A US physicist and a Canadian computer scientist have won this year's Turing Award for their invention of a form of seemingly unbreakable encryption. Charles H Bennett and Gilles Brassard's work, which dates back to 1984, is known as quantum cryptography and has redefined secure communication and computing, the award's body said. Scientists believe their work will be central to electronic communications in a world that depends heavily on data-sharing, but which for years has been trying to develop more powerful quantum computers. The Turing Award, named after the mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, is known as the Nobel Prize of computing. It comes with a $1m (£800,000) prize.

'Making people feel powerful' All Will Rise. 'Making people feel powerful' All Will Rise. Why an up-and-coming indie developer is returning Microsoft's money Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? V ideo games are in a funding crisis. Investor money flowed freely during the pandemic gaming boom, but now the well has run dry.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. When AI starts redrawing characters and lighting, who's really in control of the art? Because it makes a game look how Nvidia thinks it should look--and uses AI to do it. Nvidia's newly-announced DLSS 5 is an Nvidia feature that injects new details like textures and lighting via generative AI into supported games, all done using the GPU. It's quickly become the focal point of an increasingly vicious battle between human artists and AI.

Justice Department Says Anthropic Can't Be Trusted With Warfighting Systems In response to Anthropic's lawsuit, the government said it lawfully penalized the company for trying to limit how its Claude AI models could be used by the military. The Trump administration argued in a court filing on Tuesday that it did not violate Anthropic's First Amendment rights by designating the AI developer a supply-chain risk and predicted that the company's lawsuit against the government will fail. "The First Amendment is not a license to unilaterally impose contract terms on the government, and Anthropic cites nothing to support such a radical conclusion," US Department of Justice attorneys wrote. The response was filed in a federal court in San Francisco, one of two venues where Anthropic is challenging the Pentagon's decision to sanction the company with a label that can bar companies from defense contracts over concerns about potential security vulnerabilities. Anthropic argues the Trump administration overstepped its authority in applying the label and preventing the company's technologies from being used inside the department.

PCWorld reports Microsoft is scaling back Copilot AI integration in Windows 11 after widespread user dissatisfaction and poor reception. The company has shelved plans to embed Copilot into notifications and settings, reversing its previous commitment that every Windows 11 PC would be an AI PC. This strategic shift comes as Copilot+ PCs have underperformed in the market, prompting Microsoft to reduce AI bloat across the operating system. Microsoft apparently doesn't know what to do with itself, at least as far as Copilot, AI, and Windows are concerned. Recent reports suggest that Microsoft is backing away from more AI in Windows 11.

PCWorld reports that Microsoft's Automatic Super Resolution (AutoSR) technology is coming to Xbox Ally X handheld consoles to enhance gaming performance. AutoSR uses AI-powered upscaling to render games at lower resolutions then upscales them, allowing less powerful GPUs to achieve higher frame rates. A public preview of AutoSR for the AMD-powered Ally X is expected in April, promising smoother gameplay experiences for users. In a month, owners of Xbox Ally X handheld consoles will see their frame rates jump upwards, as Microsoft begins supporting the Automatic Super Resolution (AutoSR) tech on the console. Microsoft snuck in a reference to the technology as part of a presentation at the Game Developer Conference, where the company pitched features from its upcoming Project Helix console as well as AI enhancements coming to Microsoft's DirectX API . Essentially, AutoSR is an upscaling technology, originally designed for use with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 or X2 Elite processor, according to Microsoft.

PCWorld reports Microsoft is embedding AI into DirectX with new tools called DirectX Linear Algebra and DirectX Compute Graph Compiler to revolutionize game rendering. Major chip makers AMD, Intel, and Nvidia support these AI initiatives, potentially allowing integrated GPUs to compete with discrete graphics cards in gaming performance. These technologies enable dynamic shader creation, neural texture compression, and advanced upscaling that could democratize high-end graphics features like path tracing across different hardware. Games are increasingly being rendered using AI, so Microsoft is bringing AI into the way future graphics chips will render games. Microsoft introduced DirectX Linear Algebra as well as the DirectX Compute Graph Compiler into its DirectX programming interface on Thursday, with previews of each technology due later this year.

This story appears in the April 2026 print edition. While some stories from this issue are not yet available to read online, you can explore more from the magazine . Get our editors' guide to what matters in the world, delivered to your inbox every weekday. The race to power AI is already remaking the physical world. Three Mile Island's cooling towers have until recently served as grave markers for America's nuclear-power industry. A s we drove through southwest Memphis, KeShaun Pearson told me to keep my window down--our destination was best tasted, not viewed. Along the way, we passed an abandoned coal plant to our right, then an active power plant to our left, equipped with enormous natural-gas turbines. Pearson, who directs the nonprofit Memphis Community Against Pollution, was bringing me to his hometown's latest industrial megaproject.

Microsoft's Copilot Health can use AI to turn your fitness data and medical records'into a coherent story' The aim is to help users have the right context and questions to take to their doctor. Microsoft has unveiled Copilot Health, an AI-powered tool it claims can help make sense of your medical records, health history and fitness data from wearables, should you grant it access to that information. The company said it will be in a separate, secure space in the Copilot app and that the idea is to help provide you with more context and insights so you can ask your doctor the right questions when you see them. Copilot Health is designed to help you better understand your medical information as a whole, Microsoft says. It is not intended to diagnose, treat or prevent diseases or other conditions and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, the company pointed out in a blog post.

Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Anthropic's legal challenge against the US Department of Defense. Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Anthropic's legal challenge against the US Department of Defense. Tech company files amicus brief in support of Anthropic's effort to overturn an aggressive Pentagon designation Microsoft has thrown its weight behind Anthropic's legal challenge against the Pentagon, filing a court brief in support of the AI company's effort to overturn an aggressive designation that effectively bars it from government work. In an amicus brief submitted to a federal court in San Francisco this week, Microsoft, which integrates Anthropic's AI tools into systems it provides to the US military, argued that a temporary restraining order was necessary to prevent serious disruption to suppliers whose products rely on the AI company's technology. Google, Amazon, Apple and OpenAI have also signed on to a brief in support of Anthropic. In a statement to the Guardian, Microsoft said: "The Department of War needs reliable access to the country's best technology.