from the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept

A few years ago agricultural equipment giant John Deere found itself on the receiving end of multiple state, federal, and class action lawsuits for its efforts to monopolize tractor repair. The lawsuits noted that the company consistently purchased competing repair centers in order to consolidate the sector and force customers into using the company’s own repair facilities, driving up costs and logistical hurdles dramatically for farmers.

John Deere executives have repeatedly promised to do better, then just ignored those promises. Early last year, the FTC and numerous states filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company for its efforts to monopolize repair. Though, with MAGA corruption purging any remaining antitrust enforcers from its ranks, it’s unclear if the FTC action will ever actually result in anything meaningful.

John Deere did however just have to pay $99 million to settle a different class action lawsuit brought by its customers. Under the settlement John Deere doesn’t admit to any wrongdoing, but will deposit the money into a fund to pay more than 200,000 John Deere owners for expensive dealership repairs since 2018.

In an announcement by the company, John Deere pretends they’re a consumer-focused enterprise:

“As we continue to innovate industry leading equipment and technology solutions supported by our world-class dealer network, we are equally committed to providing customers and other service providers with access to repair resources,” said Denver Caldwell, vice president, Aftermarket & Customer Support. “We’re pleased that this resolution allows us to move forward and remain focused on what matters most – serving our customers.”

Except if John Deere had cared about customer service, they wouldn’t be in this predicament.

In addition to intentionally acquiring repair alternatives to monopolize repair and drive up consumer costs, John Deere also routinely makes repair difficult and costly through the act of software locks, obnoxious DRM restrictions, and “parts pairing” — which involves only allowing the installation of company-certified replacement parts — or mandatory collections of company-blessed components.

More recently, the company had been striking meaningless “memorandums of understanding” with key trade groups, pinky swearing to stop their bad behavior if the groups agree to not support state or federal right to repair legislation. Several such groups backed off their criticism, only to have John Deere continue its monopolistic behavior, the FTC’s complaint notes.

The annoyance at John Deere’s behavior has driven a broad, bipartisan movement that’s in very vocal support for state and federal guidelines enshrining “right to repair” protections into law. Unfortunately, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea of a state law, only Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington have actually passed laws.

And among those, not one has taken any substantive action to actually enforce the new law, something that needs to change if the movement is to obtain and retain meaningful policy momentum.

Filed Under: agriculture, class action, dealership, ftc, lawsuits, repairs, right to repair, tractors

Companies: john deere

If you have been waiting for Gemini to actually feel like it knows you, your wait is almost over. Google’s Personal Intelligence, which launched earlier this year for paid US subscribers, is now rolling out globally.

What is Gemini Personal Intelligence and what can it do?

Personal Intelligence connects Gemini to your Google apps. Think Gmail, Google Photos, YouTube, Search, Maps, Calendar, Drive, and more. It uses your existing data to give smarter, more tailored responses without requiring you to explain everything each time.

The use cases are genuinely impressive. Ask Gemini for shopping recommendations, and it will factor in your recent purchases and style preferences. Stuck troubleshooting a device you do not remember buying? It can pull the exact model from your purchase receipts in Gmail.

If you are planning a trip with a tight layover, Gemini can use Personal Intelligence to check your gates, walking time, and meal preferences all at once. It can even suggest a new hobby based on patterns it notices across your activity.

Google says this is an opt-in feature, so you choose which apps to connect. Importantly, Gemini does not train directly on your Gmail or Photos data. It references them to answer your questions, but keeps the underlying personal content separate from model training.

Who can use Gemini’s Personal Intelligence feature?

Personal Intelligence works across desktop, Android, and iOS with languages supported by Gemini. The global rollout is now live for Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers everywhere except the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the UK. Free Gemini users globally will get access within the next few weeks.

Why does this matter?

Personal Intelligence is probably the most significant thing Google has done with Gemini so far. Gemini is slowly becoming the kind of AI assistant that actually understands your life, not just the internet.

With access to Gmail, Photos, Maps, and more, Gemini will no longer feel like a generic chatbot and behave like a genuine personal assistant. No other AI assistant comes close to having this kind of data advantage baked in from the start.

Apple Intelligence is still finding its feet and Microsoft’s Copilot lives mostly inside productivity tools. Meanwhile OpenAI’s ChatGPT has no first-party data ecosystem of its own.

Google, on the other hand, already has your entire digital life across billions of users. In an AI race where rival companies are all building toward personalization, Google, with its unmatched ecosystem, is uniquely positioned to win it.

The partnership will bring together Bull’s supercomputing infrastructure and Equal1’s ‘breakthrough’ silicon-spin quantum computers.

Bull, a Paris-based high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence and quantum technology company, is to partner with Dublin start-up Equal1, a silicon-powered quantum computing technology provider. 

Equal1 and Bull stated that their deal will “advance the next generation of hybrid quantum-classical technologies with European solutions”, at a time when quantum computing is beginning to transition from promise to practical reality.

The pair said the partnership will combine Bull’s supercomputing infrastructure and quantum emulation expertise with Equal1’s breakthrough silicon-spin quantum computers, as agreed in a memorandum of understanding. 

The collaboration will focus on three core pillars – technical integration, joint research and development to advance innovation, and a focus on sovereign European projects whereby both companies will collaborate on EU-led quantum initiatives amid the global quantum race.

Commenting on the announcement, Bruno Lecointe, the senior vice-president and global head of HPC, AI and quantum at Bull, said: “The convergence of high-performance computing and quantum technologies is redefining how we address the world’s most complex challenges. 

“10 years after launching the first quantum emulator of the market, innovation has always been part of Bull’s DNA and we remain committed to designing hybrid architectures that help translate emerging technologies into operational capability.

“By integrating Equal1’s silicon-spin quantum servers into our Qaptiva ecosystem, we are enabling a seamless bridge between HPC, quantum emulation and quantum execution. This alliance ensures our customers can leverage quantum-centric supercomputing to achieve real-world outcomes with unprecedented efficiency and performance.”

Jason Lynch, the CEO of Equal1, added: “By building quantum processors on standard silicon, we are turning quantum from bespoke laboratory hardware into deployable infrastructure. This collaboration with Bull is a vital step in bridging the gap between breakthrough hardware innovation and industrial workloads. 

“Together, we are positioning our joint solutions as the standard for high-performance computing, enabling seamless integration into existing data centres and driving a more sustainable digital future.”

Earlier this year, Equal1 announced it had raised $60m in a funding round led by Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, with participation from Atlantic Bridge, the European Innovation Council Fund, Matterwave Ventures, Enterprise Ireland, Elkstone and TNO Ventures.

At the time, Equal1 said that the investment would enable deployment to HPC centres – including to the European Space Agency’s Phi-lab in Italy – advance the roadmap towards “millions” of on-chip qubits, scale manufacturing and grow its team.

Last week, the Dublin-based start-up said it would partner with Californian quantum infrastructure software maker Q-Ctrl for the deployment of rack-mounted quantum computers in enterprise data centres.

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

• Intel and Google signed a multi-year deal to keep Xeon in cloud infrastructure
• Google Cloud instances C4 and N4 already run on Xeon 6 processors
• Intel and Google are co-developing custom IPUs for networking and storage

Intel and Google have announced a multi-year collaboration that will keep Intel Xeon processors at the heart of Google Cloud infrastructure for the foreseeable future.

The agreement spans multiple generations of Xeon chips and includes systems used for AI workloads, inference tasks, and general-purpose computing across Google’s global data centers.

The Kraken cryptocurrency exchange announced that a cybercrime group is trying to extort the company by threatening to release videos showing internal systems that host client data.

The company’s Chief Security Officer, Nick Percoco, stated that the incident did not put client funds at risk and involved an insider threat, with two instances of improper access to limited customer data by support employees.

Kraken says that it will not pay or negotiate with the threat actor.

“We are currently being extorted by a criminal group threatening to release videos of our internal systems with client data shown if we do not comply with their demands,” stated Percoco.

“It’s important to start with the most important points: our systems were never breached; funds were never at risk; we will not pay these criminals; we will not ever negotiate with bad actors.”

Kraken is a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange that enables millions of users across 190 countries to buy, sell, and trade digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 200 others.

It is considered one of the largest and most established exchanges, with a daily trading volume of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.

Following a “tip from a trusted source” in February 2025 about cybercriminals circulating a video demonstrating access to its client support systems, Kraken initiated an investigation and uncovered a support employee recruited by the threat actor.

More recently, Kraken received a tip about another, more recent video showing insider access to its systems.

In both cases, the company reacted quickly by revoking the employee’s access, launching investigations, and strengthening controls. Where user exposure was identified, Kraken notified affected users directly.

According to Percoco, the incident affects only about 2,000 accounts, which represents 0.02% of Kraken’s user base. For this small subset, the exposed information reportedly only concerns client support data.

Kraken stated that its investigation has gathered enough evidence to legally prosecute all involved individuals attempting to blackmail them, and the company is closely working with federal law enforcement across multiple jurisdictions towards this goal.

Insider threats and malicious recruitment are a broader problem impacting multiple industries, and especially the cryptocurrency sector.

In mid-2025, it was revealed that another major American cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, suffered a data breach after hackers bribed employees of an India-based customer support agency to disclose to them private client support information.

In that case, the incident impacted 70,000 customers, with Coinbase estimating the total financial damages to be $400 million.

Automated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the other.

This whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic questions for any tool evaluation.

Get Your Copy Now

Google has introduced a new app for Windows desktops and, unsurprisingly, it puts AI front at center. If you aren’t a big fan of Google’s Gemini chatbot, then skip on past this download. For those of you who are heavy Gemini users, though, this could mean a simpler and more integrated experience on Windows machines.

Once installed, you can pull up the app’s search bar with the Alt + Space shortcut. Queries typed into this open-ended search box can hunt down information from the web like typical Google search, where AI Mode will be enabled for an extra layer of artificial intelligence for follow-up questions or a deeper dive down a rabbit hole. But the app isn’t limited to web search. It can delve into your computer’s files, other installed apps or Google Drive files to retrieve information. Screen sharing is also built into the app, which enables using Google Lens to conduct AI-powered searches on content displayed on your monitor.

The app is rolling out globally today in English. Interestingly, this hasn’t been gated to the most recent Windows 11, but it does require a machine running at least Windows 10.