Once upon a time, "reinstalling Windows" was an often recommended remedy for all sorts of computer problems. Windows 95 and XP were notorious for becoming less stable over time, with "crap in the machine" in the form of settings left in the Registry, traces of uninstalled programs that had not been properly removed, and other things that lurked. Indeed, many people chose to reinstall from time to time even if the computer showed no symptoms, as part of regular maintenance. Windows 10 and 11 are much better at keeping order and cleaning up automatically. Today, frequent reinstallations are not something we at PCWorld or any other experts recommend.

The end of the world is coming … eventually. Shortly before his death last year, famed physicist Stephen Hawking left us with several rather grim predictions for the future of Earth and life on it. At the top of his list was the takeover of artificial intelligence (AI). In an interview with Wired, he was quoted as follows: "We need to move forward on artificial intelligence development, but we also need to be mindful of its very real dangers. I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that will outperform humans."

In case you haven't noticed, human level machine intelligence is already here. The end of the world is coming … eventually. Shortly before his death last year, famed physicist Stephen Hawking left us with several rather grim predictions for the future of Earth and life on it. At the top of his list was the takeover of artificial intelligence (AI). In an interview with Wired, he was quoted as follows: "We need to move forward on artificial intelligence development, but we also need to be mindful of its very real dangers. I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that will outperform humans."