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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 […]

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.

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Blackstone to acquire majority stake in NetBrain Technologies

Global investment firm Blackstone announced it entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in network automation platform provider NetBrain Technologies. While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Blackstone’s growth investment in NetBrain valued the technology provider at $750 million. “AI has the power to transform how

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CIOs recalibrate IT agendas to make room for rising AI spend

Moreover, they’re reporting that the executive drive for all things AI has them recalibrating their IT project agenda, prioritizing AI spending while bumping other items down or even off the to-do list. “Budgets are finite, and because AI investments are an imperative for CEOs, the boards, and CIOs to support

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IT leaders rethink talent strategies to cope with AI skills crunch

As a result, CIOs at most companies have a tougher time attracting machine learning engineers, prompt engineers, and other AI-specific talent, Goldberg says. That leaves many turning to AI consultants and training their existing data engineers, enterprise architects, and others so they can slide into those AI positions. “They’re assessing

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Norway Gas Output Down for Fourth Consecutive Month

Preliminary official data showed Norway produced 292.3 million standard cubic meters a day (MMscmd) of natural gas in June, down for the fourth month in a row. The figure also marks the fourth consecutive month that Norway’s gas output fell year-on-year, according to data from the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD). June 2025’s gas production dropped 2.2 percent compared to May 2025 and 15.5 percent against June 2024. The June 2025 figure did beat the NOD’s forecast by 3.1 percent. The Nordic country sold 8.8 billion standard cubic meters (Bscm) of gas last month, down by 0.5 Bscm from May, according to the upstream regulator. In the first quarter, Norwegian gas sales totaled 30.87 Bscm. That dropped to 28.2 Bscm in the second quarter. According to the European Commission’s latest quarterly gas market report, Norway remained the European Union’s top gas – gaseous and liquefied – supplier in the first quarter, accounting for 31 percent or 21.7 Bcm. Norway also remained the EU’s biggest pipeline gas supplier accounting for 55 percent or 20.6 Bcm. Norway’s share of the EU’s piped gas imports increased by five percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 following the end of the Ukraine-Russia transit deal. Meanwhile Norway’s oil production in June averaged 1.68 million barrels per day (MMbd), down 6.4 percent from May and three percent from June 2024. The figure exceeded the NOD projection by 3.1 percent. Total liquids production was 1.85 MMbd, down 5.9 percent both month-on-month and year-on-year. However, it beat the forecast by 1.3 percent. On Wednesday, majority state-owned Equinor ASA said its Norwegian equity gas and liquids production in the second quarter averaged 704,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed) and 655,000 boed respectively. “New production from the Johan Castberg field reaching plateau and Halten East contributed. Together, this

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Carnarvon to Acquire Stake in Strike Energy

Carnarvon Energy Limited said it has entered into a subscription agreement under which it may invest up to $58.9 million (AUD 89 million) to acquire up to 19.9 percent interest in Strike Energy Limited at AUD 0.12 per share. Carnarvon will execute the investment in two tranches, the company said in a news release. The first tranche consists of $34.4 million (AUD 52 million) for an initial 13 percent stake, while the second tranche will involve up to $24.5 million (AUD 37 million) for the final stake of 19.9 percent and is conditional on the approval of Strike shareholders at the company’s September general meeting. Upon the completion of the first tranche, Carnarvon will have the right to nominate one representative to Strike’s board, according to the release. The right ceases if Carnarvon’s voting power in Strike falls below 10 percent for a continuous period of two months. Carnarvon said the investment gives it a stake in Strike’s “extensive and high-quality gas portfolio of production, development and exploration assets which requires access to capital to drive growth”. The investment will also give Carnarvon exposure to Western Australia’s domestic gas and electricity markets “at a time when gas and energy demand is increasing,” the company said. The investment will allow Strike to complete the South Erregulla 85-megawatt (MW) gas-fired peaking power station by October 2026 and move it closer to a final investment decision on the West Erregulla gas project, according to the release. The funding will also be used for the planned life extension of the Walyering domestic gas project and the maturation of an attractive portfolio of Perth Basin development and exploration opportunities such as Ocean Hill, according to the release. Subject to shareholder approval, Strike will also undertake a non-underwritten Share Purchase Plan to raise up to $6.6

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Iberdrola Starts Up Its First Solar Facility in Germany

Iberdrola S.A.’s German unit, Iberdrola Deutschland, has started up its first solar farm in the country, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The facility in the municipality of Boldekow, some 180 kilometers (111.8 miles) north of Berlin, has been inaugurated in partnership with Vodafone. The solar park is expected to produce over 53 gigawatt-hours annually, supplying electricity to approximately 3,000 Vodafone cell towers. Throughout its projected 30-year duration, the solar park is estimated to reduce around 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, Iberdrola said in a press release. Iberdrola noted that through its offshore wind farms Wikinger, Baltic Eagle, and Windanker, Iberdrola has become the predominant operator of offshore wind energy in the German Baltic Sea. This new solar park expands the company’s commitment in Germany to include onshore renewable energy, it said. “Photovoltaics are another building block to expand our exclusively renewable energy offering in Germany”, Felipe Montero, CEO of Iberdrola Deutschland, said. “The location in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was chosen not only for its strong solar radiation but also for the region’s openness and support for such a sustainable project”. “Digitalization helps thousands of companies across the country save energy and become more sustainable. But digitalization can only be truly effective if we make it more sustainable ourselves – for example, by powering our networks. That’s why we’re now relying even more on solar energy for mobile communications in Germany. The 80,000 solar panels Iberdrola is launching in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will power our network exclusively and ensure the operation of more than 3,000 stations nationwide”, Marcel de Groot, CEO of Vodafone Germany, said. Power produced by the facility will be entirely supplied to Vodafone Germany through a long-term agreement. Vodafone recently achieved CO2 neutrality for its direct and indirect emissions (Scope 1 and 2), thanks to its shift to renewable power starting 2020, Iberdrola noted.

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TotalEnergies Starts Production at Begonia, CLOV Phase III offshore Angola

TotalEnergies SE said Wednesday it has unlocked new production of 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) gross in Angola with the start-up of Begonia and CLOV Phase III. Begonia, 150 kilometers (93.21 miles) off the coast of the Central African country, has a capacity of 30,000 bpd. The project consists of five wells tied back to the Pazflor floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The first inter-block development in Angola, Begonia straddles blocks 17 and 17/06, both operated by the French energy giant. TotalEnergies owns a 38 percent stake in block 17 and 30 percent in 17/06. Block 17’s CLOV Phase III, 140 kilometers off the coast, also has a production capacity of 30,000 bpd. It consists of four wells tied back to the CLOV FPSO. In block 17, TotalEnergies’ partners are Norway’s majority state-owned Equinor ASA (22.16 percent), Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. (19 percent), BP PLC-Eni SpA joint venture Azule Energy (15.84 percent) and state-owned Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola EP (five percent). In block 17/06, the co-venturers are Sonangol (30 percent), SSI (27.5 percent), ETU Energias (7.5 percent) and Falcon Oil (five percent). The two projects “will help Angola maintain its production levels above one million bpd”, said Paulino Jeronimo, chair of the National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels. TotalEnergies president for exploration and production Nicolas Terraz said, “With Begonia and CLOV Phase III, we are leveraging available production capacity in existing FPSOs of Block 17 (Pazflor and CLOV) while reducing costs and emissions”. Besides CLOV and Pazflor, block 17 also produces through FPSOs Dalia and Girassol. TotalEnergies said last year several infill drilling projects were being carried out. An exploration well, Dalia‑6, was also drilled 2024. Elsewhere in Angola, TotalEnergies and its partners approved the Kaminho project in block 20/11 last year. The first large

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Oil Holds Steady Amid Trade Deal Hopes

Oil held steady as equities headed toward all-time highs on news of potential progress in trade talks between the US and the European Union, offsetting nascent signs of a softening physical market. West Texas Intermediate crude settled little changed above $65 a barrel, recovering from its lows of the day as risk assets rallied on reports the EU and the US are closing in on a deal that would impose 15% tariffs on European imports, similar to the agreement struck with Japan. Futures fell earlier in the session after the US Energy Information Administration reported that inventory levels at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI futures, rose to the highest since June. Distillate reserves increased for a second straight week. Still, overall crude inventories fell, and diesel stockpiles remain at the lowest seasonal level since 1996, lending support to oil markets. “Cushing is perhaps the most important takeaway, with more builds expected in the weeks ahead to carry it away from historic lows,” said Matt Smith, Americas lead oil analyst at market intelligence firm Kpler. The stockpile data provided a downside catalyst to prices that had been drifting aimlessly amid mixed trade developments. While President Donald Trump unveiled deals with Japan and the Philippines, the European Union plans to quickly hit the US with 30% tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods if no agreement is reached. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he’ll discuss a potential extension of the trade truce with China during talks in Stockholm next week. The discussions can now take on a broader array of topics, potentially including Beijing’s continued purchases of “sanctioned” oil from Russia and Iran, he said. Crude has traded in a relatively narrow range this month after a volatile June, when prices were jolted by the conflict between Israel

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Mexico Seeks Up to $10B in Debt Sale to Back Pemex

Mexico is looking to raise between $7 billion and $10 billion with a debt sale to shore up resources for battered state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, people familiar with the matter said.  The offering, disclosed in a filing earlier Tuesday, will consist of dollar-denominated debt maturing August 2030, in the form of amortizing pre-capitalized securities, or P-Caps, a type of instrument used in asset-backed finance.  The government “is implementing a series of measures to provide support to Pemex in the management and improvement of its balance sheet,” it said without providing details on the amount it plans to raise. Once issued, the P-Caps will not be consolidated with the liabilities of Pemex or Mexico, but “constitute public debt of the Mexican Government.”  Mexico’s finance ministry said in a statement that the operation would allow Pemex to address its short-term financial and operational needs. A Pemex spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment. Pemex bonds jumped across the curve on the news, with notes due in 2050 up about 2 cents on the dollar, according to Trace data, the best performers in the high-yield space. Five-year credit-default swaps for the oil company sank 41 basis points.  Fitch Ratings placed Pemex on Ratings Watch Positive late on Tuesday, saying that if successful, the transaction will improve the Mexican government’s track record of support for the company. The reassessment may result in a multiple notch upgrade for the driller into the BB category, Fitch said. Mexico’s five-year CDS contracts, meanwhile, jumped almost 7 basis points to the highest level in a month, according to pricing data collected by Bloomberg. Sovereign dollar notes fell across the curve and were some of the worst performers in emerging markets on Tuesday. Support  President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has been working on a broad plan to shore

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Technology is coming so fast data centers are obsolete by the time they launch

 Tariffs aside, Enderle feels that AI technology and ancillary technology around it like battery backup is still in the early stages of development and there will be significant changes coming in the next few years. GPUs from AMD and Nvidia are the primary processors for AI, and they are derived from video game accelerators. They were never meant for use in AI processing, but they are being fine-tuned for the task.  It’s better to wait to get a more mature product than something that is still in a relatively early state. But Alan Howard, senior analyst for data center infrastructure at Omdia, disagrees and says not to wait. One reason is the rate at which people that are building data centers is all about seizing market opportunity.” You must have a certain amount of capacity to make sure that you can execute on strategies meant to capture more market share.” The same sentiment exists on the colocation side, where there is a considerable shortage of capacity as demand outstrips supply. “To say, well, let’s wait and see if maybe we’ll be able to build a better, more efficient data center by not building anything for a couple of years. That’s just straight up not going to happen,” said Howard. “By waiting, you’re going to miss market opportunities. And these companies are all in it to make money. And so, the almighty dollar rules,” he added. Howard acknowledges that by the time you design and build the data center, it’s obsolete. The question is, does that mean it can’t do anything? “I mean, if you start today on a data center that’s going to be full of [Nvidia] Blackwells, and let’s say you deploy in two years when they’ve already retired Blackwell, and they’re making something completely new. Is that data

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‘Significant’ outage at Alaska Airlines not a security incident, but a hardware breakdown

The airline told Network World that when the critical piece of what it described as “third-party multi-redundant hardware” failed unexpectedly, “it impacted several of our key systems that enable us to run various operations.” The company is currently working with its vendor to replace the faulty equipment at the data center. The airline has cancelled more than 150 flights since Sunday evening, including 64 on Monday. The company said additional flight disruptions are likely as it repositions aircraft and crews throughout its network. Alaska Airlines emphasized that the safety of its flights was never compromised, and that “the IT outage is not related to any other current events, and it’s not connected to the recent cybersecurity incident at Hawaiian Airlines.” The airline did not provide additional information to Network World about the specifics of the outage. “There are many redundant components that can fail,” said Roberts, noting that it could have been something as simple as a RAID array (which combines multiple physical data storage components into one or more logical units). Or, on the network side, it could have been the failure of a pair of load balancers. “It’s interesting that redundancy didn’t save them,” said Roberts. “Perhaps multiple pieces of hardware were impacted by the same issue, like a firmware update. Or, maybe they’re just really unlucky.”

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Cisco upgrades 400G optical receiver to boost AI infrastructure throughput

“In the data center, what’s really changed in the last year or so is that with AI buildouts, there’s much, much more optics that are part of 400G and 800G. It’s not so much using 10G and 25G optics, which we still sell a ton of, for campus applications. But for AI infrastructure, the 400G and 800G optics are really the dominant optics for that application,” Gartner said. Most of the AI infrastructure builds have been for training models, especially in hyperscaler environments, Gartner said. “I expect, towards the tail end of this year, we’ll start to see more enterprises deploying AI infrastructure for inference. And once they do that, because it has an Nvidia GPU attached to it, it’s going to be a 400G or 800G optic.” Core enterprise applications – such as real-time trading, high-frequency transactions, multi-cloud communications, cybersecurity analytics, network forensics, and industrial IoT – can also utilize the higher network throughput, Gartner said. 

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Supermicro bets big on 4-socket X14 servers to regain enterprise trust

In April, Dell announced its PowerEdge R470, R570, R670, and R770 servers with Intel Xeon 6 Processors with P-cores, but with single and double-socket servers. Similarly, Lenovo’s ThinkSystem V4 servers are also based on the Intel Xeon 6 processor but are limited to dual socket configurations. The launch of 4-socket servers by Supermicro reflects a growing enterprise need for localized compute that can support memory-bound AI and reduce the complexity of distributed architectures. “The modern 4-socket servers solve multiple pain points that have intensified with GenAI and memory-intensive analytics. Enterprises are increasingly challenged by latency, interconnect complexity, and power budgets in distributed environments. High-capacity, scale-up servers provide an architecture that is more aligned with low-latency, large-model processing, especially where data residency or compliance constraints limit cloud elasticity,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research. “Launching a 4-socket Xeon 6 platform and packaging it within their modular ‘building block’ strategy shows Supermicro is focusing on staying ahead in enterprise and AI data center compute,” said Devroop Dhar, co-founder and MD at Primus Partner. A critical launch after major setbacks Experts peg this to be Supermicro’s most significant product launch since it became mired in governance and regulatory controversies. In 2024, the company lost Ernst & Young, its second auditor in two years, following allegations by Hindenburg Research involving accounting irregularities and the alleged export of sensitive chips to sanctioned entities. Compounding its troubles, Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI redirected its AI server orders to Dell, a move that reportedly cost Supermicro billions in potential revenue and damaged its standing in the hyperscaler ecosystem. Earlier this year, HPE signed a $1 billion contract to provide AI servers for X, a deal Supermicro was also bidding for. “The X14 launch marks a strategic reinforcement for Supermicro, showcasing its commitment

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Moving AI workloads off the cloud? A hefty data center retrofit awaits

“If you have a very specific use case, and you want to fold AI into some of your processes, and you need a GPU or two and a server to do that, then, that’s perfectly acceptable,” he says. “What we’re seeing, kind of universally, is that most of the enterprises want to migrate to these autonomous agents and agentic AI, where you do need a lot of compute capacity.” Racks of brand-new GPUs, even without new power and cooling infrastructure, can be costly, and Schneider Electric often advises cost-conscious clients to look at previous-generation GPUs to save money. GPU and other AI-related technology is advancing so rapidly, however, that it’s hard to know when to put down stakes. “We’re kind of in a situation where five years ago, we were talking about a data center lasting 30 years and going through three refreshes, maybe four,” Carlini says. “Now, because it is changing so much and requiring more and more power and cooling you can’t overbuild and then grow into it like you used to.”

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My take on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for LAN infrastructure? Highly inaccurate

Fortinet being in the leader quadrant may surprise some given they are best known as a security vendor, but the company has quietly built a broad and deep networking portfolio. I have no issue with them being considered a leader and believe for security conscious companies, Fortinet is a great option. Challenger Cisco is the only company listed as a challenger, and its movement out of the leader quadrant highlights just how inaccurate this document is. There is no vendor that sells more networking equipment in more places than Cisco, and it has led enterprise networking for decades. Several years ago, when it was a leader, I could argue the division of engineering between Meraki and Catalyst could have pushed them out, but it didn’t. So why now? At its June Cisco Live event, the company launched a salvo of innovation including AI Canvas, Cisco AI Assistant, and much more. It’s also continually improved the interoperability between Meraki and Catalyst and announced several new products. AI Canvas is a completely new take, was well received by customers at Cisco Live, and reinvents the concept of AIOps. As I stated above, because of the December cutoff time for information gathering, none of this was included, but that makes Cisco’s representation false. Also, I find this MQ very vague in its “Cautions” segment. As an example, it states: “Cisco’s product strategy isn’t well-aligned with key enterprise needs.” Some details here would be helpful. In my conversations with Cisco, which includes with Chief Product Officer and President Jeetu Patel, the company has reiterated that its strategy is to help customers be AI-ready with products that are easier to deploy and manage, more automated, and with a lower cost to run. That seems well-aligned with customer needs. If Gartner is hearing customers want networks

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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