Author: Malavika Madgula

According to this International Energy Agency (IEA) report, the global power consumption by data centres was nearly 415 TWh (terawatt-hours) in 2024… To give it some perspective, it accounted for a whopping 1.5% of the entire world’s electricity consumption for the year. When generative AI (artificial intelligence) burst onto the scene, it was hard to imagine that it would be a power guzzler – but it’s undeniable. With generative AI asking for more power as each day passes, data centres are looking for cleaner energy solutions. So, what’s coming to the rescue? An unlikely ally – photonics technology, which promises…

Ah, passwords. The key to our digital souls, and yet so often, the bane of our very existence when breached, lost, or forgotten. Now, you might not break out the cake-and-candle routine for it, but World Password Day, which falls on the first Thursday of May every year, is an annual reminder for us to take a moment and take stock of your passwords and security and keep your accounts secure. For most of us, we’re sure that the evolution towards trusting our passwords with anyone but ourselves has taken a good, long while. From keeping it all in our…

Hacking is a term that’s never associated with anything good, especially in today’s tech attacks-driven world. However,… Ethical hackers do exist, using hacking techniques for good and hacking the hackers. Ethical hacking might sound like a contradiction, but is a rather critical component of enterprise cybersecurity today. It’s basically an authorized attempt to gain unauthorized access to data, applications, or a computer system using the actions and strategies usually used by malicious attackers. The objective? To help identify security vulnerabilities that can be resolved before malicious entities have the opportunity to exploit the enterprise in the first place. If you’re…

Mucky riverbeds. The underside of wind turbines or offshore fish farms. Oil platforms. Reefs and shipwrecks in a harbour. Those places are hard — and dangerous — to get to for humans in the first place, navigating be damned. This is where robotics has stepped in in the last few decades, going where no man could possibly go. With traditional ocean exploration methods being expensive, slow, and, more importantly, dangerous, subsea robotics has revolutionised the field, traveling to places and diving deeper further than we humans even thought possible. With autonomous submersibles/underwater vehicles/surface vehicles (AUVs and ASVs) and remote-controlled vehicles…

Imagine an artificial entity over the internet influencing your kids’ minds, exposing them to hypersexualised content, self-harm, and intense relationships. Welcome to the world of AI (artificial intelligence) chatbots, that have proliferated the world wide web in what is perhaps the most revolutionary wave of generative AI. According to a 2024 study, there’s a stark disconnect between teenagers and their parents, with the parents completely unaware of their kids’ usage of AI and their perception of the tech. While they were under the impression that their children were using these chatbots for homework or as a search engine, the teenagers…

The first week of April 2025 saw the world slipping into an animated fever dream of sorts. We’re talking about the Studio Ghibli trend, which started with OpenAI launching its GPT-4o model. It led to the entire world recreating personal images in the artistic style of the legendary Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli founded by Hayao Miyazaki. Not surprisingly, social media is now flooded with cutesy “Ghiblified” images with wide-eyed photos of celebrities, pets, friends, selfies, and even iconic and internet-famous memes. Everyone and everything looked a little dreamier, with a touch of fairytale storybook whimsy. With this full-blown digital…

In the last two decades or so, artificial intelligence (AI) has made significant breakthroughs and has become an integral part of healthcare, transforming the way diseases are managed, diagnosed, and treated… From clinical decision-making to personalised treatment options, AI has been leveraging ML (machine learning) techniques and advanced algorithms to deliver novel capabilities. However, the critical question remains – how far is too far when it comes to ethical considerations of the use of AI in healthcare? What about potential AI bias, data privacy and security, informed consent, and maintaining patient autonomy? This article does a deep dive into how…

In the first quarter of 2024 alone, nearly USD 430 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in 50 attacks… According to a report by blockchain security firm CertiK, in the first quarter of 2025 alone, more than USD 1.67 billion worth of digital assets were stolen in 197 attacks. More recently in February 2025, a group of North Korean hackers pulled off what is the largest and probably the most daring cryptocurrency heist in history – stealing a whopping USD 1.5 billion in Ethereum tokens from Dubai-based crypto exchange ByBit. In fact, according to Bitcoin native financial services company Unchained,…

Since 2011, World Backup Day on 31st March has been a reminder of how important it is to back up your data and other digital assets, whether it’s family photographs or critical business data. Over the years, it’s become all the more critical in the face of critical servers becoming unavailable, hard drives crashing, and people losing their smartphones, which hold a ton of important personal data. Losing data always happens without warning, and now the masses are realizing the importance of backing up data. According to a recent global research study by Researchscape and Western Digital, 87% of worldwide…

India might be one of the world’s largest agricultural producers, but farming in India is back-breaking — and it’s getting tougher… Disorganized supply chains and difficulties in accessing credit aside, there are also rapidly changing climates, water shortages, and more, which are making every farming season a gamble. It’s at this pivotal moment that AI (artificial intelligence) has been offering unprecedented opportunities for Indian agriculture, with far-reaching impacts such as enhancing crop quality and yield. Who would have thought that AI (artificial intelligence) could have a bearing on the food we eat? In fact, AI is already well-ingrained in the…