Here’s something to occupy your weekend if you’re an anime fan. Viz Media has uploaded some of the most well-known anime series out there to YouTube and made them available to stream for free. You can now find shows such as Sailor Moon — the old series that aired in the 90s, not the remake, Sailor Moon Crystal — Naruto, Death Note, Inuyasha and Hunter X Hunter on the publisher’s account. From what we can see, Viz has organized the episodes into playlists, which should make binge watching them easier.
The episodes are punctuated with ads, though you’ve probably already expected that for free content. Also, they’re not visible in some regions, so you may have to use a VPN, depending on where you are. Take note that Viz uploaded the Japanese audio versions of the shows with English subtitles, and they haven’t been remastered to fit modern aspect ratios. This is a great chance to enjoy older shows that may not be readily available on streaming services, though, especially if you’re feeling nostalgic or were too young to watch them when they first aired.
The Logitech G Cloud is one of the first handhelds specifically designed to play AAA games by streaming them from the cloud, or from a nearby console. Because of that, it doesn’t need AAA specs itself. Instead, it’s put that budget into being one of the most comfortable big screen portables I’ve ever used, with a long battery life when cloud gaming. But while game streaming is still in its infancy, a $350 handheld that can’t play much else is a tough sell when Valve’s $399 Steam Deck is roughly the same size and doesn’t need a constant stable internet connection to be a handheld gaming powerhouse.
Anyone who’s ever used game streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming or Nvidia GeForce Now on their smartphone or tablet already understands why the Logitech G Cloud exists. As capable as mobile devices might be (many are better at running hardware locally than the G Cloud), touchscreens, clamp-on controllers, and even wireless gamepads just don’t offer as polished an experience as a portable device purpose-built for gaming. Meanwhile, the G Cloud is only a little smaller than the Steam Deck, but is lighter and has a better screen.
Still, while the Logitech G Cloud delivers some excellent hardware on the outside, its internals under-deliver for anything other than streaming games through a reliable wifi connection. That makes its $350 price tag feel especially steep when Valve is delivering all of that, and much more, in a handheld that costs just $49 more.
Wonderfully Designed on the Outside
I’ve been obsessed with handheld gaming devices since the original Game Boy’s debut, and I can confidently say the Logitech G Cloud is the most comfortable handhelds I’ve ever used.
Available February 24 Each new laptop model comes with a free storage upgrade. The 1TB version of each is priced the same as the 512GB version which basically means the 1TB version is $200 off.
The Logitech G Cloud (top) is just slightly larger than the Nintendo Switch OLED (bottom), but feels more comfortable to hold and play.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
It definitely falls on the larger side of the size spectrum for a handheld, but also feels similar in size to the Nintendo Switch, and most of us are now accustomed to bigger portables anyway. It’s a bit smaller than the Steam Deck, and at around 460 grams, the G Cloud is quite a bit lighter than Valve’s handheld, too.
The protruding grips on either side of the back of the Logitech G Cloud fit well in the palms of your hands while you play.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
Unlike the Switch, which has a very flat design overall, the Logitech G Cloud mirrors the Steam Deck, with protruding grips on the back of each side that make it feel like you’ve actually got something to hold onto. A fine pattern of grooves is also etched into the plastic housing, providing a satisfying amount of grip. It does makes the handheld harder to slip into a pocket, but that’s a worthy trade-off, since I actually want to play the G Cloud in hand, while I only remote the Switch from its dock when I absolutely have to.
The Logitech G Cloud features two pairs of shoulder buttons, including a pivoting pair that allow for analog inputs.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
You don’t get as many buttons on the G Cloud as you do on the Steam Deck, but it does include two pairs of shoulder buttons on the top edge. The thinner buttons are very clicky, with a minimal amount of travel, whereas the larger buttons offer much more travel and serve as analog inputs, ideal for genres like racing games. They don’t look like triggers, but they effectively replace them here.
The action buttons on the Logitech G Cloud feel great, but also feel like they sink too far into the handheld when pressed.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
The pair of asymmetrical analog joysticks feel great, but the action buttons, laid out in an Xbox controller-style arrangement, feel like they bottom out too far into my presses, ending up almost flush with the surface of the device’s face when fully pressed. I prefer buttons that stick out a little farther, but that’s just my preference—the G Cloud’s buttons never felt like they affected game play.
On the bottom edge of the Logitech G Cloud, you’ll also find an analog headphone jack, a USB-C port for charging, and a pair of slits for the device’s analog speakers, which actually sound quite good. With some handhelds, I stick with headphones all the time, but on the G Cloud I’ll only switch to them when I’m playing late at night. On the front of the handheld, you’ll also find a home button for escaping whatever app you’re using, a pair of multifunction buttons next to each top corner of the screen, and a green Logitech button that sometimes serves as a back button, but most of the time leaves me confused about its reason for existing.
Overall, the G Cloud’s hardware feels really fantastic and solid, but there are two things I don’t entirely love.
Thinking outside the box is great, except when it comes to designing a D-pad. The D-pad on the Logitech G Cloud is okay, but not great for games requiring quick rolls to activate certain moves.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
The D-pad on the left features a contoured design, and while it works fine for most games, it doesn’t work as well for titles where you need to be able to quickly rock the pad in a semi-circle to pull off certain moves. If you’re a Street Fighter devotee, you won’t be happy. As far as I’m concerned, Nintendo perfected the D-pad with the SNES’ gamepad, and there’s no reason to ever deviate from that.
Call me an old man yelling at a cloud, but I’m not a fan of the spring-loaded sliding power button the Logitech G Cloud uses.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
On the top edge of the handheld, between the shoulder buttons, is a volume rocker, a microSD slot to expand the G Cloud’s 64GB of built-in storage, and a slider used to sleep, power down, or restart the device. I find it awkwardly positioned and sometimes hard to reach, given it has to be pulled to the side to activate. Yes, you can wake the handheld using other buttons and even put it to the sleep using on-screen controls, but I would have still preferred a simple, pressable button up top.
Stick With the Default Android Experience
The Logitech G Cloud runs Android 11, but when setting up the device, you’re given the choice to use it in “Tablet Mode” or “Handheld Mode,” which is recommended for gamers.
Users can switch between a gaming controls optimized “Handheld Mode” front-end for Android 11, or a more traditional “Tablet Mode” which unlocks the swipe gestures existing Android users will be already familiar with.Screenshot: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
The “Handheld Mode” tailors the user interface so that it can be easily navigated using the G Cloud’s gaming controls, with minimal touchscreen interactions. It looks and feels similar to the on-screen interface of a video game console like the Xbox Series X|S, and automatically arranges apps in a row of icons based on when you last used them (or you can pin your favorites to a smaller persistent bar below that for quick access).
If you’re new to Android, “Handheld Mode” might be less intimidating, but everyone else will want to stick with “Tablet Mode.” It might be slightly less pretty, but it gives access to all of the very useful swipe gesture shortcuts that Android is known for. For some reason, in “Handheld Mode,” those are all disabled, which makes it hard to quickly jump between apps or even navigate the UI of certain apps. Thankfully, the G Cloud doesn’t lock you into one or the other; you can hop back and forth between those two modes relatively easily.
Gaming on a Cloud
The most compelling reason to drop $350 on the G Cloud is to stream games to its beautiful, seven-inch, 1080p screen, and for the most part, it does that just fine.
The Logitech G Cloud’s seven-inch, 1080P screen is quite nice and despite bezels, feels quite spacious.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
The novelty of playing Halo Infinite on a handheld, streamed from the Xbox Cloud Gaming service, without having to spend hours downloading and installing it, still hasn’t worn off for me. For the most part, I found the performance good, even on wifi 5, which doesn’t get close to the top speeds offered by my gigabit connection at home. But occasionally, the graphics in High on Life (tested before all the Roiland fallout) would dip to what looked like an overly compressed YouTube video. (The Xbox Cloud Gaming service is also still limited to 720P resolutions.) But controls always felt snappy and responsive.
Performance was slightly better using remote play with my Xbox Series S console. Graphical performance with Hot Wheels Unleashed wasn’t as good as it is on a TV physically connected to the console, but with the G Cloud, I did find myself playing my Xbox a lot more, simply because it was now always in reach. And I think that’s the biggest appeal of the device. It improves accessibility to consoles that are usually locked into a home entertainment system. Just keep in mind that results with game streaming will vary depending on your wifi network, your home internet speeds, and even where you live in relation to a company’s servers. If you’re up in Alaska, now might not be the best time to jump into cloud gaming with both feet.
It’s obvious that Logitech focused on game streaming with the G Cloud, but I don’t entirely understand why it didn’t choose to equip the device with support for wifi 6 and 6E to help maximize its streaming performance for those who’ve already upgraded their wireless networks, or to simply help future proof the hadheld. The same goes for its complete lack of a SIM card slot. You can only enjoy game streaming with a reliable wifi connection, which means you’ll either be stuck at home, or you’ll have to tether to a smartphone while out and about, at which point you should probably just play on your smartphone.
That said, for those tired of the Steam Deck’s somewhat less colorful 1280 x 800 display, the G Cloud offers a distinct advantage.
Android Gaming Struggles
Battery life is where the Logitech G Cloud more definitively towers over other handhelds, boasting up to 12 hours on a single charge. (Streaming games is very battery friendly, but playing games locally will knock down battery life significantly.) Unfortunately, those impressive specs are also a result of the device using a somewhat dated Snapdragon 720G processor. (It was popular back in 2021 on value-focused mid-range smartphones.) Yes, it means the G Cloud can be passively cooled without the need for battery-draining fans like the Switch and Steam Deck use, but that processor choice also hampers the handheld’s native gaming performance.
Those looking for the ultimate Android gaming machine will want to look elsewhere. The mindless pick-up-and-play games you might sporadically enjoy on your smartphone run fine, but some more demanding Android titles, including Fortnite and Genshin Impact, will struggle to run without occasional hiccups and stutters with graphics settings are maxed out. Even more frustrating is that some of these games don’t automatically work with the G Cloud’s controls, and Logitech doesn’t currently include any touchscreen mapping software to solve that. This is something Razer recently added to its Kishi V2 smartphone controller software, and it’s included on the Razer Edge (a review on that is incoming). For the G Cloud, you’ll need to seek out a third-party mapping app in the Google Play Store to solve this on your own.
As it is, though, you might be surprised to find your brand new dedicated gaming device actually runs some games more poorly than your phone.
Secret Retro Gaming Superpowers
One area where the G Cloud shines (that Logitech doesn’t promote in any way) is as a retro gaming device. The use of Android 11 makes it incredibly easy to find and install a host of emulators for countless different systems.
16-bit Super Nintendo games like Super Mario World from look and play great on the Logitech G Cloud through emulation.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
Many of the dedicated handheld emulators we’ve reviewed in the past struggle to play games from systems newer than the original Sony PlayStation. You can often play some Sega Dreamcast or Nintendo 64 titles on them, but with compromises to performance, including reduced frame rates. They’re playable, but they don’t play great.
Emulating the N64 and GoldenEye 007 is a breeze for the Logitech G Cloud.Photo: Andrew Liszewski | Gizmodo
But the G Cloud is a solid retro gaming machine, even if it’s not the most capable one you can buy. Super Mario World looks absolutely beautiful on that 1080P screen, in all its pixelated glory, and the N64’s GoldenEye 007 plays wonderfully. As is the case with emulation in general, some games from specific systems will perform better than others do, but the cutoff for playable games on the G Cloud is somewhere around the Nintendo GameCube and the PS2. If you want to emulate titles from more recent and more powerful systems, the G Cloud isn’t the way to go.
A Tough Sell
I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that I can play AAA titles like Halo Infinite, and even Microsoft Flight Simulator, on a handheld device while lounging in bed. It seems like the inevitable future of gaming, and if you’ve got a fast wifi connection at home, the Logitech G Cloud will give you a solid experience there. But the problem is, that’s really it. The G Cloud is not a standout device for Android gaming, nor is it the best retro gaming handheld you can buy. The Valve Steam Deck can do everything the G Cloud does, but will also play AAA titles natively without being completely dependent on fast wifi, for just $49 more. It’s just a better investment overall, especially if you spend a lot of time away from home or in an airplane. Let’s not forget that this is a portable, after all.
Pricing is an issue that’s going to plague other game streaming handhelds, too, including the Razer Edge. Valve is in a fortunate position to be able to subsidize the Steam Deck’s hardware, because while it’s not limited to Steam, it is nonetheless a gateway to the company’s Steam store (which generated about $10 billion in revenue last year). Razer has an exclusive partnership with Verizon, which is no doubt helping to subsidize the price of the Edge, but even as it debuts with the new Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 gaming processor, its performance will also struggle to compete with the Steam Deck, as both handhelds start at $400.
Without a gaming store or even a game studio of its own, Logitech’s only stream of revenue here is the G Cloud itself. Maybe one day the company could secure an exclusive partnership with one of the game streaming services to make the $350 device more appealing, but I just can’t see that happening. Thankfully, we have already seen Logitech discount the G Cloud on a couple of occasions, and at the time of writing, it’s currently on sale for $300. But even that feels pricey for its limited capabilities. If Logitech can manage to get the device below $250, it would potentially be a far more tempting package. But at $350, it’s just not ready to face its competition.
Merchants on Amazon Marketplace are paying the company a commission fee of more than 50% of each sale. A new report by Marketplace Pulse revealed Amazon raised the total cost sellers are required to pay out toward storage fees at company warehouses, packaging and delivery, and advertising on the site.
The commission fee has gradually risen since 2016 according to the report, but sellers were not heavily impacted because of an influx of customers and a substantial increase in sales during the covid-19 pandemic. But the report said that sales plummeted when the lockdowns lifted and buyers turned to things like travel and dining out rather than online shopping. The residual effects meant that Amazon suffered its slowest sales growth since its inception.
Marketplace Pulse reported that Amazon receives a 15% transaction, or referral fee, from the sellers who also pay between 25% and 35% in Fulfillment fees and 15% toward advertising and promoting on the site.
The average fees Amazon collected last year rose to 51.8% from 35.2% in 2016 and a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Gizmodo that the fee sellers are charged is based on the cost and investment Amazon puts first.
“Many selling partners have built and run their businesses without advertising,” she said. “If they choose to advertise their products, they have many service providers to choose from. Sellers are not required to use our logistics or advertising services, and only use them if they provide incremental value to their business.”
Available February 24 Each new laptop model comes with a free storage upgrade. The 1TB version of each is priced the same as the 512GB version which basically means the 1TB version is $200 off.
Although sellers can choose if they want to participate in packing, delivery, and advertising, they don’t have control over the amount Amazon charges or the fees included. Marketplace Pulse reported that the company’s advertising revenue grew by 18.9% in Q4 last year, but was small in comparison to the year prior when advertising increased by 32.2%.
Melissa Burdick, the president of Pacvue and former Amazon executive told Bloomberg Amazon is focusing on expanding its advertising efforts, meaning the coveted space no longer holds the allure it once did.
“The advertising space on Amazon isn’t as successful as it used to be for sellers,” Burdick said. “A lot of sellers are choosing to offer discounts rather than advertise because shoppers are responding more to discounts.”
Merchants are hesitating to raise their prices even as they struggle to make money, the report showed, adding that the small business owners have also turned to shipping their own packages instead of using the Amazon warehouse and are spending less on-site advertising.
“For these small businesses, it’s getting harder and harder to be profitable because they are spending more and more money on Amazon fees,” Juozas Kaziukenas, Marketplace Pulse’s founder and chief executive officer, told Bloomberg. “Amazon might be tempted to keep increasing fees because it’s in a tough spot, but you have to reach some kind of equilibrium.”
The spokesperson told Gizmodo that Amazon’s fulfillment center is still 30% less expensive on average than the standard shipping services offered by third-party providers and is 70% less than alternative two-day shipping options.
“Many of our selling partners have built and run their businesses without advertising,” the spokesperson said, adding, “If they choose to advertise their products, they have many service providers to choose from.”
Amazon-owned Zoox has started offering driverless robotaxi rides in California after receiving a testing permit from the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles), the company announced. Unlike the autonomous vehicles from Cruise and Waymo, Zoox’s vehicles are purpose built for driverless taxi rides, so they have no steering wheel or pedals.
On February 11th, shortly after receiving the permit, Zoox conducted the "first run of its employee shuttle service in Foster City, California, marking the first time in history a purpose-built autonomous robotaxi without traditional driving controls carried passengers on open public roads," it wrote in a press release.
To get to that point, the company completed what it called "rigorous" testing with the vehicles on private roads. It also ran its L3 test fleet (hybrid Toyota Highlanders with safety drivers) over a million autonomous miles on data-gathering missions in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Seattle.
Zoox has been developing its unique vehicles since it launched nine years ago, and was acquired by Amazon in a $1.2 billion merger in the summer of 2020. Its robotaxis, introduced later that year, are relatively tiny at 3.63 meters (11.9 feet) long, have passenger bench seats that face each other, four-wheel steering and can drive in either direction. That makes them highly maneuverable, but they can also travel at speeds up to 75 MPH and run 16 hours on a charge thanks to the immense 133kWh battery packs.
Zoox will now offer full-time employees robotaxi rides between its Foster City offices during business hours. "As the company continues to advance its progress and secure additional government clearances, it will expand its service to the general public," the company wrote.
An artificial intelligence agent recently flew a Lockheed Martin VISTA X-62A training aircraft for over 17 hours. VISTA (which stands for Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft) normally uses software to simulate the performance characteristics of other aircraft. On this flight during a testing period in December, however, it mimicked a human pilot. US Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) Director of Research Dr. M. Christopher Cotting said in a statement, "VISTA will allow us to parallelize the development and test of cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs."
This is the first time AI has been engaged in such a way on a tactical aircraft, Lockheed says. It’s like they’ve never seen the 2005 box-office bomb, Stealth…
– Mat Smith
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Bigscreen is best known for its namesake virtual social platform – which I’ve never heard of either – but it’s now getting into VR headsets. The Beyond is a PC-only wearable it claims is both the "world’s smallest" VR headset and extremely light at just under six ounces with a strap. Despite that weight, it includes two 5K (5,120 x 2,560) 90Hz OLED displays and six-degrees-of-freedom tracking. But some difficult choices have been made, too: You have to scan your face using an iPhone app (sorry, Android fans) to produce a custom-fitted design and buy custom prescription lenses if you normally wear glasses. Built-in headphones are only available with an optional "audio strap," all to keep the headset as compact as possible.
Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company revealed it can produce solar cells and transmission wire using simulated Moon regolith. Blue Origin’s Blue Alchemist technique uses molten electrolysis to separate the lunar soil’s aluminum, iron and silicon from oxygen to build solar cells, cover glass and aluminum wire using only sunlight and the reactor’s silicon. While the concept of using regolith to build outposts isn’t new, it’s normally focused on large-scale habitat materials rather than power supply solutions.
After far too many delays to count, Dead Island 2 has a new release date once more. This time, however, publisher Deep Silver is pushing the game up by a week. Instead of arriving on April 28th as previously planned, the game will now hit consoles and PC on April 21st. “You asked for it, you got it. Dead Island 2 went gold and it’s coming out a week early,” the company announced.
A revamped Creator Fund could also boost pay for influencers.
A report from The Information suggests TikTok is developing a paywall feature so producers can charge $1 (or a price of their choice) for video access. While it’s unclear exactly how the system would work, this would help influencers profit directly from their hottest clips. The social network is also considering a revamp of its Creator Fund amid complaints about low payouts. TikTok may require a much larger follower count (100,000 versus 10,000) but could pay eligible creators more as a result.
Picks for your FPS, MMO and general playing needs.
A good mouse will give you greater control over your cursor; add a few more buttons and you can customize it to make your clicking and pointing more comfortable. In competitive games, the best gaming mouse won’t magically make you unstoppable, but faster response time and extra inputs should make for a more pleasurable and responsive experience.
For most humans today, the threat of encountering a wild bear in daily life is quite slim. And yet, the likelihood of experiencing a stress response as if you are evading or defending yourself from a bear remains high. In our bodies, this stress reaction can play out the moment we’re called upon at work to give a presentation, or perhaps during a nerve-racking first date: sweaty palms, bowel discomfort, the sensation of pins and needles pricking the skin. This is the reality of living as social, modern humans with biological systems that have evolved for millions of years. “The human social interaction is the most stressful thing that we do,” says Cliff Summers, a behavioral neuroscientist at South Dakota University. Despite the bodily discomfort, this acute stress response often means your nervous system and brain are functioning properly, carrying out beneficial and vital tasks. Though biologists and neuroscientists are still unraveling the complex interplay of hormones, neurotransmitters and physiological effects informing our behaviors and health, resulting in stress reactions. Acute Stress Response: Stress Hormones to Stress Reactions Stress gets a bad rap as a sort of villain to the human experience. But it’s often a beneficial and productive force for change and survival. For starters, one lens in the research field defines stress as “a state of homeostasis being challenged.” (This idea builds on the work of Hans Selye, who became the father of stress theory in the mid 1900s.) In effect, this version of stress is an element of daily life for most living things seeking security. So, what exactly takes place in the body in the face of stress, anxiety or nervousness when it comes to acute stress response? Read More: What is Anxiety and How Can Worries Overpower Us? Stress Hormones Hormonally speaking, a stressful state — whether involving an unexpected bear, or an angry boss in your office — boosts two key chemicals in the human body: adrenaline and cortisol, according to Summers. Together, these two stress hormones (and some neurotransmitters) coordinate to optimize the flow of blood sugar to the brain, and, in turn, carry out the fight-or-flight mechanics in the physical body. Let’s start with the effects of cortisol. When cortisol gets pumped into the bloodstream, the hormone blocks the uptake of sugar in most cells throughout the body. That leaves an influx of sugar in the bloodstream available for the brain to absorb, ultimately heightening cognitive function to manage a stressful encounter. While this is playing out, the stress reaction in the body also triggers the release of adrenaline (also called epinephrine) from the adrenal glands. The adrenaline hormone floods the bloodstream and is rapidly dispersed to all parts of the body, such as the eyes, heart, blood vessels and airway. The main function of epinephrine, or adrenaline, is to release and help convert reserves of sugar and nutrients stored in cells throughout the muscles and other organs. Stress Reactions The resulting boost of energy is something we can see play out in athletes, such as a runner participating in a marathon, the proverbial mother who displays a feat of strength to rescue her child or the unfortunate hiker who encountered a bear. “You actually have more energy to run away, because adrenaline and cortisol are working to release this energy into your system,” Summers says. It’s also this epinephrine that can prompt some of the localized reactions, such as sweaty hands or stomach pain, that many of us identify as feeling nervous or stressed. In part, this is because adrenal receptors are located in our glands and intestines. Also, when the adrenaline hormone attaches to receptors in the gut, for instance, it stops typical contractions from occurring, which causes discomfort. Read More: Can You Predict a Panic Attack? The Danger of Perpetual Stress In animals and humans alike, the frequency, severity and pace of this stress response engaging can bring about very different long-term effects on the body and mind, according to Summers’ research on mice. “We [tend to] think stress is a bad thing,” Summers says. “As it turns out, experiments that I have done show pretty definitively that having a strong stress response is a good thing, only if it lasts for a short time.” Ideally, the stress response should turn on quickly, and turn off quickly, switching between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, respectively. If the stressed, fight-or-flight state stays engaged for prolonged periods of time, it can lead to numerous and severe health consequences. “A high level of stress will make you sick, and kill you,” Summers says. Read More: How Your Brain’s “Fingerprints” Could Diagnose Disease Probing the Spectrum of Stress One tenuous aspect of the research is that highly stressful events can inhibit cognitive function, rather than moderately stressful situations that optimize brain performance with elevated cortisol levels. These findings suggest that the balance of brain hormones and bodily response falls within a complicated spectrum that Summers and other researchers are still studying. Emerging research is also illuminating two distinct groups: stress-resilient individuals and stress-sensitive individuals. As one example, Summers says he watches this play out in his classroom during exams. While some students seem to perform better because of test-taking stress, plenty of others do worse under stressful pressure, despite whether or not they studied and learned the material. Other researchers have studied actual stress hormone levels in young medical faculty students preparing for an exam, and they measured cortisol levels up to nine times higher than during a relaxed period. Summers says the focus of much of today’s research in the field is investigating “What makes some people sensitive to stress? And what makes other people calmer?” The answers to questions pertaining to stress reaction will likely point to key anti-stress tools and practices that could boost the overall well-being of a multitude of humans and animals. Read More: In the Brain, Romantic Love is Basically an Addiction
Expensive military hardware like a new tank undergoes rigorous testing before heading to the battlefield. A startup called Istari, backed by Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and chair of Alphabet, reckons some of that work can be done more effectively in the metaverse.
Ishtari uses machine learning to virtually assemble and test war machines from computer models of individual components, such as the chassis and engines, that are usually marooned on separate digital drawing boards. It may sound dull, but Schmidt says it can bring a dose of tech industry innovation to US military engineering. “The Istari team is bringing internet-type usability to models and simulations,” he says. “This unlocks the possibility of software-like agility for future physical systems—it is very exciting.”
The company reflects Schmidt’s unique position as a link between the tech industry and the Pentagon. Virtual replicas known as digital twins are common in manufacturing and could help the Pentagon develop hardware more quickly. And Istari is a building block in a wider project in which Schmidt is attempting to bring Silicon Valley technology and thinking to the US military.
That quest has roots in the shock Schmidt experienced in 2016 when he first glimpsed the state of Pentagon technology up close. He was still chair of Alphabet but accepted an invitation from President Obama’s defense secretary Ashton Carter to chair a new Defense Innovation Board trying to modernize the DOD. Schmidt’s new post began with an eye-opening tour of US labs and bases.
“Imagine we’re going to build a better war-fighting system,” Schmidt says. “We would just create a tech company.”
Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
“I got to run around with Eric and look at how the department was engaging on commercial technology,” says Will Roper, who was then an assistant secretary of the Air Force focused on technology and is the founder and CEO of Istari. “It was evident that the entire Department of Defense was developing software the same way it was done in the 1970s and ’80s,” Roper says. He was one of many Pentagon leaders who were impressed by Schmidt‘s diagnosis of the department’s problems and willingness to try to solve them.
