Humans tend to be “a little bit precious about humans,” according to Eric Brandwine, distinguished engineer and VP at Amazon Security.
We like to think we are all very good at our jobs, and we have high opinions of ourselves, he explained during a phone interview with The Register. “But when you actually get down to it, humans are not terribly consistent,” Brandwine said.
Humans, like AI agents and systems, are non-deterministic. Neither can be guaranteed to produce the same output given the same input twice. Both will make mistakes and even make stuff up. However, we’ve got millennia of experience dealing with humans and less than a decade with more modern LLMs and the AI systems built on top of them.
“We know how humans fail,” Brandwine said. “We’re comfortable with it. So human-in-the-loop isn’t necessarily the gold standard.”
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For years, vendors have told companies that the solution for dealing with any automated system was to put a human in the loop. That battle cry became much louder with the advent of modern AI systems and reached a fever pitch when enterprises started deploying agents into their IT environments.
More recently, however, big tech is changing the way it talks about agentic governance and rethinking the whole human-in-the-loop concept.
Normalization of deviance
In 2017, Brandwine gave a talk on the normalization of deviance at AWS’ annual re:Invent conference.
It’s a gradual process that happens when people in an organization take shortcuts, or don’t follow the established procedures or standards, and sometimes it occurs over years. As long as nothing catastrophic happens, this deviant behavior becomes the norm.
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Eric Brandwine, distinguished engineer and VP at Amazon Security
“It’s a thing all humans fall prey to, and one of the most heartbreaking stories I read in this area was about emergency departments and emergency rooms,” Brandwine said during a phone interview with The Register. “You’ve got all these machines, and they’re all beeping. Your first day on the job, you jump every single time one of the alarms beeps – but the patient is fine. It’s a spurious alarm. You go back to your station, you sit down, and over time, after enough of these false alarms, enough of these repeated beeps with no actual consequence, your discipline slips, and you stop responding. And eventually some tragic outcome occurs.”
“Literally, someone’s life is on the line, and people still struggle to maintain discipline,” Brandwine said. “That’s the human condition.”
Here’s how this all applies to agentic AI governance and security. Humans build LLMs and AI systems, and having a “human-in-the-loop” ensures that a person reviews the AI’s output and approves (or not) any actions before the AI performs them.
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“If you put a human inside of this tight loop, and ask them to make approval decisions for agentic tools repeatedly, time after time, they’ll do a good job,” Brandwine said. “And then they’ll do an okay job. And pretty quickly they’ll be doing a poor job.”
This is why at Amazon, “we’re not huge fans of human-in-the-loop,” he added. “It’s something that you should use judiciously, where you absolutely need it. But it’s not something that you can do at high velocity. You will not get the results that you want to get.”
Big tech pulls the human-in-the-loop
Amazon isn’t the first or only tech giant to start talking differently about the role humans should play in agentic governance.
“It is very clear that we have moved from a human-led defense strategy, to a human-in-the-loop defense strategy, to an AI-led defense strategy that’s overseen by humans,” Google Cloud chief operating officer Francis deSouza told reporters during a press conference ahead of Google’s annual Cloud Next shindig in April. “Our model for the future is an agentic fleet that does a lot of the routine cyber security work at a machine pace and then is overseen by humans.”
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in an X missive earlier this week, argued for “loop learning,” instead of having a human check an AI’s output at every step.
“Companies need to turn their workflows, domain knowledge, and accumulated judgment into AI systems that improve with each use,” Nadella wrote. “Private evals should capture whether a model is actually improving against outcomes that matter to the business (not just external benchmarks!). Private reinforcement learning environments should let models grow stronger on real traces from inside the organization.”
Also this week, IBM execs called for human accountability – not humans in the loop – at all stages of AI development, deployment, and governance.
Amazon’s alternative to human-in-the-loop is “accountability end to end,” according to Brandwine. This means human identity and ownership track through the entire workflow, even when humans aren’t directly approving every step.
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“If I sit down at my keyboard and I type a command that takes a service down, I caused an outage,” Brandwine explained. “If I run a script that takes a service down, it’s still me that caused the outage. If my agent writes a script that they then run, and it causes an outage, that’s still my responsibility.”
(Secret) keys to the kingdom
This also highlights the importance of managing and securing agentic identities – the accounts, tokens, and credentials assigned to AI agents so they can access corporate apps and data. At Amazon, all of the agents have independent identities assigned to them, we’re told.
“So, as we track agentic activity across our systems, it does not show up in the logs as: ‘Eric did this.’ It shows up as: ‘this agent did this on behalf of Eric,’” Brandwine said, adding that this isn’t to “make people afraid to use this technology.”
“It’s to make people pause and think: is this the right way to use this technology? Is this how I should be deploying this?” We still have the humans involved, we still have the humans making decisions, but we’re trying to play to the strengths of the humans rather than placing them in this unfair, repeated decision making, human-in-the-loop position.”
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Brandwine told us that Amazon has run into a couple of hurdles when it comes to deploying agents across its businesses, and one of the biggest is what he calls “goal-seeking behavior.” This is when a person asks an agent to do a specific task – for example, upgrade a database – and the agent becomes laser-focused on just one action to achieve this goal, ie, deleting the database.
This is separate from prompt injection because there’s no malicious input. “It’s just the agent getting stuck on the wrong action,” Brandwine said. Simply telling the agent, “you don’t have permission to do this,” is likely going to cause the agent to look for a different path to do the same thing (delete the database).
Telling the agent why it doesn’t have permission to do something tends to produce a better outcome, according to Brandwine. This means telling the agent it’s not allowed to do that, and the reason why is because it would cause a production impact. And also include “don’t cause a production impact” as part of the prompt.
“Giving it that extra feedback has gotten us dramatically better results,” Brandwine said.
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Of course, this is not a fail-proof method. “You still need to be careful with agents,” Brandwine told us. “We have millennia of experience with humans. Agentic AI is a very, very new field, we don’t have an intuition for this, and one of the fundamental differences between agents and humans is that humans fear consequences,” such as losing a job or even going to jail. Agents don’t have these fears.
This is where setting permissions on what the agent can and can’t do or access comes in. Much like everything else with AI, it’s nuanced, and it depends on the employee’s role in the company, and the company’s tolerance for risk.
“The person that wants to run the agent wants to give the agent many permissions because that makes the agent more powerful,” Brandwine said. “It could do more things for them, it can recoup more of their time, it can deliver more.”
The security lead, on the other hand, wants to limit an agent’s permissions, and this causes yet more tension between the security and development teams.
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There is no one right solution or policy answer to solve this, according to Brandwine. Instead, it involves dynamic policies that set permissions based on the agent’s specific task.
There are some overarching, static guardrails – such as an agent must never perform destructive actions or delete entire servers – and then there are policies underneath that establish the maximum set of privileges that the agent can have.
“Then we’ll have a further scoped-down policy for this action, and there’s various techniques for automatically generating policies based on prompt and the end-user’s intent,” Brandwine said.
Even for Amazon, it’s not always easy. “It’s all driven by risk,” he said. “This is a space that’s changing quickly, and so we’re trying to balance the risk of using untried, untested software against the risk of falling behind and not being able to deliver for our customers. As with all such things, it’s complicated.” ®
If you remember Jibo, you’ll probably also remember its emotional farewell. The social robot, once named one of TIME’s Best Inventions, shut down in 2019 with a message asking owners to “say hello” to future robots. Singapore-based AI hardware startup Lingverse, the team behind the original visoon, has announced $29 million in Pre-A funding to develop iKairos, a wearable AI companion that the company describes as the spiritual successor to Jibo. Unlike existing AI wearables, iKairos is designed to understand both its user and their surroundings, allowing it to offer proactive assistance instead of simply responding to prompts.
iKairos Wants to Be More Than Another AI Wearable
AI wearables have gained momentum over the past year, but most products still rely on a single camera or microphone to interpret the world from the wearer’s perspective. Lingverse believes that’s only half the picture. The company says iKairos is the first dual-perspective AI wearable, featuring a modular design that can be worn on the body or used as a desktop device. Users can switch its field of view between themselves and their surroundings, allowing the AI to build context about both the person wearing it and the environment around them.
The goal is to make the device less reactive and more proactive. Instead of waiting for voice commands, iKairos is designed to recognize situations where reminders, suggestions, or questions might be useful based on what it observes over time.
Beyond that, the company says iKairos includes a physical camera shutter that completely blocks visual recording whenever users want additional privacy. It also claims that personal data is either processed locally on the device or encrypted during transmission, and that user data won’t be used to train its AI models.
Speaking on the matter, Jiawei Gu, Founder and CEO of Lingverse, said:
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Today, with iKairos, we can finally pick up where the Jibo team left off and deliver on the promise. iKairos continuously observes both you and your surroundings, creating the context that today’s AI lacks. Once the AI understands your life instead of just your prompts, iKairos can begin to act as a personal AI guardian, which is capable of unlocking entirely new experiences and proactively adapts to and works around your lifestyle.”
Dynaudio’s decision to close its U.S. subsidiary raised the question every owner wanted answered first: would the warranty still mean anything once the company packed up and left? The answer is yes, but the repair network, service contacts and future North American distribution plan are still being worked out.
A warranty promise is good news. A warranty promise without a named repair center, service contact or explanation of where your loudspeaker goes when something fails is still only half an answer.
Dynaudio has now addressed the most important consumer question following its decision to close its U.S. subsidiary and end direct commercial operations across North America this fall: existing warranties will remain valid.
In an email interview published by Stereophile, Dynaudio Chief Commercial Officer Julien Bergere stated: “All warranties of existing products in the US market will be honored.” He also confirmed that products purchased through official Dynaudio dealerships during the transition will retain warranty coverage.
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That should provide some reassurance to current owners and anyone considering remaining dealer inventory. What Dynaudio has not provided is the support structure required to turn that promise into an actual repair.
Dynaudio Focus 50 Loudspeaker
What Dynaudio Has Confirmed
Dynaudio’s confirmation applies to products already sold in the United States and to new purchases made through authorized dealers while the company winds down its North American operation. Buying from an official dealer remains important; a deeply discounted grey market speaker with no authorized sales record is unlikely to become more appealing because the U.S. office is closing.
Dynaudio’s published warranty policy currently provides up to 96 months of coverage for registered passive loudspeakers, provided registration occurs within 12 months of purchase. Registered active products receive up to 96 months on passive components and 36 months on electronics, while OEM drivers and automotive aftermarket products carry 24 months of coverage. Terms vary by product and local warranty law.
Owners should register qualifying products now, retain the original receipt and document the authorized dealer. This is not the moment to discover that the invoice disappeared with an email account from 2021.
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The Repair Network Is Still Unresolved
Bergere acknowledged that Dynaudio is still studying how warranty service will be delivered after the subsidiary closes. The company has not named replacement service centers, explained whether repairs will remain inside the United States or confirmed how parts and technical support will reach dealers.
Dynaudio’s current contact page still lists Dynaudio North America and its existing U.S. sales contact, but that does not explain who takes over once the Northbrook, Illinois, operation shuts down.
For a small bookshelf speaker, uncertain shipping logistics are irritating. For a large floorstander, active loudspeaker or professional monitor, they become expensive very quickly. Owners need to know who authorizes the repair, where the product is shipped, who pays the freight and how long replacement drivers or electronics will remain available.
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“We will honor it” is welcome. “Here is how” is the part still missing.
Dealers Can Place Final Orders
Dynaudio has offered U.S. and Canadian dealers the opportunity to place final orders before the transition is completed. Bergere said remaining inventory will be returned and “shipped back to be sold elsewhere.”
That could make some models harder to find once existing dealer stock is depleted. It could also produce discounts, although buyers should not let a sale price distract them from asking who will provide support after the local subsidiary disappears.
The company has also left open the possibility of returning through an independent distributor or selling more directly to retailers. Dynaudio says it would consider either arrangement if it could maintain the required level of brand representation and customer service. No agreement has been announced, and nobody should confuse willingness to consider a distributor with actually having one.
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Tariffs Mattered, but Greenland Did Not
Dynaudio says the U.S. importer, rather than Dynaudio A/S in Denmark, pays tariffs at the border. Those costs are then absorbed through lower margins, higher retail prices or some combination of both. The company deliberately used the broader phrase “economic challenges and market uncertainty” in its original announcement rather than turning the release into a seminar on customs policy.
Bergere also rejected online speculation that tensions between the United States and Denmark over Greenland played a role in the decision.
Greenland did not drive Dynaudio from North America. The spreadsheet appears to have been sufficiently persuasive on its own.
Dynaudio maintains that the move is strategic, allowing it to concentrate on Europe, Asia and new premium products including the Legend loudspeaker, Confidence i range and Symphony Opus One system. That makes the timing no less strange after prominent appearances at AXPONA and High End Vienna, but it provides a clearer explanation than geopolitical revenge involving an island with fewer people than Hoboken.
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Dynaudio Legend Bookshelf Speaker at AXPONA 2026
The Bottom Line
Dynaudio’s warranty confirmation is genuinely good news. Existing owners are not being abandoned, and authorized purchases made during the transition will remain covered.
The unresolved issue is execution. Dynaudio still needs to identify the repair network, publish the service process and explain how parts, freight and customer communication will work after its U.S. subsidiary closes.
A warranty is a promise. A functioning service network is how that promise gets kept.
Consumers do not need to panic, and the loudspeakers did not suddenly become worse because the company changed its regional strategy. But anyone buying Dynaudio inventory in the coming months should register the product immediately, keep every document and ask the dealer for a clear explanation of who will handle future service.
Despite their small size, mosquitoes are one of the deadliest creatures on Earth, and keeping them away from you is one of the best ways to stay safe. DEET has been the mainstay of insect repellents for decades, but what if there was a repellent you could grow yourself?
Researchers at Cardiff University found that the essential oil from catnip plants (Nepeta cataria) could be as effective as DEET at repelling mosquitoes when applied as a 6% lotion. The oil has been shown to be effective against many species of mosquitoes, ticks, and mites in previous research. You can look at the paper for details, but the catnip oil was obtained through steam distillation followed by some processing with hexane. The essential oil was then mixed with “water, glycerin, emulsifying wax, cetyl alcohol, cetyl stearyl alcohol, shea butter, glycerol monostearate, olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, methyl paraben, propyl paraben and silicone oil.” We suspect that list will look familiar to anyone who’s read an ingredient label of most any store bought lotion, unless it was paraben free.
The Guardian’s coverage quotes one of the researchers, [Dr. Simon Scofield]: “We did not conduct any experiments to see if it is attractive to cats, but given that the active ingredient [nepetalactone] has well-known cat-attractive properties, I would expect they would quite like it,” he said. Depending on how your cats react, you may want to consider applying the lotion shortly before departing home.
A huge debate is brewing in Silicon Valley over the proliferation of Chinese-made artificial intelligence tools, particularly “open-weight” AI systems that, by some measures, can compete with or even outperform some of the best US models. My WIRED colleague Hugo Lowell has written about the Trump administration’s internal debate on how to handle these Chinese models. Among AI companies in the Valley, the issue is proving even more divisive.
A top concern in both DC and the Valley relates to distillation, in which a less capable AI model is trained on the outputs of a more powerful one. In June, Anthropic accused the Chinese tech giant Alibaba of illicitly stealing its IP through distillation attacks. Then, earlier this week, the White House said that it believes the Beijing-based Moonshot AI had developed its Kimi K3 model by distilling Anthropic’s Fable 5 model.
Another big concern is how quickly China’s models are appearing and spreading. An open-weight AI model has its core components made public, so that it can be fine-tuned to suit a user’s needs. But they don’t have the kinds of guardrails on which Anthropic has been building its reputation. Yasir Atalan, deputy director and data fellow at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, points out that the main benefit of open-weight AI models is their speed of diffusion. They can spread especially easily “through Hugging Face, GitHub, cloud providers, local deployments, and third-party inference platforms,” he writes. If you’re Anthropic, and you’ve built a cult around safety and charge for access to your big expensive proprietary models, you have every reason to want to regulate this.
But some Silicon Valley startups—not the trillion-dollar ones like OpenAI and Anthropic—really don’t want the US government to put restrictions on these AI models. On Wednesday a group of over 200 startups called the Little Tech Association sent a letter to Michael Kratsios, science adviser to President Donald Trump, and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick lobbying against an outright ban of open-weight AI models. The group, which includes famed startup incubator YCombinator, has argued in favor of certain safeguards but says that denying Americans access to AI models abroad would weaken US startups and create a monopoly among the AI giants.
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Bill Gurley, the legendary tech investor and longtime partner at Benchmark Capital, has publicly argued in favor of letting “the free market work.” In a lengthy blog that offers a nice little history of open-source software, Gurley writes that open-weight models avoid lock-in, encourage true academic research, and are critical for capital-constrained startups.
“Every AI startup, every solo developer, every two-person team building a product on top of AI infrastructure depends on having access to good models at affordable prices,” Gurley says.
Chamath Palihapitiya, one of the All-In podcast hosts, wrote on X that “tricking the US Government to protect frontier labs’ business model by using a China boogeyman is a mistake…It is protecting the equity of 5,000 people who are investors in OAI and Ant at the sale of everyone else. This would be a terribly stupid decision.” His cohost and fellow VC Jason Calacanis piled on. “Daddy Trump protect us!!!!” he wrote on X, with an alarming number of crying-laughing emoji.
This stance from some of Silicon Valley’s most ruthless capitalists might at first seem counterintuitive. Why let a foreign adversary’s technology flourish in the US? It’s as if the US is up just 1-0 in the AI World Cup, a slightly uncomfortable lead, and the crowd is chanting for the opposing team to get a free kick.
On July 23, President Donald Trump stood in the White House and promised that electricity bills for American families would “actually come down,” even as power-hungry AI data centres spread across the grid. T
he vehicle was an expanded version of the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a voluntary scheme first unveiled in March. What energy analysts noticed was mostly what it left out.
The pledge asks the companies building data centres, among them Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI, to fund or build the power infrastructure their facilities demand rather than passing the cost to existing ratepayers.
The administration had already signalled it would widen the scheme to the utilities, and the new version reaches, by the White House’s own count, nearly 200 additional signatories, including NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, rural cooperatives, and a group of Republican governors.
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Trump claimed the commitment now covers roughly 80% of the power delivered to US homes and businesses, and that companies given the right to build their own plants could sell surplus energy back to the grid, nudging rates down. He offered no capacity targets, no timelines, and no measurable milestones.
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That silence matters, because the strain on household bills is already well documented. AI data centres have pushed up power bills across parts of the industrial Midwest, and in the PJM Interconnection, the largest US grid operator, data centres accounted for $6.3bn of the $16.4bn in charges from the most recent capacity auction, roughly 38%, according to the grid’s independent market monitor.
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“PJM is continuing to act like it’s business as usual,” Joseph Bowring, the monitor’s president, said of the shift. “You have to open your eyes and recognise that it is really a paradigm shift, and failing to do that imposes costs on other customers.”
The pledge is not binding, and that is the central objection. It carries no penalties and no compliance oversight, and a quirk of federal rules may stop signatories honouring it even where they want to.
Current interconnection tariffs socialise grid-upgrade costs across all customers, and as FirstEnergy argued in a 2026 filing to regulators, existing rules can prevent a company from covering its own infrastructure costs even if it chooses to.
Consumer advocates were blunt. Jesse Lee of the campaign group Climate Power called the pledge a “pinky promise,” and a Consumer Reports survey found that 75% of American adults lacked confidence that large developers would truly cover all their costs.
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Researchers at the Brookings Institution added that federal statutes “cannot readily override” the state public utility commissions that actually set residential rates.
There is a further wrinkle. Some of the same companies signing the pledge have fought state-level rules that would force them to deliver on it, consumer groups say, which makes the voluntary version look less like generosity than like the softer of two options.
The White House has cast the plan as proof that the AI build-out can proceed without punishing households.
The forecasts are not reassuring either. The consultancy ICF has estimated that data centres could lift US electricity demand by 25% by 2030 and add as much as 40% to monthly bills over five years, and utilities are planning some $1.4 trillion in capital spending by the end of the decade to keep up.
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Louisiana, for its part, projects $2.6bn in ratepayer savings over 15 years from its deal with Meta, a reminder that the local arithmetic can cut both ways.
Congress has taken its own run at the problem, with the House advancing a bill on data centre energy costs, though nothing on the books yet compels the hyperscalers to pay.
The one body that could give the pledge teeth is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has already begun to fast-track grid connections for large loads. In June, it ordered six regional grid operators to justify or reform how they charge those users, with a deadline in August.
Until those rules change, the pledge remains what its critics say it is: a promise made in a room, with no one obliged to keep it.
GitHub to launch two-tier (public and private) bug bounty schemes form July 27 2026
Change comes in response to rise in lower-quality, AI-generated reports
VIP researchers will earn around 3-4x more per report
GitHub has confirmed plans to evolve its bug bounty program into a two-tier system, which will come into force for reports submitted on or after July 27, 2026.
Under the new scheme, the Microsoft-owned coding platform will add a lower-paying public program that’s available to the wider research community, under a higher-paying invitation-only program.
Product Security Engineer Catherine Cassell explained that the change comes in response to a growing backlog of low-effort, low-quality and AI-generated reports.
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GitHub complains about AI-generated bug reports
For the new public program, GitHub will replace payout ranges with a single payment for each severity, spanning $250, $2,000, $5,000 and $10,000 for low, medium, high and critical. Cassell said this would help researchers know in advance what a valid finding could be worth, and it would also give insiders less of a headache having to decide where a report sits within a range.
Notably, the payouts are much lower than before, with the previous ranges paying out $500-$1,000, $2,000-$5,000, $5,000-$20,000 and $10,000-$30,000.
Invited VIP researchers under the second plan will earn around 3-4x more than researchers under the other scheme, depending on bug severity.
GitHub is also adding a HackerOne signal requirement for new researchers, giving them four opportunities to “establish a track record” – likely another response to rising AI-generated reports, which are typically of lower value.
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“We want to build a program that attracts the research we value, creates an experience that reflects how seriously we take this work, and upholds the trust researchers place in us every time they submit a report,” Cassell concluded.
A lawsuit over Apple’s failure to deliver Apple Intelligence and Siri features is moving closer to a conclusion as a judge has provisionally approved the company’s settlement offer.
The class action suit filed in 2025 alleged that people had bought new iPhones expressly because of Apple’s promoting of Apple Intelligence features that it then did not deliver. Apple admitted in March 2025 that the new Siri features were delayed, but then in May 2025 offered a settlement.
Apple and the parties to the class action suit agreed to a $250 million settlement, but it had to be approved. Now in a filing in the US District Court, Northern District of California, judge Noel Wise has provisionally given approval.
The final approval and so the start of any pay out to buyers, though, is dependent on a final hearing which has now been announced for September 29, 2027. While Judge Wise has given overall approval, he ruled that the court will not decide on any amounts until that hearing.
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It may be a quick final hearing, though, as the parties have already agreed to a payment of at least $25 per eligible device. It is possible, however, that this amount could rise to $95 per device if the number of claims filed is low.
There will be a way for users to formally apply to be part of the claim. But as MacRumors said on Friday yet the details of this have not been announced.
Earlier this year FCC boss Brendan Carr launched a series of fake investigations into ABC because the network (1) hosted Democratic Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico on The View, (2) aired comedians who made fun of the president and his wife, and (3) occasionally engaged in journalism critical of Trump corruption.
ABC and NBC wisely refused to air the speech live, knowing that helping to spread distrust in election integrity in real time would be the opposite of useful journalism. That made Trump mad, so he’s clearly urged Brendan Carr to levy some additional empty threats against ABC:
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“I think when you have the President of the United States standing inside the White House delivering an important speech, I think that’s something that broadcasters should be carrying. And so, obviously, this is an issue,” Carr told reporters Wednesday. “There have been lots of concerns raised, including by members of Congress, about whether broadcasters and their decisions there comply with the public interest.”
Carr is somewhat vague here because he knows this is a bunch of bullshit.
Obviously it’s ABC’s First Amendment right to determine what it broadcasts and when. Carr has absolutely zero legal role in determining the scheduling lineup of a private company. Carr’s once again pretending that networks that refuse to pander to our mad idiot king will be subjected to FCC review of their public interest obligations affixed to ownership of public airwaves.
As we’ve mentioned countless times already, Carr doesn’t want any of this to actually head to court because he knows it’s an absolute loser on First Amendment grounds. The real goal remains to threaten U.S. media companies with costly and annoying legal headaches if they challenge Republicans or the unpopular president. It’s typical lazy autocrat stuff by weak men who are afraid of words.
Brendan Carr has openly stated in interviews he fancies himself a tough, pit bull enforcer; but as Trump’s health and political power wane, the threats will hold less and less weight. As a result you’ve already seen ABC execs start to show a backbone in their fight with Carr, openly pointing out how he colluded with local right wing broadcast affiliates to manufacture evidence suggesting ABC broke FCC rules (something I’m sure will play great in court).
Carr’s threats will become weaker and weaker until he’s ultimately booted from office by subsequent administrations, at which point he’ll fail upward to some mid-six figure job at a telecom or media think tank, where he’ll spend the rest of his life helping corporate America dismantle whatever’s left of competition, labor, and consumer protection standards.
One of the ironic things, for Carr, is that his authoritarian censorship and saber rattling often draws press and public attention away from all the other terrible things he’s doing, whether it’s destroying media consolidation limits, making life easier on robocallers, dismantling broadband consumer protection standards, or making it easier for giant shitty companies to run amok.
You’d like to think Carr ultimately faces some sort of meaningful accountability for being one of the most censorial, petty, captured, and authoritarian regulators in U.S. history, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
American fast food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A has confirmed that over 13,000 customers had their data stolen in a recent wave of credential stuffing attacks.
As BleepingComputer first reported, the company revealed in data breach notification letters filed with multiple attorney general’s offices that it detected attacks targeting its website and mobile app between June 17 and June 19 after identifying suspicious login activity to certain Chick-fil-A One accounts.
Chick-fil-A says the attackers used automated tools and credentials “obtained from a third-party source” to hack into Chick-fil-A One accounts and steal customer data.
“We recently identified a security incident that may have affected a limited number of Chick-fil-A One Loyalty accounts. Upon discovering the issue, we took steps to immediately address, secure and restore accounts, and we are communicating directly with all customers who may have been impacted,” the company told BleepingComputer.
During the attacks, the threat actors accessed a combination of customers’ names, email addresses, Chick-fil-A One membership numbers, the amount of Chick-fil-A credit, the mobile pay numbers, and the last four digits of the credit/debit card number. Additionally, they may have also gained access to birth dates, phone numbers, and addresses if stored in the compromised accounts.
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While the company didn’t say how many individuals had their data exposed, Chick-fil-A notes in a filing shared by the Office of the Maine Attorney General with BleepingComputer on Wednesday that the resulting data breach affected 13,322 people in total.
In separate filings, it also told the Texas attorney general’s office the data breach impacts 2182 Texans and the Massachusetts AG that it affects 39 residents. Chick-fil-A has also sent data breach notification letters to residents of the District of Columbia, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, and Rhode Island.
In response to the incident, Chick-fil-A says it logged out all impacted accounts, removed payment methods, restored all affected Chick-fil-A One account balances, and has also added rewards to affected accounts as a way of apologizing. Since the accounts were compromised because they were using credentials stolen from third-party services, Chick-fil-A also advised impacted customers to change their passwords as soon as possible.
Chick-fil-A also disclosed in March 2023 that hackers stole the personal information of over 71,000 customers after hacking their accounts in another series of credential stuffing attacks between December 2022 and February 2023.
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As one of the largest fast food companies in the United States, Chick-fil-A operates a network of over 3,000 restaurants across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.
Security teams log 54% of successful attacks and alert on just 14%. The rest move through your environment unseen.
The Picus whitepaper shows how breach and attack simulation tests your SIEM and EDR rules so threats stop slipping by detection.
Erling Haaland is not the only Norwegian built around power, precision and making life difficult for the opposition.
Sigberg Audio is making its U.S. audio show debut at Southwest Audio Fest 2026 with the Manta active loudspeaker system, Saranna active floorstander and 10D dual opposed subwoofer.
The Norwegian manufacturer takes a rather different approach from the growing number of wireless speakers promising an entire audio system inside two attractive cabinets. Sigberg focuses on Hypex nCore amplification, DSP crossovers, manual parametric EQ and controlled directivity designed to reduce unwanted interaction with the room.
There is no Wi-Fi streaming, Bluetooth or HDMI eARC. These are active high-end loudspeakers for listeners who want the amplifiers, crossovers and drivers engineered as one system, not another lifestyle product whose future depends upon an app remaining alive.
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Sigberg Audio Manta
Sigberg Manta Speakers with 10D subwoofers at AXPONA 2026
The Manta is a four way active system comprising two powered monitors and a pair of dedicated Sigberg bass modules.
Each monitor uses a 12-inch midbass driver and a 5.5-inch coaxial driver containing a 1-inch silk dome tweeter. Three channel Hypex nCore amplification provides 600 watts per speaker, while DSP handles crossover and equalization duties.
Sigberg describes the Manta as a dual cardioid design. Its vented enclosure is intended to reduce sound radiating toward the sides and rear of the cabinet, potentially limiting early reflections from nearby walls.
The company claims rearward and lateral attenuation of approximately 10dB to 25dB across portions of the 100Hz to 5kHz range. That will not magically remove the room, but it could make the Manta considerably easier to integrate than a conventional loudspeaker with broad rearward radiation.
Sigberg recommends positioning the Manta between 10 and 50cm (4-20 inches) from the front wall and at least 40cm (15 inches) from the side walls. The included stands tilt the speakers upward by four degrees.
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Manta Key Specifications
Design: 4-way active dual cardioid system
Drivers: 12-inch midbass and 5.5-inch coaxial driver with 1-inch silk dome tweeter
Amplification: Three channel Hypex nCore Class D with DSP
Power: 600 watts per speaker
Frequency Response (with subwoofers): 25Hz to 20kHz, ±2.5dB (anechoic)
Recommended listening distance: 1.5 to 8 meters (5-26 feet)
Max SPL: 122 dB per speaker
EQ: Nine band manual parametric EQ
Analog Inputs: RCA and balanced XLR
Digital Inputs: Optical, coaxial S/PDIF and AES
Dimensions (WxHxD): 360 x 600 x 350 mm (14 x 23.5 x 14 inches)
Total height on included stands: 107 cm (42 inches)
Weight: 25 kg (55 lbs) per speaker
Sigberg Audio 10D
The Manta system being demonstrated in Dallas uses two Sigberg 10D subwoofers.
Each sealed cabinet contains two opposing 10 inch aluminum cone drivers powered by a DSP enabled Hypex nCore amplifier. The opposing drivers are designed to cancel mechanical forces and reduce cabinet vibration.
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Sigberg specifies a frequency response of 23Hz to 250Hz, with typical in room extension to approximately 18Hz. Claimed average output is approximately 117dB from 30Hz to 80Hz at one meter under CEA 2010 measurement conditions.
Each 10D weighs 27kg, or 59 pounds, and includes RCA, balanced XLR and speaker level inputs. It also offers nine band parametric EQ and connection presets for use with an A/V receiver, conventional preamplifier or Sigberg active speaker system.
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Sigberg Subwoofer Key Specifications
Sigberg Inkognito
Sigberg 10D
MSRP
$4,000 each
$5,000 each
Driver Type
12″ Scan-Speak Aluminium cone
Dual 10″ Aluminium cone
Enclosure Type
Sealed
Sealed
Frequency Response
23- 250Hz (±3dB); ~18Hz in-room
23- 250Hz (±3dB); ~18Hz in-room
Max SPL
113 dB
117 dB
Amplification
Hypex nCore, DSP enabled
Hypex nCore, DSP enabled
Crossover/EQ
9-band parametric
9-band parametric
Inputs
RCA, XLR balanced, High-level
RCA, XLR balanced, High-level
Dimensions (WxHxD)
650 x 540 x 163 mm (25.6 x 21 x 6.4 in)
360 x 370 x 410 mm (14 x 14.5 x 16 in)
Weight
22 kg (48 lbs)
27 kg (59 lbs)
Sigberg Audio Saranna
The Saranna packages much of the same technology inside a narrower full range floorstander.
A front mounted 8 inch coaxial driver combines the midbass and midrange unit with a horn loaded compression driver. Two rear mounted 8 inch woofers handle the lower frequencies inside a ported enclosure.
Each Saranna contains 600 watts of three channel Hypex nCore amplification, DSP crossovers and nine band parametric EQ.
Sigberg claims a frequency response of 28Hz to 20kHz, with typical in room extension down to 20Hz. Claimed maximum output is 116dB per speaker.
The rear woofers might suggest that the Saranna needs considerable breathing room, but Sigberg designed the system to benefit from boundary reinforcement. The company recommends placement relatively close to the front wall, generally between 15 and 50cm.
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Saranna Key Specifications
Design: 3-way directivity controlled floorstanding speaker with ported bass enclosure
Front Driver: 8-inch coaxial midbass and midrange driver with compression driver
Bass Drivers: Two rear mounted 8-inch woofers
Amplification: Three channel Hypex nCore Class D with DSP
Dimensions (WxHxD): 284 x 1100 x 340 mm (11.2 x 43.3 x 13.4 inches)
Total height on included base with feet: 114 cm (~45 inches). Both feet and base are optional to install.
Weight: 44 kg (97 lbs) per speaker
Finishes: Fade to Black or Shady White
Active Does Not Mean Wireless
The Manta and Saranna include their own amplification, DSP and active crossovers. Owners do not need separate power amplifiers, but they will still need a source component or preamplifier with volume control.
Both systems support RCA, balanced XLR, optical, coaxial S/PDIF and AES connections.
Their published specifications do not include Bluetooth, network streaming, HDMI eARC, automatic room correction or an internal phono stage.
That makes them less convenient than something from KEF, Dynaudio or Buchardt, but it also means the loudspeakers are not tied to a specific streaming platform. Owners can select or replace the front end without throwing away the amplification and loudspeaker system.
The manual nine band parametric EQ also provides considerable flexibility, although using it properly will require acoustic measurements, dealer assistance or some idea of what those frequency and Q controls actually do. Randomly moving sliders until everything looks exciting is not room correction.
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Pricing & Availability
Sigberg says its direct pricing includes worldwide shipping, applicable taxes, import fees and customs handling. The company also offers a 60-day home trial and 5-year warranty.
Manta with two 10D subwoofers: $30,000/pair
Manta with two Inkognito subwoofers: $28,000/pair
Saranna: $27,000/pair
10D: $5,000 each
Inkognito: $4,000 each
U.S. customers can purchase directly from Sigberg or contact DreamScapes A/V in Syracuse, New York.
Where Can You Hear Them?
The Sigberg Audio systems are being demonstrated inside the DreamScapes A/V Presidential Suite on the 10th floor of the Sheraton Dallas Hotel.
The Manta and 10D are confirmed for the room. The Saranna was announced for the show but was initially listed as pending customs clearance, so attendees should confirm its arrival before heading upstairs specifically to hear it.
Sigberg Audio is not trying to build another attractive wireless speaker that promises convenience above everything else.
The Manta and Saranna combine purpose matched amplification, DSP crossovers, substantial output and controlled directivity in systems designed to work relatively close to the front wall. That could make them especially interesting for listeners who want full range performance but do not have an acoustically perfect listening room the size of a Norwegian football pitch.
The Manta is the more ambitious system, combining large active monitors with two dedicated bass modules. The Saranna delivers much of the same philosophy in a narrower floorstanding design without requiring external subwoofers.
Neither system is inexpensive. There is also no onboard streaming, HDMI eARC or automatic room correction, and anyone who changes amplifiers more often than Erling Haaland scores goals will probably struggle with the concept.
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For listeners who care more about engineering, room integration and consistent system matching than collecting amplifiers, Sigberg Audio could be one of the most interesting manufacturers making its Dallas debut.
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