As the U.S. ends a Russian monopoly on next-gen nuclear fuel, small reactors face new questions

As an Ohio uranium enrichment plant opened this month, yet another study questioned whether nuclear power from small modular reactors can compete with other types of electricity generation.

Centrus Energy’s new plant in Piketon produces high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. The fuel will contain between 5% and 20% fissile uranium, or U-235, which is the range needed for various types of small modular reactors, or SMRs. The current fleet of large nuclear reactors uses fu

Okta hacked: Here’s latest on the cybersecurity breach, impact on 1Password, and more

Last week, identity and access management company Okta disclosed a hack of its support system, an incident that has now knocked more than $2 billion from the company’s market cap and caused its stock to drop more than 11%. Here are a few things to know about the cybersecurity breach:

What is Okta?

Okta is a cloud-based service that allows IT at a company to manage applications of devices that an employee might have access to.

How did the hackers pull th

I love DALL-E 3’s AI imagery, but it also worries me

Thanks for reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. I look forward to receiving your feedback and ideas: Send them to me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com.

Before we proceed, here are some Fast Company tech stories you may not have read yet:

SurveyMonkey unveils AI that can draft surveys in just 30 seconds

For years, SurveyMonkey has helped companies create questionnaires to gather and analyze feedback from employees, customers, and the public at large.

Now, the company is rolling out a new generative AI tool designed to let users craft an effective survey in as little as 30 seconds. The new feature, called Build with AI and powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology, will automatically draft a survey based on a prompt provided by a user, similar to other AI-enabled writing and illustr

Kids spend way too much time on devices. Here’s how to help them unplug

Think about your favorite devices—your smartphone, laptop, tablet, computer, or console—the things you use to play cool games, watch hilarious videos, and connect and chat with friends.

Many young people spend a lot of free time looking at them. Turns out that teens spend an average of 8.5 hours on screens per day, and tweens—that’s ages 8 to 12—are not far behind, at 5.5 hours daily.

Keep in mind those numbers are for only social me

Alphabet’s cloud problem is raining on Google’s parade

Despite beating expectations and posting an 11% year-over-year growth in revenue on the back of rebounding advertising spending, Alphabet saw its stock drop in after-hours trading following its earnings report for the third quarter of 2023 thanks to weaker-than-expected performance in the company’s cloud business.

Alphabet shares fell by more than 6% following its earnings report after rising nearly 2% during regular trading hours on Tuesday.

Google’s parent

The end of passwords? Amazon becomes the latest to adopt biometric alternatives

Amazon is hopping on the passkey bandwagon.

The retailer became the third tech giant this year to roll out or increase support for passkeys on browsers and mobile apps, which could hasten the demise of traditional passwords. Effective immediately, Amazon customers are able to set up passkeys in their Amazon settings, which will let them use biometric data, such as a face scan or fingerprint, to access their account, or just the PIN they use to unlock their device.

The feat

Microsoft earnings blow past analyst expectations

Microsoft beat analyst expectations in its latest fiscal quarter, giving the stock a big boost in after-hours trading.

Shares were around 4% higher after the company reported first-quarter earning results of $2.99 per share, significantly higher than the $2.65 per share expected by FactSet. Revenue topped expectations as well, coming in at $56.52 billion compared to an expected $54.5 billion.

The company’s closely watched Azure cloud service saw a big jump in revenu

Cruise suspends driverless vehicle operations in San Francisco after DMV revokes permit

The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday suspended Cruise’s permit to operate its self-driving vehicles, effective immediately.

The agency cited “an unreasonable risk to public safety” and said there is “no set time” for the suspension’s duration. “The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip is a big bet on the PC’s future

Smartphone chip kingpin Qualcomm is making an ambitious foray into a product category poised to play a major role in our lives in the years to come. Actually, it already does. Maybe you’ve heard of the device in question: It’s known as a “personal computer,” or “PC” for short.

What Qualcomm is launching is the Snapdragon X Elite, a silicon platform for laptops running Microsoft’s Windows operating system. It’s a system-on-a-chi


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