Tootfinder

Palo Alto Networks agrees to acquire Israeli endpoint security company Koi Security, sources say for ~$400M; Koi raised $48M across two rounds, per PitchBook (Assaf Gilead/Globes)
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-palo-alto-networks-to-buy-isr…

Entwicklung der Kapazitätsgrößen von #Batteriespeicher​n von Unternehmen in #Deutschland mit Stand vom 16.11.2025.
292 Datensätze ohne #Batteriespeichertechnologie…

The Kremlin WILL NOT GO TO PEACE: Why Russia will not agree to any truce | Explainer: https://benborges.xyz/2025/12/18/the-kremlin-will-not-go.html

Cynicism, "AI"
I've been pointed out the "Reflections on 2025" post by Samuel Albanie [1]. The author's writing style makes it quite a fun, I admit.
The first part, "The Compute Theory of Everything" is an optimistic piece on "#AI". Long story short, poor "AI researchers" have been struggling for years because of predominant misconception that "machines should have been powerful enough". Fortunately, now they can finally get their hands on the kind of power that used to be only available to supervillains, and all they have to do is forget about morals, agree that their research will be used to murder millions of people, and a few more millions will die as a side effect of the climate crisis. But I'm digressing.
The author is referring to an essay by Hans Moravec, "The Role of Raw Power in Intelligence" [2]. It's also quite an interesting read, starting with a chapter on how intelligence evolved independently at least four times. The key point inferred from that seems to be, that all we need is more computing power, and we'll eventually "brute-force" all AI-related problems (or die trying, I guess).
As a disclaimer, I have to say I'm not a biologist. Rather just a random guy who read a fair number of pieces on evolution. And I feel like the analogies brought here are misleading at best.
Firstly, there seems to be an assumption that evolution inexorably leads to higher "intelligence", with a certain implicit assumption on what intelligence is. Per that assumption, any animal that gets "brainier" will eventually become intelligent. However, this seems to be missing the point that both evolution and learning doesn't operate in a void.
Yes, many animals did attain a certain level of intelligence, but they attained it in a long chain of development, while solving specific problems, in specific bodies, in specific environments. I don't think that you can just stuff more brains into a random animal, and expect it to attain human intelligence; and the same goes for a computer — you can't expect that given more power, algorithms will eventually converge on human-like intelligence.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, what evolution did succeed at first is achieving neural networks that are far more energy efficient than whatever computers are doing today. Even if indeed "computing power" paved the way for intelligence, what came first is extremely efficient "hardware". Nowadays, human seem to be skipping that part. Optimizing is hard, so why bother with it? We can afford bigger data centers, we can afford to waste more energy, we can afford to deprive people of drinking water, so let's just skip to the easy part!
And on top of that, we're trying to squash hundreds of millions of years of evolution into… a decade, perhaps? What could possibly go wrong?
[1] #NoAI #NoLLM #LLM

Die Vernehmlassung zum Vorentwurf der Plattformregulierung ist abgeschlossen. Das Resultat überrascht nicht wirklich (auch wenn die Feedbacks im Detail differenzierter sind als die Schlagzeile).
Alle wollen strengere Regeln für Social Media und KI – ausser die SVP https://www.watson.ch/!526443548

Entwicklung der Kapazitätsgrößen von #Batteriespeicher​n von Privatpersonen in Deutschland mit Stand vom 16.11.2025.
292 Datensätze ohne #Batteriespeichertechnologie herausgefiltert.
Der Datenbestand enthält unplausible Datensätze.
👉 Zusatzlesestoff: Ei…

Fredy #Künzler (#Init7) hat Updates zum #Glasfaserstreit:
Die #Swisscom wird ihre…

Noch ein paar der zuletzt hier besonders häufig geteilten #News:
Microsoft kümmert sich um kritische Sicherheitslücke im Azure-Umfeld

Payment infrastructure provider Rezolve Ai agrees to acquire UK-based cashback rewards company Reward for $230M (PYMNTS.com)
https://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/2026/rezolve-ai-acquires-reward-to-bolster-ai-commerce-strategy/

Rezolve Ai Acquires Reward to Bolster AI Commerce Strategy | PYMNTS.com
Commerce and payments infrastructure provider Rezolve Ai has acquired U.K.-based cash-back rewards company Reward. The $230 million

Sources: Trump and several state governors agree to direct grid operator PJM to hold an auction for tech companies to fund new power plants due to AI demand (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-15/trump-…