As part of my AI coding evaluations, I run a standardized series of four programming tests against each AI. These tests are designed to determine how well a given AI can help you program. This is kind of useful, especially if you're counting on the AI to help you produce code. The last thing you want is for an AI helper to introduce more bugs into your work output, right? Some time ago, a reader reached out to me and asked why I keep using the same tests.

I know you've heard of gamification, but have you ever heard of festification? That's what Microsoft will be doing in April and May, with the Microsoft AI Skills Fest. It's a little odd, but it also looks like it might be a heck of a lot of fun. I've written a lot about Microsoft over the years. I've mocked its product naming.

Branding, websites, marketing, invoices, and the headaches that come with it all are enough to make most people never even start. This all-in-one business platform eliminates the intimidation of starting a brand and makes it fun again. It can do anything from help you build a website or online shop to send marketing emails and handle CRM. And, instead of paying platforms like Shopify, Mailchimp, and others every month, Sellfull is 399 for life. While that initial payment seems like a lot upfront, it averages out to so little each month for all that it does.

After years of lagging behind rivals when it comes to video capture (and then suddenly buying cinema camera manufacturer RED), Nikon is pushing new boundaries in that area. Its latest salvo is the 1,699 24-megapixel full-frame Z5 II, perhaps the cheapest mirrorless camera so far to support internal RAW video. It also offers improved autofocus with new AI powers, cleaner images and enhanced image stabilization. The Z5 II is a wholesale remake of the original Z5 and that starts with video. While still limited to 4K 30 fps and cropped 4K 60 fps, it can now capture those formats internally using the company's 12-bit N-RAW format with N-log, along with 10-bit H.265 and 8-bit H.264. Interestingly, it will record in N-RAW to SDXC UHS-II cards, since the camera lacks high-speed CFexpress slots.

Ecosia was founded in 2009 by Christian Kroll, who felt compelled to do something after he saw the effects of deforestation while on a trip around the world. And so Ecosia was born, a search engine that puts its advertising revenue towards tree-planting projects. Ecosia started off as a search engine, but has since expanded with a few other products that include Ecosia Browser (a Chromium-based web browser), Ecosia Chat (an AI chatbot powered by OpenAI's API), and Freetree (a browser extension that plants trees as you shop). Ecosia is a not-for-profit tech company based in Berlin, Germany, that dedicates all profits to the betterment of our planet. In addition to turning every web search into an opportunity to plant and protect trees, Ecosia invests in various initiatives that further regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, and fighting climate change.

By any estimation, Minecraft is impossibly successful. The bestselling video game ever, as of last December it had 204 million monthly active players. Since it was first released in 2011, it has generated over 3bn ( 2.3bn) in revenue. What's more, its players have always been eager to demonstrate their fandom outside the boundaries of the game itself. In 2021, YouTube calculated that videos related to the game – tutorials, walk-throughs, homages, parodies – had collectively been viewed 1tn times. In short, it is a phenomenon.

It is a game about love and identity, but it also has forklift truck races. It is a game about bloody revenge, but while you're waiting to retaliate, you can buy lottery tickets and visit the arcade. When Bafta recently asked gamers to vote on the most influential game of all time, I'm not sure even the most ardent Sega fans would have gambled on the success of an idiosyncratic Dreamcast adventure from 1999. Yet the results, released on Thursday morning, show Shenmue at No 1, with perhaps more predictable contenders Doom and Super Mario Bros coming in second and third respectively. How has this happened, especially considering the game was considered a financial failure at the time of its release, falling short of recouping its then staggering development costs (a reported 70m, which would now get you about a third of Horizon Forbidden West or Star Wars Outlaws)?

A robotics company has advanced from a backflipping robot to a side-flipping robot. Robots aren't just efficient machines anymore, they are now agile performers that can flip and jog. Take, for instance, Unitree, a Chinese robotics company that has been making headlines with its incredible G1 humanoid robot. You might have seen it dancing alongside humans or remembered its predecessor, the H1, which stunned us with a backflip using electric motors. But now, the G1 has taken things to a whole new level.

The digital age sings a seductive song of progress, yet a deliberate erasure echoes within its circuits. We stand at a crossroads, where technology, particularly the promise of artificial intelligence, threatens both to illuminate and to obliterate. Whose perspectives will shape, and whose will be erased from, the future we build? AI, in particular, has become the latest battleground in a culture war that oscillates between unchecked techno-optimism and dystopian fear. We are told, on one hand, that AI will save us – from disease, inefficiency, ignorance – on the other, that it will replace us, dominate us, erase us.

Cisco has released a "2025 Data Privacy Benchmark Study" that looks at the privacy challenges companies face with the rise of artificial intelligence. It offers practical insights for businesses that want to integrate AI while keeping privacy front and center. The study gathered opinions from 2,600 privacy and security professionals across 12 countries. A key finding is that most companies (86%) support privacy laws, citing a "positive" impact on their business operations. Although compliance can be costly, 96% of organizations reported that the benefits significantly outweigh the investment.