News
- Corsair workstation 300 puts 128GB RAM into a chassis smaller than a shoebox
- Integrated graphics may hold it back from real-time rendering or GPU-accelerated production work
- 50 TOPS NPU hints at serious AI muscle inside a deceptively small package
Corsair has introduced the AI Workstation 300, a mini PC built around AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, positioning it as a high-performance workstation PC for professionals and AI developers.
At under $2000, it sits in a competitive space where expectations are high for both raw performance and long-term reliability.
This unit marks the 13th system to feature the Ryzen AI Max+ 365 series chip, following other systems like HP Z2 Mini G1a and GMKTEC EVO-X2, suggesting growing interest in AMD's latest integrated AI silicon.
Small form factor delivers big on memory, storage, and AI hardwareThis system comes in a 4.4L form factor, which is considered portable relative to other Strix Halo devices in the market.
It's small size packs 128GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and the Radeon 8060S integrated graphics with support for up to 96GB of dynamic VRAM.
While these specs appear promising on paper, the use of integrated graphics for a workstation PC raises questions about its capability for GPU-heavy tasks such as real-time 3D rendering or high-resolution video editing.
Developers and engineers focused on AI inference or code-based workflows may find it adequate, but creative professionals relying on discrete GPU acceleration might be more cautious.
Corsair claims the device is ready for local LLMs, AI-assisted development, and creative work, backed by a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of up to 50 TOPS of acceleration.
The included Corsair AI Software Suite improves its AI capacity, but proprietary toolkits often face adoption and compatibility hurdles outside tightly controlled workflows.
Thermal management is handled by a dual-fan cooling system, which could help maintain stable performance in a tightly packed chassis.
The 350W power supply also seems sufficient for its components, though it leaves little headroom for future expansion.
The I/O selection is more extensive than one might expect from a system of this size, including USB 4.0, an SD card reader, and 2.5G Ethernet.
This device, which comes with a two-year warranty and lifetime tech support, is currently on pre-order and will commence shipping in September 2025.
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ChatGPT's GPT-5 brain trainslpant marks a turning point in the steady march toward General Artificial Intelligence. With GPT-5 models, ChatGPT, from free to Pro, gets more personal, reliable, accurate, capable, proactive, and productive. It's even more ready than ever to engage with you on health issues.
For those who've been following along for the three years since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, these updates might not suprise you but even those most familair with ChatGPT might feel a little bit like the AI train is getting away from us, speeding to an unknown destination, and in a way, those who will be most affected by the coming AI wave are the youngest among us, specifically, your children.
Maybe you don't have kids, but I bet you know someone who does, or maybe you're a teacher dealing with children every day. Children's lives are already surrounded by AI, and it's likely some are using it at school, at home, for fun, and even as a surrogate friend.
It's time, though, you had The Talk. That's right, talk with your kids about AI and its place in the world and, especially, their lives.
I suggest you frame it this way:
AI is not aliveGPT-5 seriously levels up ChatGPT's conversational capabilities in both text and live conversations. It can seem alive and human. The algorithm and models are more complex than ever, but they do not yet match the complexity of the human brain (even if GPT-5 is a big step on the road to Artificial General Intelligence), though they can sometimes outthink you.
Children, in particular, will probably love chatting with GPT-5's more customizable voices. That's why it's so crucial they understand what they're really talking to – a cloud-based system hosted on servers possibly thousands of miles away. There's no one on the other side chatting with them.
AI is just a toolSince the dawn of the digital age, new technologies have often seemed like magic. We could do things we never did before, like create art on a screen, manage vast amounts of data in spreadsheets, and build programs that could create rich, open worlds in video games.
AI is on that path, but far more powerful. However, its capabilities should not be viewed as the end product, but rather as the tools and skills that help your children achieve their goals, whether it's hearing a funny story or completing a class project.
It's also a tool in that it only works as well as you understand how to use it. ChatGPT's success, even running GPT-5, depends largely on the quality of your prompt.
You'll want to show your kids how to create the best prompts and then follow-ups that ensure GPT-5 delivers the right response.
AI is powerful but not perfectEven though GPT-5 promises to cut down on hallucinations, that does not mean it's error-free. Explain to your children how they cannot take ChatGPT's "facts" as pure truth without double-checking them.
That might be a tough lesson for your kids (and maybe you) who will think the work is done and want to return to playtime. You need to walk them through the process of fact-checking ChatGPT (and other AIs).
AI should be treated as a work partner, not a servantGPT-5 can now, based on a prompt, code and build entire apps and websites. That's attractive to adults and children who might be looking to level up their coding skills but don't want to spend the time learning how to code.
It's worth reminding your kids that ChatGPT with GPT-5 is best used as a programming, development, and design partner. You provide the idea and then work with the AI to shape the final outcome.
Explain the concept of collaboration with your kids and why that's valuable. Otherwise, they might supply one prompt, get an OK result, and assume they now know how to code and that the result is the best they and ChatGPT can do.
The less your kids engage with the AI coding output, the less they'll understand about application development.
AI isn't your doctorThere is a strong focus in GPT-5 on health, helping you figure out what a symptom might mean or even the right questions to ask your doctors. Kids will surely try asking ChatGPT some health-related questions about bumps, bruises, aches, pains, and even odd symptoms. However, they need to understand that the best place to start addressing these concerns is with their parents, who will likely take them to the doctor.
Look, I'm sure ChatGPT, especially with the GPT-5 upgrade, can help parents understand medical test results, but as OpenAI wrote in its release on the update: "Important note: ChatGPT does not replace a medical professional. "
The message to your kids is that human professionals are no so easily replaced.
AI isn't your friendThis is one of the greatest concerns when it comes to AI, and I'm glad that GPT-5 is adding more guardrails to ensure that conversations do not go to dangerous places, and the recent upgrades added to impose pauses in challenging (perhaps overly emotional) conversations.
Even so, your kids are probably already talking to and sharing with ChatGPT and other AIs. There is an epidemic of loneliness, and some kids may see ChatGPT's live voice mode as a friend. It's your job to remind them it's not, and to insert yourself between them and AIs.
AI togetherThis leads me to my final tip, which is to do AI with your children.
Think of AI like any emerging technology, from PCs to CD-ROMs to the Internet to social media. None of these tasks should ever have been undertaken by kids alone. Parents shouldn't act as if AI is not of interest to them and, therefore, not part of their job as a parent.
If your kids are using AI, you should be sitting next to them, exploring and learning together. Be as comfortable and conversant as they will become with AI.
Follow these steps, and you and your whole family will be ready for ChatGPT, even with the introduction of the powerful GPT-5 model.
You might also like- Another rumour suggests the MacBook Pro OLED is arriving in late 2026
- We've again been told that Samsung Display will manufacture the screen
- This is one of the more consistent MacBook rumors, with doubt having crept into other theories
Yet another rumor indicates that Apple is set to release a MacBook Pro with an OLED display later in 2026.
MacRumors spotted the report from Dealsite.co.kr (a Korean website), which claims that Samsung Display is going to be the only supplier of these OLED screens for an Apple MacBook that'll debut late in 2026.
We're told that Samsung's Gen 8.6 OLED assembly lines are easily able to meet the demand Apple will require for OLED panels in its MacBook Pros. And that Samsung's investment in this production capability allows for a suitably attractive manufacturing cost when it comes to that all-important bill-of-materials for the MacBook.
Obviously, we need to be careful around any rumor, but this isn't the first time we've heard Samsung's name mentioned as the maker of the MacBook's OLED screen.
In March 2025, well-known Apple leaker Mark Gurman predicted that the big change for the MacBook Pro won't be coming until late in 2026 - with a major redesign centering on a Samsung 'tandem' OLED (two panels squished together, as it were, to allow for better brightness and power efficiency), as well as making the laptop thinner.
Furthermore, Apple may trade out the 'notch' in the screen for a 'hole cut' webcam.
Analysis: Shifting timeframes, perhaps - but there's one constant(Image credit: Future)This year's MacBook Pro will supposedly be a minor upgrade - if indeed the notebook refresh even arrives in 2025, as another (very recent) piece of speculation from Gurman suggests it has been delayed to early 2026. This will be the MacBook Pro M5, and the OLED model will, in theory, come late in 2026 with the M6 chip onboard.
Of course, take all of this with a grain of salt, as that would be rather unusual in terms of launch timing for Apple - but that doesn't mean it can't happen.
In short, the rumor mill has got somewhat confused about exactly what Apple's MacBook plans are in terms of launch dates - perhaps because the company is tinkering with those plans and moving timeframes internally.
Whatever the case, one rumor has remained fairly constant, which is that the MacBook Pro is going to get OLED first, and this will happen late in 2026 - with Samsung now consistently being mentioned as the manufacturer of the screen.
You might also like- Access to ChatGPT-5 is being given to all ChatGPT users
- You get new features like ChatGPT Voice and better writing
- ChatGPT-5 access is rolling out right now
At today’s ChatGPT-5 launch event, we got to see exactly why OpenAI is so excited about the new version of ChatGPT. It’s faster, more intuitive, less likely to hallucinate, and can integrate with your Gmail in even more useful ways to know more about you.
In fact, at one point, the OpenAI presenters actually got ChatGPT-5 to write a eulogy to the previous ChatGPT-4o model as a demonstration about how much better its writing capabilities had become.
The eulogy was warranted because OpenAI isn’t restricting access to ChatGPT-5 to Plus and Pro subscribers – it is giving it out to free tier users too, so everybody now gets access to a better ChatGPT. That effectively means the end for ChatGPT-4o.
The vast majority of today’s presentation was about how much better ChatGPT-5 was at writing code than previous versions, and also how much better it was at enterprise applications, like law, health care, education, and finance.
Of course, most of us simply use ChatGPT to help us get things done in our daily lives, but there were plenty of improvements that are worth noting for everyday users, too, and they’re mostly available in the free tiers.
Let’s take a look at what you get access to without paying.
As with GPT‑4o, the difference between free and paid access to GPT‑5 is usage volume. At some point on the free tier, your access to GPT-5 will reach the usage limit, and then you’ll be kicked back to GPT-5 mini.
Plus subscribers will get significantly higher usage volume before that happens. That means you’ll get access to the improved writing ability in GPT-5. You’ll find that its prose has a lot more rhythm and beat to it than the prose in GPT-4o did.
2. ChatGPT Voice(Image credit: Future)With the free tier, you still only get limited access to ChatGPT-5’s voice mode (along with file uploads, image creation, and data analysis), but you should get more access per day now than you did before.
What used to be called 'Advanced voice mode' is now called 'ChatGPT voice'. OpenAI says that “Standard Voice Mode retires on September 9, 2025, unifying all users on ChatGPT Voice”.
ChatGPT Voice is better than before, with more natural-sounding conversations. Hit the voice button on the mobile app for ChatGPT to give it a go right now.
3. New highlight colorsYou’ve always been able to change the theme of ChatGPT from light to dark to System, but now you can add accent colors to your chats in the Settings. These apply to elements in ChatGPT-5 like conversation bubbles and highlighted text.
This is the first time color has been used in the ChatGPT interface, and it takes some getting used to, but I think this is a feature you’ll come to enjoy.
What you don’t getChatGPT-5 has better memory, reduces hallucinations, and as a free user, you’ll get all that too. So what don’t you get?
Well, as before, access to the Sora AI video generator is restricted to Plus and Pro users, as is ChatGPT Agent. And in terms of new models, the super-powerful ChatGPT-5 Pro is only available to Pro users.
But I’m still suck on GPT-4o?If you’re frantically hitting the refresh button on your ChatGPT page waiting for access to GPT-5 then you’re not alone right now, but it is on the way.
A message on the OpenAI website says: “We are gradually rolling out GPT-5 to ensure stability during launch. Some users may not yet see GPT-5 in their account as we increase availability in stages.”
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AMD’s Threadripper PRO 9000WX series has delivered a blow that Intel’s Xeon workstation CPUs may not recover from.
Benchmarks from Puget Systems covering real-world content creation applications found the new Threadripper chips outperformed Intel’s Xeon W-3500 series across nearly every category, often by wide margins which left little room for excuses or rebuttal.
At the top of AMD’s stack is the 96-core 9995WX, priced at $11,700, delivering a Cinebench 2024 multi-core score of 7,508, 27% ahead of the previous-gen 7995WX and a staggering 125% faster than Intel’s most powerful Xeon tested.
Threadripper pulls ahead?Even AMD’s mid-range 9975WX with 32 cores ($4,100) routinely beat Intel’s 60-core w9-3595X in workloads like Blender, DaVinci Resolve, and Unreal Engine compiling.
Intel’s best simply couldn’t keep up, either in raw throughput or clock speed, and often looked inefficient by comparison.
In Photoshop, where high single-core speed matters, AMD's 16-core 9955WX came out on top with an overall score of 11,384 - whereas Intel's Xeon w5-3535X managed only 6,801, barely 60% of AMD’s best showing.
Even the weakest Threadripper 9000 chip tested outperformed every Intel CPU across the board in Adobe’s suite of creative tools, including Premiere Pro and After Effects.
In After Effects 3D workloads, the 9955WX again dominated with a 9% lead over the 9995WX and a 40% advantage over Intel’s top performer.
DaVinci Resolve further emphasized Intel’s problem: the 9975WX scored 180 in Intraframe processing, a 10% improvement over AMD’s previous generation, while Xeons lagged by more than 20%.
AI-related benchmarks using LLaMA.cpp showed consistent scaling on AMD, with the 9995WX processing 16% more tokens per second than its predecessor.
Intel’s Xeon parts trailed even lower-tier Threadripper models here, further underlining their inefficiency in modern workloads.
Workstation tasks like compiling in Visual Studio or shader building in Unreal Engine showed predictable trends.
The 9995WX and 9985WX completed these tasks dramatically faster, with the former finishing Unreal Engine compilation in 68% of the time required by the previous generation.
Intel’s Xeons simply couldn’t compete; even their 60-core chip was outpaced by AMD’s 32-core offering.
While AMD's new processors come with a 10–20% price increase over the 7000WX line, the performance uplift and DDR5-6400 support help justify it.
In nearly every test, AMD’s dominance was clear and systematic, leaving Intel’s Xeon series looking outdated and overpriced.
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OpenAI’s much‑anticipated livestream reveal of GPT‑5 crammed a lot into about an hour and a half of announcements and demonstrations. CEO Sam Altman didn't show any of the fear he claimed to feel about the new AI model, just a lot of pride at what he and his team had accomplished.
Much of the presentation showed off GPT-5's technical milestones and how they translate into powerful new and upgraded AI features for users. Altman also had some lighter fare to unveil for ChatGPT, offering more customization options and ways for users to link their existing online footprint to ChatGPT.
Here are the five most notable pieces to emerge from GPT-5's debut.
GPT-5 arrives(Image credit: OpenAI)GPT-5 is the next iteration of OpenAI's models, bigger and more powerful, but not dissimilar in its basic form. Even so, GPT-5 is big and complex enough to reach a new level in how it seems to reason.
Essentially, you no longer have to spoon-feed it context or restate complex prompts three times, or at least not nearly as often. Multifaceted questions like how changing interest rates might affect Gen Z homeownership trends in mixed markets might take several prompts refined multiple times to provide the answers you seek with earlier ChatGPT models, but GPT‑5 can unpack the whole thing.
Based on the demonstrations, GPT‑5 seems to parse each part separately and stitch it together. And it flags when there's a gap in its knowledge, which is far better than confidently hallucinating. It applies that way of thinking to how it interacts with users, too. While obviously not 'thinking', it does appear to read between the lines well enough to reflect a user's mood and even adjust its response to an expressed emotion.
The model is supposed to be particularly good with math and coding software. Good enough to handle the increasingly popular pursuit of 'vibe coding,' where you simply describe a feeling or a mood of a piece of software, and the AI produces the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to match your design vision.
GPT-5 sizes(Image credit: OpenAI)GPT-5 comes in many sizes in addition to the standard version. There's also the smaller gpt-5-mini, and an even leaner gpt-5-nano, which lives solely in the API. The big news is that free ChatGPT users now get access to both GPT-5 and mini, while ChatGPT Plus subscribers enjoy higher usage limits across the board.
If you’re a Pro user paying $200 a month, you’ll now get unlimited GPT-5 access, along with access to the more powerful gpt-5-pro model and gpt-5-thinking. These both take longer to provide answers, but come back with deeper, more thoughtful responses.
There is no need to pick and choose yourself, either, though. ChatGPT now picks the right model automatically based on what you're asking and what plan you’re on.
ChatGPT custom personalities and colorsChatGPT has a default, pleasantly bland personality, but GPT‑5 is advanced enough to offer more variety in the tone and style of the AI chatbot. If you don't want the usual neutral mode, you can choose “Cynic” for sarcasm with your answer, “Listener” if you’re venting and just need it to echo back understanding, "Nerd" for a side of geeky trivia, and "Robot" for the purely mechanical response.
These personalities don’t undercut the answers you get, but they do flavor the response. Therefore, you might get dry wit with productivity tips from the “Cynic” tone or gentle encouragement in your goals from “Listener.”
Additionally, the chatbot's appearance can now be altered with the new color themes. If you're a paid subscriber, you'll soon be able to adjust the look of ChatGPT instead of switching between the usual black or white.
Voice Mode(Image credit: Future)ChatGPT's Voice Mode is getting an audio glow-up of its own. OpenAI is rolling out a much-improved version that not only works with custom GPTs but also adapts its tone and speech style based on your instructions and overall vibe.
You can ask it to be snappier, slower, warmer, or whatever else you want. For ChatGPT Plus users, voice responses are now nearly unlimited. Free users still get access, too, with a few hours a day to chat hands-free.
To streamline things, the old Standard Voice Mode is being phased out entirely within 30 days. After that, everyone will be on the same upgraded experience.
Google connections for ChatGPT(Image credit: Future)Next week, ChatGPT Pro users will be able to hook up their Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts directly to ChatGPT. That means no more switching tabs to check if you're free next Tuesday or digging through threads to find that one email you definitely forgot to reply to.
Once connected, ChatGPT will pull in what it needs to help respond to your queries. OpenAI assured users that it will only pull in the minimum needed and only when it’s helpful.
You don’t need to say “check my calendar” or “pull that contact.” The AI will do so based on whether you request something that requires it, like scheduling a meeting. It will pick a time that works for you and write the email on your behalf. Other subscription tiers are scheduled to get access to the connections in the near future, so this won't be limited to Pro forever.
All of these upgrades leveraging GPT-5 point to OpenAI's bigger plans to make its AI models an intimate part of your life, not just a tool you occasionally turn to and feel annoyed about having to carefully parse answers. Smarter reasoning means less cleanup for the user. Vibe coding shifts AI from merely aping code to interpreting your intended use with software. The personalities and colors make the AI feel like it's more unique to you, not just a one-size-fits-all tool, especially with the more realistic voice and access to your email account and calendar
GPT‑5 mimics awareness better than any of its predecessors. That means it could blend into our routines and become as second nature to use as our smartphones. Or at least, that's what OpenAI and its investors likely hope to see happen.
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- Hard drives sold as new contained decade-old internals from previously used Seagate and Western Digital units
- SMART data was manipulated to hide prior usage, masking serious mechanical and read error issues
- Attingo analysis revealed leftover user data, proving zeroing only touched the start of storage sectors
A recent case involving UnionSine-branded external hard drives has raised serious questions about the integrity of some products sold through Amazon’s marketplace.
An investigation by data recovery company Attingo uncovered supposedly "new" hard drives contained 2.5" HDDs from major brands like Seagate and Western Digital manufactured over a decade ago.
These findings contradict the product labelling, which lists a manufacturing date from spring 2025.
Used drives masquerading as newThe drives were sold under the identifier HD2510 during Amazon’s Tech Week promotional period, and were assumed by buyers to be new portable HDDs suitable for regular backup and storage use.
Attingo’s teardown of the drives revealed not just their age, but also signs of previous use, with the evidence extending beyond the hardware identifiers.
The company said some of the HDDs still contained fragments of user data, with only the beginning of the data fields zeroed out.
This practice, commonly used to simulate full data erasure, failed to eliminate all traces of prior use.
One recovered XML file even contained a timestamp from May 2024, pointing to very recent activity inconsistent with a supposedly unused device.
Some of the data traces were linked to TV recording systems, suggesting that the drives had once been in operational environments.
Attingo also noted inconsistencies in SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data, which is used by operating systems to assess hard drive health.
Although the displayed operating hours suggested zero usage, other key metrics, such as the read error rate, told a different story.
This kind of manipulation has been seen before in fraud cases involving repurposed HDDs, especially those sold through gray market channels.
The presence of numerous read errors and mechanical anomalies conflicted with the SMART status, indicating a fresh drive.
The fact that this issue emerged from a well-known retail platform, rather than a niche marketplace or obscure online store, is of particular concern.
Attingo CEO Markus Häfele expressed alarm at the findings, saying the situation was not only misleading to consumers but also potentially dangerous from a data protection standpoint.
"It's unfortunately well known that used hardware is occasionally declared as new on platforms like eBay or in direct imports from Asian retailers – but the fact that this is happening systematically as part of a widely advertised Amazon campaign is truly scandalous," Häfele said.
Though the incident has sparked renewed concern about the reliability of NAS HDDs and external storage devices offered through third-party sellers online, Amazon has yet to respond to the allegations.
Via Computerbase
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- OpenAI's GPT-5 debut included the reveal of a new integration that allows ChatGPT Pro users to link their Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts directly to the chatbot
- ChatGPT can summarize your day, create a schedule, and flag important emails
- Though an opt-in feature requiring user confirmation, privacy issues are likely to be raised
The spectacle of GPT-5 may have overshadowed some of OpenAI's other news during its livestream on Thursday, but the demonstration of ChatGPT's new ability to directly peruse and analyze a user's Google data caught my eye as a major moment in ChatGPT's development and OpenAI's battle for supremacy among AI chatbots.
The new feature enables ChatGPT users to connect the AI chatbot to their Gmail, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar data. The demo showed ChatGPT responding to a request to see a schedule of the following day by going through the user's calendar and email inbox, then rapidly compiling a complete and complex schedule, including important unread emails to respond to.
This may not sound like a breakthrough to anyone who’s already overwhelmed with their digital list of things to do, but ChatGPT sorting that information and putting it in front of you might actually lower your stress, at least judging by the demo.
It's easy to imagine an AI outline for your day, or a nudge to handle that still-unread message, reducing the mental workload by cutting out the tedious sorting and linking of scheduled events to relevant emails. You might say, “What’s on my plate today?” and see your calendar paired with that flagged email. That would mean no more toggling between Gmail and your calendar, squinting at what's urgent.
Further, the data could help ChatGPT learn more about you and your needs by reading the meeting invites you've sent, deadlines you've barely hit, and RSVPs you sent the second you got the invite. For now, this option is only available to ChatGPT Pro users, though OpenAI promised it would become more widely available soon.
ChatGPT won't sneak a peek at your messagesThat said, the idea of handing over Gmail and Calendar data to ChatGPT might raise an eyebrow or two for good reason. Gmail could hold confirmation of doctor appointments and secret romantic rendezvous plans.
Don't worry about inadvertently sharing those details with ChatGPT, though. You'll need to opt in to link your accounts to ChatGPT and confirm actions before they occur, which will prevent any emails from being sent automatically.
Then again, there are plenty of smart scheduling bots and email add-ons that automatically pull event details or remind you about missed invites. But ChatGPT’s integration adds actual conversation to the mix. You don’t forward an email or set up complex rules of how the automated system should respond to certain family members. You just type in regular language, and it will act more like a human secretary.
Assuming you're okay with the concept, you can see how those who use Google and ChatGPT might value linking the two. Especially if you're not a fan of Google Gemini for one reason or another. You might long to have an AI chatbot connected to your Google account, but simply prefer ChatGPT to Gemini. OpenAI wants to give you that option.
If Google doesn't have an exclusive claim to linking your email and calendar to an AI chatbot, then OpenAI can hope to win out in other areas where it may feel it has the advantage, like the power of GPT-5. You just have to be okay with letting ChatGPT see which weddings you'll be attending in the next few months.
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‘Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should’. While this famous line from Jurassic Park is a poignant reminder of the dangers of unchecked ambition, it can also be applied to today’s rapidly evolving and fragmented AI landscape.
The mainstream availability of AI has compounded issues with shadow IT, as employees increasingly sidestep governance to deploy powerful, self-service AI tools. In this environment, many businesses are faced with how to manage the element of control when unmanaged AI systems start making critical business decisions based on fragmented, unverified data.
Like John Hammond’s ambitious yet doomed theme park, some organizations are now creating something powerful without fully understanding the risks or having proper containment measures in place.
It’s become a business imperative to find ways to ensure AI-ready data is trusted, compliant, and seamlessly connected. Here we explore the unintended consequences of AI-driven shadow IT and why businesses need a structured approach to data management to avoid costly mistakes.
The rise of AI-powered shadow ITShadow IT is not a new challenge, but AI takes it to a new level. With so many generative tools now readily available, employees can solve problems, generate content, or make recommendations at speed. This happens often without needing any technical expertise or approval.
This speed is both a blessing and a risk. In their enthusiasm to experiment and move fast, teams often pull data from disparate sources, bypassing enterprise-grade controls in favor of quick, isolated fixes. Over time, these short-term solutions accumulate, and organizations are left with a patchwork of systems, models and insights that don’t speak the same language.
The risk isn’t just that teams are duplicating efforts or misinterpreting data. Business-critical decisions affecting customers, supply chains, product development and strategic direction are increasingly being made based on unverified siloed information. When AI systems operating on flawed data foundations make recommendations that influence growth strategies, the potential for bias or error multiplies exponentially.
Unify and trust your dataThe antidote to this growing risk is not to clamp down on experimentation. It’s to build the right data foundation, one that supports innovation while maintaining context and integrity.
This means giving employees access to high-quality, AI-ready data from across the business. It’s essential to build one harmonized layer that connects all business AI applications and ensures that everyone from developers to decision-makers can rely on a single source of truth.
This foundation keeps context intact, so the entire business can see where, how, when and why data was produced, building trust and accurately informing decisions. When data is unified, it also supports regulatory demands and keeps the business agile to future compliance requirements.
The cost of siloed data and duplicated spendThere’s a significant cost benefit to this too. When growth is the unanimous business goal, organizations cannot afford to hemorrhage spend on an inefficient IT landscape.
It’s estimated that organizations today spend up to 50% of their IT budgets on data and analytics, with a significant portion of that going on attempts to harmonize disconnected data sources. Yet, despite these efforts, many businesses still lack a continuous, unified data layer that brings these sources together in a coherent, usable way.
That’s not just inefficient, it’s a missed opportunity. In the age of AI, the power of data lies not just in how much you have, but in how well it’s connected. Without a shared foundation, AI models risk drawing the wrong conclusions or being trained on outdated information.
This in turn leads to additional budgetary pressures. Businesses need to confidently scale AI across functions, knowing insights are accurate, secure and compliant.
From raw data to business outcomesTo move from raw data to real business outcomes, organizations need more than just infrastructure. They need a strategic approach to data and analytics that supports decision-making at every level.
This means combining new technologies with existing business processes to create enriched, curated data products that deliver meaningful value. It means equipping users with advanced analytics, benchmarking tools and AI-powered insights applications that can both interpret the data and recommend actions.
This strategic approach helps limit the spread of shadow IT by reducing the need for employees to seek out unapproved tools or shortcuts. By aligning data initiatives with established governance frameworks and cultural values, organizations can ensure consistency, compliance and trust in the data being used. At the same time, it creates space for innovation and agility, enabling teams to move quickly and confidently within a well-defined structure.
When done right, the benefits are clear: smarter decisions, faster responses and better outcomes across the board.
Creating a culture of AI confidenceUltimately, the question businesses need to ask is not whether they’re prepared to use AI, but whether they’re ready to do it responsibly and reliably.
Readiness starts with a strong data foundation, ensuring that information is accurate, accessible and well-governed. It means empowering teams with tools and guidance to innovate responsibly, creating a culture where experimentation with the right tools is encouraged.
The lesson from Jurassic Park was not that innovation is dangerous. It’s that innovation without structure, without guardrails and without consideration of the bigger picture can quickly spiral out of control.
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