After the Justice Department released a trove of new documents tied to infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, journalists digging through them have found extensive connections to Silicon Valley.
On the latest episode of the Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec and I talk to Sean about what he learned, and we discuss whether the Epstein revelations will lead to broader fallout in Silicon Valley.
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You can read a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, in the transcript below.
Sean: There are always people at the edges who don’t necessarily want to be front and center in the investment scene. And that was why I started looking through these files, in part because a long time ago, flashback 10 years ago on my beat especially, there was just a ton of Chinese investment in the space.
This was before even the rush of EV startups in China that we see today […] In autonomous vehicles, but electric vehicles especially, there was this moment where Chinese investors and Chinese companies, state-owned automakers, all they wanted to do was to be looked at like Silicon Valley startups. So they came here and they invested in companies and helped get them off the ground, or in some cases even set up offices in Silicon Valley.
And it was in that environment that a lot of the companies that I’ve covered for a long time popped up. There was just never a full picture of how a lot of them were funded.
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One in particular, this company called Canoo, which is now bankrupt and out of business, had maybe the most mysterious set of investors of all of them. They really were not upfront about it when they first sort of came out of stealth in early 2018. And it frankly took until there was a lawsuit between some people who ran the company near the top that the investors were revealed.
At the time, it was this businessman in China who was relatively close, the son-in-law of the former sort of like the fourth most senior CCP official under the previous leader of China and a giant electronics magnate from Taiwan. And then there was this really strange guy named David Stern, who was the third founding investor. And there was so little information about this guy.
I could tell, back then, that he was some sort of German businessman, that he had some connections to China, but it wasn’t really clear how he had gotten involved. The only thing I really remember hearing at the time was that he was close with Prince Andrew, which I just thought was very strange, this idea that someone had even told me a long time ago, probably in 2018 or 2019, that Prince Andrew was involved with this company Canoo in some way, maybe not invested, but advising or something.
It was something that stuck in my head for a very long time, clearly, because I went looking for that information as more of these files came out, assuming that proximity to Prince Andrew means proximity to someone like Epstein.
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And that was the case here, more so than I could have imagined, because this guy Stern turned from an enigma or a ghost into someone who was present through all this dealmaking 10 years ago, where we see him pitching, in the span of about a year and a half, investments in Faraday Future, trying to convince Epstein to maybe throw a couple hundred million dollars into that company, trying to buy the 30% stake that Faraday Future’s founder had bought or acquired in Lucid Motors arrival at the time, which I feel is an overlooked dynamic [in] how those companies grew around then — and then also in Canoo.
Epstein never invested in any of those companies despite that proximity, but it was just such a revealing thing. And I get into it in the story that I wrote last week, but we get this sweep of a decade of relationship that Stern had with Epstein from approaching him initially in 2008, kind of hat in hand, and introducing himself and saying, “Hey, I want to invest in China. Will you throw in some money?” to being someone who was seemingly very close to him by the end.
Kirsten: The whole thing is really interesting, and it goes back to my initial comments about how sometimes when you get a chance to look back at with new information at how deals were unfolding, it really just changes your perception and perspective of the time.
And for those who didn’t follow quote-unquote “mobility,” think of it as how we’re thinking about physical AI these days. Everyone was talking about it. Every automaker wanted to have a piece of quote-unquote “the future of transportation” or “mobility.” And so it makes a lot of sense that some of these more secretive types were also jumping in.
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Sean, one of the points you made to me as I was working on the story with you, in terms of editing it, you were [saying], it was very clear that Epstein and David Stern weren’t really about investing and building companies. It was all about how to make the most money the fastest. And that, I think, is really historically important and interesting and gives you a little bit of an insight into — in addition to all the horrible, horrifying, terrible things he did to human beings, [Epstein] was a complete operator as well, in order to make money as quickly as possible. And you see that in these emails and exchanges between David Stern and Epstein.
Sean: Yeah, to both of those points really, I open the story with a moment in time where Lucid Motors […] they had been basically a battery supplier for a long time and then they pivoted into the passenger vehicle startup that we know them as today, but they were really struggling to raise their Series D at the time, and they really needed that money to start production of their first electric sedan.
They were struggling, behind the scenes in large part because the founder of Arrival quietly amassed this major stake and was kind of pushing people away and making it look like an uninvestable company in some ways, but the hype around all of that at the time was creating opportunities for people like Stern and Epstein, and we see them talk in these emails about, you know, Stern comes to Epstein and basically says, “I heard that they’re raising. Can you get information from Morgan Stanley?”
Epstein turns around and passes that information back, and then you see this discussion about, okay, well, Morgan Stanley says Ford — which was reported at the time — had kind of an investment offer, potential acquisition offer, on the table for Lucid Motors [and] was going to come in in that Series D. And they’re chopping up — do we invest in this and maybe get a big return down the road? Or is it something that we sell as Ford comes in a couple months later, if we can get this stake now at fire sale prices?
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Ultimately, they didn’t go through with that, but Stern did eventually invest in Canoo and help get that company off the ground.
Anthony: One thing — maybe pulling back a little bit from the specific industries or investments — that’s also an important piece of context that generally gets mentioned in any of these stories about Epstein in Silicon Valley, but is worth repeating here, is that he [pleaded] guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
Almost all the emails that we’re talking about with these stories [and] in pretty much any other story about Epstein in Silicon Valley comes after that. So it’s also partly a story about how people get comfortable with the idea that, okay, this guy has a pretty shady past already. He wasn’t the infamous criminal that he eventually [became], but there were things that were already known about him, and because he was a source of connections to power, to famous names, to money, a lot of people were just willing to look past that.
The AI company he founded three years ago has lost six co-founders, is slashing staff, and trails badly in coding benchmarks. Musk’s remedy: rebuild from scratch, for the second time.
In March 2023, Elon Musk launched xAI with 12 co-founders and a stated ambition to build “the most powerful AI in the world.” Three years later, 10 of those founders have gone.
The company is cutting staff. Its flagship chatbot Grok is acknowledged, by Musk himself, to lag behind its main competitors. And for at least the second time, Musk has declared that xAI must be rebuilt from the foundations.
“It was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up,” Musk said this week, less than six weeks after completing a $1.25 trillion merger between xAI and SpaceX.
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The comment came as reporting from the Financial Times and CNBC confirmed a wave of departures among xAI’s senior engineering staff, with Tesla and SpaceX executives reportedly sent in to audit teams and identify underperformers.
The most recent exits, researcher Zihang Dai and engineer Guodong Zhang, follow the February departure of Jimmy Ba, one of the company’s highest-profile AI researchers. The cumulative loss, described by insiders as a combination of burnout and Musk’s management style, has left morale at the company in poor shape, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.
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The coding problem
The immediate catalyst for this latest round of disruption appears to be Grok’s performance on coding tasks. Musk said at a conference this week that “Grok is currently behind in coding”, a candid admission given that AI-assisted software development has emerged as perhaps the most commercially valuable near-term application of large language models.
Grok trails Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex in coding benchmarks, according to xAI staffers cited in FT reporting. The gap has become a source of internal frustration: engineers who joined xAI expecting to be at the frontier instead find themselves chasing a moving target set by competitors with more data, more investment, and fewer departures.
In an attempt to close the gap, xAI announced hires from Cursor, the AI-powered coding environment that has built a devoted following among developers. Whether transplanting talent from one company to another can resolve what appear to be deeper structural and cultural problems at xAI is, at minimum, unclear.
A $1.25 trillion question
The timing is delicate. The SpaceX-xAI merger, valued at $1.25 trillion, was framed in part as a way to stabilise xAI’s ambitions by giving it access to SpaceX’s capital, compute infrastructure, and engineering discipline. Tesla also invested $2 billion in xAI earlier this year. Both investments now look more complicated against the backdrop of an acknowledged rebuild and a continuing talent crisis.
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xAI has also been under regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries after its Grok image generator was found to produce non-consensual intimate imagery with minimal safeguards. The company has addressed some of those concerns, but the reputational damage has complicated its pitch to enterprise customers who might otherwise have been considering Grok as an alternative to OpenAI or Anthropic products.
Musk’s companies have been rebuilt before. Tesla was months from insolvency when it launched the Model 3. SpaceX famously had three rocket failures before its fourth mission succeeded. Whether the pattern holds for an AI lab in an era where the competitive landscape shifts every few months is the question hanging over xAI’s third act.
You can save money and help save the planet by buying used or refurbished electronics instead of new devices. Since most of the environmental impact of devices comes from the manufacturing phase, buying secondhand gear can reduce your carbon footprint. Do it right, and buying refurbished can feel much like buying new. This guide delves into what you need to know about refurbished terminology, offers tips on what to look for to snag yourself the best deals, and lists some of the best places to buy refurbished gadgets and used electronics.
Updated March 2026: I’ve added some tips for buying, new links to refurbished sellers, and advice on what to do after you buy.
Table of Contents
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What Does Refurbished Mean?
There is no legal definition of refurbished. Some sellers prefer used, pre-loved, secondhand, reconditioned—the list continues. Refurbishment implies that the seller has tested the device and may have repaired and cleaned it, but the only way to be sure is to read the fine print and understand what the seller means by whatever term is used.
If you’re lucky, you may get an open-box device, which a buyer has opened but never actually used. Sellers are not legally allowed to resell returned devices as new, and it’s common for all returns to end up sold in the same place. At the other end of the scale, you may end up with a device that looks like it has survived the apocalypse and doesn’t work.
Tips for Buying Refurbished
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I’ll recommend a few good places to buy refurbished electronics below, but first, let’s explore what you should look for in a seller and what you need to do to protect yourself when you buy.
While buying older electronics is often a great way to save money, there are a few things to keep in mind. It may make more sense to buy a discounted flagship phone from a couple of years ago than a brand-new budget phone, for example, but there are also some potential cons. Always consider software updates and ask:
How many more years of software updates will the product receive?
How long will it continue to get security updates?
What version of the software does it come with?
How easy is it to update the software?
Aside from working out what the seller means by refurbished, you should read the listing for any potential purchase very carefully and try to answer questions such as these:
Has it been tested, and does everything work?
Does it have a new battery or a guarantee about battery health? (This is crucial for old phones and laptops.)
Has it been wiped if a previous user set it up?
Is there any cosmetic damage like scratches or cracks? (Look for a transparent grading system.)
What is included? (Does it come with chargers, cables, manuals, and original packaging?)
Is there any warranty offered? (The longer the better.)
If there is a problem, how do returns work? Do you have to pay, and what is the return window?
If you’re uncertain about anything, it’s worth asking before you buy to avoid disappointment.
Photograph: Simon Hill
There are protections for purchases, such as Section 170 of the Fair Credit Billing Act in the US or Section 75 in the UK. But you should use a credit card for purchases to get the best charge-back protection and avoid going through a third-party payment service, such as PayPal. Some banks and credit card companies are better than others, so it’s worth researching their reputations and the protections they offer.
If you can inspect and test devices before you buy, do it. Otherwise, you should closely examine and thoroughly test any device you buy immediately when you receive it. Remember that there is a limited window to report any faults or issues with the condition and return an item. Always keep the box and packaging it arrived in at least until you are satisfied that you won’t need to return it.
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You’ve done your initial tests and decided that you are keeping the refurbished device you bought, but there are still a couple of things you might consider doing before you start using it.
Best Places to Buy Refurbished Electronics
Photograph: Simon Hill
You have an enormous choice when buying refurbished electronics, so let’s break down your options.
We have had some good experiences buying refurbished devices from their original manufacturers, which makes sense since they know precisely how to test and repair their own devices. All of these manufacturers certify the refurbished devices they sell, and most offer at least a one-year warranty, but the savings vary; for example, Apple offers up to 15 percent off, while Dell offers up to 50 percent off.
NGC 5134 is a scenic spiral galaxy 65 million light-years away from where we live, which NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was fortunate enough to capture in stunning detail. The way this image was created is actually pretty cool: two of James Webb’s devices combined their near-infrared and mid-infrared data to produce an extremely clear composite view.
In the near-infrared view, you can see the light from the stars themselves, as well as clusters of young ones that are forming all over the place, which is how new stars develop in the cosmos. Meanwhile, the mid-infrared wavelengths reveal the warm dust intermingled throughout the galaxy’s clouds, which gives it a slightly fuzzy appearance. The tightly coiled arms wrap around a very bright core that shines bright blue-white in the center, which is where the majority of the movement occurs. Then there are the delicate blue tones of the oval disk, which are actually a mix of all the light from the many stars in the backdrop. The brilliant crimson threads running along those arms indicate regions where gas and dust are accumulating. Then there are these orange clusters where the gas and dust are particularly dense, and the gaps in between show where it has been cleaned.
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Star clusters can be seen as bright little points of light imbedded in the arms, while some of the smaller points of light in the surrounding space are actual galaxies that are far away. Scientists examine things like NGC 5134 because they are quite close to us, allowing them to analyze the overall mechanism that keeps galaxies active in the first place. The way it works is that these massive clouds of gas compress in on themselves, forming new stars of varying sizes, while some of the largest ones burn through their fuel quickly and then explode, spreading all heavy components into space. Meanwhile, stars like our own Sun shed their layers over time as they age, and the returned material is mixed back into the galaxy to produce the next generation of stars.
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Getting a look like this reveals in great detail how the process of new star creation modifies and reshapes the world around it. What we learn from close galaxies like NGC 5134 helps us grasp what’s going on with more distant galaxies that we can only view in broad strokes. These observations of NGC 5134 are part of a larger program that is looking at a huge number of similar nearby galaxies, with each new image providing a new piece of the jigsaw in determining how star formation happens on a vast scale and over extremely long periods of time.
The AppsFlyer Web SDK was temporarily hijacked this week with malicious code used to steal cryptocurrency in a supply-chain attack.
The payload can intercept cryptocurrency wallet addresses entered on websites and replace them with attacker-controlled addresses to divert funds to the threat actor.
Since the AppsFlyer SDK is used by thousands of applications for marketing analytics (user engagement and retention), the impact extends to a significant number of end users.
According to AppsFlyer, its SDK platform is used by 15,000 businesses worldwide for over 100,000 mobile and web applications. It is one of the leading “mobile measurement partner” (MMP) SDKs used to track marketing campaign attribution and in-app events.
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The suspected compromise was discovered by Profero researchers, who “confirmed the presence of obfuscated attacker-controlled JavaScript being delivered to users visiting websites and applications that loaded the AppsFlyer SDK.”
AppsFlyer has not confirmed any incidents beyond a domain availability issue published on its status page on March 10, 2026.
On March 9, Profero discovered a malicious payload served by the SDK from its official domain, at ‘websdk.appsflyer.com,’ which was also reported by multiple users.
“While the full scope, duration, and root cause of the incident remain unverified, the activity highlights how threat actors can abuse trust in widely deployed third-party SDKs to impact downstream websites, applications, and end users,” Profero explains.
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The injected JavaScript was designed to preserve normal SDK functionality, but in the background, it loads and decodes obfuscated strings at runtime and hooks into browser network requests.
The malware monitors pages for cryptocurrency wallet input activity. When it detects a wallet address, it replaces it with the attacker’s wallet while exfiltrating the original wallet address and associated metadata.
The targeted addresses include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Ripple, and TRON, covering a large swath of mainstream cryptocurrency transactions.
The researchers suggest that the exposure window is likely between March 9, 22:45 UTC, and March 11. It is unclear if the compromise impacted SDK users beyond that point.
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BleepingComputer has contacted AppsFlyer with questions on Profero’s findings, and a spokesperson confirmed via a statement that unauthorized code was delivered through the AppsFlyer SDK:
“AppsFlyer detected and contained a domain registrar incident on March 10 that temporarily exposed the AppsFlyer Web SDK running on a segment of customer websites to unauthorized code.
“The mobile SDK was not affected, and our investigation to date has not identified evidence that customer data on AppsFlyer systems was accessed. We take this incident very seriously and have been actively communicating with customers,” AppsFlyer told BleepingComputer.
The vendor said that the issue has been resolved and that AppsFlyer customers received direct communication and updates about the incident.”
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“The mobile SDK has remained safe to use throughout the process, and the web SDK is safe to use.” – AppsFlyer spokesperson
The company said that the investigation is ongoing and it is working with external forensic experts. More information will be shared after completing the investigation.
Given the uncertainty about exactly what happened and the scope of the incident, organizations deploying the SDK should review telemetry logs for suspicious API requests from websdk.appsflyer.com, downgrade to known-good versions of the SDK, and investigate potential compromise.
AppsFlyer was implicated in a cybersecurity incident again earlier this year, when the notorious threat group ShinyHunters claimed that it leveraged the SDK to achieve a supply chain breach at Match Group, stealing over 10 million records of Hinge, Match.com, and OkCupid users.
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Malware is getting smarter. The Red Report 2026 reveals how new threats use math to detect sandboxes and hide in plain sight.
Download our analysis of 1.1 million malicious samples to uncover the top 10 techniques and see if your security stack is blinded.
USAFacts, the government-data organization founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, named Lauren Woodman as its new president.
Woodman, a longtime technology exec, is the second president in the Bellevue, Wash.-based group’s 10-year history and will report to Ballmer when she starts April 20.
“Lauren’s experience in technology and public data comes at a moment when Americans have an increasing appetite for reliable, nonpartisan source data,” Ballmer said in a statement. “As artificial intelligence reshapes how information is produced and consumed, her leadership will help ensure we continue providing transparent, trustworthy government data to the public.”
Woodman most recently spent five years as CEO of DataKind, a nonprofit that helps social-impact organizations use data science and AI. She also held leadership roles at Microsoft and NetHope.
“I’m excited to join at a moment when technology is rapidly changing how people access and understand information about their government,” Woodman said in a statement. “The opportunity now is to ensure that transparency, reliable data, and public understanding grow together.”
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USAFacts publishes online tools and reports that track government spending, revenue, demographics, and policy outcomes, including an annual 10-K-style report modeled on corporate filings, and a “State of the Union: In Numbers” timed to the president’s address to Congress.
The nonprofit was previously led by former president Poppy MacDonald, who stepped down last year. Megan Winfield, a former exec at Campspot and Hilton, joined last year as chief technology officer.
Clothes dryers are one of the great technological conveniences that do not necessarily get their due. They may feel like old hat at this point, but dryers as we know them haven’t even been around for 100 years. Gone are the days of getting ourselves a long clothesline with countless clothespins to air dry all of our clothes after a wash. We can simply transfer them to another machine, and they are perfectly warm and dry after about an hour. Sure, some clothes still require them to be air dried, but for most of these items, we can get things dried and hung up quickly.
A number of the big tech companies produce clothes dryers, like Samsung and LG. Because these companies produce so much tech that you probably already have in your home, you might think about getting a clothes dryer from them for brand consistency. However, if you are to look at the recommendation of a publication like J.D. Power, those would not be the companies you should look at. Instead, the number one clothes dryer manufacturer according to J.D. Power is the General Electric Company, more commonly known as GE.
GE has been a stalwart of American-made home appliances for decades upon decades, even if its branding isn’t exactly the flashiest on the market. However, the company offers dozens of different dryer models. These are dryers that are standalone or stacked, electric or gas-powered, and top or front-loaded. Oftentimes, the same dryer model will be offered as an electric or gas-powered model for the ultimate in consumer optionality. GE dryers range in price from $529 to $1,399, meaning they can fit into most people’s budgets, as well.
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How J.D. Power determines its clothes dryer ranking
Scott Olson/Getty Images
The parameters for why J.D. Power considers GE the best clothes dryer brand are quite simple. J.D. Power ranks based on reliability. This is determined by surveying actual owners of clothes dryers from a variety of different brands. These people will respond with whether or not they have had issues with their dryers. J.D. Power then takes that information and determines how many problems per 100 units (or PP100) that a particular brand has. The one with the lowest number of PP100 is the best. GE takes that spot by having 45 PP100. That is not an overwhelming number one though. Whirlpool is not too far behind at 48 PP100.
While this is a fine methodology for reliability, there are some issues. For instance, it does not tell you if a particular GE dryer model is more prone to problems than another. It lumps every model together, despite different designs or power capabilities. This is also strictly a measure of reliability and not overall features or functionality. If you wanted to know how much power GE clothes dryers use, as clothes dryers in general are an appliance that use a tremendous amount of power, J.D. Power’s survey cannot help you.
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Reliability is, of course, an extremely important factor when deciding on what clothes dryer you want in your home, considering this will be an appliance you will hopefully have for many years. But before you pick up the first GE dryer you see, it would behoove you to look further into the details to make sure what you’re getting is of a high quality.
Peacock is adding several AI-powered features to its mobile app, including vertical NBA broadcasts, a personalized Bravo video hub, and an in-app Jeopardy trivia game designed to keep viewers engaged beyond traditional streaming.
The new AI features are designed to make the app more interactive and turn the Peacock app into a mobile entertainment hub for fans. Instead of scrolling through titles, you will soon be able to watch sports highlights, explore personalized video feeds, and even play games tied to popular NBCUniversal franchises.
Vertical NBA video is coming to Peacock
NBCUniversal
Peacock is introducing live NBA broadcasts formatted vertically for mobile viewing. The feature uses AI-powered cropping technology that tracks the action and adjusts the frame so you can watch games comfortably without turning your phone sideways.
These vertical streams will debut in beta during NBA games this spring. They will appear inside Peacock’s Courtside Live feature, which already lets you switch between different camera angles while watching a game.
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Peacock is also expanding short-form video across the app. One of the biggest new experiences is called Your Bravoverse, an AI-driven vertical feed guided by a digital avatar of Bravo host Andy Cohen.
The feature pulls clips from more than 5,000 hours of Bravo programming and stitches them into personalized playlists. Cohen’s AI avatar introduces scenes, connects storylines, and helps viewers discover new shows from the Bravo catalog.
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A Jeopardy game is also joining the Peacock app
Jeopardy!NBCUniversal
Peacock is also expanding into mobile gaming. One of the most recognizable additions is a Jeopardy mini game launching this spring.
The game features daily trivia rounds written by the Jeopardy team. You can answer questions, track streaks, and share your results with friends, all inside the Peacock mobile app.
By mixing vertical video, AI recommendations, and games, Peacock hopes to keep viewers interacting with the app long after the credits roll.
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You’re responsible for your own Spotify algorithm now. On stage at SXSW, Spotify’s co-CEO, Gustav Söderström, announced the Taste Profile feature, which allows users to personally customize exactly what they want to listen to, whether it’s music, audiobooks or podcasts. This AI-powered feature is still in beta, and it will be available to Premium users in New Zealand in the coming weeks.
From its short video demo, Spotify’s Taste Profile feature will show you a summary of your listening habits and offer a “Tell us more” prompt at the bottom. With the new prompt, users can inform the AI what they want to see more of or if they want to get rid of a genre that keeps popping up in their algorithm. Spotify said that the Taste Profile will take into consideration more ambiguous prompts, too, like if you’re training for a marathon and want upbeat music or want to listen to news podcasts during your commute to work. Spotify added that Taste Profile is an optional feature, and unwilling users can “leave it and enjoy Spotify as usual.”
With Taste Profile, Spotify is continuing its momentum of offering AI features, like the Prompted Playlist feature that was made available last month. Unlike the existing AI Playlist feature, Prompted Playlist lets you put in specific requests to generate a playlist, like only including songs from a specific TV show. Like Taste Profile, the Prompted Playlist feature saw beta testing in New Zealand first, before expanding to US and Canadian users a month later.
Phoronix reports that the System76 CEO met with the state Senator who co-authored Colorado’s bill, and then posted on X.com that the Senator “suggested excluding open source software from the bill.”
Richell: This appears to be a real possibility. Amendments are expected… It’s my hope we can move fast enough to influence excluding open source.. No illusions, it’s an uphill battle, but we have an open door to advocate for the open source community. Vague language has been a recurring problem with new state age-verification legislation. Richell pointed out later that “In one proposed bill, Garmin would have to verify the age of their watch customers at device setup.” Richell also sees New York’s bill as “unlikely to be applicable to Linux distributions,” since its language calls for “commercially reasonable age assurance” that free operating systems could use — and Richell isn’t sure one exists as described by the bill. “As written today, it’s extremely broad and vague and that makes it scary.”
Richell answered several follow-up questions about operating system age-verification laws. “What about California?” someone asked…
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Richell: We hope to make sensible, strong arguments for excluding open source which then becomes a standard for other states. It’s going to be difficult.
Q: Open source is not the only target to exclude. Please ensure that the bill is amended so that it does not require applications that have no possible use for the age bracket to ask about it.
Richell: We discussed this as well. I proposed that apps that do not require age to modify app behavior or access by some other legislation be barred from reading age brackets to better protect privacy.
The research shows that younger cohorts often find the path towards greater workplace benefits inaccessible in comparison to their older peers.
Global talent services firm Morgan McKinley has today launched the Ireland 2026 Benefits Guide, which is a comprehensive national study of the way in which benefits are offered by employers, as well as how they are experienced and valued by employees across Ireland’s labour market.
To compile the data, Morgan McKinley gathered 1,222 employee and employer responses across more than 32 sectors, from organisations dispersed all across Ireland. What was discovered is that while benefits are often an expectation and technically available, there are issues of accessibility, raising questions about visibility, trust and awareness.
Mutually beneficial?
Younger cohorts in particular were found to have significantly less access to pension or health schemes, despite 90pc of participating employee respondents reporting being enrolled in an employer-sponsored pension plan. The report said, “This points to a benefits model that remains strongest for established employees, rather than consistently supporting talent from the earliest stages of employment.”
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Nearly 62pc of Baby Boomer generation employees said that they have access to a pension plan, as did 77pc of Gen X and 72pc of millennials, compared to just 54pc of Gen Z.
The report said: “While this pattern may partially reflect variances in tenure and contractual stability, for example temporary versus permanent roles, it is likely also influenced by eligibility criteria or employer matching structures that defer enrolment for junior or early-career employees.
“In certain organisations, minimum service requirements or mandated contribution thresholds can act as a barrier, preventing younger employees from fully utilising pension benefits during their early career stages.”
The opportunity for hybrid work was also shown to be unequally distributed among employees, with those in the Gen X (63pc) and millennial (62pc) categories reporting higher availability than their younger Gen Z (44pc) and older Baby Boomer (29pc) peers.
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“This difference suggests that access to hybrid working may vary by role or level within organisations, with younger employees less likely to report receiving these benefits. The findings indicate that, even where hybrid working is available at an organisational level, it may not be experienced equally across all employee groups,” the report said.
Bonus and incentive schemes also highlighted the disparity in the access to benefits between certain age demographics. For those in the middle of their careers – Gen X (63pc) and millennials (64pc) – the report indicated that there is better access to bonus and incentive schemes.
But to the detriment of the Baby Boomer (48pc) and Gen Z (42pc) employees, the research indicated that there is a concentration of performance-related pay within mid-career roles, where professionals are more likely to hold positions directly linked to business outcomes.
Interestingly, benefits considered to be specialised, such as menopause leave, menstruation leave, childcare benefits, rental support and unlimited paid time off, were shown to have a limited uptake across all generations, suggesting minimal exposure.
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The report said, overall, that generational analysis suggests that patterns of employees receiving benefits are closely linked to career stage and the way eligibility is applied within organisations.
“Although core benefits are widely reported across the workforce, variation in access among younger and more junior employees points to the need for employers to review eligibility rules and how benefits are communicated, so that entitlements are easier to understand and more consistently experienced across a multi-generational workforce.”
Long-term impact
More than two-thirds of participating employees (68pc) stated that the benefits provided by their employer, as part of the compensation for their work, play a significant role in their loyalty, compared to the 32pc who reported that benefits do not influence this aspect of their career.
This, according to Morgan McKinley, indicates that, for the majority of employees, benefits form a meaningful part of the overall employment proposition and can influence decisions to remain with an organisation for the long-term.
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But the report also suggested that it isn’t enough to just have benefits available. It is critical that they be relevant to the workforce in question, with “a notable minority expressing dissatisfaction”.
“More than one in four employees (26.8pc) report being either somewhat dissatisfied (17pc) or very dissatisfied (10pc) with their benefits. Given the strong stated link between benefits and loyalty, this dissatisfied cohort represents a potential retention risk, particularly in competitive labour markets where benefits are increasingly used as a differentiator.”
Commenting on the findings of the report, Trayc Keevans, global FDI director at Morgan McKinley, said: “This report shows that the Irish benefits market is no longer defined by how many benefits an employer can list. It is defined by whether those benefits are accessible, understood and aligned with what employees actually value.
“What stands out most is the contradiction. The benefits employees value most for long-term security, particularly pensions and health insurance, are not always reaching people early enough in their careers. In a market shaped by an ageing population and by lifetime community rating in health insurance, that is a strategic issue for employers, not just a design detail.”
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