A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Saturday, July 18 (game #1636).
Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #1637) — hint #1 — Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #1637) — hint #2 — repeated letters
Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.
Quordle today (game #1637) — hint #3 — uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Saturday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, July 18 (game #867).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #868) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Big talk
NYT Strands today (game #868) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
SAIL
NAIL
HAIL
THEME
MOVE
COST
NYT Strands today (game #868) - hint #3 - spangram letters
How many letters are in today's spangram?
• Spangram has 11 letters
NYT Strands today (game #868) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
• First side: left, 8th row
• Last side: right, 8th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #868) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #868, are…
GIANT
MAMMOTH
COLOSSUS
BEHEMOTH
LEVIATHAN
SPANGRAM: SUPERSIZEIT
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
The letter Z helped me get the spangram — eventually, as I got “size” first, then “supersize” before finally SUPERSIZEIT.
Even though I understood the theme immediately and had an idea of the words we were searching for, I really struggled to put them together .
Although rarely used, LEVIATHAN is an incredible word (it features in the Bible, describing a fire-breathing sea serpent).
I was thinking that it really should be the name of a horror or at least a wrestler when a Google search told me that both already exist; the 1989 horror flick made less cultural impact than Dave Batista, who used the nickname Leviathan before becoming The Animal. Every day’s a school day with Strands.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, July 18, game #867)
SWEET
OATY
NUTTY
CRUNCHY
SALTY
WHOLESOME
SPANGRAM: BOWLOFGRANOLA
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.
An academic at the Australian National University has accused it of a “hysterical” response to students using AI to cheat, as tertiary institutions rush to shore up the credibility of assessments.
But a colleague warned Australia is in danger of “shipping our national intellectual capability” to companies in California and China if educational rigour is not restored.
Simply put, polling rate is the frequency at which data is sent between your mouse and keyboard to your computer. For many years, the standard polling rate of most gaming mice and keyboards was 1,000Hz, and that's still a setting that's available by default.
However, with the rise of competitive shooters, particularly tactical ones such as CS2, VALORANT, and Rainbow Six Siege, the pro scene needed a shift, and we saw the advancement towards 4,000Hz and 8,000Hz for "esports tech".
But does anyone really need an 8,000Hz polling rate when gaming? Do the best FPS players in the world even take advantage of it? I'm going through everything you need to know about how 8K works, the latency you can expect, impact on battery life, and all other things you need to consider when properly getting your setup ready for success.
How does polling rate affect latency?
The Razer Viper V4 Pro is among the best gaming mice, and it supports 8K polling (Image credit: Future)
True to its namesake, an 8K polling rate will report its position to your PC a total of 8,000 times, instead of 4,000 times or a thousand times as with 4,000Hz and 1,000Hz, respectively. An 8,000Hz polling rate responds with far lower latency than either of these two previous standards; specifically, updates are sent between a mouse or a keyboard to your computer's processor every 0.125ms, eliminating a theoretical maximum of 0.875 ms input delay, meaning a smoother cursor or movement.
The difference in response time of 0.125ms (8K), 0.25ms (4K), and 1ms (1K) can be huge when it comes to polling rate, provided you have the right hardware to properly take advantage of this. That's because an 8,000Hz polling rate can be incredibly demanding on the battery life of wireless mice and keyboards, and it's one of the main considerations as to why you may want to drop the response time down in your settings.
The drawbacks of an 8,000Hz polling rate
The Corsair Sabre V2 MG, like many top-end mice, have the option of 8K polling wirelessly, even if it comes at 1K out of the box (Image credit: Future)
In brief, an 8,000Hz polling rate for your mouse and keyboard can be incredibly demanding on your computer. That includes heavy strain on even the best processors, the aforementioned heavily reduced battery life on a mouse and keyboard, and even the potential risk of micro-stuttering. As a lifelong PC gamer and a competitive shooter enthusiast who is hopelessly obsessed with VALORANT, I've seen the battery life debate happen in real-time.
I've tested and reviewed hundreds of mice and keyboards throughout my career, and one of the biggest points of contention when it comes to enabling the polling rate comes down to battery life. As an example, my favorite gaming mouse of all time is the Corsair Sabre V2 MG, an 8K-enabled gaming mouse that's built with a Magnesium Alloy frame. It weighs just 56g and features excellent skates, making it ideal for a precision heavy shooter.
As standard, via the Corsair Web Hub, this gaming mouse will run out of the box at 1,000Hz (1K), with battery life prioritized. With the pointer used as the stock, you can expect around 100 to 120 hours of play between charges. In my experience, I am charging this mouse every two weeks or so, depending on how much I'm working day-to-day, etc. However, in my many months with this mouse, I've noticed that things fall off incredibly hard with 8K enabled; my battery life tends to last only around two to three days (or one or two nights of VALORANT Competitive) before I'm reaching for the USB-C lead.
If we take 18 hours as the average battery life from the Corsair Sabre V2 MG when used in 8K mode, that's a reduction of around 85%, which is staggering. We can see a similar drop off from the most well-used new esports mice currently on the market, with the Razer Viper V4 Pro (an excellent mouse), touting up to 180 hours of playback in 1K but only 45 hours when maxed out at 8K. Similarly, while the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike has around a 90-hour playback at 1K, that drops down dramatically to between 20 and 35 hours at 8K. With Logitech's pointer, though, you have to factor in the strength of the haptics here, hence the rough range rather than a more exact figure.
What about the human limitations of an 8,000Hz polling rate?
(Image credit: Future)
Now that we've covered what an 8,000Hz polling rate is, how it works, how it compares against 1K and 4K, and the technical drawbacks, we now need to go over the human limitations with 8K. As previously mentioned, 1K means a 1ms response time, and that gets cut down to just 0.125ms with 8K, but what does that mean for a human being, and not a machine?
The average human response time is around 250-280ms; that's the time it takes to see something and physically react. I am not a pro player, but I do play video games at a high level, with a response time average of around 175ms, though I've been faster. The best esports players can eclipse this effortlessly: you only need to look as far as VALORANT and CS2 players, such as TenZ (widely considered to be among the best VALORANT players), with an average reaction time of 135ms. 100ms is even possible, even though the average tends to hover around the 150ms mark.
If we take 1K as a baseline for polling rate, that means there's an average of 150 reports between the mouse/keyboard and the processor, as you tap a key or click what you see. Taking 8K, then, sees 1,200 instances. With this information in mind, is there really much of an advantage here, even at this granular level, with the best players in the world and, conversely, the only people who would even notice a proper difference between 1K, 4K, and 8K?
Do pro players use 8,000Hz polling rates?
The best gamers in the world aren't interested in using an 8,000Hz polling rate for their keyboards or mice. (Image credit: Secretlab)
Considering the far lower latency, you would expect that professional esports gamers would all dial their settings to an 8,000Hz polling rate by default when playing demanding games, but that's simply not the case. If we look back at TenZ's mouse and keyboard settings when playing VALORANT, he last used the Pulsar TenZ Signature Edition mouse at 1,600 DPI, 0.24 sensitivity, and (most crucially) a 1,000Hz polling rate as standard; no 4K, and certainly no 8K enforced here.
What about a VALORANT player from the most aggressive team in the game? Then we must look at f0rsakeN from the legendary Paper Rex. He was last using the Pulsar Sustanto-X with an 800 DPI, a 0.71 sensitivity, and a 4,000Hz polling rate. Let's move away from Riot Games' shooter and instead turn our attention to Valve, then. As far as CS2 players go, few are as well-regarded in 2026 as Team Spirit's donk.
The young Russian is widely regarded as the best player in the world. Is he using an 8K polling rate for his mouse and keyboard to do this? No, while he previously used the industry standard Logitech G PRO X Superlight 2, he's now switched to a bespoke, and as of yet unreleased/prototype Zowie X Donk mouse at 800 DPI, 1.25 sensitivity, and a 1,000Hz polling rate. What about Niko? He recently had his own Razer collaboration drop, and currently uses a Razer Deathadder V4 Pro Niko Edition with an 800 DPI, 0.9 sensitivity, and a 2,000Hz polling rate.
Let's briefly look at two games for the sake of argument, and two of their respective top players. Peterbot is widely considered the best Fortnite player in the world, and he uses a Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 at 800 DPI with a 1,000Hz polling rate. ImperialHal is among the best Apex Legends players, and the CEO (as he's known) currently uses a Finalmouse Starlight Pro with an 800 DPI, a 1.1 sensitivity, and a 1,000Hz polling rate. So, pro players simply are not using an 8,000Hz polling rate when playing, and they're simply better than the other 99.9% of players who play these games.
Is using an 8,000Hz polling rate worth it?
Based on everything I've gone through here, it becomes challenging to wholesale recommend (or actively condemn) 8K. An 8,000Hz polling rate is mechanically and technically better for how it responds between the peripheral and the machine, even if the human who presses that key or clicks the mouse ends up being the limiting factor, or bottleneck. It's the simple, undeniable truth that the saved milliseconds are (really) indistinguishable to basically everyone on the planet.
Then we get into the debate of battery life. Do you want your gaming mouse to last over 100 hours on a single charge, or just 10? That's a tough sell, considering it undercuts the primary reason to cut the cord in the first place. Then there's the massive CPU overload, game engine incompatibility (and developers and publishers are not yet gearing their software for the tech), and the variables of the hardware itself. Hardware makes the difference: TMR and Hall Effect switches and sensors will have far more of an impact than the simple reporting time between the processor and peripheral.
So why am I not fully discouraging you from using an 8,000Hz polling rate in its entirety? Because it ultimately comes down to personal preference, and to feel. If you're running one of the best gaming PCs or best gaming laptops with a high-end processor, a 4K graphics card, and a high refresh rate monitor, then, battery life aside, it doesn't really hurt to have everything cranked up and forgotten about. Are you likely to really notice it? No, but fractional optimization is still (ever so slightly) better than none in the first place.
I'm not quite cynical enough to claim that an 8,000Hz polling rate is just a marketing gimmick; however, I will say that hardware companies have gleefully exploited the ignorance of the end consumer, the simple reductionist view that a bigger number automatically means better, without looking into the nuances of the conversation. Now that's something you will be fully clued up on when considering your next keyboard or mouse.
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, July 17 (game #866).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #867) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… A healthy breakfast
NYT Strands today (game #867) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
COUNT
STAY
WOOLY
LUNCH
LONG
LARGE
NYT Strands today (game #867) - hint #3 - spangram letters
How many letters are in today's spangram?
• Spangram has 13 letters
NYT Strands today (game #867) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
• First side: left, 4th row
• Last side: right, 4th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #867) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #867, are…
SWEET
OATY
NUTTY
CRUNCHY
SALTY
WHOLESOME
SPANGRAM: BOWLOFGRANOLA
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
I go through phases with breakfasts of having the same thing for ages before getting bored and switching to something new.
In recent months I’ve been through porridge, overnight oats, fruit and yoghurt, and recently a BOWLOFGRANOLA all in pursuit of “a healthy breakfast" when in truth I would love to eat bacon and eggs every day.
I digress. After finding SWEET and OATY the search became a hunt for the obvious — although I was unaware granola could also be SALTY.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, July 17, game #866)
ENTERTAINMENT
NATURE
SPORTS
GEOGRAPHY
SPANGRAM: TRIVIALPURSUIT
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.
A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Friday, July 17 (game #1635).
Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,500 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today — or scroll down further for the answers.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #1636) — hint #1 — Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #1636) — hint #2 — repeated letters
Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 1.
Quordle today (game #1636) — hint #3 — uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.
What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?
• K
• T
• B
• C
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #1636) — the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today's Quordle, game #1636, are…
KNAVE
TIGHT
BLEAT
CHAOS
This was already a tricky game, with two words featuring silent letters. I navigated those okay, then crashed out — ending my win streak on the final word.
I had four possibilities for words ending I-G-H-T and I picked three wrong ones before I ran out of guesses.
Why I went with the obscure “wight” rather than TIGHT I can’t explain.
Daily Sequence today (game #1636) — the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1636, are…
Amazon's AWS cloud services billing system went wild on Friday
Customers saw bills in the trillions
AWS apologized and is working on a fix
AWS, the cloud platform that serves millions who use Amazon's servers to run websites and businesses you use every day, just freaked out many of its customers with usage bills that literally went into the trillions.
"I just saw $1.5 trillion on my AWS bill and my soul left my body," wrote Bharath_uwu on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, and he wasn't alone.
The Guardian originally spotted the Tweet and multiple social posts relating to the seemingly widespread glitch.
AWS doesn't mail out invoices. Instead, customers logging into the Billing and Cost Management console spotted the billion- and trillion-dollar bills and expressed emotions ranging from concern to panic.
I just saw $1.5 trillion on my AWS bill and my soul left my body https://t.co/EgfQKJTHVl pic.twitter.com/L0gXYbDio7July 17, 2026
As Dan Harvey, who heads marketing at Learning Through Landscapes, told the Guardian, "I almost had a heart attack when I received an email alert from Amazon Web Services with the billing for our charity’s school grounds audit app."
Some tried to take the billing error in stride. Chinmay on X encouraged others to post their highest AWS bills. As of 10 hours ago, he was at $333B.
Others called out AWS for the error with something less than good humor. "I bet someone must have had a real heart attack. This shouldn't be legal...," wrote Mr Doob on X.
Amazon, to its credit, has been delivering multiple updates starting at around 1:30AM PDT on Friday, July 17, when they first spotted the error: "We are investigating issues with Cost Explorer reflecting inaccurate estimated billing data."
A few hours later, AWS reported it had found the culprit: "We have identified the root cause as an issue with unit pricing within the estimated billing computation subsystem, and we are working on a mitigation," they wrote on the AWS Status page.
However, hours later, AWS admitted, "Our efforts to backfill corrected estimated cost and usage data are still underway. We are progressing slower than anticipated."
The good news is that AWS is not asking anyone to pay these incorrect fees and that, while this has been a big frustration for services that run their websites and businesses on AWS, the cloud system has been working flawlessly, and there have been no reports of outages or performance issues on Friday (if you don't count the years shaved off freaked-out customers' lives).
"Typo alert: Some customers saw quadrillion-dollar AWS billing estimates today. Slight miscalculation on our end (very slight ). We're fixing it now. No action needed on your end. Sorry for the confusion. Real question: what will you do with those trillions instead?"
Yes, everyone can all laugh now, though I'm not certain customers like Harvey, Bharath, and others are chuckling along with them.
Was your business affected? How big was your AWS Billing mistake? Let us know the "damage" in the comments below.
Nvidia's RTX 5000 Super models are being readied, and board makers have the chips, a new rumor reckons
However, these graphics cards are 'on hold' due to the high price of VRAM
The Super refreshes pack a lot of VRAM, and so that cost could have an unfortunate impact on MSRPs – and none of this sounds particularly comforting for would-be buyers
Nvidia's RTX 5000 Super refreshes are apparently being readied, but they're on hold for now – and the reason why makes me even more nervous about the pricing of these GPUs when (well, if) they finally emerge.
Of course, these RTX Super models are still rumors – albeit so persistent at this point, there must be at least some validity to them – and the latest assertion comes from VideoCardz.
The tech site has apparently spoken to a source at one of Nvidia's board-making partners who claims that their company has already received 'graphics cards', which presumably refers to GPU chips (which is what Nvidia supplies, along with VRAM, to partners that make the boards).
At any rate, while this board maker supposedly has at least some of the necessary chips, it has been told by Nvidia that the RTX 5000 Super refreshes are now 'on hold'.
Why? Apparently, the delay is down to the price of the video RAM, specifically the new 3GB GDDR7 modules that are required (as per previous rumors) for the refreshed graphics cards.
Compared to the 2GB GDDR7 modules currently in use with Nvidia RTX 5000 models, the 3GB memory chips are around three times more expensive right now. Ouch.
Analysis: Super stumble?
(Image credit: Future)
This presents an obvious stumbling block because, due to these Super variants being packed with VRAM, the total cost of materials gets expensive quite quickly.
Remember that the grapevine believes that the RTX 5080 Super and RTX 5070 Ti Super will bristle with 24GB of VRAM, and even the RTX 5070 Super will have a weighty 18GB on board. Gamers are going to love the latter as an upgrade to the lean 12GB of the vanilla version – but not if it pushes the price of the GPU through the roof.
Going by what VideoCardz tells us about pricing in US dollars as the market currently stands, in the case of the RTX 5070 Super, the greater quantity of RAM, and more expensive modules, would mean 18GB costs in the order of $360 (maybe a bit more), versus $120 for the current RTX 5070's 12GB loadout, whacking an extra $240 on the price (or the regional equivalent elsewhere).
These graphics cards were already expected to be pricey, but that kind of additional premium lumped on top, this could make them real wallet-worriers.
The good news for those hoping for new GPUs from Nvidia is that at least these RTX 5000 Super models do seem to be happening. It's just that we may have to wait some time for them yet – although another recent rumor did suggest they were due this year. The latter speculation also theorized that an RTX 5060 Super 12GB model was incoming, but that didn't make a lot of sense, and I note that it isn't mentioned in this latest rumor. As ever, don't go lightly with the seasoning on all this.
Users says they've observed LG gaming monitors automatically installing unwanted software on PCs
LG's terms of service warn that conversations may be "captured and processed" on TV with the latest version of webOS
The terms say you must now warn guests they may be recorded "in compliance with applicable wiretapping… laws"
How smart should a smart TV be? According to LG's latest TV terms and conditions, the answer is "not quite smart enough to comply with wiretapping laws", because that's now your responsibility if LG captures the voice of a guest in your house through its AI voice services. Though the situation with LG monitors appears to be even more dramatic.
As Gamers Nexus reports, some LG monitors appear to be installing adware on Windows PCs without asking for permission: in addition to the LG Monitor App Installer, they also install McAfee Scam Detector.
LG's own app requires full access to all system resources, which potentially includes all your online activity, logins, hardware, location and more — while McAfee has a long history of being installed on devices as 'bloatware', and people are not reacting positively to suddenly finding it on their PC.
There may be a perfectly innocent explanation for all of this, but when big tech firms keep getting caught doing bad things because they thought they could get away with it, it's no wonder people are assuming the worst.
The bit that's causing consternation regarding smart TVs is part 6(d) of the new LG Electronics terms of service, headed Voice Recognition and Privacy Compliance.
As Notebookcheck's Hannes Brecher notes, the section states that it's your responsibility "to obtain all necessary consents from any third parties whose voices may be captured by the Product and to notify household members and guests that their voices may be captured and processed, in compliance with applicable wiretapping, eavesdropping, and privacy laws."
There are three ways around that. One, you can turn off all microphone-based features. Some people won't mind that, but they can be useful — especially asking it for settings you don't know how to find.
Two, you can avoid installing the latest software — but that means you won't get any security updates, which are important (to protect your privacy, ironically, among other things).
Or you can disable your TV's connection to the internet so it can't send information back, but that obviously makes it less useful, and will also disable the voice controls anyway.
I think the terms and conditions are an attempt at corporate ass-covering rather than something sinister: the preceding paragraph talks specifically about when "a product with voice recognition functionality is used" and it's possible that "family members, guests, children, and bystanders" might be overheard; if you're choosing to activate AI-based voice features then of course voices are going to be captured and processed in order for those features to work.
At the same time, it does seem broad enough to let LG use people's voices as AI inputs, rather than just accidental capture. And in the context of what LG's doing with PC monitors (not to mention AI training's very, ahem, casual relationship with consent and copyright), that's a worry — and people online increasingly have no tolerance for anything like this, as the responses on Reddit and Gamers Nexus' original YouTube video have shown.
We've approached LG for comment on these claims, and will update the story when we hear back.
Designers say that as well as offering a degree of protection from surveillance, their clothes make a powerful fashion statement about the importance of privacy
As facial recognition technology is rolled out across Britain’s public spaces, a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend.
Companies have started incorporating “adversarial patterns” in their garments – carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems.
Meta is reportedly planning a cloud business that would sell access to AI computing power and models, extending its internal infrastructure into a commercial service for outside developers and enterprises. Reuters, citing Bloomberg’s reporting, noted that the planned offering would allow customers to access AI models hosted on Meta’s infrastructure and pay based on usage, effectively positioning the company in the infrastructure-as-a-service and AI platform markets. On the surface, this seems like a logical next step. If you are already spending enormous amounts of money to build AI infrastructure, there is a natural temptation to ask whether some of that investment can be monetized beyond your own internal use.
I have seen this pattern before. A company builds sophisticated internal systems, recognizes their value, and then begins to imagine that becoming a cloud provider is simply a matter of exposing those capabilities to external customers. It sounds straightforward, especially given the excitement around AI and the demand for high-performance infrastructure. But cloud computing is not just another distribution model. It is not simply a matter of offering on-demand multitenant services and charging a fee. It is a deeply operational, trust-based business in a market that punishes companies that do not fully understand what enterprise customers require.
A crowded neocloud market
The first problem Meta faces is that this is not an open opportunity. The neocloud space, meaning purpose-built AI infrastructure delivered as a service, is already crowded and increasingly difficult to enter. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google dominate the conversation for obvious reasons. They have years of cloud operating experience, broad service portfolios, global reach, mature ecosystems, and deeply established enterprise relationships. Oracle remains a serious player as well, especially in enterprise applications, data platforms, and performance-sensitive workloads. IBM still matters in hybrid cloud, operations, and industries where governance and regulatory rigor remain central.
That list alone should give Meta pause. These companies are not just infrastructure vendors. They are experienced cloud operators. They have spent years building not only the underlying platforms, but also the native capabilities enterprises now expect by default. Those capabilities include security, governance, identity management, observability, support, compliance, billing controls, resilience planning, and integration with the broader enterprise technology estate. These are not secondary features. They are part of the core value proposition.
This is why late entry into the cloud market is so hard. A new provider is not just competing on price or capacity. It is competing against accumulated trust. Enterprises are not casual buyers. They are selecting long-term operating environments for applications, data, AI models, and business-critical processes. They want confidence that the provider understands how these services will be consumed, governed, and supported over time. Meta is entering a market where the incumbents already have a major head start on all of those fronts.
Harder than it looks
Over the years, I have had many technology companies come to me and say they wanted to reposition their technology in the cloud space, either as software as a service or infrastructure as a service. In the beginning, enthusiasm is always high. The technology is impressive. The market size looks attractive. The revenue models appear compelling. Investors love the story. Then we begin to walk through what it really means to operate as a cloud provider, and the optimism usually fades fast.
The questions become very practical and very uncomfortable. How will tenants be isolated? How will identity and access controls work across different kinds of customers? What governance models will be built in natively? How will workloads be monitored, optimized, and secured? What does support look like 24 hours a day, across regions, across industries, across compliance boundaries? How will outages be handled, communicated, and remediated? How will the platform integrate with existing customer tools for operations, policy management, and security response? How much investment will it take just to become credible before you even begin to differentiate?
Once companies fully understand the complexities, market dynamics, and the capital and execution required to compete even with secondary players, many of them back off. They realize that cloud technology is not a packaging exercise. It is a transformation in how a company designs, operates, supports, sells, and evolves technology. That is why I remain skeptical when any company assumes it can translate internal infrastructure excellence into external cloud success without a very long, disciplined commitment.
Meta’s market readiness
Of course, Meta is not lacking in financial resources. If any company can afford to spend aggressively in this space, it is Meta. The company has the capital to build infrastructure, absorb losses, hire experienced talent, and stay in the market long enough to make a serious attempt. I would never argue that Meta is too small or too poor to try. Quite the opposite. If there is any non-traditional entrant with the financial scale to force itself into the conversation, Meta would be high on the list.
But money does not erase complexity. It only gives you the chance to confront it. The real question is not whether Meta can afford to become a cloud provider. The question is whether Meta has what it takes to become an excellent cloud provider. Those are two very different things. Enterprises are not going to move meaningful workloads to a new platform simply because the company behind it is wealthy or technically famous. They are going to ask whether the provider understands enterprise consumption patterns, enterprise risk, enterprise governance, and enterprise operations.
That is where the challenge becomes much more serious. Meta has extensive experience running infrastructure for itself. That is valuable, but internal operating excellence is not the same thing as external service maturity. Running systems for your own workloads allows a high degree of control over architecture, standards, priorities, and operating assumptions. Running systems for paying customers requires flexibility, consistency, transparency, and support across a wide range of use cases that you do not control. Those are very different disciplines, and companies often underestimate the gap between them.
What exactly is Meta?
Another concern here is strategic clarity. Meta already has a complicated market identity. It is a social media company, an advertising platform company, a hardware company, an AI company, and still, in the minds of many, the company that spent billions pursuing the metaverse. If it now wants to be viewed as a serious cloud infrastructure provider, it will need to explain not only what it is offering, but why customers should believe this is a durable long-term commitment and not just another adjacent experiment.
That uncertainty can be damaging. Customers want stable providers with clear strategic intent. They do not want to architect important systems around a platform if they suspect the provider may lose interest, shift direction, or reframe the business after a few years of uneven results. Cloud computing requires patience, consistency, and deep customer orientation. It is not a market where strategic ambiguity helps.
This could become confusing for Meta internally as well. Building a true cloud business demands focus. It demands years of investment in areas that may not be glamorous but are absolutely necessary, such as governance, operations, controls, support frameworks, partner programs, and enterprise sales alignment. If the company is not willing to make those sacrifices fully and for the long term, the initiative will struggle.
Since 2017, Iason Gabriel has worked at the tech giant, trying to anticipate – and think through – the impact of AI. But as commercial and geopolitical pressures escalate, can ethicists make any difference?
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