The climate just got its annual checkup, and the results aren’t looking so hot.

“If Earth were a patient coming in for an annual physical, I would say its condition is serious and getting worse,” Oregon State University researcher Bill Ripple says.

Ripple is the lead author of a new paper chronicling the state of the climate, published on Wednesday in BioScience. The findings show that seven of the 16 planetary vital signs tracked by the researchers have never been in a more extreme state.

That includes the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is 50 percent higher than preindustrial levels due to burning fossil fuels, as well as symptoms of burning all that oil, coal, and gas. Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have shrunk to record lows, while ocean heat has soared to record highs.

Climate change has already quickened the pace of warming from about 0.05 degrees Celsius per decade from 1880 through 1970 to 0.36 degrees Celsius per decade since 2010, according to the analysis. While the global average temperature, including land, isn’t at a record extreme, that may change by the end of the year as El Niño strengthens. The natural climate pattern is characterized by a hotter-than-normal Pacific Ocean, but it also boosts global heat levels by pouring more energy into the atmosphere. This year’s El Niño is shaping up to be one for the record books.

“A strong El Niño could temporarily push global temperatures even higher, while bringing additional heat and drought to vulnerable regions,” says Ripple. He adds that “El Niño is a natural phenomenon, but it’s now occurring on top of a much warmer planet. That makes its impacts potentially more dangerous.”

Of particular concern are ecosystems such as coral reefs and tropical forests. The spread of ocean heat is likely to fuel a mass coral die-off, known as coral bleaching. With each successive wave of bleaching, reefs become less resilient. Corals are among the ecosystems most threatened by climate change; if the planet warms beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius, most of the world’s coral will be unlikely to survive.

Tropical forests also face pressure from El Niño. This is especially true of the Amazon, which tends to see dry weather during this climate pattern. The timing couldn’t be more dire: The region, dubbed “the world’s lungs,” is already under intense pressure from logging and mining interests and the possible return of a right-wing government in Brazil that prioritizes extraction and land clearing over conservation.

The new report also warns that the Amazon is among the ecosystems at risk of crossing a tipping point—that is, reaching a threshold where it shifts from a tropical rainforest into something more resembling savanna. It’s highly unlikely that crossing that tipping point is imminent, let alone something that will happen this year. But this year’s blast of El Niño–influenced weather will edge it closer.

“Warming, drought, and deforestation could push the Amazon toward widespread forest degradation,” Ripple says. “My concern is that these changes could interact, making them increasingly difficult to stop.”

The report is an avalanche of bad news for the climate, though it does note that carbon-free forms of energy are playing a bigger role in the power grid. The report calls it a sign we’re in the “Age of Electricity.” Despite that, annual greenhouse gas emissions are at record highs. In other words, the world is still smoking a pack a day, even at the risk of losing a lung.

“There are some encouraging signs, especially the growth of renewable energy, but they aren’t yet enough to reverse the overall deterioration,” Ripple says. “The climate emergency is not something waiting for us in the future. We are already living through it.”

AI tools can now generate a lesson in seconds, and the result usually sounds convincing. But teachers and district leaders still lack a reliable way to confirm that generated content aligns with state standards or what research says about how students learn. Learning Commons, a nonprofit backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, believes it has built that missing foundation through a newly launched open platform. More than 70 partners, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have joined the effort. But as open infrastructure enters the classroom, some educators are asking a critical question: who gets to lay the groundwork for K-12 AI?

Who Gets to Build the Tracks?

Sandra Liu Huang, president of Learning Commons, spent years building product teams at Google, Facebook, and Quora before she turned her attention to K-12 education. She joins EdSurge editorial director Ira Apfel to explain how the platform’s open knowledge graphs and AI evaluators work, and why some districts are choosing to build their own custom tools on this infrastructure rather than waiting for commercial vendors. Ira also presses her on governance, on who decides what goes into these models, and how open platforms can prevent a few major players from dominating school technology.

What Should Districts Ask Vendors?

Sandra also shares the essential questions she believes every district leader should ask an AI vendor claiming state standards alignment — from data origin and update frequency to whether state standards serve as the core foundation for their tools.

Disclosure: Learning Commons is a financial supporter of EdSurge. This episode was produced independently by EdSurge and Learning Commons had no editorial role or influence over its recording, production or editing.

Listen to the episode.

Stories Mentioned in This Episode

Learning Commons Launches Open Platform for K-12 Edtech by Ira Apfel

This Week with EdSurge is a weekly podcast from EdSurge. Subscribe to the EdSurge newsletters for more news and analysis on education and technology.

The U.S. Department of Justice is warning that hackers working for the North Korean regime are increasingly relying on Americans to facilitate the hacking of U.S. companies.

In an announcement on Tuesday, prosecutors said they have indicted and arrested at least two people, and conducted searches across dozens of suspected “laptop farms” in Texas. The computers were allegedly used by North Koreans to remotely hack into American companies and steal sensitive data.

According to the DOJ, federal authorities seized over 180 computers that they believe American companies had shipped out to their newly hired employees, not realizing that they were sanctioned North Korean spies who had used stolen identities of U.S. citizens to gain employment. The DOJ said that it raided over 40 laptop farms across Texas, the largest disclosed number of homes and residences used for facilitating North Korean hacks, which were owned by at least two American facilitators.

CrowdStrike, which helped the FBI investigate and disrupt the latest North Korean operations, said that laptop farms are “vital” to North Korea in helping its hackers overcome physical, financial, and legal challenges of not physically being in the United States.

The prosecutors said at least 70 U.S.-based companies had been infiltrated by the hackers, who are believed to have generated around $3 million in stolen funds. The DOJ did not name the affected companies, but described them as healthcare, cyber support, retail, communications, and manufacturing sectors across Ohio and 16 other states, including the District of Columbia.

“Increasingly, North Korean IT workers are turning to recruiting American facilitators to counter improved private sector detections and law enforcement actions. These workers are hiring facilitators to complete a wider variety of tasks, and in some cases subcontracting entire jobs to third-party foreign nationals,” the Justice Department said. 

Oftentimes, North Korean hackers use real-looking email addresses, spoofed LinkedIn profiles, and extensive online and social media accounts as cover for their activities.

In a separate public service announcement, the FBI said that there are “thousands” of North Korean-state controlled IT workers working at Western companies, which “pose a significant national security and intellectual property theft insider threat.”

This is the latest wave of arrests, indictments, and enforcement action targeting North Korean activities in the United States in recent years. The breakaway regime has used this “remote IT workers” scheme to allow North Koreans to gain employment with U.S. and European companies, earn a wage, and then steal sensitive information and intellectual property while as employees. The victim companies are then extorted into paying the hackers further. 

The remote IT workers’ scheme is one of several strands of illicit revenue that the North Korean regime aims to generate, including hacking crypto exchanges and open-source developer projects, with the aim of funding its internationally sanctioned nuclear weapons program. The regime is thought to have stolen at least $2 billion in crypto during 2025 alone.

Experts on North Korea have put the number of hacked companies and the amount of stolen crypto as likely much higher than reported.

Earlier this year, CrowdStrike said in a separate report that North Korean hackers were behind around half of all documented “hands-on-keyboard” intrusions over the past year, referring to hacks that are carried out by humans and not automated tools or AI. 

In this current era of vibe coding — using AI to create mobile and desktop apps — it was probably only a matter of time until someone made free versions of popular apps. That happened this month when a Reddit user announced that he did so with popular but expensive Adobe and Microsoft programs.

The person behind the project is Brandon Thomas, a software engineer who uses the handle “u/ai_art_is_art” on Reddit, where the tools first caught AI enthusiasts’ attention. Thomas has released 13 free, open-source apps on his website, called ArtCraft. These apps aim to replicate the core functionalities of Adobe and Microsoft programs, including Photoshop, Word and PowerPoint — or, as Thomas calls them, PhotoCraft, WordCraft and DeckCraft.

Vibe coding has taken off for software developers and AI enthusiasts, leading to AI-made apps flooding Apple and Google’s app stores. However, significant concerns persist about the overall usefulness, security and long-term viability of vibe-coded apps. Apple removed some apps that help people vibe code this year because the apps didn’t comply with Apple’s developer rules.

But in the US’s current affordability crisis — and with legacy tech companies constantly raising their prices — a cheaper, AI-created alternative to Photoshop or Microsoft Word can be an attractive option for a subscription-weary consumer.

This certainly isn’t the first time a startup has tried to compete with legacy software companies like Adobe and Microsoft. Canva, Affinity and CapCut are extremely popular Adobe alternatives for content creation and editing. Google and Apple each have their own versions of Microsoft’s core business apps. 

But ArtCraft’s vibe-coded apps and other potential AI-made apps allow individual users to avoid handing over their cash and data to a major tech company. Using an open-source AI model on your own device, for example, gives you more control over your data than using a cloud-based app through a subscription.

As with all apps, CNET recommends you inspect the privacy and safety policies before using them. This is especially important for vibe-coded apps.

“Vibe coding can make it super easy to swap out old software tools, but it’s legally questionable,” said CNET’s Blake Stimac, a vibe coding expert. “What works great for you as a quick fix could easily turn into a legal battlefield the second you try to share it with the world.”

Representatives for ArtCraft and Adobe did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Microsoft declined to comment.

Will vibe coding kill legacy software?

It’s unlikely that vibe-coded apps will be the sole downfall of legacy software companies like Adobe and Microsoft. But they do highlight the growing frustration with those companies, particularly as subscriptions become even more expensive and their programs become bloated with AI features.

In March, Adobe reached a $150 million settlement with the US government to resolve a federal lawsuit alleging that the software giant trapped consumers in subscription plans with hidden fees and an intentionally convoluted cancellation process. Under the terms of the agreement, Adobe will pay a $75 million civil penalty and provide $75 million in free services to affected users, though the company continues to deny any wrongdoing.

Microsoft has embedded its Copilot AI throughout its software ecosystem, despite notable user backlash. While the company recently removed a few Windows AI features due to negative feedback, it is still plowing ahead with billions of dollars in AI development.

The appeal of ArtCraft and other open-source vibe-coded apps is their ability to let individuals customize programs and avoid hefty subscriptions. The pitch is tailor-made for tech enthusiasts: If you only need limited access to these programs and can set them up yourself for free, why would you pay for Adobe Creative Cloud or Microsoft Office?

But that certainly won’t be the case for everyone. For one, many folks won’t want to take the time to figure out how to download and configure an open-source AI app. Meanwhile, businesses and professional creators will likely prefer the safety and privacy guarantees that Adobe and Microsoft offer, even if they aren’t always ironclad. Better the devil you know…

Katelyn Chedraoui

Reporter 2

Katelyn is a reporter with CNET covering artificial intelligence, including chatbots, image and video generators. Her work explores how new AI technology is infiltrating our lives, shaping the content we consume on social media and affecting the people behind the screens. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in media and journalism. You can reach her at kchedraoui@cnet.com.

See full bio

Kirigami, the Japanese practice of cutting paper in addition to folding it, opens possibilities that pure folding alone cannot reach. Matthew Lim applied the method to a series of objects that shift from a completely flat sheet into a usable three-dimensional form and back again, relying on carefully placed cuts and folds rather than fasteners or adhesives. One result is a compact phone grip that springs into place when needed. Another is a side table large enough to hold everyday items, assembled from plywood panels linked by printed hinges.

An early demo in Lim’s film references an old Japanese text from 1797 about folding cranes. That book contains one of the earliest known examples of a single sheet of paper being cut so that a smaller crane emerges from the back of a larger one. The same book also demonstrates how to make a whole bunch of cranes out of a single flat piece by cutting it in a grid pattern. That’s basically the early trials that gave rise to the term ‘kirigami,’ and they provide a good starting point for what modern origami is about. By making strategic cuts to a flat shape, you can transform it into something that can actually hold weight or grip things, which is exactly what recent studies like Liu and colleagues’ 2024 paper on making origami tubes got right, as you can change how the thing responds to pressure simply by changing how you cut it.

Bambu Lab A1 mini 3D Printer + LED Lamp Kit, Ready-to-Use for Beginners

• A1 mini + LED Lamp Kit for Creative Light Projects: Bring your ideas to life with the included LED Lamp Kit. Simply print compatible lamp models and…
• The Perfect 3D Printer for Beginners: A1 mini 3D Printer is designed to make 3D printing easy from day one with automatic calibration, simple setup…
• Experience the Bambu Lab Ecosystem: Access MakerWorld’s huge library of ready-to-print models, manage prints through the Bambu Handy app, and enjoy…

Lim spent hours toying with a laser cutter and a 3D printer, testing various iterations of his pop-up mechanism. Each one allowed him to fine-tune the positioning of the cuts and the way the hinges worked, ensuring that the entire thing rose smoothly and remained in shape. Once the little models were working properly, he was able to apply the same concepts to full-size furniture. Plywood panels replaced the original paper, and he employed printed hinges rather than simply cutting the board to create the creases. After he built the table, the various sections could be modified to fit different forms, and once moved, the geometry would sort themselves out and produce a sturdy surface without the need for any further hardware.

These types of devices are particularly relevant in robotics, where joints must frequently change shape while providing little more bulk. They’re also handy for creating flat-pack furniture that can be shipped in extremely thin stacks while yet assembling into a substantial piece of kit. Actually, it matters a lot in space travel, where every last gram and cubic millimeter of space counts, but what’s really fascinating is that it’s entirely based on geometry rather than complicated actuators. As a result, the same cuts and folds that allow you to build a second small crane are also capable of creating a table that can stand on its own.
[Source]

Tonight is the last chance to buy the newest Fire TV Stick 4K for £32.99 before it moves to its full £69.99 price.

Against a £69.99 RRP, the Fire TV Stick 4K is £32.99 until 23:59 tonight, a saving of £37 or 53% on the newest 4K streaming stick from Amazon, complete with Wi-Fi 6, Alexa+ and an all-new Fire TV Remote.