‘Anxiety around job losses’ in the region makes Kintore Hydrogen ‘important’

Stay Ahead, Stay ONMINE

‘Anxiety around job losses’ in the region makes Kintore Hydrogen ‘important’

Amid job uncertainty in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, Statera policy manager Phoebe Finn argued the importance of the 3GW Kintore Hydrogen project. The north-east of Scotland has been hit with a series of job loss stories of late, with Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce counting 600 jobs at risk in the last few weeks alone. […]

Amid job uncertainty in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, Statera policy manager Phoebe Finn argued the importance of the 3GW Kintore Hydrogen project.

The north-east of Scotland has been hit with a series of job loss stories of late, with Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce counting 600 jobs at risk in the last few weeks alone.

Finn pointed to recent news from Harbour Energy that the firm would be slashing a quarter of its Aberdeen onshore workforce, a move that will see 250 people lose their jobs.

Speaking at the All-Energy conference in Glasgow, Finn said: “On the jobs front, with the recent announcement from Harbour Energy, and a lot of the anxiety around job losses, it is so important to have projects like Kintore that have the scale to actually provide meaningful jobs in the region.

Harbour Energy offices, Hill of Rubislaw.

“But also jobs that have a very similar skills profile to oil and gas, hydrogen is great for that.”

Despite Kintore receiving backing from the local council, “our engagement with the community doesn’t end here,” Finn explained.

She said that Statera will continue to communicate with those in Aberdeenshire as the massive hydrogen production facility comes to fruition.

“What our focus has been, and will continue to be, is communicating those benefits that are very specific locally,” Finn commented.

“Part of the reason why Aberdeenshire is such a great location for a green hydrogen project is because of the existing skills and capabilities in that area.”

Harnessign Scotland’s ‘fantastic fabrication and manufacturing capability’

Statera Energy wants to build the massive 3GW Kintore Hydrogen project near Laylodge. Once constructed, it would be the largest site of its kind in Europe.

The site will produce green hydrogen at an electrolysis plant using surplus wind power and water from the nearby River Don.

In addition to the jobs Statera aims to create in the region, the supply chain is also set to benefit from Kintore, Finn argued.

“On the supply chain, the other really helpful thing that you have with larger-scale projects is that, in the design work that the team has done, what they have found is it doesn’t really make sense to buy these whole pre-packaged electrolysers.

“It’s more cost-effective, it’s better design, to manufacture at a greater scale a lot of the balance of plant elements, so all of the piping and the buildings and all of that.

“There’s fantastic fabrication and manufacturing capability for that already in Scotland, and so the scale of the project really allows us to use that.”

Statera says ‘it’s on us’ to show the benefits

However, not everyone in the region is convinced by the Kintore Hydrogen project.

The Statera project has received pushback, namely from a group of Aberdeenshire councillors.

Inverurie councillor Marion Ewenson welcomed the jobs and the “fantastic figure” of carbon offset, but there was one hurdle she couldn’t get over when addressing the plans last month.

“It’s still a site which would produce a hazardous substance on the doorstep of the residents of Laylodge and Kintore,” she said.

Concerns around the safety of hydrogen are something that the industry has had to contend with for some time.

A series of images showing what the Kintore Hydrogen project will look like during and after construction.

SGN’s H100 project, which is trialling hydrogen boilers in Fife, has also seen similar concerns raised.

Historic Environment Scotland also objected to the plans as they believed it would have an “unacceptable significant impact” on the South Leylodge steading stone circle.

During public consultations on the Kintore project last year, Bob and Evelyn Skinner, who live close to the route of one of the planned pipelines, said they were concerned about the impact on the local countryside.

With the potential job creation in the region, the Statera policy manager told those in attendance at All-Energy’s ‘The Hydrogen Proposition: Make It’ panel that “it’s on us to communicate those to the local community and help get across what the project can bring.”

Keep on top of the latest from All-Energy 2025 here.

Stay Ahead

Explore More Insights

Stay ahead with more perspectives on cutting-edge power, infrastructure, energy, bitcoin and AI solutions. Explore these articles to uncover strategies and insights shaping the future of industries.

New England Patriots kick off network upgrade

The longer-term roadmap with NWN includes a refresh of the stadium’s 1,800 Extreme Networks Wi-Fi 6 access points to either Wi-Fi 6E or 7, a refresh of the network’s 80 Cisco physical and virtual firewalls, followed by a network consolidation project. On top of all that, the Kraft Group is

CompTIA cert targets operational cybersecurity skills

The SecOT+ certification will provide OT professionals with the skills to manage, mitigate, and remediate security risks in manufacturing and critical infrastructure environments, according to CompTIA. The certification program will provide OT positions, such as floor technicians and industrial engineers, as well as cybersecurity engineers and network architects on the

NOAA stops tracking cost of extreme weather and climate disasters

Dive Brief: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday its National Centers for Environmental Information would stop tracking the cost of extreme weather and climate disasters in its Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disaster database. The product is being retired “in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing

Network data hygiene: The critical first step to effective AI agents

Many network teams manage some 15 to 30 different dashboards to track data across all the components in an environment, struggling to cobble together relevant information across domains and spending hours troubleshooting a single incident. In short, they are drowning in data. Artificial intelligence tools—and specifically AI agents—promise to ease

UK’s oldest North Sea port boosts turnover despite headwinds

The Port of Aberdeen boosted turnover by 10.5% to £50.7 million in 2024, despite headwinds facing the energy sector. Chief executive Bob Sanguinetti said that, with the right policy and investment support, the UK’s oldest port “can become an international hub for offshore wind”. He said the energy market has shifted due to the impact of the North Sea windfall tax, AKA the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) on oil and gas operators’ profits. Services firm DeepOcean decommissioned the North Sea’s largest subsea isolation valve – a 440 tonne safety device used in oil and gas operations located next to BP’s Miller oil field – offloading it onto a quay at the port’s South Harbour in 2024. However, Sanguinetti warned that consenting delays to offshore wind projects are hampering the energy transition. “While this new operational landscape is exciting, it also remains uncertain, and this uncertainty shapes our outlook for 2025 and beyond,” he said. “While our foundations are strong, the market is changing. Oil and gas activity – which accounts for almost two thirds of our revenue – is being impacted by the EPL and wavering investor confidence, while delays to consenting and grid connections are affecting timelines for offshore wind.” The Port of Aberdeen said in a statement that revenue performance and “careful cost management” drove growth in its full year of operations after opening the £420 million Aberdeen South Harbour in September 2023. The number of vessels arriving at the port rose by 2.6% to 7,128 in 2024. Passenger numbers rose by 2.8% during the period to 207,317, as the port said its diversification strategy across energy, trade and tourism “continued apace” in 2024. Cruise traffic was more than one million gross tonnes of vessel throughput, bringing 24,000 guests to the region. This came as the port increased

ICYMI: To Combat Race Discrimination, Energy Department Terminates Funding for Harvard University

In case you missed it, the Department of Energy issued a notice to Harvard University this week terminating approximately $89 million in grant funding from DOE’s Office of Science and Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy due to the University’s policy of racial discrimination. This cancellation from DOE resulted in an immediate savings of $7 million to the American taxpayer and was issued in coordination with the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism’s letter to Harvard University announcing the termination of $450 million in grants from eight government agencies in addition to $2.2 billion that was previously frozen by the Trump Administration. Excerpts of DOE’s letters to Harvard President Dr. Alan Garber are below: DOE understands that Harvard University (Harvard) continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admission process, and in other areas of student life, such as access to the Law Review at Harvard Law School. We are also aware of recent events at Harvard involving antisemitic action that suggest the institution has a disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students. Harvard’s ongoing inaction in the face of repeated and severe harassment and targeting of Jewish students has ground day-to-day campus operations to a halt, deprived Jewish students of learning and research opportunities to which they are entitled, and brought shame upon the University and our nation as a whole. Indeed, as the Harvard Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias concluded, actions at Harvard during the 2023-2024 academic year resulted in widespread abuse of Jewish and Israeli students by an institution “that mainstreamed and normalized what many Jewish and Israeli students experience as antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.” DOE maintains a firm policy of not supporting entities, individuals or actions that engage in discrimination or which promote and condone, by action or

Mental Health Awareness Week: Supporting energy workers during turbulent times

During Mental Health Awareness Week, the International Association of Drilling Contractors’ (IADC) boss Darren Sutherland offered advice for employers to support energy workers during a turbulent time for the industry. Speaking at the All-Energy conference in Glasgow, Sutherland addressed recent industry tensions. “We are facing difficult times, especially in the oil and gas sector, and now renewables are starting to see headwinds as well,” the IADC North Sea Chapter vice chair said. His words came soon after the announcement of mass job cuts at Harbour Energy, financial difficulties for Aberdeen’s major service firms, businesses closing their doors, and a trend of North Sea players merging their UK operations. “I think the key thing is communication,” Sutherland continued, adding “people have a higher propensity for the truth than we give them credit for”. “Open communication from leadership about what’s happening and what’s going on is definitely key.” He spoke about the importance of “having that space for people to be able to speak and talk through their challenges” as they grapple with the impacts of the uncertainty facing the energy industry. “Then again, the other thing that we need to be doing is preparing our workforces for these future challenges,” Sutherland explained. He touched on the importance of ensuring workers are prepared for the worst case scenario. He asked attendees at the ‘Challenges and Successes of Addressing Mental Health in the Energy Industry’ panel how many of them had spoken with a financial adviser. “I’m not talking about your company budget, I’m talking about your bank funds,” Sutherland said. One member of the audience, and Sutherland’s fellow speaker, Alex Morton, of the Marine Safety Forum, raised their hands. He explained that during a time of peak inflation, his business brought in a financial adviser. “It’s about giving back some of those

NuScale expects 77-MWe design approval in July, first SMR order by end of 2025

Dive Brief: NuScale Power is in advanced discussions with several potential customers for its small modular reactor technology and could deliver an operating power plant in 2030 “if we get closure on a deal here soon,” CEO John Hopkins said Monday during a first-quarter earnings call. NuScale remains on track for an expected July approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its uprated 77-MW electric design, the company said in a news release Monday. Manufacturing partner Doosan has 12 NuScale modules in production now and could deliver 20 per year as orders materialize, Hopkins said. NuScale envisions four-, six- and 12-module deployments, with plant outputs ranging from 308 MWe to 924 MWe. Dive Insight: NuScale continues front-end engineering work as a subcontractor for Fluor Corporation’s 462-MWe power plant project in Romania, but has yet to finalize a module supply deal of its own. That could change soon, Hopkins suggested Monday, previewing a visit with executives from a prospective customer next month to Doosan’s module forging plant in South Korea. “Our focus right now is to get closure on near-term contracts. We are no longer chasing or announcing [memoranda of understanding],” he said. “We’re actually in the process of submitting and negotiating term sheets. We’ve got customers that [want] to … touch steel.” Possible early power customers include large data center operators, other heavy industrial customers and utilities, NuScale said in the Monday news release. Any deal would involve multiple parties, NuScale Chief Financial Officer Ramsey Hamady said Monday. The module buyer would likely be a power plant operator, which would work with an offtaker, probably a “tier one data center or AI developer,” he said. Other parties could include a site operator, such as a utility, along with capital partners and NuScale’s exclusive plant development partner, ENTRA1. NuScale’s focus

Repealing energy tax credits would raise electricity costs, study says

Dive Brief: Repealing technology-neutral clean energy tax credits would raise the cost of energy for consumers and industry across 19 states from 2026 to 2032 by increasing reliance on natural gas generation sources that have constrained availability, according to a new study released Thursday by the Clean Energy Buyers Association. Republicans in Congress have targeted the tax credits for early phase-out as they seek to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to extend certain tax cuts and repeal clean energy incentives the president has derided as a “scam.” The study found that energy-intensive sectors such as iron and steel, chemicals, cement, aluminum and nonferrous metals would be hardest hit. Dive Insight: CEBA’s members include many of the technology giants, such as Amazon, Google and Meta, whose data centers and AI models are largely driving the increase in electricity demand. “They are very concerned that if we don’t handle this rising electricity demand in a very, very responsible way, that we’re going to see very high electricity price increases both for our own businesses and for our customers,” CEBA CEO Rich Powell said in an interview. He said many CEBA member companies are in “growth mode,” pouring huge investments into building new technology, manufacturing and retail sites. “Anything that destabilizes the electricity system right now, and the economics of the electricity system, could be really difficult for our businesses,” he added. The study, which NERA Economic Consulting conducted for CEBA, modeled the state-level electricity market outlooks assuming incremental electricity demand from the growth of data centers under two scenarios, with and without the federal investment and production tax incentives. It also provided a breakdown of projected cost increases in certain states. Seven of the 19 states would see double-digit percentage increases in average household and business electricity prices in the 2026-2032 period, according to the study.

UK missed out on £3.5bn investment over Hornsea 4

The UK missed out on potentially £3.5 billion of investment by choosing the stalled Hornsea 4 wind farm over other projects in the last capacity auction. The UK government’s head of Mission Control for clean energy Chris Stark told the audience at All Energy: “Ørsted’s decision to delay Hornsea 4 despite securing a contract for difference (CfD) last year is a blow for us, particularly because it displaced other very good projects that would otherwise be in full development right now.” Speaking during the opening plenary alongside Stark, RWE UK country chair Tom Glover added that RWE’s projects were among those not selected in allocation round 6 (AR6), when Hornsea received its CfD. “I have massive sympathy with Ørsted,” he said. “But it was actually some of RWE projects that weren’t successful. “As a result, there would have been £7-8 billion of money that could have come to the UK 12 months ago, and for every pound I spend, roughly 50p ends up in the UK. “So we’re talking about £3.5bn that we could have had in the UK for 12 months that hasn’t been deployed. You’ve got investors with money ready to go and we’re not deploying it.” © Supplied by All-EnergyChris Stark, head of Mission Control for Clean Power 2030. Global headwinds Danish developer Ørsted announced this month that it would discontinue construction on its landmark 2.4GW Hornsea 4 offshore wind farm in what was viewed in some quarters as a blow to the UK’s net zero targets. Despite having received a contract for its power, the company said that “several adverse developments” such as increasing supply chain costs, higher interest rates, and an increase in the risk to construct and operate the project, had eroded the project’s financial case. Stark noted that Ørsted’s decision reflects “the reality

Check Point CISO: Network segregation can prevent blackouts, disruptions

Fischbein agrees 100% with his colleague’s analysis and adds that education and training can help prevent such incidents from occurring. “Simulating such a blackout is impossible, it has never been done,” he acknowledges, but he is committed to strengthening personal and team training and risk awareness. Increased defense and cybersecurity budgets In 2025, industry watchers expect there will be an increase in the public budget allocated to defense. In Spain, one-third of the budget will be allocated to increasing cybersecurity. But for Fischbein, training teams is much more important than the budget. “The challenge is to distribute the budget in a way that can be managed,” he notes, and to leverage intuitive and easy-to-use platforms, so that organizations don’t have to invest all the money in training. “When you have information, management, users, devices, mobiles, data centers, clouds, cameras, printers… the security challenge is very complex. You have to look for a security platform that makes things easier, faster, and simpler,” he says. ” Today there are excellent tools that can stop all kinds of attacks.” “Since 2010, there have been cybersecurity systems, also from Check Point, that help prevent this type of incident from happening, but I’m not sure that [Spain’s electricity blackout] was a cyberattack.” Leading the way in email security According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, Check Point is the leader in email security platforms. Today email is still responsible for 88% of all malicious file distributions. Attacks that, as Fischbein explains, enter through phishing, spam, SMS, or QR codes. “There are two challenges: to stop the threats and not to disturb, because if the security tool is a nuisance it causes more harm than good. It is very important that the solution does not annoy [users],” he stresses. “As almost all attacks enter via e-mail, it is

HPE ‘morphs’ private cloud portfolio with improved virtualization, storage and data protection

What do you get when combining Morpheus with Aruba? As part of the extensible platform message that HPE is promoting with Morpheus, it’s also working in some capabilities from the broader HPE portfolio. One integration is with HPE Aruba for networking microsegmentation. Bhardwaj noted that a lot of HPE Morpheus users are looking for microsegmentation in order to make sure that the traffic between two virtual machines on a server is secure. “The traditional approach of doing that is on the hypervisor, but that costs cycles on the hypervisor,” Bhardwaj said. “Frankly, the way that’s being delivered today, customers have to pay extra cost on the server.” With the HPE Aruba plugin that now works with HPE Morpheus, the microsegmentation capability can be enabled at the switch level. Bhardwaj said that by doing the microsegmentation in the switch and not the hypervisor, costs can be lowered and performance can be increased. The integration brings additional capabilities, including the ability to support VPN and network address translation (NAT) in an integrated way between the switch and the hypervisor. VMware isn’t the only hypervisor supported by HPE The HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Hypervisor is another new element in the HPE cloud portfolio. The hypervisor is now being integrated into HPE’s private cloud offerings for both data center as well as edge deployments.

AMD targets hosting providers with affordable EPYC 4005 processors

According to Pinkesh Kotecha, chairman and MD of Ishan Technologies, AMD’s 4th Gen EPYC processors stood out because they offer the right combination of high performance, energy efficiency, and security. “Their high core density and ability to optimize performance per watt made them ideal for managing data-intensive operations like real-time analytics and high-frequency transactions. Additionally, AMD’s strong AI roadmap and growing portfolio of AI-optimised solutions position them as a forward-looking partner, ready to support our customers’ evolving AI and data needs. This alignment made AMD a clear choice over alternatives,” Kotecha said. By integrating AMD EPYC processors, Ishan Technologies’ Ishan Cloud plans to empower enterprises across BFSI, ITeS, and manufacturing industries, as well as global capability centers and government organizations, to meet India’s data localization requirements and drive AI-led digital transformation. “The AMD EPYC 4005 series’ price-to-performance ratio makes it an attractive option for cloud hosting and web services, where cost-efficient, always-on performance is essential,” said Manish Rawat, analyst, TechInsights. Prabhu Ram, VP for the industry research group at CMR, said EPYC 4005 processors deliver a compelling mix of performance-per-watt, higher core counts, and modern I/O support, positioning it as a strong alternative to Intel’s Xeon E-2400 and 6300P, particularly for edge deployments. Shah of Counterpoint added, “While ARM-based Ampere Altra promises higher power efficiencies and is ideally adopted in more cloud and hyperscale data centers, though performance is something where x86-based Zen 5 architecture excels and nicely balances the efficiencies with lower TDPs, better software compatibilities supported by a more mature ecosystem.”

Shell’s immersive cooling liquids the first to receive official certification from Intel

Along with the certification, Intel is offering a Xeon processor single-phase immersion warranty rider. This indicates Intel’s confidence in the durability and effectiveness of Shell’s fluids. Yates explained that the rider augments Intel’s standard warranty terms and is available to data center operators deploying 4th and 5th generation Xeon processors in Shell immersion fluids. The rider is intended to provide data center operators confidence that their investment is guaranteed when deployed correctly. Shell’s fluids are available globally and can be employed in retrofitted existing infrastructure or used in new builds. Cuts resource use, increases performance Data centers consume anywhere from 10 to 50 times more energy per square foot than traditional office buildings, and they are projected to drive more than 20% of the growth in electricity demand between now and 2030. Largely due to the explosion of AI, data center energy consumption is expected to double from 415 terawatt-hours in 2024 to around 945 TWh by 2030. There are several other technologies used for data center cooling, including air cooling, cold plate (direct-to-chip), and precision cooling (targeted to specific areas), but the use of immersion cooling has been growing, and is expected to account for 36% of data center thermal management revenue by 2028. With this method, servers and networking equipment are placed in cooling fluids that absorb and dissipate heat generated by the electronic equipment. These specialized fluids are thermally conductive but not electrically conductive (dielectric) thus making them safe for submerging electrical equipment.

Cisco joins AI infrastructure alliance

“The addition of Cisco reinforces AIP’s commitment to an open-architecture platform and fostering a broad ecosystem that supports a diverse range of partners on a non-exclusive basis, all working together to build a new kind of AI infrastructure,” the group said in a statement. Separately, Cisco announced AI initiatives centered in the Middle East region. Last week, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins visited Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain. This week, Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and chief product officer, is in Saudi Arabia, where he is participating in President Trump’s state visit to the region, according to Cisco. Related new projects include: An initiative with HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia’s new AI enterprise to help build an open, scalable, resilient and cost-efficient AI infrastructure: “This landmark collaboration will set a new standard for how AI infrastructure is designed, secured and delivered – combining Cisco’s global expertise with the Kingdom’s bold AI ambitions. The multi-year initiative aims to position the country as a global leader in digital innovation,” Cisco stated. A collaboration with the UAE-basedG42 to co-develop a secure AI portfolio and AI-native services: Cisco and G42 will work together to assess the potential to co-develop and jointly deploy AI-powered cybersecurity packages, as well as a reference architecture that integrates Cisco’s networking, security, and infrastructure solutions specifically designed for high-performance computing. This collaboration aims to help customers build and secure AI-ready data centers and develop AI workloads effectively, according to the companies. Interest in Qatar’s digital transformation: Qatar’s Ministry of Interior and Cisco signed a letter of intent to collaborate on Qatar’s digital transformation, AI, infrastructure development and cybersecurity.

Cato Networks introduces AI-powered policy analysis engine

Cato Networks this week announced a new policy analysis engine for its cloud-based secure access service edge platform that the company says will optimize and improve SASE policies, reduce risk, simplify compliance, and reduce manual maintenance efforts. Cato Autonomous Policies is built into the Cato SASE Cloud Platform and can provide enterprises with AI-driven recommendations to eliminate security exposure, tighten access controls, and improve network performance. The first use case of the policy engine is designed for firewall as a service (FWaaS) environments in which “firewall rule bloat” is present, Cato explained in a statement. The bloat comes from organizations accumulating thousands of rules that were designed to protect the environment, but after becoming outdated or misconfigured, actually lead to increased risk. “Most enterprises rely on a mix of firewalls deployed in data centers, branch offices, and cloud environments. Over time, rule sets grow, become inconsistent, and are filled with redundant, outdated, or conflicting entries,” wrote Demetris Booth, product marketing director at Cato Networks, in a blog post on the product news. “As a result, security policies become hard to manage, even harder to audit, and often misaligned with zero-trust principles. AI-driven firewall policy management is necessary for modern enterprises to streamline and optimize security operations.”

Microsoft will invest $80B in AI data centers in fiscal 2025

And Microsoft isn’t the only one that is ramping up its investments into AI-enabled data centers. Rival cloud service providers are all investing in either upgrading or opening new data centers to capture a larger chunk of business from developers and users of large language models (LLMs). In a report published in October 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that demand for generative AI would push Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, Meta, and Apple would between them devote $200 billion to capex in 2025, up from $110 billion in 2023. Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025. Both figures, though, are way higher than Microsoft’s 2020 capital expenditure of “just” $17.6 billion. The majority of the increased spending is tied to cloud services and the expansion of AI infrastructure needed to provide compute capacity for OpenAI workloads. Separately, last October Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said his company planned total capex spend of $75 billion in 2024 and even more in 2025, with much of it going to AWS, its cloud computing division.

John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

2025 playbook for enterprise AI success, from agents to evals

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for enterprise AI. The past year has seen rapid innovation, and this year will see the same. This has made it more critical than ever to revisit your AI strategy to stay competitive and create value for your customers. From scaling AI agents to optimizing costs, here are the five critical areas enterprises should prioritize for their AI strategy this year. 1. Agents: the next generation of automation AI agents are no longer theoretical. In 2025, they’re indispensable tools for enterprises looking to streamline operations and enhance customer interactions. Unlike traditional software, agents powered by large language models (LLMs) can make nuanced decisions, navigate complex multi-step tasks, and integrate seamlessly with tools and APIs. At the start of 2024, agents were not ready for prime time, making frustrating mistakes like hallucinating URLs. They started getting better as frontier large language models themselves improved. “Let me put it this way,” said Sam Witteveen, cofounder of Red Dragon, a company that develops agents for companies, and that recently reviewed the 48 agents it built last year. “Interestingly, the ones that we built at the start of the year, a lot of those worked way better at the end of the year just because the models got better.” Witteveen shared this in the video podcast we filmed to discuss these five big trends in detail. Models are getting better and hallucinating less, and they’re also being trained to do agentic tasks. Another feature that the model providers are researching is a way to use the LLM as a judge, and as models get cheaper (something we’ll cover below), companies can use three or more models to

OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI has taken a more aggressive approach to red teaming than its AI competitors, demonstrating its security teams’ advanced capabilities in two areas: multi-step reinforcement and external red teaming. OpenAI recently released two papers that set a new competitive standard for improving the quality, reliability and safety of AI models in these two techniques and more. The first paper, “OpenAI’s Approach to External Red Teaming for AI Models and Systems,” reports that specialized teams outside the company have proven effective in uncovering vulnerabilities that might otherwise have made it into a released model because in-house testing techniques may have missed them. In the second paper, “Diverse and Effective Red Teaming with Auto-Generated Rewards and Multi-Step Reinforcement Learning,” OpenAI introduces an automated framework that relies on iterative reinforcement learning to generate a broad spectrum of novel, wide-ranging attacks. Going all-in on red teaming pays practical, competitive dividends It’s encouraging to see competitive intensity in red teaming growing among AI companies. When Anthropic released its AI red team guidelines in June of last year, it joined AI providers including Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, and even the U.S.’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which all had released red teaming frameworks. Investing heavily in red teaming yields tangible benefits for security leaders in any organization. OpenAI’s paper on external red teaming provides a detailed analysis of how the company strives to create specialized external teams that include cybersecurity and subject matter experts. The goal is to see if knowledgeable external teams can defeat models’ security perimeters and find gaps in their security, biases and controls that prompt-based testing couldn’t find. What makes OpenAI’s recent papers noteworthy is how well they define using human-in-the-middle

Arm is rebranding its system-on-a-chip product designs to showcase power savings for AI workloads, targeting a surprising sector

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More UK-based chip designer Arm offers the

Stay Ahead, Stay ONMINE