One of Mars’ most perplexing geological mysteries, formations that like enormous spiderwebs spread out across the landscape, can now be seen up close in the most recent set of photos taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover. It has been traveling through an interesting section of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater for the past six months. It’s made up of low, intersecting ridges that are about three to six feet high, with sandy depressions scooped out between them.
When viewed from orbit, the pattern gives the distinct appearance of enormous spiderwebs spanning miles across the Martian landscape, but up close, the story becomes much more intriguing. These “boxwork” structures show a history of water that has persisted for much longer than most models had predicted. Using its Mastcam, the rover was able to take some incredibly vivid panoramas and close-ups of the ridges. One picture dated September 26, 2025, provides an incredibly clear view of the network of elevated lines and depressions. The team was rather taken aback when Curiosity discovered pea-sized nodules scattered throughout the ridge walls and in the hollows, which are evidence of previous water activity.
Feed a passion for science and technology – Kids can learn more about the challenges of space exploration with this LEGO Technic NASA Mars Rover…
Conduct a test flight – This advanced building kit for kids ages 10 and up includes a buildable toy version of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which…
AR brings the mission to life – The accompanying augmented reality app experience lets kids dive into the details of the rover and its mission
The experts believe that this explains the boxwork: long ago, groundwater passed through bedrock fissures, depositing minerals that created strong ridges in particular regions. The depressions that give the appearance of a web were left behind as the wind worked on the softer rock. The black lines that crisscrossed the formations were already very obvious from orbital photographs; a theory from back in 2014 proposed that these were central cracks where the minerals had congregated. That theory is strengthened by Curiosity’s careful examination, which revealed that the lines are in fact fractures.
The thing that truly grabs your attention is that the boxwork is located quite high on Mount Sharp, indicating that the ancient groundwater table must have reached fairly high levels. This implies that water was present on Mars for a far longer period of time before the planet dried up and froze. Microbial life would have had a longer period of livable conditions if it had ever existed. The investigation’s mission scientist, Dr. Tina Seeger of Rice University, cited this elevation and said that groundwater high enough to create these characteristics indicates that life-supporting conditions may have existed for a much longer than the orbital data alone would indicate.
One thing some people hate about voice control is that you need to have a process always running, listening for the wake word. If your system isn’t totally locally-hosted, that can raise some privacy eyebrows. Perhaps that’s part of what inspired [SpannerSpencer] to create this 24th century solution: a Comm Badge straight out of Star Trek: The Next Generationhe uses to control his smart home.
This hack is as slick as it is simple. The shiny comm badge is actually metal, purchased from an online vendor that surely pays all appropriate license fees to Paramount. It was designed for magnetic mounting, and you know what else has a magnet to stick it to things? The M5StickC PLUS2, a handy ESP32 dev kit. Since the M5Stick is worn under the shirt, its magnet attached to the comm badge, some features (like the touchscreen) are unused, but that’s okay. You use what you have, and we can’t argue with how easy the hardware side of this hack comes together.
[Spanner] reports that taps to the comm badge are easily detected by the onboard accelerometer, and that the M5Stick’s microphone has no trouble picking up his voice. If the voice recordings are slightly muffled by his shirt, the Groq transcription API being used doesn’t seem to notice. From Groq, those transcriptions are sent to [Spanner]’s Home Assistant as natural language commands. Code for the com-badge portion is available via GitHub; presumably if you’re the kind of person who wants this, you either have HA set up or can figure out how.
Advertisement
It seems worth pointing out that the computer in Star Trek: TNG did have a wake word: “computer”. On the other hand it seemed the badges were used to interface with it just as much as the wake word on screen, so this use case is still show accurate. You can watch it in the demo video below, but alas, at no point does his Home Assistant talk back. We can only hope he’s trained a text-to-speech model to sound like Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. At least it gives the proper “beep” when receiving a command.
This would pair very nicely with the LCARS dashboard we featured in January.
Structurally, there’s nothing too wild going on here. It’s a wood-framed climbing structure that stands 10 meters long and 2.5 meters high, and can be covered in lots of climbing holds. It’s the electronic side of things where it gets fun. An Arduino Due is installed to run the show, hooked up with a small TFT display and some buttons for control. It’s then hooked up to control a whole bunch of LEDs and some buttons which are scattered all across the wall. It’s also paired with an Arduino Nano which runs sound feedback, and a 433 MHz remote for controlling the system at a distance.
[Superbender] uses the lighting for fun interactive games. One example is called Hot Lava, where after each climbing pass, more holds are forbidden until you can’t make the run anymore. Chase the Blues is another fun game, where you have to climb towards a given hold, at which point it moves and you have to scamper to the next one.
Samsung took over San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts on February 25 for Galaxy Unpacked 2026 — and left little to the imagination. Three new phones, a new pair of earbuds, and a pile of AI features. Here’s the full breakdown.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
The Galaxy S26 series arrives with familiar naming
The S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra all share a rounder, more cohesive design this year — which sounds minor until you remember the Ultra used to look like it came from a completely different product line.
Pick one up, and you notice the difference straight away — it sits better in the hand, feels less aggressive in the pocket. Under the hood, all three run on a slightly overclocked version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (denoted by the “For Galaxy” branding).
Tom Bedford / Digital Trends
Samsung also quietly killed off the 128GB base model this year; every S26 model now starts at 256GB, and nobody is disappointed about that. What people are disappointed about is the price — both the S26 and S26+ crept up by $100 this cycle.
S26 Ultra: The Privacy Screen nobody knew they needed
The Ultra’s headline feature is a Privacy Display that darkens the screen from side angles and blurs sensitive notifications when someone nearby is clearly being nosy. In my opinion, it is one of the most useful innovations from Samsung in a while, and future Android flagships (even MacBooks) are likely to copy it.
The camera system gets a bump too, with wider apertures on the 200MP main and 5x telephoto sensors, but the selfie camera remains the same old tiny 12MP shooter.
Advertisement
Tom Bedford / Digital Trends
Third-generation Galaxy AI features are cool, too
Now Brief gives you a personalized morning snapshot — weather, calendar, reminders — before you’ve unlocked your phone. Now Nudge surfaces relevant actions based on whatever’s on your screen.
Google jumped in too: Gemini-powered Scam Detection silently handles spam calls so you never have to, and Circle to Search can now identify multiple objects at once, like scanning a full outfit instead of a single item.
Tom Bedford / Digital Trends
Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro
Samsung released two models — the standard Buds 4 and the Buds 4 Pro. The Pro is the one doing the heavy lifting, with adaptive ANC, improved spatial audio, and that upgraded call clarity. The base Buds 4 keep things simpler and more affordable, but still get the core Galaxy AI treatment.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
All S26 models and the Buds 4 are available for pre-order now.
Bridgerton season 4 part 2 ending explained: do Benedict and Sophie get married, post-credits surprise, shock death and predictions for season 5 of the hit Netflix show
WARNING: spoilers for Bridgerton season 4 part 2 ahead.
I was pretty annoyed that Netflix decided to split another of its hit shows into two parts, but I think the payoff in Bridgerton season 4 part 2 is worth it.
When we last left them, Benedict (Luke Thompson) had asked Sophie (Yerin Ha) to be his mistress, which went down like a sack of spuds.
Advertisement
Elsewhere, Violet (Ruth Gemmell) began dating Lord Anderson (Daniel Francis) in secret, Lady Araminta (Katie Leung) moved in next door to the Bridgertons, and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) tried and failed to take leave from the ton, thanks to Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel).
Luckily, the Bridgerton season 4 part 2 ending gives us resolutions to all of the above, and might gently point us in the direction of who will be the star of the already confirmed season 5.
Advertisement
Do Benedict and Sophie end up marrying in season 4 part 2?
Bridgerton Season 4 | Part 2 Official Trailer | Netflix – YouTube
Yes! Thankfully, Sophie immediately rejects Benedict’s offer of being a mistress, demeaning him for asking something of her that would push her even further down the social scale. There’s a lot of back and forth from Benedict insisting that this is the only way they could be together, and Sophie refusing it.
One thing leads to another and the pair end up in bed together — oops, they’re only human — leading Sophie to try and seek employment as a maid elsewhere. She asks Violet for a letter of introduction to another family, who becomes suspicious of why Sophie wants to leave so suddenly… and what she’s hiding.
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
Advertisement
Almost everyone in the town is convinced that Benedict has a secret woman, it’s just a case of working out who. Violet begins to dig deeper into Sophie’s past, sending her maid out to try and gather information. Another maid informs her that she used to work with Sophie’s mother, leading Violent and Lady Danbury to guess Sophie is illegitimate.
Violet also enlists Anthony’s (Johnathan Bailey) help to try and talk Benedict out of his fascination with Sophie. Anthony reminds him of the shame and scandal he would bring to the Bridgerton name, ruining the prospects for his younger siblings while effectively sending himself into social exile. Benedict is ready to retreat to the country cottage where he spent time with Sophie in part 1, but Violet is completely against the idea.
Where it all began. (Image credit: Netflix)
From there, it all kicks off. Benedict is beside himself that Sophie is to leave the Bridgeton house, but she’s missed the main opportunity that she was planning to go for. However, another opportunity comes up: help a family move overseas to the States, if she’s prepared to get on a boat in three days’ time.
At Hyacinth’s (Florence Hunt) recital, Benedict spots Violet and Lord Anderson together, furiously taking his mother aside to call out her hypocrisy over him and Sophie. Benedict reminds Violet that she taught her kids to follow love wherever it takes them, and after realizing that he’s indeed in love with Sophie, Violet does whatever she can to help him.
At this point, even approval for Queen Charlotte would only get Benedict off the social hook so far, leading him and Violet to plan his countryside escape. This is just before Sophie plans to leave for the Americas… but instead is thrown in jail by Araminta.
Why? Araminta is convinced that Sophie stole her diamond shoe clips, and also wants to punish her for impersonating nobility at Violet’s ball in episode 1. Benedict and Violet catch wind of what’s happened thanks to their maids, sweeping in to get Sophie out on bail just before she’s sentenced. The judge pleads for the ladies to sort their issues out between them, but Araminta doubles down on her cruelness.
At the Bridgerton house, Violet finally accepts that Benedict wants to marry Sophie. Before the, ahem, bathtub scene, Sophie reveals to Benedict that she’s the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood, with Benedict sure that he would have provided for her in his will.
Advertisement
With the help of Eloise (Claudia Jessie), Sophie sneaks into the old Penwood house to find her dad’s will, uncovering that the Araminta was being paid £4,000 for every year she kept Sophie in the house. On top of that, the Earl had split an equal dowry between Sophie, Posy (Isabella Wei) and Rosamund (Michelle Mao), with Sophie’s portion hijacked by Araminta to secure Rosamund’s engagement.
New lady in waiting Alice Mondrich (Emma Naomi) manages to get the two sparring sides into a room at the end of season ball thrown by Queen Charlotte, and they hash it out. Both sides threaten to take down the other if they are exposed, with Violet rationing that they come up with a mutually beneficial story that works for them all. By the time Queen Charlotte is called in, Sophie is presented as a cousin of Rosamund and Posy’s, officially becoming part of the Penwood family.
You’ll have to wait until after the episode 8 credits to see their wedding, with Benedict asking Sophie for her hand later at the ball.
Advertisement
So where does this leave the other Penwoods?
Moments before disaster. (Image credit: Netflix)
Unsurprisingly, Rosamund’s offer of engagement is immediately retracted when it’s discovered that she doesn’t have as much money to offer as first thought. However, Posy has a suitor of her own, with Eloise encouraging her to go after her heart rather than her mother’s wishes. It’s hinted that Posy’s romance could be what saves the Penwoods from complete social ridicule.
Then there’s the return of Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen), who is now the new Lady Penwood. She’s taken up residence in Araminta’s old house, and is at risk of being shunned in her reintroduction to the social circle. She tries to enlist the help of Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) but this doesn’t go as planned, with Penelope using Cressida’s ball to announce that she’s “hanging up her pen”.
What do you mean there’s no more Lady Whistledown?
My two fave besties. (Image credit: Netflix)
Well, in a manner of speaking. After coming under some scrutiny and the power of being known as Lady Whistledown getting to her, Penelope gets the Queen’s permission to take her passion for writing in a different direction. As episode 8 draws to a close, we learn that she’s instead writing a novel.
Advertisement
However, somebody else has resumed Lady Whistledown’s newsletters, and we’ve got no idea who it is.
What about Francesca?
My heart is broken. (Image credit: Netflix)
Sadly, Francesca (Hannah Dodd) has the most upsetting storyline of the bunch. After failing to reach her pinnacle in part 1, the pressure of giving John (Victor Alli) a child and being a respectable wife is getting too much for her. To top if off, his carefree cousin Michaela (Masali Baduza) constantly spending time with John after turning up at their house unannounced is getting her down.
Then, tragedy. At the end of episode 6, John dies in his sleep from a brain aneurysm, with episode 7 dedicated to his funeral. In the scenes beforehand, Francesca and Michaela became unexpected friends once they opened up to each other, and are on hand to get each other through the process as unsteady allies.
Advertisement
While Francesca feels obliged to grieve in the proper way, Michaela allows her to see things differently, commemorating John’s spirit with a lively family celebration. Michaela later takes off and leaves without word.
At Benedict and Sophie’s wedding, Francesca admits that she’s “had her one love” when asked if she’d ever marry again.
What about Violet?
Violet and Lord Anderson (Image credit: Netflix)
Violet and Lord Anderson continue to see each other, with Violet desperate for her children not to find out. Anderson gives her the option to ease off or to make things official, leading to their engagement in episode 6.
Advertisement
However, this doesn’t last for long. While Violet has Agatha’s (Adjoa Andoh) blessing, she starts to have doubts about what she really wants, with all her attention diverted to Francesca.
At the last ball of the season, Anderson again claims his intensions to marry her — he wants to build a life with Violet, not just be a bit on the side. Violet refuses to go ahead with the engagement. She’s rather continue to see him while she discovers who she is as a single woman, but as their interests don’t align, they part ways.
Does Agatha get to leave?
Thick as thieves. (Image credit: Netflix)
Yes she does! Queen Charlotte’s ball is thrown in honor of Agatha, having agreed to let her leave after Agatha successfully installed Alice in her place. The Queen is tearful, but ultimately accepts what she didn’t before.
Advertisement
We don’t yet know how long Agatha will be gone for, but it could affect season 5.
Season 5 predictions
These two will no longer be at the forefront. (Image credit: Netflix)
With Benedict and Sophie set to take a back seat, Eloise is the obvious choice to take over the leading role. She’s had a much quieter outing in season 4 part 2, after failing to avoid Violet’s matchmaking efforts in part 1.
Benedict and Eloise were Violet’s priorities for the season, and now the former has been successful, there’s only one left. However, we could be thrown a complete curveball, as returning cast are as of yet unconfirmed.
Advertisement
The books also suggest Francesca and Michaela (who was originally Michael) will begin a romantic relationship, but this is also unconfirmed for the show.
We also need to find out who the new Lady Whistledown is, though this isn’t a guarantee either.
And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.
Over the last few centuries, behavioral psychologists have documented all kinds of ways of modifying our actions and the actions of various animals. From the famous Skinner boxes to many modern video game mechanics, animals and humans alike can learn through the addition or subtraction of various rewards and punishments. And it doesn’t only impact simple actions either; [Everything is Hacked] took this idea to the extreme, using painful electric shocks to teach himself to avoid making blunders while playing chess.
This positive punishment system uses a medical device called transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to deliver an electric shock to the skin. The electrical jolt is routed through a custom-built, conductive chess board where each square is isolated from the others and controlled by its own relay. The pieces are conductive as well, so if one is placed on a square where it shouldn’t go a relay will switch on to quickly provide the behavioral modification. The control logic is provided by a Raspberry Pi running the Stockfish chess engine, and it keeps track of the locations of the positions of all the pieces by using MX switches in the base of each square on the board.
This project took [Everything is Hacked] over a year to get into a working condition, including having to rebuild the entire project twice after mishaps with baggage handling at an airline. But he was able to demo the board to the Open Sauce tech festival and even took it to his local park to play chess with the local hustlers. Unfortunately, he reports that he spent more time reworking and rewiring his board over that year than he did improving his chess game, so unfortunately he still hasn’t been able to win any of his money back yet. Perhaps combining this project with a chess-playing robot would help.
Instagram is widely used for sharing photos, videos, and Reels. Many people check others’ profiles out of curiosity. If you have ever opened someone’s profile multiple times, you might wonder if they can see it. The clear answer is no; Instagram does not show who viewed a profile or how many times it was viewed.
Instagram does not share this information with users. Whether you open someone’s profile one time or visit it many times, they will not be notified. There is no Instagram feature that shows profile visitors or the number of visits. Profile views are kept completely private.
Does Instagram Show Profile Visitors?
Instagram does not show who viewed your profile. There is no option or feature that provides a list of profile visitors. Unlike LinkedIn, which lets users see who has viewed their profile, Instagram keeps profile visits private.
Although profile views are private on Instagram, some actions are visible to others. If you like someone’s post, they can see your username. If you leave a comment, it appears publicly under their post. When you watch someone’s Story, your name appears on their viewers’ list. However, just opening and viewing their profile does not notify them.
Advertisement
What About Professional Accounts?
If someone uses a professional account on Instagram, they have access to Insights. Insights provide useful data like reach, engagement, and total profile visits. However, this data only displays numbers. It does not show the names of people who have visited the profile. Even with a Creator or Business account, the profile’s visitors are not disclosed.
Furthermore, the third-party apps often advertise features that claim to show who viewed your Instagram profile. However, Instagram keeps profile visits private and does not share this information with outside apps. Because of this, such apps cannot be trusted. They might steal your data or affect the security of your account. It is always safer to rely solely on Instagram’s official features.
A coordinated campaign targeting software developers with job-themed lures is using malicious repositories posing as legitimate Next.js projects and technical assessment materials, including recruiting coding tests.
The attacker’s goal is to achieve remote code execution (RCE) on developer machines, exfiltrate sensitive data, and introduce additional payloads on compromised systems.
Multiple execution triggers
Next.js is a popular JavaScript framework used for building web applications. It runs on top of React and uses Node.js for the backend.
The Microsoft Defender team says that the attacker created fake web app projects built with Next.js and disguised them as coding projects to share with developers during job interviews or technical assessments.
The researchers initially identified a repository hosted on the Bitbucket cloud-based Git-based code hosting and collaboration service. However, they discovered multiple repositories that shared code structure, loader logic, and naming patterns.
Advertisement
When the target clones the repository and opens it locally, following a standard workflow, they trigger malicious JavaScript that executes automatically when launching the app.
The script downloads additional malicious code (a JavaScript backdoor) from the attacker’s server and executes it directly in memory with the running Node.js process, allowing remote code execution on the machine.
Overview of the attack chain Source: Microsoft
To increase the infection rate, the attackers embedded multiple execution triggers within the malicious repositories, Microsoft explained. These are summarized as follows:
VS Code trigger – A .vscode/tasks.json file set with runOn: “folderOpen” executes a Node script as soon as the project folder is opened (and trusted).
Dev server trigger – When the developer runs npm run dev, a trojanized asset (e.g., a modified JS library) decodes a hidden URL, fetches a loader from a remote server, and executes it in memory.
Backend startup trigger – On server start, a backend module decodes a base64 endpoint from .env, sends process.env to the attacker, receives JavaScript in response, and executes it using new Function().
The infection process drops a JavaScript payload (Stage 1) that profiles the host and registers with a command-and-control (C2) endpoint, polling the server at fixed intervals.
The infection then upgrades to a tasking controller (Stage 2) that connects to a separate C2 server, checks for tasks, executes supplied JavaScript in memory, and tracks spawned processes. The payload also supports file enumeration, directory browsing, and staged file exfiltration.
Stage 2’s server polling function Source: Microsoft
Microsoft found that the campaign involved multiple repositories that shared naming conventions, loader structure, and staging infrastructure, indicating a coordinated effort rather than a one-off attack.
Aside from the technical analysis, the researchers did not provide any details about the attacker or the extent of the operation.
Advertisement
The tech giant advises that developers should treat standard workflows as the high-risk attack surfaces they really are and take appropriate precautions.
The recommended mitigations include enforcing VS Code Workspace Trust/Restricted Mode, using Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules, and monitoring risky sign-ins with Entra ID Protection.
Secrets stored on developer endpoints should be minimized, and short-lived tokens with the least required privileges should be used where possible.
Modern IT infrastructure moves faster than manual workflows can handle.
In this new Tines guide, learn how your team can reduce hidden manual delays, improve reliability through automated response, and build and scale intelligent workflows on top of tools you already use.
Last year, investors worried that AI would crash the economy by making too little money.
Now, they fear it will do so by making too much.
On Sunday, a little-known financial analysis firm called Citrini Research published a piece of science fiction: A memo dated June 2028, in which its researchers sketch a pocket history of “the global intelligence crisis” — an AI-triggered meltdown of the world’s financial, economic, and political systems.
In this account, the problem isn’t that AI proves unprofitable — and America’s data centers become rusted-out memorials to a 21st century Tulip Mania.
Advertisement
In Citrini’s telling, AI does exactly what its boosters promised (at first, anyway). The technology fuels rates of productivity growth unseen since the 1950s, generates mind-boggling profits for its owners, and massive GDP gains.
A viral Substack post sketched how AI could trap the economy in a doom loop — and freaked out investors.
It explained how AI could devalue white-collar labor and destroy consumer demand.
The post also argued that AI agents will destroy the business models of several specific companies.
But there are many reasons to doubt the scenario’s plausibility.
But it also irrevocably devalues white-collar labor and rapidly destroys a wide array of major businesses. Over time, the AI boom eats the rest of the economy. Growth and the S&P 500 both collapse, unemployment tops 10 percent, the mortgage market wobbles, the Occupy Silicon Valley movement blocks the entrance to OpenAI’s offices — all while the big labs keep raking in cash.
To understand why the memo made such an impression, it’s worth examining its vision in more detail.
Advertisement
Citrini tells two distinct — but overlapping — stories. The first is about how AI could trigger a doom loop that destroys consumer demand. The narrative goes like this:
AI advances render a steadily growing number of white-collar workers obsolete. By the end of 2026, Claude agents can do the work of “a $180,000 product manager for $200/month.” And the same is true of myriad other roles in consulting, software, real estate, financial advice, legal services, and more.
Companies respond by cutting headcount and reinvesting their savings in AI.
Higher investment in AI leads to more capable agents, devaluing the skills of even more white-collar workers.
Displaced professionals slash their spending and drag down wages in the working-class economy: As laid-off McKinsey consultants start driving Ubers, rates for existing drivers fall amid heightened competition. And the same dynamic plays out in other sectors.
AI’s productivity gains are generating massive wealth. But most of the returns flow to an extremely narrow elite. And when the super rich get richer, they don’t necessarily spend more money. Sam Altman needs only so many cars and TVs. So much of the AI industry’s profits don’t circulate back into the economy.
Meanwhile, upper middle-class Americans are slashing their spending — either because they’re jobless or afraid they will be soon — and blue-collar workers aren’t seeing much wage growth. Thus, consumer demand collapses.
As falling demand eats into companies’ profits, they scramble to find cost-savings. More and more discover that the easiest way to shore up their margins is to invest in AI and lay off workers.
Higher investment in AI yields even more capable agents.
More white-collar workers become obsolete.
Companies respond by cutting headcount and reinvesting their savings in AI.
The cycle perpetuates itself with no natural brake.
Citrini Research
Citrini’s second story is a micro one, focused on how AI will disrupt certain businesses and industries. The core idea is that AI agents will turbo-charge competition — and shrink rents — throughout the white-collar economy.
Here’s a summary of the memo’s basic reasoning:
Humans have a limited tolerance for comparison shopping. We don’t have the time or patience to exhaustively research every purchase we make. Instead, we default to familiar brands. Even corporate leaders do this when choosing which enterprise software to buy.
This has enabled incumbent businesses to charge higher prices than perfectly competitive markets would allow. In total, trillions of dollars of enterprise value rests on this kind of rent extraction.
AI agents don’t get impatient. And they can rapidly compare prices from across the entire internet.
By 2028, people with no tech savvy will be using AI agents on a daily basis. They’ll simply click open an app and ask it to find them the cheapest flight, best apartment listing, or lowest-fee delivery app.
Meanwhile, AI agents will massively lower the bar to entry in the markets for software, travel booking, real estate, food delivery, and much else. Using Claude Code, a single person — let’s call him Bob — can build a new delivery platform in an afternoon.
On that platform, Bob offers lower fees than DoorDash or Seamless to consumers, restaurants, and drivers.
In our world, Bob’s startup probably wouldn’t get anywhere; at first, it would have few participating drivers and restaurants. Consumers would stick with the brands they knew out of habit and convenience.
But in the world where everyone is constantly using AI agents, hungry households don’t log into DoorDash to order pad thai — they ask ChatGPT to order them pad thai through whichever delivery service is charging the lowest fees. Likewise, restaurants and drivers don’t default to working with DoorDash but rather, ask their agents to sign them up for the least extractive platform. Bob’s app can therefore replicate DoorDash’s network in a matter of days.
Thanks to people like Bob, rents in the food intermediary economy collapse.
Similar dynamics play out in insurance (people and firms don’t automatically renew their coverage but engage in exhaustive comparison shopping), enterprise software (corporations can build their own in-house or choose from a cornucopia of agent-built startups, forcing down rates), real estate (traditional brokerages become unnecessary as AI agents eliminate information asymmetries between buyers and sellers), and elsewhere.
With margins collapsing, these rent-extracting firms accelerate the “do layoffs, invest in AI, see lower demand because no one has jobs, do layoffs” cycle.
And then there’s a financial crisis
Advertisement
In Citrini’s narrative, all this puts strains on the financial system. Traders and businesses made a lot of highly leveraged bets on the then-reasonable assumptions that 1) competition would not suddenly skyrocket throughout the consumer economy and 2) highly skilled professionals would almost always be able to pay off their mortgages.
AI explodes these premises, along with some financial institutions’ balance sheets. Credit conditions tighten. The recession deepens.
There are some problems with these stories
It can be difficult to know precisely why stocks moved up or down at any given time. But on Monday, it sure looked like Citrini’s memo weighed on markets, as shares of several companies it mentioned — including DoorDash — fell unexpectedly. Many financialpublications attributed these declines to the Substack post.
Advertisement
For one thing, Citrini said it was merely exploring one under-discussed hypothetical, not claiming that its scenario was likely to happen.
For another, there are many reasons to think Citrini’s narrative is implausible — at least, in its full details.
Here are a few prominent objections to its reasoning:
AI won’t necessarily cause mass white-collar unemployment. Generative AI has been with us for a while now, yet US unemployment remains near historic lows. Even the most AI-exposed professions have been holding up well: Job openings for software developers actually increased over the past year and radiology employment has been rising.
Advertisement
Every previous general purpose technology has eliminated some jobs but also created new ones. The constraint on employment has historically been fiscal and monetary policy, rather than the capabilities of machines. Human wants are infinite. And companies have found countless ways to employ human labor in service of those wants.
All that money invested in AI goes somewhere. That said, the memo’s core premise — that AI will displace a wide swath of white-collar workers — isn’t implausible. Its attempt to work through the implications, though, isn’t entirely convincing
In Citrini’s scenario, AI companies are reaping world-historic profits off the largest productivity gains in nearly a century — and plowing them into new infrastructure, at a rate of $200 billion per quarter. The sector’s boom continues, even as consumer demand collapses.
Advertisement
But it’s not clear that these two things could actually persist simultaneously.
When AI labs pour hundreds of billions into data centers, the money does not vanish — it flows to construction laborers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, steel workers, power plant supervisors, turbine technicians, engineers, and lawyers. And those people turn around and spend a portion of their earnings on goods and services in their local areas.
An economy in which AI monopolizes investment might not be ideal for national welfare. But it isn’t obviously inimical to growth-sustaining demand. Instead of addressing this point, Citrini simply asserts that the money spent on AI doesn’t circulate through the broader economy.
DoorDash exists for a reason. On a micro level, Citrini almost certainly overestimates how easily entrepreneurs can undercut existing firms with the aid of agentic AI.
Advertisement
Sure, Bob can vibecode “DoorSprint” overnight and offer lower fees. But providing competitive customer service, logistics optimization, insurance, or recourse for when a driver steals a pizza isn’t easy. And coding agents can’t instantly persuade restaurants, drivers, and consumers that DoorSprint can be trusted to faithfully mediate financial transactions. Which is a big problem since — in the world Citrini sketches — agentic AI would almost certainly be minting scam apps at industrial scale every day.
Collapsing rents would increase consumer demand. But okay, let’s say Citrini is right that AI will force down prices across a wide array of industries. That would effectively redistribute income away from business owners and toward consumers: When DoorDash is forced to charge lower fees, it makes less money and its customers’ dollars go further.
This sort of redistribution increases consumer demand. Working-class Americans spend a higher share of their incomes than wealthy shareholders do. So taking a dollar from the latter — and giving it to the former — tends to increase total consumer spending in the economy.
This dynamic wouldn’t necessarily outweigh the demand-destroying factors in Citrini’s scenario. But the memo fails to even acknowledge this tension between its two stories.
Advertisement
The government would probably do something. In Citrini’s narrative, America’s productive capacity skyrockets: Thanks to AI, the nation can generate drastically more economic value per worker-hour than it can today.
At the same time, millions of America’s most politically and socially influential citizens are ruined.
The first development would give the US government the capacity to restore growth: It could collect massive revenues from the beneficiaries of all that new production, and give the money to Americans who’d spend it.
The second development, meanwhile, would seemingly give Congress an impetus to enact such redistribution. When high-paid consultants, lawyers, financial analysts, and software engineers are all laid off at once, they are unlikely to suffer quietly. Privileged strata abruptly losing their expected status and living standards is the stuff from which revolutions are made. If their dispossession coincided with a collapse of the broader economy, politicians would likely scramble to redirect dollars in their general direction.
Advertisement
All this said, Citrini’s note is still a fascinating and useful thought experiment. No one can be certain where AI is taking us. And the technology’s consequences could very well be destabilizing.
The fact that Citrini’s memo (apparently) rattled global markets is itself an indication of this moment’s radical uncertainty: Even Wall Street traders are struggling to distinguish science fiction from reality.
TurboTax has been my go-to for self-filing taxes for years. It’s good enough for me—and literally millions of other users. TurboTax has quickly become a favorite among users for its easy-to-use self-filing services, along with easy access to assistance from tax professionals. TurboTax has free self-service for qualifying people, and TurboTax Live Assisted, where you file online with tax expert help if needed, and TurboTax Full Service, where a tax expert will do your taxes and review them with you before filing.
To help you figure out the often confusing process of filing taxes, I’ve written a guide on How to Pay Your Taxes Online, and The Best Tax Services. In both, I included TurboTax and similar services to help navigate between the options available for your specific tax needs. WIRED also has TurboTax coupons to save money while you begin the always-annoying task of filing your taxes this year. Canadian customers click here, these coupons are not for you.
Save 10% With TurboTax Service Codes and 2026 Early Filing Offers
Right now, you can get an extra 10% off Federal online tax filings with today’s TurboTax coupons. And best of all, these savings are in addition to the already-applied early-season discount: up to $40 off if you file by March 30.
You can use this TurboTax coupon for 10% off their most popular online tax products, like TurboTax Full Service. This price includes W-2 and 1040, with state returns for an additional fee. With ExpertFull Service, a tax professional will do your taxes for you, which costs a bit more than DIY-ing it, but can save you headaches and messes when it comes to what you owe. Things only get more expensive as tax season approaches, so file now to get the best price of the season.
Advertisement
If a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year, you’ll get even more in savings if you choose Expert Full Service. This service is now a simple flat fee of $150 for new customers, with Federal and State services included. Act soon, because those switching to TurboTax need to file by March 18 for this special discount.
If your taxes are a bit more straightforward, but you still have some questions, TurboTax Expert Assist (Live) offers the best of both worlds, where you file online yourself with tax expert help nearby if you end up needing it. With these TurboTax deals, you’ll get a 10% off TurboTax Live Assisted, with options starting at only $36 and (temporarily) capping out at $150 if you want to fully hand off your taxes. (Like the above service, this discount is for Federal tax products and filing early is the best way to ensure you’re getting the lowest price of the season).
*Price estimates are provided prior to a tax expert starting work on your taxes. Estimates are based on initial information you provide about your tax situation, including forms you upload to assist your expert in preparing your tax return and forms or schedules we think you’ll need to file based on what you tell us about your tax situation. Final price is determined at the time of print or electronic filing and may vary based on your actual tax situation, forms used to prepare your return, and forms or schedules included in your individual return. Prices are subject to change without notice and may impact your final price.
Give a 20% Off TurboTax Discount Code, Get up to $500
To save even more, get a TurboTax referral link, and when your friends use your link, they can get 20% off TurboTax federal products if they’re new customers of the service. As an added bonus, for each friend who files using your link, you’ll get a $25 gift card—you can earn up to a whopping $500 in gift cards (at this point, you’re basically getting another refund in gift cards). Here’s the nitty gritty: friends can receive 20% off the preparation and filing of federal tax return or business federal tax return through a TurboTax Online or TurboTax Live product, through October 31. You’ll get an email with the gift card or charitable donation within 45 days of your friend’s purchase. (Restrictions apply on TurboTax Free Edition, Intuit TurboTax Verified Pro, TurboTax State returns, TurboTax CD/Download products, and other add-on offerings.)
Advertisement
Save up to 20% on TurboTax Business Services
If you’re a small business owner, Expert Assist is probably the best service for you, with qualified tax experts at the ready to help you with any of those tricky filing questions. Right now, if you file your business tax returns with TurboTax, you’ll get 20% off one 2025 personal federal tax return. This type of service is best for those with S-corps and partnerships, and TurboTax will match you with a small business tax expert who knows your industry to maximize your deductions.
In addition to 20% off one personal tax filing offer for business customers, you can also get 10% off Business Expert Full Service and Expert Assist for small business owners. This discount applies to TurboTax federal products only (meaning no state products are included). These massive savings are in addition to early-season discounts.
New Customers Can File For Free in the App
If you’re unhappy with your old service, or just want to switch to TurboTax, you’ll be able to file your own taxes for free if you do it in the TurboTax app by February 28. If you have simple taxes, filing through your phone app is a great way to save big on usual filing fees. And best of all, this applies to Federal and State taxes, including all tax situations. You’ll just need to make sure you didn’t file with TurboTax last year, and this offer only applies to Do It Yourself, not TurboTax Experts, products. To save big and file for free as a new TurboTax customer, you’ll need to make sure you redeem this offer before midnight on February 28.
File for $0 With TurboTax Free Edition
As mentioned above, users can file for free with TurboTax free edition. Around 37% of taxpayers qualify. Simple Form 1040 returns only (no schedules except for Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Student Loan Interest, and Schedule 1-A). While this may not be the blanket service for every type of tax filer, this works for those with simple finances, so do a little research and see if TurboTax free edition may be right for you to save big instead of spending big. TurboTax free edition includes $0 to file for Federal taxes and $0 for State taxes. This service is ideal for simple uploads, like W-2’s, where all you’ll need to do is import, upload, or snap a photo of your W–2 and TurboTax will autofill your info for you, saving you time and potential headaches.
Advertisement
There are other ways to save too, with TurboTax discount codes for military members. As a thank you, military members can file their own taxes and get both their federal and state taxes done for free returns only (no schedules, except for EITC, CTC, student loan interest, and Schedule 1-A).
Other Free TurboTax Tools for Tax Season
In addition to the differing plans for individuals’ needs, TurboTax also has other helpful resources for this tax season, including a Tax Refund Calculator, where you can estimate your 2026 return by answering questions about your life and income. Similarly, TurboTax also offers a Tax Bracket Calculator to help you estimate your 2025 taxable income. All you need to do is enter your tax year filing status and taxable income to calculate your estimated tax rate.
With TurboTax, you start for free and pay only when you file—plus you get 100% accurate calculations, guaranteed. That’s not all with the guarantees either. TurboTax ensures a “Maximum Refund Guarantee,” meaning if you get a larger refund or less taxes due from another tax preparation method, they’ll refund the applicable TurboTax federal and/or state purchase price paid. You can also get quick answers for any tax questions from AI-Powered Intuit Assist, and for the lazy filers among us (myself included), you can upload or snap a photo of your W-2 and the info will be autofilled for you.
Is There a Service Code for TurboTax?
TurboTax service codes are unique codes, usually issued by customer support for specific situations; these will require you to input the code into the “I have a service code” field before payment. These single-use codes are for any technical or billing issues you may have during the tax filing process.
Advertisement
Even if you don’t have a service code, don’t fret—there are still tons of ways to get TurboTax coupons, including a discount of 10% when you file before Tax Day (April 15). Plus, you can get 20% off TurboTax referral codes if you use a friend’s invite link, and if you send your link to a friend and they purchase an online TurboTax product, you’ll receive e-gift cards of up to $500 as a reward from TurboTax. Save on federal and business tax filings by following here for limited-time offers throughout the 2026 tax season.
American manufacturer of medical devices, UFP Technologies, has disclosed that a cybersecurity incident has compromised its IT systems and data.
UFP Technologies is a publicly traded medical engineering and manufacturing company that produces a broad range of devices and components used in surgery, wound care, implants, orthopedic applications, and healthcare wearables.
The company employs 4,300 people, has an annual revenue of $600 million, and a market cap of $1.86 billion, according to recent data.
In a filing submitted yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), UFP Technologies disclosed that it detected suspicious activity on its IT systems on February 14.
The firm immediately deployed isolation and remediation measures and engaged external cybersecurity advisors to help with the investigation.
Advertisement
Preliminary results of the investigation indicate that the threat has been removed, but the hacker was able to steal data from compromised systems.
“Through the Company’s efforts, the Company believes that the third party responsible for this cybersecurity incident has been removed from the Company’s IT systems, and the Company’s ability to access information impacted by this incident has been restored in all material respects,” reads the SEC filing.
“The incident appears to have impacted many but not all of the Company’s IT systems and affected functions such as billing and label making for customer deliveries. Certain Company or Company-related data appear to have been stolen or destroyed.”
The data destruction note suggests a ransomware or wiper attack, although the nature of the malware remains unclear.
Advertisement
BleepingComputer has contacted UFP Technologies to ask about the attack and whether it involved data encryption/ransom payment demands, but a comment wasn’t immediately available.
At the time of publishing, no ransomware group has publicly claimed the attack on UFP Technologies.
UFP Technologies mentioned that, at this time, it has not determined whether personal information has been exfiltrated. If confirmed at a later time, notifications will be sent to impacted individuals as required by law.
The company stated that, despite the cybersecurity incident, its primary IT systems remain operational. Based on current evidence and assessments, UFP Technologies states it is unlikely that the incident will have a material impact on its operations or financials.
Advertisement
Modern IT infrastructure moves faster than manual workflows can handle.
In this new Tines guide, learn how your team can reduce hidden manual delays, improve reliability through automated response, and build and scale intelligent workflows on top of tools you already use.
.jpg)
