John Koetsier

Apple’s Lamest Product Ever? Meet The iPhone Pocket There's been some pretty lame products in Apple's history among the great ones. the iPhone Pocket is probably in the first category ... Apple’s new iPhone Pocket, a $150–$230 3D-knitted strap-and-pouch designed by Issey Miyake, might be the company’s most questionable accessory yet. In my latest Forbes column, I compare it with Apple’s past oddball products (remember the Polishing Cloth and iPod Socks?) and break down why this one feels like another stylish-but-unnecessary addition. Read the full story on Forbes. Get the full story right here ...

Apple’s Lamest Product Ever? Meet The iPhone Pocket

There's been some pretty lame products in Apple's history among the great ones. the iPhone Pocket is probably in the first category ... Apple’s new iPhone Pocket, a $150–$230 3D-knitted strap-and-pouch designed by Issey Miyake, might be the…

Grok: Least Empathetic, Most Dangerous AI For Vulnerable People, Study Says Among modern, up-to-date AI models, Grok scored worse than GPT-5, Gemini 2.5, Llama-4 and numerous other LLMs at detecting mental health crises and reacting safely.

So X's Grok is the least safe major & recent LLM for people with mental health issues.

Why?

Empathy is critical.

So is understanding context and when people need help, not information.

Best: Gemini

GPT-5 is pretty good, as is Claude 4.1.

More: www.forbes.com/sites/johnko...

Fruit-fly AI: SLMs are the new LLMs AI is devouring the planet’s electricity, already using up to 2% of global energy and projected to hit 5% by 2030. But a Spanish-Canadian company, Multiverse Computing, says it can slash that energy footprint by up to 95% without sacrificing performance. In this episode, we chat with Samuel Mugel, Multiverse’s CTO, about how quantum-inspired algorithms can drastically compress large language models while keeping them smart, useful, and fast.

Fruit-fly AI: SLMs are the new LLMs

AI is devouring the planet’s electricity, already using up to 2% of global energy and projected to hit 5% by 2030. But a Spanish-Canadian company, Multiverse Computing, says it can slash that energy footprint by up to 95% without sacrificing performance. In this…

BM: ‘Verified Quantum Advantage’ By 2026, ‘Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing By 2029 Quantum computing continues to heat up, and IBM is at the front of it. In my post today at Forbes ... IBM announced major progress toward practical quantum computing at its Quantum Developer Conference in New York, forecasting verified quantum advantage by 2026 and fault-tolerant quantum computing by 2029. The company unveiled the 120-qubit Quantum Nighthawk processor, the experimental Quantum Loon for fault tolerance, and breakthroughs including a 10× speedup in error correction and a 100× reduction in the cost of error mitigation.

BM: ‘Verified Quantum Advantage’ By 2026, ‘Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing By 2029

Quantum computing continues to heat up, and IBM is at the front of it. In my post today at Forbes ... IBM announced major progress toward practical quantum computing at its Quantum Developer Conference in New York,…

IBM: ‘Verified Quantum Advantage’ By 2026, ‘Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing By 2029 IBM's put a timeline on when quantum computing is going to start changing the world, and it's very, very soon.

IBM’s quantum roadmap now includes:

✅ 10x faster error correction
✅ 100x cheaper error mitigation
✅ New 120-qubit chip (Nighthawk)
✅ Open tracker to confirm quantum advantage

The race is on
www.forbes.com/sites/johnko...
#IBMQuantumConf

7 Reasons Why OpenAI Wanted To Own A Browser Why does an AI company need a web browser? From my latest at Forbes: OpenAI’s move to build or acquire a web browser reflects a strategic shift toward more integrated, agent-driven computing. A browser gives OpenAI direct access to how people search, learn, shop, and work online ... the daily tasks where AI agents are increasingly taking over. Controlling the browser means controlling the interface layer between users and the open web, rather than relying on platforms like Chrome or Safari that currently act as gatekeepers.

7 Reasons Why OpenAI Wanted To Own A Browser

Why does an AI company need a web browser? From my latest at Forbes: OpenAI’s move to build or acquire a web browser reflects a strategic shift toward more integrated, agent-driven computing. A browser gives OpenAI direct access to how people search,…

Global Superintelligence Arms Race: 4 Key Players Superintelligence is super-freaky ... if the wrong person, company, or nation gets it first. Or, maybe, if humanity achieves it at all ... From my latest at Forbes: AGI researcher Ben Goertzel says we are likely just a couple of years away from artificial general intelligence, and that a global race is already underway to develop it. In a recent conversation, Goertzel identified four primary competitors: U.S.

Global Superintelligence Arms Race: 4 Key Players

Superintelligence is super-freaky ... if the wrong person, company, or nation gets it first. Or, maybe, if humanity achieves it at all ... From my latest at Forbes: AGI researcher Ben Goertzel says we are likely just a couple of years away from…

1 Million Qubits In Your Hand: Making Smaller, Faster Quantum Computers Can we do quantum computing without the room-sized fridge? From my latest at Forbes: Quantum Art, an Israeli quantum computing startup, is developing a compact quantum processing architecture that could dramatically increase the practicality and performance of quantum computers. The company claims its design can support up to one million physical qubits in a unit roughly the size of a small device, enabled by dense trapped-ion arrays, multi-qubit gate operations, and dynamic optical segmentation.

1 Million Qubits In Your Hand: Making Smaller, Faster Quantum Computers

Can we do quantum computing without the room-sized fridge? From my latest at Forbes: Quantum Art, an Israeli quantum computing startup, is developing a compact quantum processing architecture that could dramatically increase…

AirPods Pro 3: Why I Bought Them Even I Own Both Earlier Models Maybe I am an idiot. Maybe money doesn't want to stay in my wallet. But maybe ... AirPods Pro 3 are just that much better ... From my latest at Forbes: After testing all three generations of AirPods Pro, the jump from Series 2 to AirPods Pro 3 is a meaningful upgrade and a huge improvement over Series 1. The new model fits more securely, has significantly better noise cancellation, and introduces a dramatically more natural transparency mode that feels almost identical to normal hearing.

AirPods Pro 3: Why I Bought Them Even I Own Both Earlier Models

Maybe I am an idiot. Maybe money doesn't want to stay in my wallet. But maybe ... AirPods Pro 3 are just that much better ... From my latest at Forbes: After testing all three generations of AirPods Pro, the jump from Series 2 to…

Meet The Robotaxi Doing 250,000 Rides Per Week That Isn’t Called Waymo Baidu's Apollo Go self-driving robotaxi just said hello to the world, and it just passed a pretty big milestone, too. From my story at Forbes: Baidu’s Apollo Go has reached 250,000 weekly autonomous taxi rides, matching the scale reported by Waymo in the U.S. a while back, and is emerging as a major global competitor in self-driving transportation. Unlike Waymo, which modifies existing vehicles like the Jaguar I-PACE, Apollo Go uses a purpose-built robotaxi called the Apollo RT6 that costs under $30,000 and features Level 4 autonomy, battery swapping, and a high-density sensor and compute suite.

Meet The Robotaxi Doing 250,000 Rides Per Week That Isn’t Called Waymo

Baidu's Apollo Go self-driving robotaxi just said hello to the world, and it just passed a pretty big milestone, too. From my story at Forbes: Baidu’s Apollo Go has reached 250,000 weekly autonomous taxi rides, matching the…

Artificial General Intelligence: 9 Massive Changes AGI Will Cause AGI, if we ever achieve it, is going to be a massive game-changer. And a lot of people think we'll get it pretty soon, too. From my latest at Forbes ... Artificial general intelligence is now an explicit goal for companies like Meta and OpenAI, raising questions about how society will change if AI becomes smarter than humans. At the Beneficial AGI conference in Istanbul, futurist Gregory Stock argued that AGI could fundamentally reshape not just technology, but human identity, work, relationships, and culture.

Artificial General Intelligence: 9 Massive Changes AGI Will Cause

AGI, if we ever achieve it, is going to be a massive game-changer. And a lot of people think we'll get it pretty soon, too. From my latest at Forbes ... Artificial general intelligence is now an explicit goal for companies like Meta…

AI Agents For Creators: Now Every Influencer Can Have A Digital Team There are AI agents for everything, apparently. Now there's a dedicated team of them for creators and influencers. From my latest at Forbes ... Agentic AI is rapidly expanding, with usage in customer service up 22X this year. And now the trend is reaching the creator economy. RHEI has introduced Made, a platform offering AI agents designed to support YouTube and social media creators with tasks like idea generation, trend research, community engagement, and workflow management.

AI Agents For Creators: Now Every Influencer Can Have A Digital Team

There are AI agents for everything, apparently. Now there's a dedicated team of them for creators and influencers. From my latest at Forbes ... Agentic AI is rapidly expanding, with usage in customer service up 22X this year. And…

Amazon Vs. Perplexity: Welcome To The Battle For The Future Of Commerce Can you use agents to do your shopping for you? Or, perhaps, only if the e-commerce platform allows you, and if it's an approved agent? From my most recent story at Forbes ... Amazon has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity over AI shopping agents, arguing that Perplexity’s Comet browser agents are making purchases on Amazon without identifying themselves as automated, which Amazon says violates computer fraud and access laws.

Amazon Vs. Perplexity: Welcome To The Battle For The Future Of Commerce

Can you use agents to do your shopping for you? Or, perhaps, only if the e-commerce platform allows you, and if it's an approved agent? From my most recent story at Forbes ... Amazon has issued a cease-and-desist letter to…

8 Robotics Startups Backed By Nvidia And Amazon Nvidia and Amazon are going all in on physical AI: smart robots. In my most recent story on Forbes, I talk about how they are supporting eight AI and robotics startups through a new Physical AI Fellowship run by MassRobotics. Each startup receives technical guidance, $200,000 in AWS credits, access to Nvidia’s hardware and software ecosystem, and go-to-market support. The focus is on physical AI: systems that combine spatial reasoning with autonomous action to work in the real world rather than just digital environments.

8 Robotics Startups Backed By Nvidia And Amazon

Nvidia and Amazon are going all in on physical AI: smart robots. In my most recent story on Forbes, I talk about how they are supporting eight AI and robotics startups through a new Physical AI Fellowship run by MassRobotics. Each startup receives…

Grok: Least Empathetic, Most Dangerous AI For Vulnerable People, Study Says Turns out AI is really, really bad for mental health. For my latest at Forbes, I looked at new research evaluating how 22 major AI assistants respond to people in emotional crisis. The CARE (Crisis Assessment and Response Evaluator) test found that Google’s Gemini models and OpenAI’s GPT-5 performed the best at recognizing distress and responding supportively, while Claude, Llama-4, and DeepSeek followed.

Grok: Least Empathetic, Most Dangerous AI For Vulnerable People, Study Says

Turns out AI is really, really bad for mental health. For my latest at Forbes, I looked at new research evaluating how 22 major AI assistants respond to people in emotional crisis. The CARE (Crisis Assessment and Response…

Robots are getting smarter.

Not sci-fi.

Real deployments, in the real world.

Here are 8 that @amazon, @nvidia, and @MassRobotics are backing in the new Physical AI Fellowship.

youtu.be/kVbVbVhzNZM

AI agents for YouTubers: giving every creator a virtual team? Can AI agents make every creator better and more productive? The creator economy keeps expanding, but so does the pressure on the people who make it run. Depending on which research you look at, there are somewhere between 50 and 300 million creators globally. Goldman Sachs estimates the creator economy could reach almost half a trillion dollars in the next few years.

AI agents for YouTubers: giving every creator a virtual team?

Can AI agents make every creator better and more productive? The creator economy keeps expanding, but so does the pressure on the people who make it run. Depending on which research you look at, there are somewhere between 50 and 300…

Am I an idiot?

This is Apple's new iOS 26 liquid glass: tinted vs clear.

They look identical ... at least to me.

You?

Imagine a business where you sell someone an electronic token for $1.

You do that about 130 billion times.

You invest that $130 billion USD in US government debt.

You collect interest.

You make billions in profit.

What a crazy, odd, interesting world.

Ouch ...

>> Grokipedia Is the Antithesis of Everything That Makes Wikipedia Good, Useful, and Human

"It is a fully robotic regurgitation machine designed to protect the ego of the world’s wealthiest man."
www.404media.co/grokipedia-i...

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) could be humanity’s greatest invention ... or our biggest risk.

Is it inevitable?

I chatted with Dr. Ben Goertzel, who's building AGI at SingularityNet.

Get the full convo here:
youtu.be/1e0jhdavt6k

Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data With just $800 in basic equipment, researchers found a stunning variety of data—including thousands of T-Mobile users’ calls and texts and even US military communications—sent by satellites unencrypte...

New from @agreenberg.bsky.social and me: For three years, security researchers pointed a satellite at the sky and found highly sensitive data being sent unencrypted

They found: calls and texts on T-Mobile’s network; military info from the US and Mexico; in-flight Wi-Fi browsing, and a lot more

We're going to need more power.

A lot more power.

I just hope it is green power.

This is OpenAI's Sam Altman:

"Our vision is simple: we want to create a factory that can produce a gigawatt of new AI infrastructure every week."

A small cloud provider for artificial intelligence that's preparing to go public has secured a major boost from its most important supplier: Nvidia. The chip giant agreed this summer to rent 10,000 of its own AI chips from the cloud firm, Lambda, for $1.3 billion over four years, and a separate $200 million deal to rent 8,000 more Nvidia chips over an unspecified time frame, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deals. The contracts position Nvidia as Lambda's biggest customer ahead of the firm's planned initial public offering. It's the latest example of the circular financial The Takeaway arrangements Nvidia makes to get its own chips into the cloud market and to help smaller cloud • Nvidia is a Lambda supplier, investor and now its top customer providers compete with traditional big ones such as Amazon and Google. And it shows how • Nvidia struck a similar deal with CoreWeave to boost competition in the cloud market insular capital markets for Al can be, with Nvidia working as a supplier, investor and customer for multiple small cloud providers, • Around half of Lambda's current cloud revenue comes from Amazon also known as neoclouds. and Microsoft Lambda leases data center space, fills the facilities with servers powered by Nvidia

Totally insane story from The Information: NVIDIA (an investor in Lambda) is now their biggest customer. Lambda recently raised $500m in debt to buy GPUs, secured using the GPUs it already owns.
www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidia-quietly-boosts-cloud-ally-1-5-billion-deal-rent-ai-chips?rc=kz8jh3

Recently had a great episode on @Singular's Growth Masterminds Podcast with amazing host @JohnKoetsier. We've covered horizontal scaling & other important lessons from me managing > than $100M of ad spend. Scaling ads wouldn't be possible without attribution tools like Singular.
Link to the pod👇

Michaels: I have not had one single invite from a conservative news outlet. I have family members saying to me, “Well, why aren’t you talking to Megyn Kelly? Why aren’t you getting out there on Fox?” They’re not asking.

Who Is Watching All These Podcasts?

Have you, computer job haver, ever wondered who is watching all of these 2, 3, 4 and even 5 hour podcasts? So did I, so I investigated. The answer is complicated! www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/s...

Oh joy

Because we all needed more reasons to love airlines

>> Delta plans for 20% of its fares to be individually determined using AI by the end of 2025, up from ~3% now, and has a goal to eliminate static pricing entirely

These Transcribing Eyeglasses Put Subtitles on the World TranscribeGlass can subtitle conversations in nearly real time and will soon be able to translate languages and tell you when the person you’re talking to you is feeling socially awkward.

“They’re meant for the Deaf and, primarily, the hard-of-hearing community who struggle to read lips or pick out a conversation in a loud room.”

great story from @boone.bsky.social for @wired.com

www.wired.com/story/these-...

forever shame for those who voted yes