modding in the form a project by 'PhyFawkes' as posted on Reddit (via VideoCardz).
The SteamBoy uses the motherboard, controller, buttons, speakers, and battery from the Steam Deck, fitting the components into a case which the maker says is the same dimensions as an original Game Boy, with a thickness of 32mm (yes, it's thick).
PhyFawkes explains: "The battery is the original battery, and it basically takes up the whole width of the device on the inside. It's sandwiched between the motherboard and the display. The motherboard and controller boards are completely intact as well."
The only element that isn't functional yet is the screen, so this device is still a work in progress. The Redditor has demonstrated it working on an external monitor, though.
Analysis: next stop Kickstarter?(Image credit: PhyFawkes on Reddit)The snag with getting the screen going is that the motherboard firmware reports the display properties directly to SteamOS, and so the firmware details must be updated with the info for the new screen. The Redditor says it hopefully it won't take too long to sort this out.
Another part of the recipe that's missing is the triggers, but PhyFawkes says that they might be able to add them eventually, but that space constraints with the case could make this too tricky a proposition.
Apparently the handheld runs cool enough with some slight under-volting. All in all, this a very smart-looking project, and I'm seriously impressed. The case itself is 3D-printed, with the Redditor noting that they're going to provide the details on how to make one for those who might want to try their hand at this enterprising piece of handheld DIY.
Of course, constructing something like this is well beyond the scope of your average gamer, and there are fans of this concept out there who'd be willing to pay money for a SteamBoy of their own. Plenty of them, in fact, as the reception for this project has been nothing short of glowing.
As someone on Reddit put it: "This is legitimately so cool. I would totally back something like this on Kickstarter."
Another Redditor said: "Looks amazing! I'd probably buy 2 of these bad boys."
This article was originally published in April 2024, following the total solar eclipse in the US. The experience in advice is relevant for those thinking about attempting to photograph the 2026 eclipse — which will be total in parts of Iceland, Spain and Portugal, and there will be major partial eclipse in the UK and other European countries — so we're sharing it again.
If you’ve never seen a total eclipse in person, whatever you’ve seen and what you imagine don’t come close. The best photos, the most stunning video, they won’t match the silent, dazzling fury of the real thing. Your phone or monitor won’t capture the infinite diamond brilliance of the Sun’s corona twinkling around the black Moon.
I set out to shoot the total eclipse with my three best camera phones and my Nikon DSLR, but I am thankful that I decided to enjoy the eclipse in the scant three minutes I was under its totality.
Before I talk tech, I’ll do my best to describe the total solar eclipse if you’ve never seen one in person. April 8, 2024 was my first total eclipse, and before that day I thought it would be my last.
After seeing the total solar eclipse live, I felt like I can’t live the rest of my life without seeing one again. I’ve never seen a photo that was equally compelling. Seeing the real eclipse in person, it was so gloriously beautiful that I was immediately sad that it was so fleeting.
Here's what a total solar eclipse really looks likeI was not shocked to hear the crowd around me erupt into spontaneous applause.
There is a bright flash in the instant before the Sun goes dark. The world gets colder suddenly, but the landscape is not pitch dark. Watching the eclipse from the shore of Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, the view of Mount Marcy and the Adirondacks presented a panoramic sunset, with waning light surrounding me at the horizon on all sides, and the black eclipse at the center.
The Sun’s corona dazzles and flares with wisps of magic. You’ve never seen any light move in such a way. The contrast between the shockingly dark moon and the incredibly bright corona makes the halo seem brilliant and crisply present, as though the Sun is just beyond your grasp, and not seven light-minutes away.
The corona is bright, but not as bright as the face of the Sun. It reaches the limit of what my eyes could tolerate without causing pain. To see something so shockingly intense, after avoiding the painfully bright Sun for the previous hour, is a revelation. It feels like a gift being unwrapped in the sky above. It is a surprise and a joy, and I was not shocked to hear the crowd around me erupt into spontaneous applause.
I was awestruck. I forgot everything I was supposed to do at that moment. I’m now grateful that I decided at the last minute to drive all the way up to Burlington, where the clouds were wispy and few and the totality lasted more than three whole minutes. A good friend traveled farther to experience just over thirty seconds of totality in the Ozarks. Neither of us regrets taking our trip.
Ruining a solar eclipse with too much techThe eclipse shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max and Vaonis Hestia telescope (Image credit: Philip Berne/ Future)Back to the tech. My plan was … too much. I brought a telescope, and a DSLR, and three phones, and even smart glasses on my face. I don’t know what I was thinking. The eclipse lasted three minutes. I barely had time to focus one camera, let alone try to shoot with five. My plans fell to pieces, and I gave up quickly. I got a few good shots, then I turned my attention to the sky and just allowed myself to soak it in.
Seeing the eclipse was more rewarding than the best photo I’ve seen of the eclipse.
Here’s the gear I brought to shoot the solar eclipse. I borrowed a Vaonis Hestia telescope, which uses your phone as the viewfinder. I used an iPhone 15 Pro Max to take photos and view the eclipse through that telescope, with a solar filter provided by Vaonis. Those photos turned out pretty good, but it isn’t the most powerful telescope. Plus, an eclipse is a very complicated scene for lighting, especially for a phone camera.
Philip Berne / FuturePhilip Berne / FuturePhilip Berne / FutureI also had a Google Pixel 8 Pro and a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. I already decided I was not going to try to take telephoto zoom shots of the eclipse with these phones. The 5X range is simply not enough to capture any detail, and the sensor for the longest lens is also the smallest, lowest-quality sensor on the phone. Better to take wide-angle photos.
I set up the Galaxy S24 Ultra to shoot a time-lapse (Samsung calls it Hyperlapse) video of the entire event. I was pretty disappointed with the results. The sun was too high in the sky for even the widest lens to capture the scene around me as well as the eclipse in progress. The camera had trouble balancing the incredibly bright partial eclipse with the surroundings, so it just looks like a sunny day until totality occurs. When the eclipse happens, the camera balances the light in a way that doesn’t present the sunset colors and the changing light in the way I remember it.
The eclipse shot with Pixel 8 Pro and a solar filter (Image credit: Philip Berne/ Future)I attached a solar filter to the Google Pixel 8 Pro, hoping I would be able to see more of the partial eclipse as it happened. Nope, the filter cut out too much light for the phone to handle. I was barely able to see the Sun through the filter, let alone capture great shots.
At the last minute, I decided to also bring my Nikon D750 camera with a Nikon 80-400mm lens. I don’t have a solar filter for that huge lens, so I planned on shooting only the totality of the eclipse, when it is safe to look at the sun without glasses. I got some pretty good shots, but I was rushing around too much, juggling too many chores. I should have reduced the exposure levels, or used a manual mode to dial back the shutter speed. The photos were blurry and blown out, not very good.
Eclipse shot with Nikon D750 at 400mm (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)Philip Berne / FuturePhilip Berne / FuturePhilip Berne / FuturePhilip Berne / FutureIn the end, I got a couple of good shots from the iPhone on the telescope. They were better than the shots my friends took with their phones, and they impressed the people I shared them with. From my own perfectionist standards, I was disappointed with my pics, but I wasn’t disappointed at all with the experience.
In fact, I’m happy that I didn’t try much harder to take great photos, because at the last minute I chose to sacrifice the pics and enjoy the eclipse. It was amazing. It was the greatest natural phenomena I’ve ever seen. For the next eclipse, I’ll bring only one camera, and only one easy plan, and if I screw it up then I won’t even care. The best photo I could get would pale in comparison to the totality of the real thing.
You might also like...- I shot the eclipse with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, Google Pixel 8 Pro and a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra – here's which one did best
- You took amazing smartphone eclipse photos, but reminded me why I didn't use Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra's 100x Space Zoom
- How to photograph the total solar eclipse with your camera or smartphone
- Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick defends Grand Theft Auto 6's $80 base price
- He says, "Our goal is to deliver way more value to consumers than what we charge them"
- The CEO says GTA 6 will be "an incredible bargain"
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has defended Grand Theft Auto 6's $80 base price, saying Rockstar Games will "overdeliver" on the experience.
Speaking during a Q&A session after the publisher's Q1 FY27 financial report, Zelnick explained that the game's cost has everything to do with maximizing price by delivering on an experience that will last for consumers.
"Our goal is to deliver way more value to consumers than what we charge them," Zelnick said when asked why it decided to leave NBA 2K27's base pricing at $70 compared to GTA 6, which is priced at $80, and how Take-Two will go forward with pricing other "premium" AAA titles. "And the truth is that the real cost of a AAA video game is a whole lot lower today than it was 20 years ago.
"Pricing has not kept pace with inflation. And our goal is to continue to overdeliver for our consumers because how you feel about any experience is the intersection of the experience itself and what you paid for it."
He continued, "So, to say that we expect that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be an incredible bargain as experiences go is a gross understatement, because Rockstar Games is known for overdelivering."
Zelnick also pointed to GTA Online, which is now 13 years old but continues to draw in millions of players every year, suggesting that a premium experience will keep players engaged, no matter the cost.
"Remember, we're 13 years after GTA Online was launched and people are still highly engaged," he said. "We have record-setting engagement at times. So, that's our goal.
"Our goal is not to maximize price. So, in this case, I think what we've decided to do makes a whole lot of sense in the context of what we're delivering. And that's the lens through which we're going forward as well."
GTA 6 will launch on November 19 with two editions: the Standard and Ultimate Edition. While the former costs $79.99 / £69.99, the more expensive $99.99 / £89.99 Ultimate Edition will offer additional content. While initially criticized by fans, Zelnick told analysts during the Q&A that it's selling more than the Standard Edition.
Take-Two also reported earnings of $1.39 billion during GTA 6's pre-order period, which Zelnick called an "exceptional start to pre-orders," but couldn't share specific sales numbers.
- Facial recognition systems are expanding to the London Underground
- British Transport Police say images will be checked against a watchlist
- Privacy groups are calling the technology intrusive
The debate over public surveillance and privacy is only getting more intense, with the British Transport Police (BTP) the latest organization to stoke the fires: it's expanding a trial of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology across several London Underground stations from today.
As per the BTP's official statement, this will start at Victoria and then rotate around other stations until November. "Our deployments are intelligence-led and focused on identifying people wanted by the police or courts, including those suspected of serious offences and those who may be breaching bail conditions or court orders," says the BTP.
The cameras work by comparing scanned faces to a watchlist of suspects and criminals wanted by the police. If there's a match, it's reviewed by a police officer — if not, the image is "immediately and permanently" deleted. The tech is already in use at other transport hubs in London, but is now being expanded to the Tube.
As for opting out of being surveilled, the police say the cameras will come with clear signage, and that "alternative routes" will be available too — which presumably the criminals can also sneak through. It's not clear if sunglasses and a hood would help you avoid being scanned, but you might be politely asked to remove them.
A 'dystopian' expansionA map of Victoria Tube station showing the alternative routes (Image credit: British Transport Police)According to the BBC, the BTP are looking out for people wanted in connection with serious offences, including sexual assault, robbery, and knife crime. Police intelligence data will be used to select the stations covered by the cameras, with the aim of reducing violence and harassment.
However, as the BBC points out, scans of some 530,000 faces across UK railway stations since February have resulted in zero matches, zero arrests, and one false identification. That's based on the BTP's own deployment logs, suggesting that to date the technology isn't helping much.
Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo suggests that the tech "treats the public like suspects" and is a "disturbing and dystopian expansion" of facial recognition systems. The privacy rights group has long been campaigning against the use of these cameras, arguing that they're intrusive and unnecessary.
The reaction online has been mostly negative too: comments in one Reddit thread question the effectiveness of this type of facial recognition, and air concerns about more nefarious uses of the tech further down the line. However, others also point out that public transport stations are already extensively covered by camera monitoring.
- Spotify is introducing AI Persona tags in mid-September
- The platform aims to improve user transparency by differentiating real artists from AI-generated ones
- Spotify only reviews an artist's profile and images, and not the music itself
Spotify has fallen short on the AI transparency front compared to some of the other best music streaming services, with users pining for a fix — and now the platform is taking its biggest step yet towards combatting AI slop.
The streaming giant announced today (August 11) the arrival of new AI Persona tags, which are designed to differentiate human artists from ones that are AI-generated. Spotify says these tags will roll out to mobile in mid-September, and will appear in an artist’s profile banner, ‘About’ section, in Search, and in song rows in playlists.
Once they become available, users can be safe in the knowledge that the artists they’re listening to haven’t been generated by AI. Spotify added that artists with AI Persona tags will be excluded from all personalized recommendations by default, ensuring that your music-discovery regime remains uninfected by slop.
(Image credit: Spotify)Though AI Persona tags won’t roll out for another month or so, Spotify says artists can already disclose if their profile is AI-generated. If an artist declares this, a tag reading ‘AI Persona’ will appear next to their name. ‘We hope artists will be transparent, so we are giving them the opportunity to disclose,’ the service shared in its announcement — but it’s not putting all its trust into self-disclosure.
Instead, Spotify says it will take matters into its own hands if need be, and will conduct reviews of profiles where it thinks an artist’s images have been created using generative AI to imitate a lifelike persona. If Spotify detects that an artist profile might be AI-generated, it will display a tag that reads ‘Likely AI Persona’, and the artist will be notified and given the option to self-disclose or appeal.
It’s taken Spotify a long time to catch up to the likes of Deezer when it comes to improving its transparency on AI-generated music. Deezer was the first major audio streaming service to roll out tags that explicitly say if a track has been AI-generated, and recently its Head of Research told us why we need AI filters more than ever.
Spotify’s own AI Persona tags mark a big shift for the platform, and will certainly improve the user experience by giving listeners more peace of mind. However, Spotify’s feature comes with an important caveat.
It reviews the profile only, not the music (Image credit: Spotify)AI Persona tags are just one of the ways Spotify has been working towards improving transparency for users. Verified by Spotify was launched a few months back — this is a certification feature that shows if an artist is legitimate, but it’s not as watertight as we’d hoped it would be.
Additionally, Spotify’s SongDNA gives listeners a comprehensive overview of the creatives behind their favorite songs, while AI Credits give artists the opportunity to share where and how they’ve used AI in their music production. It’s not as upfront as Deezer’s methods, but the measures are in place nonetheless, and AI Persona tags are the cherry on top.
That said, AI Persona tags target an artist’s public image, not how the music was made, which could present some issues, as it still leaves room for AI-generated music to slip its way onto the platform.
If Spotify detects that an artist is human-presenting, how are we to know that artist won’t upload AI-generated music to their profile? There’s nothing stopping that artist from publishing slop, because Spotify reviews their name, imagery, and public identity, not the music they upload.
It’s a tricky one, because while Spotify has measures in place that evaluate music and artist image respectively, it doesn’t have a comprehensive tool that reviews both components simultaneously, which again isn’t as upfront as Deezer.
As far as AI-generated content in Spotify goes, I’ve been one of the lucky ones who hasn’t encountered this issue. Because my love for physical media and radio impacts what I listen to on Spotify, I suspect that my algorithm has been trained enough to push AI slop out of my recommendations.
I do think that on top of my streaming habits, Spotify’s anti-AI music measures have helped to keep the fence up and block out unwanted songs to a certain extent — I just wish its approach to tagging was a bit more robust.