PS5 SSD deals have been hard to come by for a while now, but if you’re looking to pick one up right now then Silicon Power’s XS70 range has a bunch of tempting discounts right now over at Amazon.
The most impulse-purchase-worthy deal is the 1TB XS70 PS5 SSD which is down to $74.99 at Amazon (was $85.99). It’s a 13% price cut and takes the drive to its second lowest-ever price.
If you need a bit more storage and breathing room, the 2TB model has the biggest price cut of the three models and is down 22%, dropping its price to $139.99 at Amazon (was $179.99). As far as we can tell, this is nearly a lowest-ever price – perhaps missing that mark by only a couple of dollars.
For those looking to solve their PS5 storage woes in one fell swoop and cover themselves for years to come, the 4TB XS70 has got a handy 10% discount running right now with the drive dropping to $269.99 at Amazon (was $299.99). This is the 4TB model’s lowest price since February and is decent value for a large-capacity drive.
Silicon Power might not be the most famous name in storage, but the brand offers excellent products, and usually at value-busting prices – something that’s accentuated today with these price cuts.
Today’s best PS5 SSD deals
The XS70 comes with a heatsink already so immediately wins points for offering a ready-to-go storage solution. Offering speeds of up to 7,200 MB/s (write) and 6,800 MB/s (read) means it’ll also offer you top-drawer performance, reducing the time you spend looking at loading screens and waiting times while you transfer files. It’s got more than enough chops to make it feel like you’re just using the PS5’s own storage.
In a field barren of price cuts on the best SSDs for PS5, or even any truly outstanding cheap PS5 SSD deals, these price cuts offer a good value way of bolstering your storage.
Not in the US, or looking for even more options? Then check out even more prices on PS5 SSD’s below no matter where you are in the world.
Growing evidence indicates that insects such as bees show some forms of consciousness, according to a new scientific statement.Credit: Phil Savoie/Nature Picture Library
Crows, chimps and elephants: these and many other birds and mammals behave in ways that suggest they might be conscious. And the list does not end with vertebrates. Researchers are expanding their investigations of consciousness to a wider range of animals, including octopuses and even bees and flies.
Armed with such research, a coalition of scientists is calling for a rethink in the animal–human relationship. If there’s “a realistic possibility” of “conscious experience in an animal, it is irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal”, the researchers write in a document they call The New York Declaration of Animal Consciousness. Issued today during a meeting in New York City, the declaration also says that there is a “realistic possibility of conscious experience” in reptiles, fish, insects and other animals that have not always been considered to have inner lives, and “strong scientific support” for aspects of consciousness in birds and mammals.
As the evidence has accumulated, scientists are “taking the topic seriously, not dismissing it out of hand as a crazy idea in the way they might have in the past,” says Jonathan Birch, a philosopher at the London School of Economics and Political Science and one of the authors of the declaration.
The document, which had around 40 signatories early today, doesn’t state that there are definitive answers about which species are conscious. “What it says is there is sufficient evidence out there such that there’s a realistic possibility of some kinds of conscious experiences in species even quite distinct from humans,” says Anil Seth, director of the Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex near Brighton, UK, and one of the signatories. The authors hope that others will sign the declaration and that it will stimulate both more research into animal consciousness and more funding for the field.
Blurry line
The definition of consciousness is complex, but the group focuses on an aspect of consciousness called sentience, often defined as the capacity to have subjective experiences, says Birch. For an animal, such experiences would include smelling, tasting, hearing or touching the world around itself, as well as feeling fear, pleasure or pain — in essence, what it is like to be that animal. But subjective experience does not require the capacity to think about one’s experiences.
The consciousness wars: can scientists ever agree on how the mind works?
Non-human animals cannot use words to communicate their inner states. To assess consciousness in these animals, scientists often rely on indirect evidence, looking for certain behaviours that are associated with conscious experiences, Birch says.
One classic experiment is the mirror test, which investigates an animal’s ability to recognize itself in a mirror. In this experiment, scientists apply a sticker or other visual mark on an animal’s body and place the animal in front of a mirror. Some animals — including chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)1, Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)2 and cleaner fishes (Labroides dimidiatus)3 — exhibit curiosity about the mark and even try to remove it. This behaviour suggests the possibility of self-awareness, which might be a sign of consciousness.
In an experiment with crows (Corvus corone)4, the birds were trained to make a specific head gesture whenever they saw a coloured square on a screen, a task they carried out with high accuracy. While the birds performed the task, scientists measured the activity in a region of their brain associated with high-level cognition. The birds’ brain activity correlated with what the birds were reporting, not with what they were actually shown. This suggests that they were aware of what they were perceiving, another potential marker of consciousness.
Invertebrate inner lives?
Another experiment showed that octopuses (Octopus bocki)5, when picking between two chambers, avoided one where they had previously received a painful stimulus in favour of one where they were given an anaesthetic. This suggests that they experience and actively avoid pain, which some researchers think indicates conscious experience.
Research shows that octopuses avoid pain, which some scientists take as a sign of consciousness.Credit: Brandon Cole/Nature Picture Library
Investigations of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) show that they engage in both deep sleep and ‘active sleep’, in which their brain activity is the same as when they’re awake6. “This is perhaps similar to what we call rapid eye movement sleep in humans, which is when we have our most vivid dreams, which we interpret as conscious experiences,” says Bruno van Swinderen, a biologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, who studies fruit flies’ behaviour and who also signed the declaration.
Some suggest that dreams are key components of being conscious, he notes. If flies and other invertebrates have active sleep, “then maybe this is as good a clue as any that they are perhaps conscious”.
Animal minds
Other researchers are more sceptical about the available evidence on animal consciousness. “I don’t think there is basically any decisive evidence so far,” says Hakwan Lau, a neuroscientist at the Riken Center for Brain Science in Wako, Japan.
Lau acknowledges that there is a growing body of work showing sophisticated perceptual behaviour in animals, but he contends that that’s not necessarily indicative of consciousness. In humans, for example, there is both conscious and unconscious perception. The challenge now is to develop methods that can adequately distinguish between the two in non-humans.
Seth responds that, even in the absence of definitive answers, the declaration might still have a positive influence in shaping policies relating to animal ethics and welfare.
For van Swinderen, the time is right to consider whether most animals might be conscious. “We are experiencing an artificial-intelligence revolution where similar questions are being asked about machines. So it behoves us to ask if and how this adaptive quality of the brain might have evolved in nature.”
Apple has ordered a large number of capacitative button components from a Taiwan supplier that are allegedly for use in the upcoming iPhone 16 series, claims a new report out of Asia.
Image credit: Unbox Therapy
According to the Economic Daily News, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering won the order, which is said to include system-in-a-package (SIP) modules that will be used to integrate capcative components with two Taptic Engine motors, one on either side of the iPhone.
The claim in the report is that Apple will replace the existing physical buttons on both sides of the iPhone 15 with capacitive versions that will provide iPhone 16 users with haptic feedback. The latter type of button detects pressure and emulates the press of a physical button via a haptic (or Taptic) engine which generates vibrations.
Apple may well have ordered the buttons in preparation for future production plans, but this does not necessarily mean that they are destined for use in this year’s iPhone 16 models.
The earliest known prototypes of the iPhone 16 were thought to include haptic power and volume buttons. Project Bongo, as it was known internally, was a redesign of the volume and power buttons on the iPhone 15. However, it was scrapped in 2023 following unresolved technical issues, according to MacRumors‘ sources. After the cancelation of the Bongo project, Apple moved back to mechanical buttons for the iPhone 16.
As a result, most rumors suggest that iPhone 16 models will have all-mechanical buttons, and this includes the rumored addition of a fourth button. According to The Information, Apple will add a new “Capture Button” to all iPhone 16 models, but the button is expected to be mechanical rather than capacitive, and yet it will be able to respond to pressure and touch.
The button will be used for taking photos and videos, and iPhone users will reportedly be able to zoom in and out by swiping left and right on the button, focus with a light press, and activate a recording with a more forceful press.
Today’s report claims the capacitive components will enter volume production in the third quarter of this year, which is unusually late in terms of Apple’s typical initial iPhone production run, so the order may be for the iPhone 17 lineup rather than this year’s upcoming models. That said, as we saw with the iPhone 15 series, things can change fairly far into the process, so watch this space.
Graduating college is a huge achievement. If you’d like to show your appreciation for a tech-savvy grad, or if you just want to help them acclimate to their new life, there are tons of gadgets and services you can gift to make it easier for them. We at Engadget spend our days testing these kinds of products and figuring out which ones are actually good — if you need some help jogging your brain, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorite college graduation gift ideas below.
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget
There’s a good chance that your graduate will be working from a few different locations when they start their first job. Maybe they’ll spend half of their time in an office and the other half in their new apartment, but you can help them stay focused anywhere by gifting them the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones. These are our current favorite high-end cans thanks to their excellent sound quality and equally stellar active noise cancellation. Their Adaptive Sound Control feature automatically changes the level of noise cancellation depending on your location and what you’re doing, blocking out as much of the world as necessary without the user needing to do much work. There’s also multi-device connectivity, so your graduate can seamlessly go from listening to music on their laptop to taking a call from their smartphone. — Valentina Palladino, Deputy Editor, Buying Advice
Losing stuff is a bummer for anyone, grads included. I tried out Apple’s AirTags, Tile trackers and Chipolos for our Bluetooth tracker guide and ended up picking the Chipolo One as the best option for most people. That’s because it simply does what it’s supposed to do without hassle: help people locate their keys and let them know when they’ve been left behind. Chipolo One doesn’t have the massive, community-enabled (and potentiallycreepy) location tracking of Apple’s FindMy, but it rings loud with a tap from your phone and sends alerts about forgotten items faster than any other tracker we tried. – Amy Skorheim, Reporter, Buying Advice
The Marshall Emberton II is a stylish Bluetooth speaker that offers impressively smooth and balanced sound for its compact size. It’s not the loudest or most bass-heavy device of its kind, but it’s a pleasant listen for smaller get-togethers and personal use. The six-inch frame has an IP67 rating, so your grad can safely use it to listen to podcasts in the shower, and Marshall says it can last up to 30 hours on a charge. Most appealingly, the guitar amp-style design looks classy in both its cream or black finishes. All of this was enough to earn the Emberton II a spot in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter, Buying Advice
I received this Cartman 39-piece tool set right after college when I moved into my first apartment, and now, over 10 years later, it’s still with me in my home’s garage. I put this thing and all its contents through the ringer hanging pictures, putting together Ikea furniture, changing light fixtures and even repairing a broken door lock late on a Saturday night after coming home from a party (ah, youth). It includes all of the essentials one would need to do what I listed above, and much more, without much hassle: a measuring tape, hammer, screwdriver with 20 different bits, pairs of pliers and scissors and more. The plastic case that comes with all of the pieces has spaces designed to fit each tool and, while it’s a little flimsy, mine lasted a number of years before I accidentally broke the handle (totally my fault, too). The fact that it comes in a few different accent colors is icing on the cake; my “pink toolset” was a running joke in my family for a long time, but we were always laughing with the tools rather than at them because I used them so much. This is one of those gifts for graduates that isn’t flashy, but it’s necessary — and they will thank you for it. – V.P.
That first domicile after college isn’t always ideal — mine was above a heavily-trafficked LA boulevard, which didn’t result in the cleanest indoor air. We tested out the Levoit Core 300s air purifier and found it cleared out both VOCs and particulate matter (PM) quite efficiently, particularly for its size. It runs quietly and can automatically increase the fan speed when it detects the air is getting murky. Plus the replacement filters are much more affordable than other models, something any recent grad will appreciate. — A.S.
If you really want to treat the iPhone-toting graduate in your life, get them the Apple Watch Series 9. It’s the best Apple Watch for most people right now, and it’s the best smartwatch, period. In addition to delivering all of their phone’s alerts to their wrist, the Series 9 is a solid workout companion, tracking most exercises and even connecting to some gym equipment. The new S9 SiP makes the Watch run a tad faster and makes Siri speedier at responding to requests, adding reminders to their lists and more. The new Double Tap feature is handy as well, as it lets the wearer use gestures to navigate the Watch’s interface if they’re unable to tap the screen at any time. If you have a new grad who’s constantly on the go, or who wants to whip out their phone less during the day, the Series 9 will be a welcomed gift. – V.P.
If the graduate in your life constantly has Spotify playing in the background, switching from lo-fi beats while working to today’s top hits when they want to unwind, a gift subscription will be much appreciated. A six-month gift card will set you back $60, but it will give them peace of mind knowing that something they already use regularly is paid for the next few months. Spotify is one of the best music streaming services available right now, and it’s particularly adept at suggesting new music that listeners might like based on their current habits. There are also a bunch of podcasts and audiobooks available to Spotify subscribers as well; in fact, Premium subscribers can listen to 15 hours of audiobooks per month for no extra cost. Ultimately, the best part of this gift is taking care of a recurring monthly cost for your graduate, just for a little while, so they can use those funds for other things. — V.P.
Google’s Chromecast dongle topped our list of streaming devices, but our runner up is probably better for new grads. Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K not only converts just about any screen into a smart TV, it also opens up access to an endless flow of free content and live programming (most of which is also free). Even if they don’t pay for every streaming service under the sun (or any), they’ll still find loads of stuff to watch. We like Roku’s uncluttered interface and playful illustrated robot motif. Plus the dongle hides neatly behind the screen, supports 4K content with Dolby Vision and has a long Wi-Fi range. – A.S.
The Instant Vortex Mini is a powerful little air fryer that any new college grad should be able to fit into even the most cramped of kitchen setups. It has an easy to use touchscreen with a few different cooking modes, but we expect most graduates will use it to cook snacks like mozzarella sticks and reheat leftovers to crispy perfection. We recommend checking out our air fryer guide if you want to give them something a little bigger that can cook more food at once — but if you’re only looking out for your grad and maybe their partner or favorite roommate, the Instant Vortex Mini will feed them well. — V.P.
Xbox Game Pass remains a great value for any grad who owns an Xbox or gaming PC and likes to play games in their downtime. The subscription’s library includes big-name series like Halo and Minecraft alongside more experimental gems like Hi-Fi Rushand Pentiment, and it still gets you access to first-party Xbox games on day one. Each title is available to download on-demand. The Ultimate tier includes perks like cloud gaming and online play, but there are cheaper options for just Xbox consoles or PCs as well.
If your graduate plays more on PlayStation or the Nintendo Switch, there are similar services you can gift: PlayStation Plus for the former, Switch Online for the latter. These will almost certainly be appreciated if you’re buying for someone who games frequently, though they’re not quite as strong a value as Game Pass in terms of cost or included games. — J.D.
Whether they’re hitting the streets for interviews or heading out for the weekend with friends, either way, your grad will likely appreciate having a way to recharge their phone on the go. The Anker MagGo Power Bank 10K is our current favorite MagSafe charger in our guide. It has a sturdy but unobtrusive stand to prop up an iPhone, holding it in either landscape or portrait orientation so your grad can still make use of the handset as it charges. There’s a readout on the side that tells you how much juice remains and it can even charge the phone while it’s plugged into the wall. Plus, thanks to the new Qi2 charging standard, the wireless charging speeds are impressive — it got our tester iPhone 15 from near-dead to half-full in about 45 minutes. — A.S.
If your grad plans on working remotely, a webcam that keeps them looking sharp and in focus during video calls is a wise investment. The Anker PowerConf C200, a recommendation from our webcam buying guide, is a great choice: It shoots crisp 2K resolution video, autofocuses quickly and does well to keep its subjects visible in darker settings. It can’t swivel from side to side, but it’s a cinch to set up and has a built-in lens cover for extra peace of mind. At $60, it’s relatively affordable to boot. — J.D.
If your giftee thought they had a lot of logins to keep track of in school, just wait until they get into the workplace. A password manager will be a must-have, and you can easily give them a 1Password digital gift card so they have no excuse not to use one. Our favorite password manager is easy to use, even for those who have never had a password manager before, and it provides top-notch security. It uses industry standard encryption, a “secret key” that only your giftee knows along with their one password to keep all of their other information safe. In addition to login credentials, new graduates can keep other information like credit card numbers, banking information and sensitive notes in their 1Password vaults for safekeeping — and they can easily access it all on their phone or laptop whenever they need. At minimum, it’s much more secure than a tattered sticky note for keep tracking of their most important passwords. At best, it could be a crucial service that your grad decides to keep paying for long after they’ve used up their gift card. – V.P.
There are a lot of things you need to learn (and remember) when you first move out of your dorm room and into your own space — keeping your home clean is one of them. And even if your grad isn’t “moving out” as much as they are moving into a dedicated portion of their parents’ home, they still need to make sure they’re tidying up on a regular basis. iRobot’s Roomba 694 is one gadget that can help them partially automate their cleaning routine. Our favorite budget robot vacuum, the Roomba 694 is dead simple to use — it can be a one-button process if they want it to be — and it does a good job sucking up dirt and debris across carpet and hard flooring. We also like iRobot’s mobile app, which is just as easy to use as the machine alone, and it gives them the ability to set cleaning schedules. If they go that route, it’s a one-and-done situation and they can sit back and watch the robo-vac do the work for them. — V.P.
Now that they’re done with syllabi, recent grads can read whatever they want (and maybe enjoy it). Topping our list of the best ereaders is the Clara 2E from Kobo, which has a six-inch, 300 ppi E-Ink display that’s far easier on the eyes than a tablet. The Clara 2E is waterproof, comfortable to hold and has a quick, responsive interface. It can access titles from the Kobo store, the local public library via built-in Overdrive integration or any other e-book source (except the Kindle store). On top of that, the warm light is great for reading late into the night – something that’s far more fun when you’re not doing so to cram for a test. – A.S.
Those early days in the working world can be an especially stressful time in anyone’s life. If your grad has expressed interest in using meditation to help manage their mental health, a Headspace subscription could be useful. It has a large and well-organized selection of guided meditations and mindful exercises to help reduce anxiety and build self control, including several sessions for beginners. There are one-off exercises designed to help with specific, real world crises (nerves before a job interview, for example) as well as courses that seek to address more complex states (grief, self-doubt, lack of focus, etc.) over multiple sessions. A “sleepcasts” feature, meanwhile, combines guided relaxation exercises with soothing narration to create a more healthy sleep environment. Apps like this aren’t cure-alls for mental distress, nor are they the only ways to meditate. Still, they can provide a more organized way for your grad to work toward better peace of mind. — J.D.
Mechanical keyboards can be pretty noisy, so they may not be the best gift if your grad has to work in an office all the time. But if they won’t have any coworkers or roommates around during the workday, a good keyboard like the NuPhy Air75 V2 should be a welcomed upgrade. This wireless, low-profile model puts the more gratifying feel of mechanical switches in a design that’s flatter and thinner than most enthusiast keyboards. For something so compact, it’s a joy to type on, with crisp keycaps, a wealth of different switch options and no annoying rattling on the larger keys. It works across Windows and macOS, and its playful design is just plain cute. Plus, if your grad ever wants to go wild and customize it with new switches and keycaps down the road, doing so is straightforward. — J.D.
A recent graduate might be simultaneously looking for jobs, apartments and new places to hang out, so they’ll be out and relying on their phone a lot. If they have a model that accommodates wireless charging, they could probably use the OtterSpot wireless charging system from Otterbox. It earned the top spot in our guide to wireless chargers because it pulls double duty as a desk-based charger and a portable battery. The disc-shaped accessory accommodates up to three, coaster-like 5,000mAh batteries that can charge devices on the go. The batteries stack on the charger and the phone goes on top, allowing everything to power up at once. The batteries can even deliver a charge via USB-C, too. – A.S.
A good power bank will be an accessory your graduate won’t want to leave home without. The Anker Prime Power Bank is one of our favorites, and it’s pretty luxe for a portable battery. It has an attractive yet compact, rectangular design with a built-in screen that shows you how many watts are being pumped out into each device you’re charging, plus the remaining juice in the battery itself. The included base makes it easy to recharge the power bank, too, and it has a few extra built-in ports so they could treat the whole thing like a power station. The portable charger’s 20,000mAh capacity will be more than enough to juice up a smartphone a couple of times, and it can power larger devices like a tablet or laptop easily, too. – V.P.
It’s no secret that Apple has been biding its time on the AI front, and the latest intelligence surrounding iOS 18 suggests that the company’s upcoming generative AI features could differ from those already available on Samsung and Google Pixel devices in one key way.
According to Bloomberg’s resident Apple expert Mark Gurman (via MacRumors), Apple’s generative AI features will be underpinned by a proprietary large language model (LLM) that runs entirely on-device, rather than via the cloud. This approach would prioritize speed and privacy, since an on-device LLM doesn’t require an internet connection to function, though Apple’s AI tools may be slightly less powerful than those available from cloud-based rivals (like Galaxy AI) as a result.
As above, on-device processing delivers quicker response times and superior privacy over cloud-based solutions, which fits with Apple’s traditional commitment to style, simplicity and security. Indeed, according to Gurman, this is how Apple will market its AI features – as reliable, usable tools that enhance users’ daily lives, rather than all-powerful creative ones.
Superior Siri
(Image credit: Apple)
There’s still no word on what Apple’s AI features will be, exactly, but the likes of Siri, Messages, Apple Music and Pages are expected to receive significant AI-based improvements in iOS 18, with the former reportedly in line for a ChatGPT-style makeover.
In any case, Apple’s suite of AI features are reportedly on track for a grand unveiling at WWDC 2024, so we don’t have too long to wait before we find out how the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro Max and other iOS 18-compatible devices will challenge the current best phones on the market in the AI department.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is already transforming the global economy. Companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars each year in these technologies. In almost every sector, AI is being used to drive operational efficiencies, manage complexity, provide personalized services and speed up innovation.
As AI’s influence on society grows, questions arise about its impact on greenhouse-gas emissions: will its myriad applications help to reduce the world’s carbon footprint or hinder climate progress? The answer will depend on how AI models are developed and operated, and what changes result from their use. And scientists simply don’t know how all that will pan out — a worrying situation when there is so much at stake.
Most discussions so far about AI’s environmental consequences have focused on the direct impacts of these computationally intensive technologies — how much energy, water or other resources they consume and the amount of greenhouse gases they generate. But the global repercussions of AI applications for society will be much broader, from transforming health care and education to increasing the efficiency of mining, transportation and agriculture.
Such AI-driven changes can lead to indirect effects on emissions, which might be positive or negative. These indirect effects also need to be taken into account, and could vastly exceed those from direct impacts1,2. Assessments of all types of AI impact are urgently needed. Here’s what we know and what we don’t.
Uncertainty ahead
The direct impacts of AI on climate so far are relatively small. AI operations for large models require millions of specialized processors in dedicated data centres with powerful cooling systems. AI processors installed in 2023 consume 7–11 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity annually, which is about 0.04% of global electricity use3. That is less than for cryptocurrency mining (100–150 TWh) and conventional data centres (500–700 TWh), which together accounted for 2.4–3.3% of global electricity demand in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Thus, in terms of total global greenhouse-gas emissions, we calculate that AI today is responsible for about 0.01%, on the basis of IEA assessments showing that data centres and transmission networks together account for about 0.6% (see go.nature.com/3q7e6pv).
AI use is expanding rapidly. Over the past decade, the compute capacity used to train advanced large language models has increased tenfold each year. Demand for AI services is expected to rise by 30–40% annually over the next 5–10 years. And more powerful AI models will require more energy. One estimate suggests that, by 2027, global AI-related energy consumption could be 10 times greater than it was in 20233, or about as much as is consumed annually by people watching television in US homes. Although there could be challenges for local electricity grids in regions where many data centres are based, from a global perspective, AI should not lead directly to large, near-term increases in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Improvements in energy efficiency could offset some of the projected increase in power demand, as they did when data centres expanded in the 2010s4. More-efficient AI algorithms, smaller models and innovations in hardware and cooling systems should help5,6. For example, small language models, such as Microsoft’s Phi-2 and Google’s Gemini Nano, can run on mobile phones and deliver capabilities previously seen only with the largest models. AI companies are increasingly investing in renewable power and setting up operations in countries or regions with abundant clean-energy supplies, such as Iceland.
Indirect effects are less clear, however. Some AI applications are designed to tackle climate change, for example to reduce emissions from the energy and transport sectors, from buildings and industry operations and from land use. Optimizing supply chains will make manufacturing more efficient and support the integration of renewable energy into electricity grids. Speeding up the development of new materials for batteries and renewable energy7,8 will be a boon.
There could also be some negative indirect impacts. Embedding AI into existing applications, from health care to entertainment, might drive more electricity use. Oil and gas exploration and extraction could become cheaper, potentially driving up production. And without proper governance, the widespread use of AI could affect political and economic stability, with ramifications for poverty, food security and social inequalities — all of which could have knock-on effects for emissions9.
And that’s just existing AI systems. How will future AI technologies develop? How will their expansion affect the global economy? And how will this affect decarbonization? Researchers simply don’t know; it’s too early to tell. It is tempting to simply extrapolate past AI electricity-use trends into the future, but overlooking social, economic and technological factors often results in large forecasting errors4,5,10. Similarly, an overly simplistic view of the impacts of indirect emissions risks underestimating AI’s potential for accelerating important climate-solution breakthroughs, such as the development of less expensive and more powerful batteries in months rather than decades11.
AI-driven emissions scenarios
Recognizing these huge uncertainties, here we call on researchers to develop a set of policy-relevant scenarios to quantify the effects that AI expansion could have on the climate under a range of assumptions. Routinely used by financial institutions to understand risks and opportunities and plan investments, scenarios combine quantitative models with expert consultations. Rather than making predictions, they explore many possible futures based on influential factors.
A data centre near Reykjavik uses renewable energy for cooling.Credit: Sigtryggur Ari/Reuters
Specifically, we recommend that a suite of scenarios be built to better understand how AI expansion might affect emissions, both directly and indirectly. These scenarios should range from a ‘reference’ case without widespread adoption of powerful AI technologies, to an ‘aspirational’ case in which all the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are achieved; scenarios should also include ones with undesirable outcomes.
Five elements are essential for AI-driven emissions scenarios to be credible and useful.
Link to existing climate scenarios. The climate community already uses integrated assessment models (IAMs) to assess future greenhouse-gas emissions quantitatively on the basis of qualitative narratives about potential socio-economic, demographic, policy, technology and governance outcomes. Five standard scenarios, or Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), are widely used. These range from a future in which the world is deeply divided and remains hooked on fossil fuels to a more optimistic scenario of global cooperation, decoupling of economic growth from emissions and serious investment in clean energy.
AI should be integrated into these pathways, along with the global shocks and technological breakthroughs that might accompany it. This would require major work, including incorporating expertise from the AI community, rethinking each of the pathway narratives and exploring whether new ones need to be added. Could AI take the world to a more radically green future, or a more dystopian one? What factors define those outcomes? How plausible are they? Scenarios can help to narrow down answers.
Turning these narratives into quantitative scenarios will require developing new analytical models, collecting new types of data and establishing an institutional structure to enable rapid updates to keep up with the fast pace of societal transformations that AI is driving, as we outline here.
Develop quantitative analytical frameworks. Developing IAMs for exploring the influence of AI will require improved data and analytical frameworks for both direct and indirect impacts. The biggest challenge will be quantifying the range of indirect effects resulting from AI-driven societal transformations, as well as AI-powered innovations on climate-relevant advances and breakthroughs.
For example, AI personalization could encourage sustainable consumption, but it could also increase demand for resource-intensive goods. And disentangling the emissions impacts of AI-enabled innovations from other technologies that lower emissions, such as renewables or carbon capture, will be challenging because the pace of research and development differs across sectors. Policies and regulations are also often slow to catch up. Quantifying the interplay of these dynamics will be difficult.
Comparing and replicating scenarios will be key to improving them as AI systems are rolled out. Researchers should regularly run comparisons between different models for direct and indirect AI-related emissions, coordinated through platforms used by the climate community, such as the Energy Modeling Forum and the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium. Scientists must ensure that the data and assumptions in these analyses are fully documented, freely shared and completely replicable by others.
Share data. Data availability is a challenge — especially for fast-moving industries such as AI, in which data are often private or tied to proprietary information. For example, more data are needed on AI workloads in large cloud-computing companies, their electricity and carbon intensity, and trends in efficiencies gained for building and using AI models.
Methods to safely and openly share representative, measured, aggregated and anonymized data without compromising sensitive information are needed. AI can build on examples from other industries — such as the Getting the Numbers Right initiative, which keeps track of carbon dioxide and energy performance indicators in the global cement industry, and the Solomon Energy Intensity Index for fuel refining and pipelines.
Standards should be established for measuring, reporting, verifying and disseminating AI-related data, to ensure both quality and broad accessibility. Recent legislation, such as the European Union’s AI Act and the European Energy Efficiency Directive, could help to drive the development of standards. Although neither regulation directly mandates specific reporting on AI energy consumption, their emphasis on data-centre transparency and efficiency could promote the development of reporting standards.
Issue rapid updates. AI technology is advancing so quickly that scenarios will need to be revised at least once per year, and ideally twice. This is more frequent than is currently done for climate-change scenarios, which are updated every 6–7 years. Annual or biannual updates will be challenging, given the need to collect new data and to develop analytical frameworks as AI systems, applications and breakthroughs emerge.
Because of the potential for AI to either reduce or increase energy demand, researchers must update models that represent societal demand for energy, as well as explore how this demand will change as AI technologies evolve. Scenarios with varying resolutions might be released on different time frames. For example, coarse-resolution scenarios might be updated every few months; more-detailed scenarios could be released every 2–3 years.
Build an international consortium. An international consortium needs to be set up to undertake the development of AI-driven emissions scenarios. It should gather specialists from around the world and represent all the relevant disciplines — from computer and sustainability science to sociology and economics. We suggest this AI-driven emissions-scenario community be co-sponsored by international scientific networks that focus on sustainability, such as the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, and by international non-governmental organizations focused on AI and society. Examples include the Partnership on AI or the newly established UN Futures Lab, which has been set up to coordinate and improve strategic foresight across the UN to guide long-term decision making.
Consortia that are associated with key IAM and energy-systems models, such as the IEA Technology Collaboration Programme or the IIASA’s programmes, could ensure both open access to data and models, and immediate relevance to the broader climate-scenario modelling communities. The UN and other bodies, such as the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, Switzerland, should be engaged — but without compromising on the need for agility and speed.
Financial support will be needed to maintain the consortium and support the regular update of scenarios. This could come from a combination of philanthropic, private, governmental and intergovernmental sources.
AI is one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. It’s imperative that decisions around its development and use — today and as it evolves — are made with sustainability in mind. Only through developing a set of standard AI-driven emissions scenarios will policymakers, investors, advocates, private companies and the scientific community have the tools to make sound decisions regarding AI and the global race to net-zero emissions.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Saturday that could ban TikTok in the country or force its parent company to sell it. Under the revised version, ByteDance would have up to a year to divest, up from six months, originally. The bill now moves to the Senate, which could vote on it in just a matter of days — maybe even this Tuesday.
For that reason, I’m keeping this intro short, because I’ll probably be writing about this TikTok saga, all over again, later this week.
— Mat Smith
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It’s an app, apparently.
Apple’s calculator for Macs is reportedly getting a massive update with macOS 15 to turn it into a note-taking, currency-converting hybrid app. To start with, AppleInsider said the calculator will get a design overhaul, which swaps its number boxes with round buttons. (Innovation!). There will also be a rich history feature to keep track of your calculations. Hopefully, you can still be juvenile and solve for 55378008.
Another round of price cuts has shaved $2,000 off the starting prices of Tesla’s Model Y, Model X and Model S for buyers in the US. Tesla’s Model Y now starts at $42,990 for the rear-wheel drive base model, while the base Model S has dropped to $72,990 and the Model X starts at $77,990. The company will be hoping these subsequent price cuts will help with all that. Its controversial full self-driving software update has had a too.
Data scientist Antoine Mayerowitz has tackled that age-old question: Who is the best character for Mario Kart? Objectively, the answer is a few different combinations. Mayerowitz’s Pareto front analysis lets you narrow your possibilities down to the 14 most efficient. One of them, with the most ideal balance of speed, acceleration and mini-turbo, is Cat Peach driving the Teddy Buggy with roller tires and cloud glider. Yes, write that down. Or check out the project’s website for other racer recommendations.
Google Assistant has been here for a long time, but now it’s time to move on from Google Assistant to Google Gemini. Gemini is Google’s brand-new, more intelligent digital assistant that better understands natural language and can keep a conversation going. It launched on Android phones and tablets a few weeks ago but hasn’t completely replaced Google Assistant yet.
Google Gemini might soon get Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music integration
Gemini currently lacks a few skills that Google Assistant has, including music streaming integration. However, that feature appears to be in the works. Android enthusiast @AssembleDebug has found (via Piunika Web) that Google is currently testing music streaming service integration for Gemini. They were able to make some changes to the app and find its Settings screen that shows music streaming options.
When the ‘Music’ settings page is accessed, it appears blank but says, “Choose your default music provider.” This is similar to Google Assistant’s music streaming integration page. So, it is likely that Gemini will feature integration with Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music, among others (depending on the country).
Hopefully, Google will soon finish its testing and roll out music streaming services integration to Google Gemini to fully replace Google Assistant.
Below that stretches a filter layer, which keeps the soil from getting into the next layer, a lightweight crate system that stores the water. And finally, below that you’ve got additional layers to keep water and plant roots from infiltrating the actual roof. “You have, in fact, a flat rain barrel on top of your roof,” says Kasper Spaan, policy developer for climate adaptation at Waternet, Amsterdam’s public water management organization, which is participating in RESILIO.
The water levels in the blue-green roof are managed by a smart valve. If the weather forecast says a storm is coming, the system will release stored water from the roof ahead of time. That way, when a downpour comes, the roof refills, meaning there’s less rainwater entering the gutters and sewers in the surrounding area. In other words, the roof becomes a sponge that the operator can wring out as needed. “In the ‘squeezable’ sponge city, you make the whole city malleable,” says Spaan.
This makes the traditional system of stormwater management more flexible, but also more complicated. So the RESILIO project used software from Autodesk to model the impact of blue-green roofs and the risk of flooding in Amsterdam, also adjusting for climate change.
“You can take a look at historical flood patterns, and then you can do simulations that will help you understand: If I could take this much capacity out of the drainage network, when the storm comes, I’m going reduce flooding by 10, 15, 20 percent,” says Amy Bunszel, executive vice president of architecture, engineering, and construction design solutions at Autodesk. “So our software allows them to do simulations and play with different trade-offs.”
Beyond the sponge-city benefits, blue-green roofs can cool the top floor of a building, essentially “sweating” off the stored water. With the right kinds of indigenous plants, they can also boost biodiversity by catering to native pollinating insects. Going a step further, scientists are also experimenting with growing crops on rooftops under solar panels, known as rooftop agrivoltaics. Theoretically, pairing that with blue-green systems might actually improve the efficiency of the solar panels by cooling them with the evaporating water.
It’s safe to say that Apple’s FineWoven accessories have been a disaster from the moment they launched, with people criticizing them for their perceived lack of durability and the ease with which they can get damaged. Now, it seems that Apple has decided to cut its losses, and could phase out the entire range.
That’s if a leaker who goes by the name Kosutami is to be believed, at least. Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami claimed that “FineWoven has gone,” adding that “All the production line was stopped and removed” [sic]. That presumably covers all FineWoven accessories, including iPhone cases and Apple Watch straps.
According to Kosutami, Apple made the move specifically due to the material’s poor durability. It will switch to a different substance, Kosutami says, but we won’t see a return to the leather products that Apple discontinued at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2023.
What that material will be remains a mystery, but there’s a chance we’ll see it at this year’s WWDC event on June 10. Kosutami’s prediction that Apple won’t return to leather makes a lot of sense, though, since Apple made a point of highlighting leather’s heavy environmental impact last year. Bringing out new leather accessories, then, would not be a good look.
Farewell FineWoven
A FineWoven iPhone 15 Pro case showing signs of wear (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)
For a company with a reputation for delivering hit products forged with impeccable build quality, the FineWoven case has been a rare and notable miss. It’s received almost universal criticism since it launched in September 2023.
For instance, journalist Joanna Stern declared that her FineWoven iPhone case was “browning like a rotten banana” and likened it to a “biomedical concern,” while TechRadar’s own Axel Metz felt that his case was easily scratched and felt “clammy” in the hand. It “isn’t a total disaster,” Metz added, “Just a very big one.” Small comfort for Apple, then.
Kosutami has previously shared accurate information regarding upcoming Apple products and decisions (including several previous leaks concerning FineWoven accessories), so this latest report shouldn’t be immediately dismissed. Given the reception that Apple’s FineWoven products have received over their short lifetimes, we wouldn’t be surprised if Kosutami’s claims prove to be correct.
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TechRadar has approached Apple for comment, and we’ll update this article if we get a response.
