Author: Geek Planet

OpenAI and other AI software startups are at the economic center of the generative AI economy. End users pay OpenAI for the use of its software and OpenAI pays the AI cloud providers to process those models. In turn, those cloud providers pay Nvidia and other semiconductor companies for their chips, particularly graphical process units (GPUs). Image Credit: Nadiyah – Adobe Stock These cloud providers are now building so many data centers that electricity has become the biggest bottleneck in the overall AI value chain according to some sources, including the Financial Times. But the Financial Times says that this…

If you’ve been holding off on a graphics card purchase, hoping for better deals, recent reports suggest that GPU prices might soon climb significantly. As reported by Korean Tech outlet, Newsis, industry sources indicate NVIDIA and AMD are planning price hikes across their graphics card lineups beginning early in 2026, potentially reshaping the PC-gaming hardware market and squeezing budgets for gamers and creators alike. Much of the chatter centers on the GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA’s current flagship GPU. Originally launched with an MSRP near $2,000, some reports now claim prices for this top-tier card could escalate to around $5,000 by…

In a recent episode of the GeekPlanet podcast, hosts Robert J. Marks and Brian Krouse talked to Dr. Joseph Green*, a computational neuroscientist and contributor to the book Minding the Brain (2023). Their discussion centered not on the technical details of neuroscience, but on the deeper philosophical questions it raises  especially the claim that we are nothing but our brains. The result was an illuminating conversation about what neuroscience can explain, what it can’t, and how philosophy fits into the picture. Neuroscience works with what it can measure — but that’s not everything Dr. Green acknowledges that neuroscience, like all…

Earlier today, the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, hosted the “Bitcoin For America” summit. The event occurred in the wake of President Trump’s signing an executive order (EO) to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) and the White House’s hosting its first-ever Crypto Summit. One might have expected jingoistic overtones from an event with such a title. However, many of the speakers acknowledged that Bitcoin is something that will benefit the whole world, and that, partially because of this, the U.S. should lead the way in adoption. David Zell, Director of BPI, set the tone for…

All encyclopedias have their biases but Wikipedia, consulted by many millions who deserve better — some of whom should know better — is surely legendary. Here’s a traditional Wikipedia entry on the intelligent design controversy, first paragraph: Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as “an evidence-based scientific theory about life’s origins”.[1][2][3][4][5] Proponents claim that “certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.”[6] ID is a form of creationism that lacks empirical support and offers…

California Legislators have endorsed bitcoin nonprofit founder Dom Bei in his campaign for a seat on the board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). CalPERS oversees a massive $500 billion pension fund serving over 2 million public sector retirees. If elected, Bei would be the first openly pro-bitcoin voice on the 13-member board. Bei is a 16-year veteran firefighter who founded Proof of Workforce, a nonprofit providing bitcoin education to workers, unions and pension funds. He previously served on Santa Monica’s pension advisory board and played a key role in the city’s firefighters union, becoming one of the…

HP’s OMEN 15 2026 might be headed to CES 2026, based on information Windows Latest says it got from sources. If that’s accurate, it’s a return for a line that launched in 2020, got a refresh in 2021, then was phased out in 2022 as HP pushed the OMEN 16 instead. HP OMEN 15 2026 is supposed to bring newer silicon, an OLED screen, and a few latency focused upgrades, without turning into a totally different laptop. If you’re shopping right now, the real question isn’t whether the specs sound good. It’s whether they’re worth waiting for when prices, power…

Stony Brook University neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and I argue—from modern neuroscience evidence—that the human mind is not merely what the brain does; it is immaterial and immortal… We steadied ourselves for pushback from atheists, whether they were Oxford dons or bloggers. But that’s not what has happened. I was surprised by the polite reception that the book has received from unexpected quarters. For example, when Dr. Egnor discussed our approach with well-known skeptic Michael Shermer and leading neuroscientist Christof Koch on Shermer’s podcast in June, the conversation was notably polite and productive. And when he discussed it—again with Michael Shermer—on Piers Morgan’s show in…

The data shows us that young men in America are struggling. Bereft of life purpose, they are gaming, binging on porn, isolating themselves from society, and overall, are giving up on life. Social scientists and authors like Scott Galloway have argued vehemently that the “war on men” isn’t helping anyone of either sex. And the situation for men is worse than many people think. A new essay from Harper’s by Daniel Kolitz tells the tragic story of a movement of young men essentially organizing their entire lives around pornography consumption. After COVID, male isolation and unhealthy tech dependency has only…

Virtually every business has an IT asset of some kind. From the smallest “mom and pop” grocery store to the biggest multinational conglomerates, you will find all types of digital devices, cloud-based tools, on-prem software, and more. In short, information technology has become an inseparable part of life for businesses of all sizes. However, another common theme for many businesses (even very large and successful ones) is the complete lack of an IT asset management strategy. What is IT asset management? How does managing IT assets help companies protect themselves? Why should your own company care about IT asset management? What…