Welcome to Tech Beat, your daily look at the stories shaping our digital world.
Bill Gates is no longer holding back on artificial intelligence. Once an optimist, the Microsoft cofounder is now sounding a genuine alarm, warning that AI carries risks far greater than Big Tech is willing to publicly acknowledge. That shift in tone from someone this close to the industry is worth taking seriously.
Across the Atlantic, the European Central Bank is making a bold promise about its proposed digital euro, claiming it will offer what officials are calling the maximum level of privacy, with the Eurosystem structurally unable to link users to their purchases. Civil society groups aren't buying it, and their skepticism reflects a broader tension between institutional assurances and the architecture of financial surveillance.
Meanwhile, back in the realm of corporate benefits, PepsiCo has quietly dropped coverage of weight-loss drugs for its employees. The move is notable partly because of who PepsiCo is, a food and beverage giant whose business is intertwined with the very habits these medications address. It raises real questions about where employer incentives and employee health actually align.
Those are the stories moving the needle today. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
