Tech

How AI-Powered Identity Verification is Redefining Business Security

Published

5 hours ago

9 April 2026

Passwords have been the standard of online security. Next was the two-factor authentication. Then security questions, CAPTCHA, and fingerprinting of devices. Every layer introduced with a new threat. Both were ultimately defeated by more advanced scams.

The trend is obvious: any security system relying on what one knows or possesses will be susceptible to theft, copying, or social engineering. The one verification level that is truly hard to counterfeit is who someone is – and that is exactly where artificial intelligence has transformed all that.

Identity verification using AI is no longer a niche technology that is implemented only by banks and governmental agencies. It is also going to be the minimum security requirement of any business onboarding clients digitally, transacting high-value deals, or working within a regulated sector in 2026. The knowledge of how it works, why it is important, and how to apply it is now a business competency rather than an IT issue.

The Issue Classic Security Cannot Address

It is only prudent to know what AI-driven identity verification is meant to address before delving into how it works, since the threat landscape has changed drastically.

Credential breach has rendered credentials a worthless security signal. The Cost of a Data Breach Report by IBM indicated that in 2024, the mean data breach involved more than 25,000 records. Out of the thousands of breaches that have taken place worldwide in the last ten years, billions of usernames and passwords, social security numbers, dates of birth, and answers to security questions are now being sold on the dark web. With access to such databases, a fraudster can easily pass through traditional credential checks since the credentials are authentic, only that they are owned by a different person.

The synthetic identity fraud has generated a new breed of criminal. More than stealing an existing identity, advanced fraudsters are building identities, assembling a real Social Security number (usually that of a child or an aged individual with no credit history) with invented names, addresses, and biographical information. These artificial identities can withstand a simple verification check since some of the information is authentic. They are mostly unnoticed by traditional rules-based fraud detection systems.

Deepfakes created by AI have defeated selfie-based authentication. The fast development of generative AI has brought about tools that are capable of generating photorealistic fake images, videos, and even real-time video feeds of non-existent individuals within minutes. The days of systems utilizing a mere selfie photo to verify identity are long gone, with fraudsters capable of uploading a deepfake image that, visually, resembles a real photo.

Credential theft, synthetic identity fraud, and AI-generated deepfakes are the three converging threats that next-generation AI-powered identity verification is designed to deal with.

The reality of what AI-Powered Identity Verification does

Identity verification is not just an AI-based technology. It is a multi-tiered system of a series of AI models operating together to determine with high probability that an individual is who they claim they are.

Document Authentication

The initial layer is document checking. A user enters a government-issued identity document, passport, driver’s license, national ID card, and an AI model compares it with thousands of known document templates that exist in the world.

The level of the analysis is much higher than determining whether the document is real. Machine learning algorithms trained on millions of real and fake documents analyze the quality of microprints, the presence of UV patterns, holographic elements, font authenticity, MRZ (Machine Readable Zone) information integrity, and pixel-level anomalies (which signify editing and manipulation). Digitally manipulated documents (even in subtle ways) are detected within seconds.

The system of document verification is available in modern document verification systems that can verify more than 14,000 types of documents representing more than 190 countries, which would not otherwise be feasible to verify manually.

Biometric Face Matching

When the document has been verified, the system will compare the face on the document to a live selfie or a video submission by the individual purporting to be the document holder. In AI facial recognition models, the geometric distance between facial features, such as the distance between eyes, nose shape, jaw angle, and a confidence score of the match, is calculated.

It is a quick, precise, and much more dependable method than a visual inspection by people. Research by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) consistently reported that the best facial recognition algorithms perform better than human examiners in face matching tasks, especially when there are changes in lighting, angle, and age.

Liveness Detection

It is the layer that deals with deepfake fraud in particular, and it is in this area that AI has achieved the most critical progress.

Liveness detection identifies when the face presented is that of a real, physically present human being, or whether it is a photograph, printed mask, video recording, or deepfake generated by a computer AI. Passive liveness detection examines a single image of slight signs of non-liveness: texture anomalies, unnatural light reflection, absence of micro-movements, or compression artifacts suggesting a screen capture. Active liveness detection requires the user to do randomized behaviors: blink, move their head, smile, which are virtually impossible to impersonate by a still image and computationally infeasible to spoof by a live deepfake.

Passive and active liveness detection combined has increased the threshold to deepfake fraud attacks to the extent that the cost of a successful attack is usually more economical than the fraudulent value, and AI-generated identity fraud attacks are thus not economical in most criminal activities.

Cross-Referencing of Data and AML Screening

Outside the biometric layer, identity verification systems built with AI will cross-verify the verified identity data against external databases in real-time. This encompasses global sanctions lists, Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) databases, adverse media sources, and watchlists that are managed by regulatory agencies such as the OFAC, the UN, and the EU.

It is this AML screening layer that makes identity verification a compliance tool, as well as a security tool, such that businesses can fulfill their Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements alongside the verification check, instead of as a downstream operation.

The Importance of Thematically Integrated Security to Business Security – Not Just Compliance

The argument of AI-based identity verification as compliance is well-established. In practically every jurisdiction, financial services companies, fintech, and other regulated businesses are required to perform KYC and AML processes on a compulsory basis. Failing to meet them carries substantial financial penalties and reputational risk.

However, the business security case is far bigger than regulatory compliance – and to most businesses, the non-compliance risks pale in comparison with the direct losses of fraud that can be easily facilitated by poor identity verification.

Businesses are directly affected by account takeover fraud. Once a fraudster manages to create a successful impersonation of an authentic customer in the process of onboarding or recovering an account, they access the available accounts, payment methods, and stored credit. The ensuing chargebacks, frauds, and dispute settlements are more on the business side than the card network. Account takeover fraud is a major and increasing direct operating expense to e-commerce companies and financial technology applications.

New account fraud generates unpayable debts. Synthetic identity fraud generally leads to the so-called bust-out schemes in which a fraudster accumulates credit exposure on a variety of products, and then defaults on all of them at once. To lenders, credit providers, and buy-now-pay-later sites, the damages of a single synthetic identity that has been nurtured over months can go into tens of thousands of dollars.

Financial loss is compounded by reputational loss because of instances of fraud. In cases where clients of a business fall victim to fraud by a security breach on a platform, the reputational loss is more than just the direct financial loss. The loss of customers, media attention, and regulatory investigations after a fraud incident can be even more expensive than the actual losses incurred in the fraud itself – especially to a business in which trust is the product.

At the onboarding stage, AI-based identity checks prevent the vast majority of such attack vectors, prior to the creation of a fraudulent account. Compliance cost avoidance is only part of the payback; it is the avoidance of downstream fraud losses that grow with business expansion.

Real-life Application: What Companies Should know

The practical considerations of AI-powered identity verification extend beyond the technology when business leaders consider this technology.

Should Be API-First Deployment

Contemporary identity verification systems are implemented through API integration – linking your onboarding process with the verification service without having the customer leave your site. This retains the customer experience and facilitates instant verification decisions. Find options that enable integration of SDKs in mobile applications and provide a webhook-based delivery of decisions to reduce the onboarding latency.

Risk Level should be configurable to determine Verification Decisions

Customers do not pose the same fraud risk, and not all transactions need the same level of verification. An effective AI-based solution enables companies to set up verification processes according to risk indicators – introduce lightweight document verification to transactions with low risks and complete biometric verification with liveness detection to high-value or high-risk onboarding situations. This risk-based model maintains conversion rates among legitimate customers and focuses verification resources where the fraud risk is the greatest.

Audit Trails are Not Negotiable

Each verification decision, be it approval, rejection, or flagged to undergo manual review, should be recorded with a time stamp, the particular methods used to verify, the confidence levels delivered by the methods, and the documentation. Such an audit trail is necessary in regulatory audits, chargeback audits, and internal fraud audits. Firms that are subject to FINTRAC, GDPR, or other regulations must generate such records when they are requested, usually in 30 days or fewer.

Should Be Constructed Human Review Escalation

AI verification systems are extremely precise, yet no computerized system can be 100 percent confident in all cases. Good implementations involve a queue of cases with AI confidence less than a set-point – often around 5-10% of all verifications. The edge cases that are not detected by the automated systems are picked by human reviewers looking at the flagged cases, and their verdicts are used to inform further improvement of the model.

Select a Partner that has Worldwide Document Covers

When you have customers in a variety of countries, your identity verification provider should accept document types in those countries. An optimized system for North American documents will result in an unacceptable high rate of false rejection of customers with a Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, or African identity document. Such solutions as the document verification offered by Shufti Pro can work with documents issued in 190+ countries – an essential feature that businesses with international clientele can use.

The Competitive Advantage of this Right

The divide between companies that have invested in solid identity verification infrastructure and those that have not is widening, and the difference has repercussions beyond losses in fraud.

The relations between payment processors are based on fraud indicators. The card networks and payment processors keep a close eye on the chargeback rates and the fraud rates. Companies with low fraud traces due to proper identity checking receive superior processing rates, increased transaction limits, and preference of merchants. Companies that have higher fraud rates will be charged higher fees, delays in processing, and, in the worst case, the merchant account will be shut down.

Security posture is also necessary to acquire enterprise clients. Enterprise customers: Large enterprises (especially in the financial services, medical, and government contracting) perform vendor security testing before contracting. Documented, auditable identity verification and fraud prevention program is becoming a condition to winning enterprise business, and not a differentiator.

Fraud infrastructure is studied in investor due diligence. In the case of growth-stage businesses that are in need of investment, fraud prevention infrastructure is part of due diligence. Fintech, e-commerce, and SaaS investors prefer to observe that the business has developed security basics that can scale up since fraud losses that can be controlled at the early stage become existential at the growth stage when the infrastructure is lacking.

The Future: The Future of AI Identity Verification

The technology does not stand still. Several trends are underway transforming AI-driven identity verification in 2026 and beyond.

Continuous authentication has passed onboarding. Instead of authenticating identity when creating an account, AI systems are starting to track behavioral indicators, such as typing patterns, mouse motions, transaction activities, etc., in real time, and used in the course of a user session, which indicates anomalies that may indicate account takeover.

There is an increasing regulatory trend toward decentralized identity frameworks, in which verified credentials are stored by the user, but not by individual businesses, both in the EU and Canada. These frameworks minimise the data liability that businesses already bear when it comes to storing identity documents and biometric data.

There are ever-growing regulatory requirements across the world. Fintrac of Canada, the AML package of the EU, and other systems in Asia-Pacific are increasing standards of identity verification – that is, what is best practice now will become legal minimum tomorrow.

Concluision

The paradigm change that AI-enabled identity verification will be a transition to proactive security, rather than reactive security. Conventional methods identified fraud only once it occurred, by way of chargeback, account audits, and forensic audits. Verification, which is AI-based, detects fraud when it is attempted – before creation of a fraudulent account, before a stolen identity being impersonated, before a deep fake passing through an onboarding test.

In the case of businesses that are scaling, that change does not qualify as a security upgrade. It is a foundation. Survivable losses of fraud at a small scale are devastating at the growth stage. It is the businesses that develop strong identity verification infrastructure early that develop without the compounding drag of costs associated with fraud, compliance failures, and reputational incidents slowing them down.

With the cost of impersonation in a digital economy falling to almost zero, the cost of not authenticating identity is increasing year after year.

Source link

Tech

Microsoft 365 Copilot and the end of the single-model era in enterprise AI

Published

12 minutes ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Steve Gustavson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for design and research. (Microsoft Photo)

[Editor’s Note: Agents of Transformation is an independent GeekWire series, underwritten by Accenture, exploring the adoption and impact of AI and agents. See coverage of our related event.]

Using an AI model still comes with an unspoken asterisk: Verify before you act. Fact-check it. Google it. Ask a colleague. The burden of accuracy has always landed on the human at the end of the day. But Microsoft thinks it has a way to shift that burden — have two AIs keep tabs on each other.

In an era when workforce tasks are increasingly being handled by AI agents, this multi-model strategy now reaches into something human workers assumed was theirs alone: the judgment call. The human-in-the-loop had long been the one non-negotiable in AI workflows. Microsoft’s approach doesn’t eliminate it, but it does raise the question of how much of that role we’re willing to hand over.

‘Two heads are better than one’

Microsoft isn’t alone in this bet. Amazon Web Services, Google, and others are building platforms that give enterprises access to multiple models through a single interface.

AWS Bedrock offers access to foundation models from multiple providers, while Google’s Gemini Enterprise presents a single front door for workplace AI. Microsoft’s distinction is that it’s embedding multi-model review directly into a productivity tool used by millions of workers.

We saw the first implementation of this plan last week with new upgrades to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Its Researcher agent can now use OpenAI’s GPT to draft a response, then have Anthropic’s Claude review it for accuracy, completeness, and citation quality before finalizing it.

“We intentionally want a diversity of opinions,” Steve Gustavson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for design and research, told GeekWire in an interview. “Two heads are better than one when they come together.”

That’s not a trivial concern. Research has already shown that AI users tend to outsource critical thinking to models they perceive as authoritative. If we’re already surrendering judgment to a single model, can having a second one push back on the first be the check that’s been missing?

It’s a question Microsoft has been wrestling with in designing Critique and Council, the two new features within its Researcher agent.

“Our research consistently shows that workers continue to crave both deeper trust in AI and quality content,” Gustavson said. “People are either over-trusting AI — accepting claims they shouldn’t — or under-trusting it and not getting the full value. Both are design and technical opportunities.”

Take Microsoft’s Critique feature, for example. Gustavson said Microsoft designed it around a deliberate handoff: GPT leads the generation, and Claude steps in as the reviewer.

“The separation matters because evaluation is a different cognitive mode than generation,” he said. “When one model does both, you get the same blind spots twice. When a second model’s job is to validate the first, you get something structurally different.”

This creates a “powerful feedback loop that delivers higher-quality results across factual accuracy, analytical breadth, and presentation,” Gaurav Anand, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for engineering, wrote in a technical blog post about M365’s Critique feature.

Multi-model isn’t just a proof of concept — it’s live, and it’s already the default experience inside Researcher. But Gustavson is quick to point out that most workers won’t care which models are running under the hood. The models, in his view, should be invisible.

“The average user wants phenomenal outputs. They want to be able to trust them,” he said. “Do they need to know it’s 5.2 versus whatever? I don’t think so.”

Gustavson disputes that this is a case of the “blind leading the blind,” stressing that tuning the models is how to avoid hallucinations. With Researcher, “Claude has proven to be a fantastic synthesizer and sort of check on what the GPT models might be doing.”

However, Gustavson said Microsoft is continuously evaluating the performance of single models versus double models, as well as putting “an LLM judge in between the two” to see the trade-offs.

Gustavson said Microsoft plans to move away from promoting specific model names altogether, shifting the focus to what a worker is trying to accomplish. For example, he said, workers could specify that they’re in finance, and Copilot would route work to whichever models best handle Excel, data synthesis, and analysis — no model-picking required.

The enterprise AI pendulum

For Microsoft, multi-model is less of a feature than the inevitable direction of enterprise AI. Gustavson calls it a natural progression, noting that Copilot started out with a single model.

Since then, he said, the industry has been swinging between what models can do, what the product experience should be, and where the competitive moat exists.

“I think this is just a natural evolution,” he said. “Two models are better than one.”

With models leapfrogging each other every few months, Microsoft isn’t betting on any single one, but rather trying to build something that outlasts them all.

As organizations move from experimenting with AI to depending on it for consequential decisions, the single-model approach starts to show its limits. The question may be less whether enterprises should adopt multi-model than whether they’re ready to accept a system where checks are automated, models are invisible, and AI reviews AI before a human ever sees the output.

Beyond the initial integration into the Researcher agent, Gustavson said Microsoft plans to extend the multi-model approach to its other AI tools. He hopes the approach becomes standard across the industry. In his view, building multi-model review into agentic workflows is both good governance and good design.

For those building agentic experiences, Gustavson’s advice is simple: treat agents like any process with meaningful consequences. The key question: “Who checks the work?”

Source link

Tech

The Pro-Iran Meme Machine Trolling Trump With AI Lego Cartoons

Published

40 minutes ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Minutes after President Donald Trump announced that he would not wipe out “a whole civilization” on Tuesday evening, a team of self-described young Iranian activists jumped into action.

Members of the group known as Explosive Media were putting the finishing touches on their latest AI-generated, Lego-inspired Trump video. The video features a Trump mini-figure colluding with leaders from Gulf states, Iranian officials pressing a big red button labeled “back to the stone age,” and Trump throwing a chair at US generals.

This was the latest of more than a dozen videos the pro-Iran group has released since the beginning of the war in February, many of which have racked up millions of views on mainstream platforms. While Iranian government accounts have posted Lego-style videos in the past, Explosive Media’s content is more sophisticated and scripted. And it’s produced by a team of young pro-Iranian creators who appear deeply knowledgeable about the internet and American culture. Already some critics have alleged the group has ties to the Iranian government.

“We were almost certain Trump would back down; it was clear to us,” a member of the Explosive Media team, who did not want to publicly identify themselves, tells WIRED. “We were prepared for this scenario and had content ready in advance. We just made a few adjustments and released it.”

The team even added mention of the 10-point plan Iran proposed as part of its recent ceasefire agreement. As the video concludes, a Lego Trump sits next to the document, sobbing while holding a white flag and eating a taco—a knowing reference to the acronym for “Trump always chickens out.”

Within hours of Trump’s announcement, the video was published on Explosive Media’s X account and Telegram channel, where it had the caption: “IRAN WON! The way to crush imperialism has been shown to the world. Trump Surrendered. TACO will always remain TACO.”

While the Trump administration has been posting memes that intercut war footage with movie clips that appeal to a narrow audience of loyal followers, Explosive Media’s Lego videos have reached a much broader audience in the US—some of whom clearly liked what they saw.

“We’ve committed ourselves to learning more every day about American people and culture,” the Explosive Media team member tells WIRED. “In this process, Americans themselves have been helping us—and that support and guidance continues. They share impactful tips and ideas with us.”

Explosive Media began in 2025 as a YouTube channel featuring political commentary delivered by a young Iranian man. The content never gained traction, with most videos racking up only a couple hundred views.

But all that changed in February, when the group began posting Lego-inspired videos, with the team scripting, producing, and editing each video using AI tools. (The group would not reveal which AI tools it was using.)

The videos quickly took hold on platforms like TikTok, X, and Instagram.

“People are disengaging from some of the real conflict content and looking for something that can distill what’s happening quickly and in a language and tone that they understand and that’s what those Lego videos are doing,” Moustafa Ayad, a researcher with the Institute of Strategic Dialogue who has closely tracked the online content being shared by Iranian groups during the war, tells WIRED. “They’re making it easily accessible to understand the conflict from Iran’s point of view, and it’s hitting on points of disaffection in the United States at the same time. It’s working on two fronts.”

Iran has previously used Lego-style videos in war propaganda. Back in 2024, according to Ayad, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shared links to a Lego video, and during the Twelve-Day War in 2025, Iranian state media proclaimed victory over Israel in another Lego video.

Source link

Tech

The Best Mass-Market SUV Brand For Dealer Service In 2026, According To JD Power

Published

54 minutes ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

In the recently released JD Power 2026 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) Study, one mass-market SUV brand topped all others. And even though JD Power combined SUVs and minivans into one category, the brand that came in first place does not sell any minivans. That brand is Subaru, which, with a few exceptions, is a brand mostly made up of SUVs. Subaru also did very well in the 2025 version of the JD Power CSI Study, being selected as the mass market car brand that owners trust most for service.

The JD Power 2026 U.S. Customer Service Index Study, in which Subaru ranked highest in the mass-market SUVs/minivans category, gave the brand a top-rated score of 887 points out of a possible 1,000. Following Subaru in the JD Power CSI rankings in this category were Nissan in second place with 885 points, and Buick in third with 882 points. Then came Honda with 880 points, Ford with 879 points, GMC with 878 points, Chevrolet with 876 points, Dodge with 872 points, and Mazda with 871 points, which was also the average score in the mass-market SUVs/minivans category. Those brands that fell below the average score, in descending order, were Mitsubishi and Toyota, tied at 870 points; Hyundai, 854 points; Kia, 851 points; Jeep, 850 points; and Volkswagen, last at 846 points.

The JD Power 2026 U.S. CSI Study covered 51,228 survey responses from lessees and registered owners of vehicles between one and three years old. The survey period ran from January through December 2025.

What else should you know about the JD Power U.S. Customer Service Index Study?

As JD Power states on its website, the 2026 U.S. Customer Service Index Study, “…continues to be the auto industry benchmark for measuring customer satisfaction with maintenance and repair service at new-vehicle dealerships, based on survey responses from owners of 1 to 3-year old vehicles.” Study subscribers can now receive monthly updates that keep them current with newly supplied data, allowing manufacturers to monitor their dealers’ customer service ratings in near-real time. This is just one of the many studies done by JD Power, one of which reveals the most dependable cars you can buy.

A wide variety of vehicle categories are covered in the JD Power CSI study. These include premium brands, mass-market brands, mass-market cars, mass-market SUVs/minivans (the topic of this article), premium cars, premium SUVs, and trucks. In each of these categories, the brands are evaluated using the same criteria.

The study’s methodology surveys owners of vehicles that are one to three years old. It asks about their level of customer satisfaction during their latest dealer service episode, which can pertain to either work paid for by the customer or work done under the new car’s warranty. Five areas of the customer’s experience with the service department are then analyzed. These include the start of the service experience, the pick-up of the vehicle, impressions of the facility where the car was serviced, the quality of the service itself, and perceptions of the service advisor who interfaced with the customer.

What else should you know about the Subaru brand?

Aside from its three non-SUV vehicles, the Impreza hatchback, the WRX sedan, and the BRZ sports coupe, the current Subaru lineup consists primarily of SUVS. These SUVs consist of the three-row Ascent, the Crosstrek, the Crosstrek Hybrid, the Forester, the Forester Hybrid, the Outback, the Solterra EV, the Trailseeker EV, and the Uncharted EV. This model lineup offers consumers four pure ICE SUVs, two hybrid SUVs, and three EV SUVs.

Subaru’s pricing range starts with the least expensive model, the 2026 Impreza Sport, at $27,790, including destination and delivery. Our review of the Impreza appreciated it as an affordable hatchback that’s sensible and simple. If you are in search of Subaru’s cheapest compact SUV, the 2026 Crosstrek Base is priced at $28,415. Next comes the 2026 Forester Base at $31,445, followed by the 2026 Outback Premium at $36,445. At the top of the range sits the leather-clad 2026 Ascent Onyx Edition Touring 7-Passenger, priced from $53,445. Our review of the Subaru Ascent found it to be a pretty well-rounded three-row SUV.

Then there are Subaru’s EVs, all of which are SUVs. The range starts with the 2026 Subaru Uncharted Premium FWD, priced from $36,445, continues with the Solterra Premium from $39,945, and tops out with the 2026 Subaru Trailseeker, which will arrive at dealers sometime in early 2026 at an MSRP of $39,995, with destination charges not yet revealed by Subaru at this point.

Source link

Tech

The FBI Didn’t Answer Texts From Minnesota Investigators for Days After Renee Good’s Killing

Published

1 hour ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

On Wednesday, January 7, federal immigration enforcement and deportation officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good at approximately 9:37 am local time. That same day, an official from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) texted a Federal Bureau of Investigation counterpart, repeatedly requesting access to the crime scene evidence.

But according to records WIRED obtained through a public records request, the FBI did not respond for at least two days.

The texts appear to have been sent shortly before the FBI, according to the BCA, told the agency that the investigation into Good’s death would “be led solely by the FBI” and that the BCA “would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation.”

The texts provide new insight on a breakdown in communication between the two agencies that eventually contributed to the BCA, Hennepin County Attorney, and the state of Minnesota filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, which includes the FBI. The lawsuit, filed on March 24, demands that federal authorities give state and local law enforcement access to investigative material relevant to the shootings of Good; Alex Pretti, a nurse shot and killed by Border Patrol agents on January 24; and Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan Minneapolis resident shot and injured by a federal immigration agent on January 14.

“The longstanding practice of cooperation and evidence-sharing between federal and Minnesota law enforcement authorities broke down during DHS’s Operation Metro Surge,” the lawsuit claims, adding that this partnership “abruptly ended once federal leadership became involved.”

In response to WIRED’s request for all emails, text messages, and digital communications the agency exchanged with the FBI on January 7 and January 8, the day the public record request was filed, the agency provided an image showing texts exchanged between a top BCA official and the FBI. (The agency added that “no emails were discovered.”)

The image obtained by WIRED, which was seemingly captured between January 9 and 13, shows text messages that appear to have been sent from an iOS device. The BCA says that the texts were sent on January 7 by Drew Evans, the agency’s superintendent to an individual whose name is redacted but is identified in Evans’ device as an “FBI ASAC,” or assistant special agent in charge. The FBI’s Minneapolis branch currently has three people with that title, according to its website.

The only text the FBI agent sent was delivered at 11:17 am local time. The message was mostly redacted by the BCA, but it begins with “ERO”—an apparent reference to Enforcement and Removal Operations, the ICE branch that oversees arrests, detainments, and deportations.

At 12:56 pm, Evans sent three messages to the FBI agent in quick succession.

“Can you be sure with your folks to include us on interviews,” Evans began. “It sounds like they have tried to do some and keep us out of them. I know this is a little challenging, but it really helps us to just have one set of interviews/interactions so we have a common understanding of the facts and information.”

“We are going to cancel crime scene – sounds like a lot of federal agents showed up to confront the crow[d] and it’s getting very contentious now,” Evans wrote in the second text. “We are in a lot of these in that city and our [special agent in charge] is working with your folks to clear – really unfortunate we did not get this done.”

The beginning of Evans’ next message was redacted, but likely includes the name of the FBI agent. “Do you think once they get [things] a little under control today our management teams and team leaders should connect today yet?” Evans wrote in the third text. “We could do it at your office at a time that makes sense once they can breathe a bit?”

Protesters began gathering near the site of Good’s killing shortly after news of her death began circulating. The lawsuit eventually co-filed by BCA claims that on January 7, its investigators had “trusted that important evidence gathered by federal investigators”—including Good’s car, the ICE agent’s gun, and the shell casings at the scene—would be available to them.

Source link

Tech

You will soon be able to turn off all Spotify videos across music and podcasts

Published

1 hour ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Update (8:45 AM PT): Spotify has now officially begun rolling out the feature globally, confirming that you can disable all video content across music and podcasts. The new controls are being added to settings across mobile, desktop, web, and TV. The company will also allow Premium and Basic users across Individual, Duo, Family, and Student plans, along with free users, to control how video content appears in the app.

If you find Spotify’s music videos annoying, you will soon be able to turn them off. Spotify is adding new video controls that will let you turn off any and all video content inside the app. The update was shared by Rowland Manthorpe on X.

Just got an email: Spotify is introducing controls which let users turn off video for music or podcasts, both for themselves and family plan members. I think the enshittification theory says this is impossible? Or is it actually a secret plot to make the service worse
— Rowland Manthorpe (@rowlsmanthorpe) April 9, 2026

How to turn off videos for music and podcasts on Spotify?

The new controls are not available in my region yet. According to The Verge, the new controls to turn off videos in Spotify will appear under the “Content and display” section in your settings on mobile, or under the “Display” section if you are on desktop.

There will be three separate toggles to work with. The first is an existing toggle that disables Canvas clips, which are the short, looping, autoplay videos that play in the background while a track runs.

The second will be a brand new toggle that specifically turns off access to music videos. The third, also new, will disable all other video content on the platform, including podcast videos and vertical video. Together, these three controls will give you granular options to pick and choose exactly how much video you want in your Spotify experience.

How do Spotify’s new video controls work for Family Plan subscribers?

If you manage a Spotify Family Plan, you will be able apply these video controls to each individual member on your subscription, similar to how managed account controls already work.

Once you disable video at the plan level for a specific member, that person will no longer have the option to switch to the video version of a song or podcast on their own.

It will essentially lock the experience to audio only for whoever you choose, which could be handy if you manage a plan that includes younger family members.

At the time of writing, Spotify hasn’t made any official announcement about the new video controls. The availability may also vary depending on your region and account. If you haven’t seen them appear yet, try updating your app and checking your settings over the next few days.

Source link

Tech

MAGA Media Seems to Have Hit Its Breaking Point Over Iran

Published

2 hours ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Candace Owens spent years building a pro-MAGA audience by supporting President Donald Trump. Now, she’s calling for his removal from office.

Over the past few months, right-wing media figures like Owens have broken with Trump on a number of issues, including the Epstein files and the administration’s intervention in Venezuela. But the fracturing among the MAGA media coalition appears to have reached the point of no return after the president’s threats to annihilate “a whole civilization” in Iran this week.

“The 25th amendment needs to be invoked,” Owens wrote Tuesday on X. “He is a genocidal lunatic. Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness.”

Owens is one of several right-wing media figures calling for Trump’s removal. Former congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greene also called for invoking the 25th Amendment, referring to Trump’s actions in Iran as “evil and madness.” Alex Jones urged Trump’s ouster on his InfoWars program on Tuesday, asking a guest “how do we 25th amendment his ass?” On an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast last week, comedian Theo Von, who hosted Trump on his own show in 2024, called the US and Israel “fucking terrorists.” “It is vile on every level,” former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson said during his show on Monday, referring to Trump’s recent Truth Social posts about Iran. The red-pill streamer Sneako wrote, “I miss Joe Biden” on X last week.

This pushback from major right-wing figures has fractured the MAGA media coalition even further; seemingly in response, a handful of pro-Trump stalwarts have called on the Justice Department to investigate American influencers for taking foreign money without disclosing it. The conservative activist Laura Loomer called posts from Owens “the most obvious foreign influence operation ever” before urging a DOJ investigation on Tuesday.

“The DOJ can investigate me all they want, Larry—they won’t find a thing,” Candace Owens posted in reply to Loomer on Wednesday.

Jack Posobiec, a prominent Pizzagate conspiracy theory promoter, echoed Loomer’s calls for an investigation. Benny Johnson, a former Turning Point USA contributor, wrote on X that he would “welcome” an investigation. (In 2024, the Justice Department alleged that Tenet Media, an online media company that produced shows for Johnson and other high-profile influencers, was largely funded by Russian state-backed news network RT. Johnson, whom the US government did not accuse of wrongdoing, issued a statement at the time denying awareness of the alleged Russian influence scheme and portraying himself as a victim.)

Throughout Trump’s second term in office, the administration has frequently worked with creators to push its messaging online. Last fall, the Pentagon revoked press credentials from mainstream outlets, replacing them with creators like Loomer and Cam Higby. While many of these creators have attended recent Pentagon press briefings, the White House hasn’t seemingly been in touch on messaging about the war in Iran.

“There is/was none,” one source familiar with the Republican influencer pipeline tells WIRED about the administration not reaching out to creators about Iran. “The online right wasn’t supportive, and there wasn’t anything that was going to change that. The best they could hope for is silence.”

Source link

Tech

Now that’s different – hackers use miniature SVG images to try and hide credit card stealer

Published

2 hours ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Experts find credit card skimmer hidden in 1×1 SVG image
Fake “Secure Checkout” overlay stole card data
Likely exploited Magento PolyShell flaw, affecting many stores

Security researchers recently found a credit card skimmer on almost a hundred compromised ecommerce websites hiding in a tiny image.

Experts from Sansec reported finding 1×1-pixel Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) elements with an ‘onload’ handler inside many e-commerce websites’ HTML.

Source link

Tech

Best T-Mobile Plans: How to Choose and Which Ones to Pick in 2026

Published

2 hours ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

“5G” is an umbrella term that encompasses the current fifth-generation cellular wireless network technologies. All the major carriers and phones support 5G connections, which can offer faster data speeds than older technologies such as 4G LTE or 3G.

Essentially there are three types of 5G: Millimeter-wave (mmWave), which can be fast but has limited range; low-band 5G, which has slower speeds but works on a broader range; and midband, which is a balance between the two that’s faster than low-band but also covers a larger range than millimeter-wave. Midband also incorporates C-band, a batch of spectrum auctioned off by the Federal Communications Commission in 2021.

Your phone’s 5G connection depends on which type blankets the area you’re in, as well as other factors, such as population density and infrastructure. For instance, mmWave is super fast, but its signals can be thwarted by buildings, glass, leaves or by being inside of a structure.

When your device is connected to a 5G network, it can show up as several variations such as 5G, 5G Plus, 5G UW or others, depending on the carrier. Here’s a list of icons you see at the top of your phone for the major services:

AT&T: 5GE (which isn’t actually 5G, but rather a sly marketing name for 4G LTE), 5G (low band), 5G Plus (mmWave, midband)

Verizon: 5G (low band, also called “Nationwide 5G”), 5G UW/5G UWB (midband and mmWave, also called “5G Ultra Wideband”)

T-Mobile: 5G (low band), 5G UC (midband and mmWave, also called “Ultra Capacity 5G”)

There’s also 5G Reduced Capacity (5G RedCap), which is a lower-power, smaller-capacity branch of 5G used by devices such as smartwatches and portable health devices; the Apple Watch Ultra 3, for example, connects via 5G RedCap.

Just around the corner is 5G Advanced, promising much faster speeds because of carrier aggregation, or combining multiple spectrums.

Source link

Tech

Massive 41-inch Blades Deliver Clear Efficiency Wins on This Custom-Built Quadcopter Drone

Published

3 hours ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

3D-Printed Quadcopter Drone 41-inch Blades
Daniel Riley set out to tackle an issue that had been plaguing him: what if you built a drone with propeller blades a mile longer than regular models? His design features 41-inch blades that reach from tip to tip and spin at a steady 350 to 500 revolutions per minute, a far cry from the tiny, high-speed propellers seen on nearly every commercial drone on the market.

His quadcopter stands out from the crowd due to its gigantic 41-inch blades, and not only because of their size. They also spin at a nice, calm speed of 350 to 500 rpm, as opposed to the thousands of rpm seen on standard models. Riley paired these blades with a sophisticated variable pitch mechanism that allows each rotor to change the angle at which it bites into the air while keeping the motor speed constant. This combination enables the drone to generate lift and remain airborne with significantly less energy than you might expect, especially considering the blades’ high inertia.

Bambu Lab A1 3D Printer, Support Multi-Color 3D Printing, High Speed & Precision, Full-Auto Calibration…

High-Speed Precision: Experience unparalleled speed and precision with the Bambu Lab A1 3D Printer. With an impressive acceleration of 10,000 mm/s…
Multi-Color Printing with AMS lite: Unlock your creativity with vibrant and multi-colored 3D prints. The Bambu Lab A1 3D printers make multi-color…
Full-Auto Calibration: Say goodbye to manual calibration hassles. The A1 3D printer takes care of all the calibration processes automatically…

Riley designed a variable pitch system that allows the servos to change the angle of each blade while the motors continue to run at a consistent speed. This is a creative solution to the problem of high rotational inertia, which would normally make it difficult to swiftly increase and decrease motor speed in order to operate the drone successfully. He mounted high-torque servos at the base of each arm and ran a pushrod through them to the blade roots. As a result, the drone gains precise control over lift and attitude without constantly adjusting the engine speed.

3D-Printed Quadcopter Drone 41-inch Blades
The drone’s chassis was built of carbon fiber tubes attached to 3D printed polycarbonate parts, which gave just enough strength to keep things from breaking without adding too much weight. The propellers were made from PETG plastic reinforced with carbon fiber rods. Four pancake-style 5010 360KV motors power the blades via a belt reduction system, which reduces the speed and increases torque. Riley even removed the motor controllers’ heat sinks and sealed them in epoxy to save a few grams of weight. Every little piece added up to keep the overall power consumption low, allowing the huge rotors to support the airframe with minimal effort.

3D-Printed Quadcopter Drone 41-inch Blades
Ground tests produced some really impressive results. When the drone was hovering in situ, it produced a remarkable 18.1 grams of torque for every watt of electricity used, which is roughly half as much as a well-optimized conventional quadcopter. When the power was turned off, the drone was able to slowly circle its way to the ground. The only reason it didn’t come out of it without losing its balance was that it lacked a stabilisation system and crashed.

3D-Printed Quadcopter Drone 41-inch Blades
Engineers have long recognized that the key to making rotorcraft fly is getting the power loading just right. Spreading the weight over a larger rotor surface allows you to stay aloft with less energy, like Riley did here. He applied a principle that most commercial drone manufacturers are afraid to explore since it is more sophisticated, and it paid off handsomely. His approach demonstrates that scaling up to larger blades and adding some sophisticated pitch control can result in significant increases in flight time without simply throwing some heavier batteries on it.
[Source]

Source link

Tech

Digital guestbooks are becoming a lucrative biz in S’pore’s wedding industry

Published

3 hours ago

9 April 2026

NewsAdmin

All it takes is two to three weddings to break even

Two to three weddings. That’s all it takes for entrepreneurs Edmund Teo from Octopus Reels and Jessica Tay from Leave Your Message to fully recoup their startup costs—and everything after is profit.

Their business? Renting out digital guestbooks that capture audio and video messages from wedding guests. As more couples seek personalised, interactive experiences, this niche service is quickly gaining popularity and turning into a profitable opportunity.

Set up is simple, only requires two to three people, and the equipment is reusable, making margins compelling with limited costs.

Vulcan Post speaks with the two founders to uncover what it takes to run a digital guestbook business—and just how lucrative it can be.

What’s driving couples to ditch traditional guestbooks

digital guestbooks audio video weddings events Leave Your Message, Octopus Reels — Digital guestbooks that record audio (left) and video (right) have emerged in popularity in recent years./ Image Credit: Leave Your Message/ Octopus Reels

In Singapore, couples are increasingly moving away from traditional guestbooks because digital formats offer something far more engaging and memorable.

While handwritten guestbooks are sentimental, they are often stored away and rarely revisited. More often than not, only a few pages are filled while the rest remain blank.

Audio and video recordings, on the other hand, capture the tone, laughter, and emotions behind each message, allowing couples to relive those moments for years to come.

We have had couples share how moved they were when revisiting their recordings.
Edmund Teo, founder of Octopus Reels

traditional physical guestbooks digital audio video guestbooks vintage octopus reels — (Left): Traditional physical guestbooks that guests are invited to write in; (Right): Recorded video from a digital video guestbook./ Image Credit: Artisan Prints, Octopus Reels

Jessica added that digital guestbooks make memories feel “more alive” by preserving expressions, voices, and interactions that a page of writing cannot convey.

She also noted that the rise of digital guestbooks connects to broader cultural currents. “In recent years, there has been a strong comeback of nostalgia, like the rise of digital cameras and Y2K aesthetics, where people are drawn to things that feel a bit more raw and authentic.”

Typically, digital guestbooks use a vintage telephone setup. Guests pick up the handset to hear a short, pre-recorded message from the couple, then record their own message after a tone. The retro telephone design, complete with rotary dials or classic handsets, adds a memorable touch.

Weddings, being highly emotional occasions, naturally attract formats that combine familiar, nostalgic elements.

At the same time, the industry itself also offers fertile ground for niche services like digital guestbooks. In 2024, the Singapore wedding market was valued at US$153.22 million (S$196.57 million), and is projected to reach US$292.38 million (S$375.11 million) by 2033, growing at an annual rate of 7.46%.

With approximately 24,700 marriages registered in Singapore in 2025, the addressable market for wedding vendors remains substantial.

A 30% profit margin

digital audio video guestbooks vintage Leave Your Message, Octopus Reels — Image Credit: Leave Your Message/ Octopus Reels

Both founders of Octopus Reels and Leave Your Message now run their businesses full-time, though Jessica initially started hers as a side hustle before leaving her full-time job as demand grew.

At first glance, the business seems simple and low-cost.

Similar digital video guestbook equipment sells for around S$533 on Amazon.sg, while each accordion-style column stand—typically used to hold and elevate the vintage telephone handsets—costs between S$72 and S$101. That totals to S$797 for a digital guestbook telephone setup with three cylindrical columns of varying heights.

With rates starting at S$295 for six hours for a basic digital guestbook setup by Octopus Reels and S$380 for two hours by Leave Your Message, both businesses can recoup their initial setup costs in just three bookings, making them highly lucrative ventures.

However, running the business goes beyond purchasing equipment. Set up, logistics, and manpower are all crucial to delivering a smooth and memorable guest experience. There are also additional technical support and post-production editing required to transform raw footage into polished keepsakes.

Edmund shared that the average breakdown of costs for each setup, excluding equipment, is as follows:

Category	Cost
Manpower	S$80-S$200 for two to three people, depending on theme and requirements.
Transport and logistics	S$30-S$120. More decor-intensive setups require larger vehicles.
Post-production	S$60 to S$300, depending on the number of messages and the amount of footage to process.
Storage and maintenance costs	Low, but expected to increase with more props and larger volumes of data as they are handled over time.
Advertising	S$70 per booking through Meta, plus ~3% processing fee of S$2.10.

Minus off all these costs, the overall profit margin for Octopus Reels is 20–30% for simpler setups, and tends to increase with larger or customised events, making the business still highly attractive.

Leave Your Message, however, declined to disclose exact figures, with Jessica explaining that these are “commercially sensitive for the business.” She did note, though, that there are “less obvious costs,” including seasonal fluctuations in bookings and downtime between events.

“While this can be a profitable business under the right conditions, there is also a fair amount of operational work behind the scenes that people may not immediately see,” she added.

Standing out in an increasingly crowded market

london phonebooth leave your message octopus reels digital audio video guestbooks vintage — (Left): Leave Your Message’s London Phone Booth; (Right): Octopus Reels’ setup for a Chinese New Year event./ Image Credit: Leave Your Message/ Octopus Reels

Demand is booming for these businesses’ offerings.

Octopus Reels currently runs 10 to 12 events every weekend, and in 2025, it supported 208 events across 98 venues, with demand peaking in Oct when the company managed up to eight events in a single day. Meanwhile, Leave Your Message has participated in over 400 events since 2023.

While weddings remain the core revenue driver, both companies have expanded into adjacent markets.

Octopus Reels has supported corporate events, birthday celebrations, and community initiatives, including a meaningful project with Sport Singapore for individuals with dementia.

Similarly, Leave Your Message has recorded appreciation messages at company award ceremonies and participated in large-scale activations like the National Day NTUC Youth initiative, where messages collected across institutions were showcased during the National Day Parade.

This diversification reduces reliance on wedding seasonality for sales on digital guestbooks—a critical business strategy in an industry where demand fluctuates throughout the year.

(Left): Today, Octopus Reels also offers interactive wedding experiences such as low-fog effects; (Right): For guests who want to leave a message virtually or are unable to attend in person, Leave Your Message provides QR codes at events to submit videos./ Image Credit: Octopus Reels/ Leave Your Message

As competition intensifies with more businesses offering similar services, differentiation becomes especially important.

Hence, both companies have also diversified beyond their core guestbook services. Octopus Reels now offers interactive photo gallery installations, creating “mini exhibitions” of couples’ memories and low-lying fog effects for “walking on clouds” march-ins. They are also partnering with a local coffee cart vendor to bring Vietnamese coffee experiences into wedding spaces.

Jessica’s company, on the other hand, has expanded its digital guestbook concept with a virtual video option, where guests scan QR codes to record messages on their mobile phones. This extends the experience to overseas guests who cannot attend physically.

Will digital guestbooks stay?

Edmund considers video guestbooks an “early-stage trend,” with the potential to become a standard feature at weddings.

But as with any trend, it can flare up quickly—and fade just as fast. Despite this, Jessica is confident it will endure, at least in terms of its core intent.

“The format may continue to evolve, but the intention behind it, capturing meaningful messages from loved ones, will always be relevant.”

Ultimately, the emotional resonance is a key driver of the business model.

Edmund described parents leaving messages for newlyweds: “In many Asian families, emotions are not always expressed openly. The guestbook creates a space for parents to share heartfelt messages they might not say in person.”

For entrepreneurs entering this space, the playbook is clear: source reliable equipment, master post-production workflows, build vendor relationships for referrals, and differentiate through unique experiential offerings.

The wedding and events industries reward specialists who can deliver reliability and emotional impact.