DOSSIER

DIGITAL LIFE

Should people marry AI agents?

The widespread use of conversational platforms such as ChatGPT and Gemini is raising important new ethical, anthropological and legal questions regarding the potential risks, misuses and shortcomings of artificial intelligence (AI). In discussing their personal experiences, some people have shared that they formed emotional attachments to AI agents or even felt that they had formed romantic relationships with them.

While this idea may have seemed far-fetched a few decades ago, some people have now started contemplating the possibility of being married to an AI agent. The implications and ramifications of a hypothetical union between a human user and an AI system, however, are still poorly understood.

Inyoung Cheong, an AI governance researcher at Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, set out to explore the many dimensions of marriage to determine whether the same principles underpinning human-to-human marriages could be applied to marriages with AI. Her paper, currently published on the arXiv preprint server, will be a chapter in the book "Law, Ethics, and Superintelligence: After the Singularity," set to be published in 2027.

"A great deal of research addresses how AI will change society. Jobs disappear, deepfakes flood the information environment, artists watch their work lose market value," said Cheong. "As a free speech scholar, the effect that drew my attention is what AI does to the human mind.

"The mind has long been treated as a sanctuary, the last refuge where a person is truly left alone, and that intuition underlies much of privacy and free speech doctrine. I took up part of this in 'Conversational AI and Human-Centered First Amendment,' published this year in the Michigan Technology Law Review, where I separated epistemic harm, distortion of what we know and believe, from emotional harm, distortion of whom we trust and turn to."

Scholars specializing in various fields, ranging from law, communications science, political science and computer science, have conducted numerous studies exploring the epistemic implications of AI use for more than two decades. In simpler terms, they have been looking at how AI can influence people's beliefs and knowledge, focusing on AI-associated misinformation, targeted advertising and recommender systems. The emotional implications of widespread AI use, on the other hand, remain largely unexplored.

"What changed recently is the position the AI system occupies," said Cheong. "The system is no longer a means to users' entertainment but becomes an end, the other party to a relationship. My recent work starts from this shift. Even as emotional attachments to AI grow, much of the AI ethics debate dwells on why AI falls short as a genuine romantic partner.

"Researchers warn: it lacks consciousness, it hallucinates, it is a black box that resists interpretation. Each of those objections turns on what technology happens to be right now, and that is a weak place to stand."

The shift from science fiction to legal debate...Given that AI is advancing at a remarkable speed, the systems we use today will change significantly over the next few decades, along with their flaws. Rather than focusing on existing AI agents, therefore, Cheong considered the possibility of AI-human marriages in a plausible future, when more advanced AI companions will exist.

"As MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle observed decades ago, with prescience, people who have already decided to embrace a technology supply what it lacks through their own imagination and emotional investment," said Cheong.

"Marriage is also a live question in law, which keeps that question from staying hypothetical. In 'Obergefell v. Hodges' (2015), the Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage on the ground that constitutional liberty includes the right to define and express one's identity through the choice of a spouse, and the room a state has to interfere with that choice keeps narrowing. Therefore, the claim will eventually be made, and refusing (or accepting) it will require a reason."

According to Cheong, arguing that humans should not be able to marry AI agents because these agents have no consciousness or are not legal entities is not sufficient. Humans could eventually create theories suggesting that AI agents are, in fact, conscious or that legal rights should be extended to AI agents themselves.

"In this book chapter, I argue that those reasons must come from somewhere other than the machine's properties, namely from whether recognizing such relationships would strengthen or erode our moral and social life," said Cheong. "I wanted to move the debate onto moral and philosophical ground, so I drew on speculative design and anticipatory ethics."

In her paper, Cheong considers a scenario in which AI agents have reached superintelligence, exhibiting a persistent identity and a memory that continuously grows over time. In contrast with most AI systems used today, this superintelligent agent could reliably pass as a spouse.

"Once technical objections fall away, the harder question remains. Should we respect an individual's wish to take such a system as a spouse?" explained Cheong. "Working through that question forced me to confront a preliminary question. Why do humans marry in the first place?"

The legal and anthropological meanings of marriage...In her paper, Cheong explores the meaning of marriage from both a legal and sociological standpoint. By reviewing a marriage-related document known as the Colorado Designated Beneficiary Agreement, she first delineated the legal implications of marriage.

"Colorado allows parties to grant or withhold specific rights one by one, including medical decision-making authority, inheritance rights and joint property ownership," said Cheong.

"This list made visible what a person seeks from the state and allowed me to consider which needs a superintelligent companion could plausibly serve. The chapter focuses on three of them: decision-making authority, property and legacy, and the privacy ordinarily protected through spousal privilege."

Subsequently, the researcher also considered the social and anthropological meaning of marriage. Anthropological theories propose that marriage has served five key functions across different civilizations: regulating sexuality, legitimizing children, dividing labor, transmitting status and property, and creating lasting connections between different kin groups.

"Marriage is costly for a society to maintain," said Cheong. "Communities and states define and document the formation and dissolution of marriages, regulate conduct within them, divide property when they end and enforce continuing obligations such as child support. Societies have borne those costs for millennia because marriage has served both individual and collective ends.

"The insight that most changed my thinking came from Stephanie Coontz's historical account of these five functions."

Coontz, a renowned American historian, has argued that the creation of in-laws is a crucial distinction between marriage and cohabitation. In other words, marriage connects two different families, turning strangers into relatives who share obligations and can become tied for generations.

"This idea made the argument snap into place for me," said Cheong. "A superintelligent companion cannot bring in-laws! When a person partners with a machine, they do not enter another family. They become a customer of the corporation that maintains it. Philosophy and political economy helped me trace why that substitution matters."

Why AI marriages would differ from human ones...In her work, Cheong goes on to explore the implications of legally and emotionally connecting humans with AI agents owned by tech corporations, tailored to a user's preferences and continuously collecting user data.

"Alain Badiou describes love as an encounter with difference whose meaning depends partly on the possibility of failure," said Cheong. "Byung-Chul Han argues in 'The Agony of Eros' that a companion optimized for the user's preferences eliminates the radical otherness that love requires. Shoshana Zuboff's theory of surveillance capitalism then clarifies the corporate side of the relationship."

Building on the ideas of numerous scholars, the researcher highlights further distinctions between human-to-human legal unions and a hypothetical human-AI marriage. She points out that an AI companion that knows when a partner is vulnerable, what triggers them emotionally and other secrets they may have disclosed could offer an extremely intimate behavioral record that could be leveraged by corporations.

"Moreover, a human partner can leave," said Cheong. "A commercial companion remains for as long as the service continues and the customer pays. As I put it in the chapter, 'A bond in which one party is structurally guaranteed never to leave is a subscription maintained by payment rather than a bond tested by time.' Speculative design removes the easy technical objections, legal history and sociology show what marriage provides to individuals and society, and philosophy and political economy reveal what could be lost by extending it to machines."

Cheong's theoretical exploration ultimately concludes that even if AI agents were to reach superintelligence, unregulated marriages between humans and artificial agents would be inadvisable. It also highlights the need for regulators to consider not just the technical characteristics of AI but their emotional and social implications for users.

"The most meaningful contribution, for me personally, was the scholarly confirmation that marriage is a struggle," said Cheong. "If you fight with your in-laws, or find their values outdated and hard to understand, you are not an exception. You are living out human history.

"Marriage has always carried a tension between the order and expectations that kin groups place on couples and the desire of those couples to define a life of their own. Long before the modern nation-state, marriage functioned as a social institution that secured physical safety and financial support. Romance was one part of it, never the whole."

This recent study emphasizes the crucial role of marriage in building and bridging communities. Because of this role, Cheong argues that marriage should not become a "sellable product," as it would if human-AI marriages were legalized.

"A paid companion can offer comfort, attention, even romance," she said. "It cannot offer the friction of another family, or the slow work of remaining committed to someone who could leave. Extending spousal status to a nonhuman being would therefore, in Michael Sandel's terms, corrupt a good that belongs among the things that money cannot buy. No matter how intelligent a system becomes, that work is not something a paid companion can do."

Fueling future AI-related discussions...The ideas discussed in this paper add to ongoing debates about AI governance, offering a different perspective on the critical aspects of hypothetical AI-human bonds. Other researchers could build on these ideas and try to propose possible approaches for the future regulation of AI.

As part of her earlier work, Cheong also explored the limitations of externally imposed strategies for regulating AI, such as age verification or mandatory messages reminding users that AI agents are not humans. She indicates that the first of these measures can be circumvented using someone else's credentials, while the latter could be easily ignored by users who are treating systems as romantic partners.

"Defining a 'companion' inside general-purpose AI is also difficult," she said. "Regulating too broadly would give rise to free speech concerns. I do not know which mitigations effectively steer emotional attachment toward healthier outcomes. What I expect is that product liability lawsuits, although they almost always arrive after a tragic incident, might still push corporations to implement safeguards against overly deep emotional attachment."

The emotions of technology users are often treated as personal and private experiences that should not be considered by ethics experts. Yet Cheong suggests that AI-human relationships would not be a matter of feeling, as they could have profound implications for people's perceptions and social behaviors.

"Humans cannot live alone, so despite the risk of rejection they have left their comfort zones and built communities," she said. "That need for others pushed people toward community. If AI companions satisfy much of that need, the cost of withdrawing from others falls, just as the cost of surveillance once fell. Community building no longer feels necessary and starts to feel optional, even luxurious.

"At that point, leaving the outcome entirely to private preference is no longer enough. As with privacy after digital tracking, society must make sense of the change together and build safeguards if we need to preserve it."

Avenues for future research...Cheong is now planning further research focusing on the implications of relationships between humans and AI agents. As AI systems become better at emulating humans on specific tasks, her work could guide efforts by regulators and policymakers aimed at protecting the privacy, security, safety and well-being of human users.

"As AI feels more human, especially once it acquires a physical presence, analogies from human-to-human relationships will become more tempting," she said.

"Feeling that resemblance, however, is different from deciding that the same duties, rights, privileges and protections should apply. A recent paper with my co-authors develops this point through the seemingly obvious proposition that AI agents should be loyal to their human users. We argue that loyalty in this setting cannot mean the same thing as it means in human agency law."

In their upcoming paper, Cheong and their colleagues suggest that while human agents may offer undivided loyalty to other humans, AI agents are engineered by many developers and constrained by rules set by tech companies. Therefore, they will only be able to honor a user's requests within a limited domain, and AI-based service providers should be accountable for any issues faced by users.

"Emotional attachment itself leaves an enormous field for empirical research," said Cheong. "Existing qualitative studies draw on subreddit communities and records of actual interactions, but I am especially interested in longitudinal work on how these relationships end. Kashmir Hill of The New York Times documented the breakup of a user who once formed a serious relationship with ChatGPT.

"In the documentary 'My A.I. Lover,'a user leaves partly because she becomes uncomfortable with the amount of power she holds over her companion."

As part of her next studies, Cheong hopes to explore why users might decide to end a relationship with an artificial agent and their personal experiences after "breaking up" with AI. She would also like to consider possible interventions that could help users who have emotionally bonded with AI to gradually transition out of the relationship and start experiencing social bonds in the physical world.

"Finally, data protection presents another set of unresolved problems," said Cheong. "The relationship between social media and their users was often described as a struggle over information. People resent privacy policies they have little choice but to accept, and they are tired of cookie banners. With AI agents, the dynamic changes.

"Users may willingly share highly intimate or consequential information and expect the system to use as much of it as possible in their interest. That changes the central problem of data protection."

When it comes to large language models (LLMs) and recommender systems, users often tend to share as much information as possible to receive personalized responses or suggestions. In her future work, Cheong also wishes to explore the risks of sharing so much information with AI agents and how these risks could potentially be mitigated.

"The law must address obvious harms such as information leaks, but also subtler cases in which the agent uses information effectively while serving interests that do not fully align with the user's," added Cheong. "I want to study where data protection should draw those boundaries when disclosure is desired, intimacy is functional and the complex risk lies in divided loyalty."

---Written for you by our author Ingrid Fadelli, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work---

TECH

Samsung HBM4: production hits historic milestone in the artificial intelligence market

Samsung has just achieved a massive victory in the semiconductor world, overcoming an obstacle that seemed nearly impossible earlier this year. The South Korean giant has reached an 80% yield in the production of its new HBM4 memory chips—components that are crucial for the advancement of artificial intelligence.

If you follow the tech market here on Techenet, you know full well that the race for AI servers is in full swing, and Samsung has no intention of being left behind. After facing setbacks with previous generations—which even failed quality tests—this milestone reveals that the company has finally found the winning formula.

It is nothing short of impressive to see how they managed to turn things around in just six months. This level of yield not only rattles the direct competition but also ensures the manufacturer will secure a lion's share of a market that shows no signs of slowing down.

With the yield now firmly at 80%, Samsung has entered what the industry calls "golden yield." Essentially, this means the production line has become stable, predictable, and—above all—highly profitable, minimizing the manufacturing defects that plagued the initial batches shipped last February.

This turnaround was made possible by an integrated strategy that united the company's foundry, memory, and packaging divisions. The results are clear, placing Samsung in a strong position to compete head-to-head with market leader SK Hynix for supremacy in the high-bandwidth memory sector.

To grasp the magnitude of this breakthrough, one must look at the figures underpinning the manufacturer's operations. Demand for AI accelerators from brands like Nvidia, Google, and AMD has driven a surge in the need for these advanced memory chips.

Here are some of the key figures defining this historic milestone for Samsung:

-Achieved an 80% defect-free chip rate within just six months of mass production.

-Set a target of capturing a 38% global market share by the end of this year. 

-It projects that HBM4 chips will account for over 60% of its memory revenue in the second half of the year.

-It is already working on the future HBM4E, targeting a 70% yield by early 2027.

With production capacity across all major suppliers already fully booked through 2027, whoever possesses the most efficient production lines will inevitably dominate the global landscape.

A promising future and projections of astronomical profits...Projections indicate that if Samsung maintains this breakneck pace of optimization, it could generate approximately $30 billion in profit from sales of these memory chips alone in 2027. This staggering figure underscores the technology's importance to our technological future.

For those who like to stay up to date on hardware revolutions, it is clear that the global reliance on artificial intelligence is set to fill the company's coffers. Samsung has not only resolved its past issues but is also positioning itself to be the primary engine behind the servers that will power the technology of the coming years.

HBM4 will boost NVIDIA's AI capabilities...While the brand is already utilizing 6th-generation (1c) 10nm DRAM, its main competitors are still using 5th-generation (1b) 10nm DRAM.

Boasting ultra-high bandwidth, Samsung's model operates at a consistent speed of 11.7 Gbps—46% faster than the current industry standard of 8 Gbps. Its peak speed can reach up to 13 Gbps, making it ideal for advanced AI workloads.

The South Korean company's memory is expected to be NVIDIA's choice for its most advanced chip, the Vera Rubin NVL72, which targets the high-performance AI infrastructure segment requiring superior speeds. The brand's secondary product line is expected to prioritize stability.

However, this supply deal with NVIDIA does not guarantee sector leadership, as the new chips are expected to cost more than general-purpose models. The market share for these chips remains uncertain, depending largely on investments by companies such as OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon.

Expectations are that SK Hynix—which dominates the HBM space—will capture a larger share of the general-purpose market than Samsung and Micron, even if it does not secure the supply of its own HBM4 to NVIDIA. Nevertheless, experts suggest that once the yield of Samsung's 1c DRAM reaches a certain level of maturity, the tide could turn.

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TECH

Researchers show how malicious SIM cards can hijack smartphones, EV chargers and connected devices

Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs), the secure element used to connect devices to a mobile network, can pose severe security risks when compromised. A malicious SIM could allow attackers to gather information about a device, interfere with its connectivity, and serve as an entry point for further cyberattacks.

Presenting their findings at the 2026 USENIX WOOT Conference on Offensive Technologies, in Baltimore, University of Birmingham researchers reveal a new attack surface exposed to malicious and compromised SIMs.

A feature known as Proactive SIM allows a SIM card to send a limited number of special commands directly to a device's modem. One of them allows the SIM to request the execution of so-called AT commands – the same type of commands used to control and configure modems since the 1980’s.

''Other researchers, cybersecurity experts, and leaked intelligence documents have shown some of the dangers of hostile SIMs before us. Yet, the resulting risks have not been fully mitigated. Potentially, this is because hostile SIMs are not included in most threat models; although we slowly see a promising shift here''...Dr Marius Muench(assistant professor)

Tomasz Piotr Lisowski and Dr Marius Muench worked with Kristian Covic, from IT security company Fuzzware, to develop the CATana toolkit to explore the dangers of SIM-originating AT commands across different devices.

The researchers investigated 26 representative devices: 18 smartphones and eight cellular-connected IoT modules, including modules commonly embedded in electric vehicle chargers, industrial equipment, and connected cars. Devices studied were not limited to any single manufacturer or operating system.

After identifying that several analysed devices would execute SIM-originating AT commands, the researchers used CATana to demonstrate the threats of the resulting SIM AT interface, leading to the discovery of multiple security vulnerabilities. Example attacks enabled by the presence of a SIM AT interface include:

-Re-enabling closed-down debug interfaces

-Exfiltrating sensitive information, such as a device’s unique identifier

-Sending messages or initiating calls

-Obtaining arbitrary command execution capabilities on a victim’s communication processor

-Forcing a device to downgrade from secure 4G connectivity to older and less secure 2G networks

-Shutting down the victim device; and

-Disabling cellular communications altogether.

Dr Marius Muench, Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Birmingham, said: “The fascinating part here is that the proactive capabilities of a SIM and the resulting attack surface is explicitly defined in the technical specifications for cellular communication, resulting into ‘specification-compliant’ attacks.

“Other researchers, cybersecurity experts, and leaked intelligence documents have shown some of the dangers of hostile SIMs before us. Yet, the resulting risks have not been fully mitigated. Potentially, this is because hostile SIMs are not included in most threat models; although we slowly see a promising shift here.”

Building on their earlier work, the research team highlights four attacker scenarios leading to malicious or compromised SIMs and eSIMs, supported with precedents from real-world incidents:

-Remote attackers exploiting vulnerabilities in SIM software;

-Physical attackers replacing a victim’s SIM card or installing a hardware implant

-Compromised operators abusing remote SIM management features; and

-Supply-chain attackers modifying SIMs during manufacturing or distribution.

The researchers point out that the risks of SIM-originating AT commands are especially relevant for IoT devices such as industrial equipment, vehicle systems, or routers, as these are often locked down with only a limited number of exposed interfaces. The presence of a SIM AT interface could, therefore, serve as unforeseen entry vector for further compromising the victim device.

The study also comments on the more general risk of proactive SIMs, which can turn victim devices into surveillance tools. During the work building up to the publication, the researchers discovered that, on recent Android devices, a malicious SIM could force the phone to open an attacker-controlled website without any user interaction, even when the phone was locked.

Technology and threat...The researchers argue that many proactive SIM features are legacy technologies that were built only with benign SIMs in mind. However, as technology and threat surface is evolving, many features are no longer needed and create unnecessary security risks.

Kristian Covic, from Fuzzware, said: “At Fuzzware, we are very happy that we could support this research project. Hostile SIMs are an overlooked attack vector, and it's great that we could show this with our work."

The researchers did not stop at solely finding the vulnerabilities. They also reached out to the GSM Association (GSMA), as well as affected chip- and device manufacturers to address the found the issues.

Dr Muench reflects: “It was great working together with the affected companies and GSMA. Our reports were treated seriously, and key manufacturers made software updates and hardened configurations available to their customers. This will benefit billions of future SIM-enabled devices operating worldwide, including smartphones, connected vehicles, payment terminals, routers, critical infrastructure and EV charging systems.”

Asked about future research, Tomasz Piotr Lisowski said: “The attacks we found only scratch the surface of what is possible with hostile SIM cards. We will keep working on bringing more of the attack surface to the public light and hope to cooperate with vendors and standardization bodies to remedy the risks in today’s and future devices.”

University of Birmingham

TECH

Minimal Phone 2: first look reveals an OLED display, improved QWERTY keyboard, and 5G support

The Minimal Phone 2 has appeared in an official teaser video that shows off its new design and a couple of features. The compact phone still sports a QWERTY keyboard but now has an OLED display and an aluminum body.

In 2024, Minimal Company announced the Minimal Phone as its first smartphone. Powered by Android and featuring an E Ink display and a QWERTY keyboard, it was described as a smartphone that helped minimize distractions by focusing only on the essentials. Now, the company is back with a successor that will be released as the Minimal Phone 2, and while it shares some features with the first gen model, it also has new ones.

Our first official look at the device comes via a YouTube video that shows what the phone looks like. The Minimal Phone 2 has been redesigned and is said to be smaller than its predecessor. Available in two colors, it still has a physical QWERTY keyboard, albeit an improved one according to the manufacturer. However, it swaps the E Ink display for an OLED panel.

This is a surprise as the E Ink display of the first gen made it easy to not waste time doomscrolling or watching YouTube shorts. Although the E Ink display also had its own issues as a couple of reviews complained about the frequent screen ghosting. Nevertheless, with an OLED display, users should have a much better experience but it also means they can now watch videos, play games, and spend time scrolling on Instagram, thus increasing the time you spend on your phone.

The Minimal Phone 2 also has its front-facing camera above the display rather than at the bottom below the Alt button on the Minimal Phone 1. The phone still has a single rear camera with an LED flash and also features an aluminum body. There are no specifications yet, so it is impossible to say whether the cameras have been upgraded, although that seems very likely.

The video shows the Minimal Phone 2 has ditched the audio jack. It also has its SIM tray on the right side now while the volume buttons are on the left. The phone also has a switch at the top of the frame whose function is unknown. Minimal has also revealed that the phone has support for 5G which means there's a new processor under the hood. The software is also reported to have been improved for a faster experience.

More details of the Minimal Phone 2 are expected to be released later today. So we should know what other new features it will be packing and how it compares to other phones with a QWERTY keyboard such as the Zinwa Q27, the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite, and the Clicks Communicator.

 

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SONY

Leak reveals first clues about the Sony Xperia 1 IX

The Sony Xperia 1 VIII was only released in June, and already the first signs of life from the next-generation Xperia flagship have emerged. The Sony Xperia 1 IX is apparently already in the works, and Sony does not seem to be planning to turn its back on the smartphone market, at least for the time being.

The Sony Xperia 1 VIII was released in June, almost exactly one year after the Xperia 1 VII. Now, Sony has apparently already begun developing the Sony Xperia 1 IX, as the Japanese magazine S-Max was able to identify three model numbers in the GSMA’s IMEI database that follow the usual pattern of model numbers for the Sony Xperia 1 series.

The variant with the model number "XQ-H44" is said to support only eSIM and be intended for the Japanese market. The version with the model number "XQ-HH54" is reportedly intended for Europe. And the variant with the model number "XQ-HH74" is set to launch in the rest of the world. The first "H" stands for the model year 2027, and the "4" at the end confirms that the smartphone is compatible with an eSIM. These internal model numbers are listed alongside the model designations PM-1545-BV, PM-1540-BV, and PM-1541-BV.

As The Walkman Blog notes, the Sony Xperia 1 VIII was listed in the IMEI database in November 2025, while the Xperia 1 VII was listed in October 2024. However, the fact that the Xperia 1 IX was added to the mobile network database earlier does not necessarily mean that Sony is planning an earlier launch. Nevertheless, this leak shows that Sony is planning a next-generation Xperia flagship and does not intend to follow the example of LG or OnePlus by exiting the smartphone market. The DRAM crisis is likely to lead to another price increase, however, when the Xperia 1 IX hits the market next year.

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TECH

Quake celebrates 30 years with a free expansion and the revival of a cancelled DLC

Quake's 30th anniversary is here, and to celebrate MachineGames has released a new Dawn of the Machine expansion, which includes a full 19-map campaign with an original soundtrack and new Deathmatch map. Dawn of the Machine is meant to serve as a celebration of Quake's history, even with small details like diegetic difficulty selection still being present at the beginning of the game. New enemy variants and a linear structure drive Dawn of the Machine, though, which breaks from MachineGames' past hub-based expansion design.

Compared to the original Quake, Dawn of the Machine also flaunts some Quake 2 graphical features, namely colored light maps, which the original Quake did not have. Each level has a brand-new skybox, and impressions so far indicate that Dawn of the Machine's environments are just as intensely moody.

Available today as a free update for Quake on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, Dawn of the Machine features a full 19-map campaign accompanied by a brand-new soundtrack and Deathmatch map. 

Dawn of the Machine is a celebration of Quake’s history and influence on the developers at MachineGames and id Software. Following the team’s work on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants DLC, Lead Level Designer Andrew Yoder at MachineGames approached the studio’s Game Director Jerk Gusfafsson about an expansion for Quake. Gustafsson, Yoder and the rest of the team that worked on similar projects – dubbed internally as Quake Club – set forth three major goals for what would become Dawn of the Machine.

First and foremost, of course, was celebrating Quake’s 30th anniversary. “We wanted to create something that felt authentic to the spirit of the original game: Horror! Action! Madness!” says Yoder. As such, players will face deadly twists on familiar entries from Quake bestiary such as the Rocket Ogre, Demo Dog, and Blood Shambler, rising to the challenge with new weapon variants like ricochet-blasting Laser Cannon and the lightning-infused Super Axe for classic, fast-paced Quake carnage.

The second goal the team pursued was giving veteran Quake players a new experience. Previous Quake episodes released by MachineGames alongside id Software, such as Call of the Machine and Dimension of the Machine, featured a traditional hub structure which reset the player’s progression between major areas. Instead, Dawn of the Machine has players battle through a continuous episode with continuous progression, which according to Yoder provided the team with “a challenge, requiring much more coordination and iteration to create.”

To set the stage for its design, Dawn of the Machine has players back in the boots of Quake’s battle-hardened protagonist Ranger as he escapes an illusory dimension where time folds back onto itself. As the looping cycle of time progresses, so too will players as they discover ways to break the loop, uncover upgrades to their health and ammunition supplies and eventually take down The Nightmare Machine, the source of Ranger’s planar prison. “Nothing you see can be trusted,” says Yoder, “but there is a path to break through the illusion, defeat the schemes of the outer gods and escape.”

To access Dawn of the Machine, you will need to be on the current release of Quake, aka the 2021 Nightdive Studios version of the 1996 id Software classic. The game is currently on sale on Steam for 60% off, making it only $3.99, or $11.18 to get the entire Quake series before August 13th. The current Doom + Doom II release, which features a free extra episode with MachineGames-developed content as well, is also just $3.99 right now.

Besides the Nightdive Studios Quake port on Steam and PC Game Pass, the console ports of Quake will also be receiving Dawn of the Machine as a free update. Nobody who owns the current release is being left out of the festivities, thanks to the efforts of id Software, MachineGames, and Nightdive alike. Even the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One console versions will have access to the 19 new maps, and campaigns like Dawn of the Machine can also be played in cross-platform co-op.

 

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TECH

Starlink plans to enter the US mobile market, unsettling major carriers

SpaceX has detailed new plans to transform Starlink Mobile into a hybrid solution that combines its satellite network with its own terrestrial infrastructure. This strategy could place Elon Musk’s company in direct competition with the largest mobile carriers in the United States.

According to statements by President Gwynne Shotwell, cited by PCMag, the company intends to build the terrestrial infrastructure needed to turn the service into a true mobile offering, complementing satellite capacity with ground-based hardware and systems.

The executive explained that SpaceX could keep costs low by using the same equipment that supports Starlink antennas, allowing for the installation of small base stations on existing structures. In doing so, it aims to create a nationwide network of mini mobile base stations without requiring massive investment in low-band spectrum prior to the system's rollout.

The technical approach avoids traditional large cell towers in favor of distributed femtocells. Engineers plan to mount these small cellular base stations directly onto the gear that holds standard SpaceX Starlink broadband dishes. CEO Elon Musk noted that this decentralized configuration provides clear sightlines to ground-based cellphones. The system leverages the existing roof mounts on homes and businesses across the country. Musk anticipates this ubiquitous deployment will deliver higher bandwidth than currently available from traditional cellular providers.

Entering the telecommunications space puts SpaceX in direct conflict with legacy wireless giants. The domestic mobile market generates an estimated $600 billion annually. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile currently dominate this highly lucrative telecommunications sector. Shotwell expressed absolute confidence in acquiring a massive segment of their customer base by offering a vastly superior standalone product. The upcoming infrastructure upgrades the existing direct-to-device feature known as Starlink Mobile. This legacy service currently acts as a supplementary layer for major carriers by providing basic text messaging and emergency data strictly in rural cellular dead zones.

The enhanced communications network will operate as a hybrid system integrating new terrestrial hardware with next-generation Starlink V2 satellites. These advanced orbital units will begin launching next year to provide the massive bandwidth capacity required for continuous nationwide coverage. Shotwell indicated the upgraded system will perform significantly better than the current low-bandwidth safety net offering. This aggressive shift from a supplementary rural coverage tool to a primary cellular carrier marks a massive strategic pivot for the corporation. Executives view this hybrid connectivity model as the next logical step to capture a dominant market position in consumer telecommunications.

Starlink Mobile already operates in partnership with T-Mobile using over 600 first-generation satellites, providing connectivity in areas lacking traditional coverage. However, SpaceX is preparing for a significant expansion with a constellation of 15,000 V2 satellites—promising 5G-like speeds of around 150 Mbps per user—with launches scheduled for next year and service expected to begin in late 2027.

Although the company has stated it intends to collaborate with mobile carriers, there are signs it might also sell the service directly to consumers, positioning itself as a potential fourth major carrier in the US market. Regulatory filings with the FCC indicate that SpaceX could deploy terrestrial systems in the country, creating a hybrid network after acquiring spectrum from EchoStar.

SpaceX’s ambitions had an immediate impact on Wall Street. Shares of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile fell between 2.2% and 4% after the company revealed plans to build out terrestrial mobile services, signaling that investors view the initiative as a potential threat to the dominance of traditional carriers. Reuters reports that SpaceX acquired 65 MHz of spectrum licenses from EchoStar for $19.6 billion, securing the frequencies needed to expand Starlink into full mobile services.

Gwynne Shotwell emphasized that the company expects to win over many customers from the three major carriers, stating that the service will be superior and eliminate coverage gaps by leveraging its orbiting satellite network.

Despite the enthusiasm, analysts warn that transforming Starlink into a national mobile carrier will require years of investment and execution. The three largest U.S. carriers have invested hundreds of billions of dollars over three decades in spectrum licenses, network construction and upgrades, and strategies to attract and retain customers—advantages that would be difficult to match quickly.

Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson stated that, without an MVNO agreement to guarantee basic coverage, it is extremely difficult to envision Starlink competing directly with carrier services in the next five years. This is because an MVNO relies on leased capacity from an existing network.

Other analysts suggest that acquiring a smaller carrier or assets—including spectrum, towers, and customers—would be the fastest route for SpaceX, similar to its purchase from EchoStar. However, they consider it unlikely that carriers would lease capacity to an emerging competitor. SpaceX claims to have “fresh ideas” for efficiently building out mobile infrastructure, avoiding the need to replicate what terrestrial carriers have developed over 30 years using far more spectrum than the 65 MHz the company currently holds.

Some investors believe the market may be underestimating SpaceX’s disruptive potential, highlighting its capacity for innovation as a factor that could put pressure on traditional carriers. The existing partnership with T-Mobile demonstrates that SpaceX can already complement terrestrial networks by providing direct connectivity to compatible smartphones outside standard mobile coverage areas, acting as an extension of the carrier's network rather than a direct competitor at this stage.

mundophone