DOSSIER

DIGITAL LIFE

Is big tech trying to shut down democracy?

ver the last two decades, Brazil has become something of an emblem of the global battle for digital sovereignty. It is often referred to internationally as one of the few positive examples proving that countries in the Global South can and will fight back when provided with the necessary political will. For example, in 2024, Brazil was one of the few countries that strongly confronted Elon Musk’s extreme editorial decision to give free rein to many far-right accounts that had been banned before he took over Twitter and rebranded it X. Musk attacked the president of the country’s Supreme Court, Alexandre de Morais, but was ultimately forced to backtrack. That incident took place ten years after what remains the main exemplar of Brazil’s firmness on digital sovereignty, the Marco Civil da Internet (a civil rights framework for the internet), which was democratically established through open popular consultation and aimed to protect and regulate the internet market while promoting digital inclusion. At that time, while Dilma Rousseff’s administration still leaned left and the local far-right was virtually non-existent, it did indeed feel like Brazil would illuminate the global path to a more democratic digital environment.  

But sovereignty is a tricky business — and even more so when one’s claims for it lead to a coup d’état, such as the one that took place in 2016, ousting the very president who had presented our digital sovereign legislation just two years beforehand. Beyond the coup, putschist president Michel Temer’s ‘Bridge to the Future’ and constitutional cap on public investment, Bolsonaro’s tragic handling of the pandemic, of diplomacy, of the economy, of human rights and pretty much all his presidential attributions; and Lula’s shy, liberal, US-aligned third term, Brazil’s drive towards digital sovereignty looks like a pale blue dot lost in the outer space of more contemporary problems — many of them also involving sovereignty.   

In 2025, for instance, as Brazil’s traditional primary export commodities, such as coffee and meat, were struck by Donald Trump’s tariff war, under the stated grounds of retaliation against the so-called ‘persecution’ of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Brasília appears to have sidelined digital sovereignty even more, in the name of securing ‘broader’ economic sovereignty. Finance minister Fernando Haddad’s pet project that offers Brazilian land — and fresh water — for big tech companies to build highly polluting data centres (in exchange for virtually nothing, as even gathered user data will remain in the possession of the Silicon Valley giants) moved out of the spotlight of criticism as Brazil fought to keep its primary export goods afloat. The struggle to mitigate the impact of Trump’s tariff war also provided Brazil with the perfect excuse to abdicate from its regional leadership regarding Washington’s belligerence towards Venezuela, Colombia, and even Mexico. Amid Trump’s economic war, Brazil’s stance as an agrarian-exporting powerhouse became synonymous with ‘sovereignty’, relegating other areas of national defence concerns, such as the digital and diplomatic aspects, to secondary positions.   

But even if we disregard the recent events that led to Brazil partially sidelining its commitment to digital sovereignty, can we really consider this country to be a successful case of struggle against the ever-growing big tech appetite for monopoly building and deregulation? According to a study produced in a joint venture by the Universities of São Paulo and Brasília, local and federal administrations in Brazil have paid over R$ 23 billion (Brazilian Reais) in big tech software licenses (nearly half of that money spent in the twelve months between June 2024 and June 2025). Such an amount would be enough not only to develop Brazil’s own national software landscape, but also to power it with eighty-six high-end locally built data centres 5MW Tier 3, raising in fifty percent, with public infrastructure, the current number of such facilities — which, by the way, are all private. Unfortunately, as already mentioned, Lula’s government chose the opposite path and instead of creating a national infrastructure that could potentially secure Brazilian people’s data sovereignty, signed a bill that will grant fiscal advantages for big techs to build, operate and own their own data centres on Brazilian soil, while keeping their ownership of the data. 

Brazil’s digital sovereignty is not merely given away willingly, though. Strong pressure is behind a decision such as the aforementioned, through which the State ends up effectively sponsoring big tech to extract data from its own people, while polluting its own land. In any dependent capitalist economy, US digital firms have been able to proliferate and thrive — with different levels of success; under a multitude of legislative/economic configurations — through exerting systematic and widespread communicational and political pressure on policymakers, media and societies as a whole. In Brazil’s particular case, Big Techs have consistently invested resources in both lobbying to water down the regulation of any activities they might find profitable, no matter how harmful or immoral they can get, and sustaining their own image as a beacon of economic opportunities for workers and enterprises alike. 

Uber is one such company. Through a mix of lobbying operations and sustained disinformation campaigns, the big tech who’s very brand became synonymous with contemporary precarity has managed to colonize Brazilian transportation landscape, severely reducing wages and crippling the labor movement’s traditional levers — all while sustaining an image of ‘entrepreneurial freedom’ haven, effective even among many of the workers whose exploitation it has taken to new levels. In this article, we’ll analyse the company’s lobbying and miscommunication strategies through the conceptual lens of digital sovereignty, as well as the consequential impact it had over Brazilian economy and society. And the broader guiding question we put forward, with no real pretension for a definitive answer, is: how willing and capable are both the Brazilian government and society to sovereignly face off the big tech juggernauts, eventually protecting its economy, environment and society? And more broadly, can digital sovereignty co-exist with these companies, or must they be expelled altogether for sovereignty to thrive in a dependent capitalist country such as Brazil?  

Digital Predators...In the last decade, people and goods transportation applications invaded the whole capitalist world with promises of flexible work, high individual profit margins, and the realisation of the dream of being ‘one’s own boss’. Seduced by these promises — and the perspective of quickly lowering unemployment rates without actually having to create new jobs or invest new money — the administrations of several major Latin American cities clashed with traditional taxi drivers and opened the door for these foreign companies to operate with little or no regulation. A decade later, these societies are hooked and can no longer live without Uber, iFood, and similar services. 

Like other ‘sharing economy’ firms, ride-hailing companies such as Uber are famous for employing scorched-earth tactics: they kick off by promoting dumping in the target market, quickly rendering competition unviable, and then, with their monopoly established, they subject all actors — from workers themselves to government agents, including users and the legislative branch — to their own rules and market practices. When governments approach them with a tolerant mindset, they simply dominate the workspace, rendering later capping regulation virtually impossible. For example, statistical evolution shows how ineffective the São Paulo city government’s late effort at balance was: in 2015, the number of app drivers exceeded taxi drivers by 12,000, and by 2023, the number of rides in app-based cars surpassed those in public transportation in Greater São Paulo.

The consequences for taxi workers in Brazil have been harsh. A dossier published in May 2024 by IPEA (Institute of Applied Economic Research) shows that from 2012 to 2015, the passenger transport sector employed about 400,000 drivers, with an average monthly income of around R$3,100. By 2022, when the sector employed nearly a million workers, the average income fell below R$2,400. Workers who engaged in collective struggles for greater dignity at work were also penalised in the most arbitrary ways, from termination or suspension to death threats, including online smear campaigns against their struggles.. Even the ’well-behaved’ were punished: contrary to labour laws, the hourly earnings of drivers and motorcycle couriers consistently declined over time.  

Pension coverage was also affected: in 2015, 47.8 percent of passenger drivers contributed. Seven years later, this percentage was nearly halved to 24.8 percent. As IPEA’sresearch concludes, beyond the ’growing precarity of working conditions’, there is ’a situation in which workers subjected to a real condition of subordinate (and precarious) work reproduce the narrative (or ideology) that has been widely disseminated and assume they are ‘entrepreneurs of themselves.’ All in all, the much-celebrated arrival of these ride-hailing firms to Brazil has resulted in a worsening of the conditions of work for taxi drivers, while political authorities have offered very little resistance to these changes. If the effects have been so negative, why has there been so little resistance to the influence of Uber and other firms?

Uberpropaganda...An important piece of the answer to this apparent enigma has to do with the way in which ride-hailing firms and other big tech firms operating in the sharing economy wage systematic ‘influence’ campaigns, which involve lobbying of politicians and disinformation to steer the public in their favour. Brazilian independent investigative agency Agência Pública revealed a scheme of co-optation and disinformation targeting iFood app workers, coordinated by advertising agencies hired by the platform. The goal was to dissuade workers from joining protests organised by groups like Entregadores Antifascistas (Antifascist Delivery Workers) and the Associação dos Motofretistas de Aplicativos e Autônomos do Brasil (AMA-BR, Association of Application and Independent Motorcycle Couriers of Brazil), which fought for higher delivery fees, Covid-19 prevention measures, and better working conditions.

The disinformation project included infiltrators in protests and political Instagram pages like ’Garfo na caveira’ (‘Fork in the skull’) and ’Não breca meu trampo’ (‘don’t stop my hustle’) created eight days after the mobilisation that paralysed over ten Brazilian states and became known as  ‘Breque nos apps’ (A Break on the Apps). The monitoring of activists and anti-protest propaganda lasted at least a year, according to the report. In one of the meetings disclosed by Pública, coordinators from Benjamim Comunicação, hired by iFood, celebrated how the campaign ’killed’ one of the movement’s leaders, motoboy Paulo Lima, known as Galo, from Entregadores Antifascistas. The strategy corresponds to a practice known as ‘marketing 4.0’, which involves promoting an idea or product without revealing who is behind it.

A few months after this campaign, in September 2022, The Intercept brought to light a draft bill written by iFood itself, aimed at preventing the recognition of an employment relationship by creating a new worker category: the ‘independent service provider’  The idea was to replace the employer-employee relationship with a ‘commercial partnership’, which would guarantee social security contributions for workers — and nothing else. The bill was to be presented by Deputy Luiza Canziani of the PSD (the Social-Democratic Party, which is right-wing, despite the name), president since 2021 of the Digital Front, a group of lawmakers backed by companies like Google and iFood. The content generator for this legislative bloc is the Instituto Cidadania Digital (Digital Citizenship Institute), a think tank co-owned by João Sabino, who also serves as iFood’s director of public policy. The group of lawmakers, which does not hide its preference for legislating in favour of apps and big tech, was dubbed the ‘Like Caucus’ by The Intercept.

These pressure campaigns have been immensely successful in either completely blocking or at least limiting the scope of regulatory initiatives which would have interfered with the interests of big tech. Despite promises by the new government of Lula to finally make progress in terms of regulating digital platforms, big tech firms are still managing to get their way.  During the 2022 presidential election campaign — a year that began with the number of platform workers surpassing 1.5 million — then-candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised to promote extensive debate for drafting new labour legislation, with special attention to entrepreneurs, platform workers, domestic workers, and home-based workers. On the first day of his government, former metalworker Luiz Marinho, during his inauguration as Minister of Labour and Employment, advocated for the regulation of app-based work. That same January, the federal government created a Forum with about fifty researchers to discuss not only the regulation of app-based work but also the platforms themselves. 

Countering the Blackmail of Big Tech...The sluggish progress and blockage of the legislation are certainly influenced by corporate lobbying, which, although unregulated in Brazil, happens openly. And thanks to aforementioned smearing and disinformation campaigns did not need to rely on mass media campaigns: they legally participated in drafting the proposal itself. ‘We had lobbying that blocked the approval of Bill 2630, and now we’ve had lobbying that, instead of blocking a bill in Congress, influenced the very construction of this proposal’ , declared Fairwork researcher Jonas Valente in March 2024.

Watered down, Bill 12/2024 establishes a minimum wage of R$32.10 per hour for workers, proportionally equivalent to the national minimum wage — but only applicable between accepting a trip and reaching the destination. It also mandates social security contributions, with workers paying 7.5 percent and companies 20 percent. While there are modest advances, a fundamental impasse remains: the only measure that would truly guarantee labour dignity for platform work is recognising an employment relationship. On this front, the proposed legislation did little more than update iFood’s ‘independent service provider’ under the label of ‘platform-based self-employed worker’, a new category that, like its predecessor, avoids recognising any actual labour relationship between workers and platforms.

The stagnation of the legislation and the ineffectiveness of dialogue between workers and platforms led delivery workers to organise a new ‘Breque dos apps’ in March 2025. The strike occurred in about twenty state capitals between March 31 and April 1, demanding higher minimum delivery fees and pay per kilometre driven. In São Paulo, iFood met with some representatives after protests at the company’s headquarters in Osasco, a city in the metropolitan region. In an hour-long meeting, they reiterated their demands to João Sabino, the same iFood director of government and public relations, who said he would take the discussion to the board — without setting a date for another meeting.

In a statement, the Brazilian Association of Mobility and Technology (Amobitec), active in the working group that led to Bill 12/2024, said it respects the right to protest and that its member companies maintain open dialogue with workers. The same association expanded its government engagement in early 2025, partnering with the Ministry of Racial Equality to create anti-racism awareness content for drivers, delivery partners, and service users. The partnership is little more than a typical liberal diversity gesture — a placebo. After all, demands for employment recognition, class status, and other labour measures that would actually improve work quality and curb precarity remain ignored.

This pro-business watering down was predictable, given the lack of parity among stakeholders in Brazil’s working group. Even under traditional negotiation conditions between two class entities, parity would be unlikely. But in this case, the disparity was extreme, as workers are not even a formal category, let alone capable of bargaining power. However much it’s said that the ‘uberised’ worker ‘has no boss’, the boss is the app, which knows more about consumers and workers than either party knows about themselves — knowledge deep and broad enough to pit them against each other. This was the tactic that allowed iFood and others to completely water down not only Brazil’s regulatory proposal but also the organisation of its precariat workers as a class.

In this bleak scenario of government hesitation, compounded by class disorganisation and societal dependence, platforms have essentially taken the three previous spheres hostage. Some pressing questions then arise: how can conscious users, researchers, and other political actors oxygenate the existing resistance from the ground up, both in daily life and in movements like the ‘Breque dos apps’? How can a communications front counter the lobbying — both legislative and media — promoted by platform capitalists? How can lawmakers be convinced to measure precarity as such, not as employment? And finally, how can the social value of labour rights be reclaimed in an increasingly liberalised society? 

Brazil, a country that has in recent years demonstrated its desire — sometimes proudly, sometimes discreetly — to assert its national sovereignty vis-à-vis the interference of the US, and which has pursued a long-term agenda to move closer to the ambitious goal of digital sovereignty, offers us some food for thought about the difficulty of the contemporary technological terrain. Furthermore, it alerts us to the fact that any politician or activist who wants to achieve even limited elements of digital sovereignty needs to prepare for a major communication and legal pushback from US big tech companies. Yet, paradoxically, the volume and intensity of lobbying and disinformation campaigns also suggest that these very companies start to fear more and more the fact that in the near future, countries in regions like Latin America and Europe that have very limited digital capacity may grow ever more restless about the fact of having become technological colonies. The battle will be hard, but not everything is lost.

Brazil, a country that has in recent years demonstrated its desire — sometimes proudly, sometimes discreetly — to assert its national sovereignty vis-à-vis the interference of the US, and which has pursued a long-term agenda to move closer to the ambitious goal of digital sovereignty, offers us some food for thought about the difficulty of the contemporary technological terrain. Furthermore, it alerts us to the fact that any politician or activist who wants to achieve even limited elements of digital sovereignty needs to prepare for a major communication and legal pushback from US big tech companies. Yet, paradoxically, the volume and intensity of lobbying and disinformation campaigns also suggest that these very companies start to fear more and more the fact that in the near future, countries in regions like Latin America and Europe that have very limited digital capacity may grow ever more restless about the fact of having become technological colonies. The battle will be hard, but not everything is lost.

by Vanessa Oliveira...Vanessa Oliveira is a professor of journalism at Mackenzie Presbyterian University and PUC-SP, and a researcher at the Alameda Institute

TECH

New 3D-printing and manufacturing techniques grant more control over energetic material behavior

Much like baking the perfect cake involves following a list of ingredients and instructions, manufacturing energetic materials—explosives, pyrotechnics and propellants—requires precise formulations, conditions and procedures to ensure they are safe and perform as intended.

Because any small tweaks or environmental changes can dramatically alter how energetic materials function, Purdue University engineer Monique McClain is developing state-of-the-art tools and methods to control these materials' behavior throughout the manufacturing process and down to the particle level.

McClain, a Purdue assistant professor of mechanical engineering, specializes in the "upstream" or earlier manufacturing stages, such as selecting binders with unique properties to hold energetic particles together and determining how they are mixed to create the final formulation. She focuses on how manufacturing alters the structure and mechanical properties of an energetic material and, in turn, how those changes affect performance and sensitivity.

"An energetic material's manufacturing history, from beginning to end, strongly determines how it behaves during combustion or detonation," McClain said. "We want to ensure that each step is catered toward the material and its intended use so that we're getting a final product that functions in the way we expect."

Much of McClain's body of work focuses on additive manufacturing or 3D printing of energetics. Traditionally, energetic materials have been manufactured using processes such as casting or milling, which prioritize efficiency and scalability. But while these methods are ideal for large batch production, customization is difficult, thereby limiting innovation and compromising on optimal performance.

Additive manufacturing, on the other hand, gives researchers the freedom to experiment with complex geometries and tune specific properties such as burn rate and blast shape.

For instance, McClain and her research team design intentional defects—referred to as pores—to either increase or decrease the likelihood of ignition when materials are subjected to various conditions such as friction, impact or extreme temperatures. Additive manufacturing makes this possible because researchers can customize a 3D printer's nozzles and program it to print specific shapes and patterns.

"Pores and defects are often inevitable, but we can control how and where they show up," McClain said. "When we focus on the microstructure of these materials, we can deliberately select particle sizes or compaction schemes to produce preferred pore distributions that enable the behaviors that we want to see."

Additive manufacturing also makes it easier to experiment with multiple types of materials. In addition to her work with pores, McClain explores how energetic particles adhere to various binders through the 3D-printing process and how to print propellant materials made of multiple materials with disparate characteristics.

            Profilometry of PVDF thermoplastic layers. Credit: npj Advanced Manufacturing (2025)

In a study published last spring in npj Advanced Manufacturing, McClain and her team looked at adhesion between two polymers with different mechanical properties—a stiff thermoplastic and a soft elastomer—that have been combined into one structure. They found that the 3D-printed surface texture and type of thermoplastic greatly affected how well the two materials blended and held together.

"This study provides a framework and method for studying adhesion of dissimilar materials. This is important because no such guide—and, in turn, little data—on this topic previously existed," McClain said. "The ability to print energetics made of multiple materials gives us even more options for controlling behavior and improving safety."

Although 3D printing is a major part of McClain's work, she also explores how to improve more traditional manufacturing methods.

McClain developed a patent-pending method for manufacturing a polymer-bonded explosive (PBX) molding powder that saves time, eliminates potential hazards and reduces manufacturing waste. McClain disclosed this technology to the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization, which has been applied for a patent through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect the intellectual property.

The method involves mixing energetics with a binder that's been partially cured or hardened prior to compaction within a mold. McClain found a sweet spot of time—approximately eight hours—where the binder becomes solid enough to prevent leakage during compaction, but not so hardened that it becomes brittle and prone to cracking.

"We aimed to provide a repeatable, tunable method for fabricating solid energetic composites, like PBX, with uniform mechanical and chemical properties," McClain said. "We succeeded in developing a streamlined set of steps where researchers can make slight adjustments based on their goals for the final product."

While following the proper steps of the energetics manufacturing process helps to ensure a safe, well-designed final product, external conditions also influence its performance.

According to McClain, factors such as room temperature can dramatically affect a material's printability and behavior.

"Environmental control matters much more than many people expect," McClain said. "You could print the same mixture twice in the same day and they might behave in completely different ways if something like the temperature or humidity level in the room changed."

Ultimately, McClain advocates for a holistic approach to manufacturing rather than one driven by technology advancement. She wants researchers to avoid "force fitting" materials into a particular machine or method and instead consider which geometries and properties are required to create the desired effect.

"If you need a complex internal structure, additive wins. If you need a highly dense mixture or a large batch of material, conventional methods are often more appropriate. To get the best of both worlds, we can also incorporate molding and milling alongside 3D printing," McClain said. "As long as we understand every aspect of the process, from selecting material all the way to packaging and storing them, we'll be able to make the best and safest choice."

Provided by Purdue University

HMD

HMD Terra M: The ‘Tank’ phone

In a market dominated by fragile glass screens and sleek designs, HMD Global has decided to launch the opposite. The company, known for being the home of Nokia phones, has now made the HMD Terra M available in select European markets, a robust device that doesn't aim to be a smartphone for the masses, but rather a survival tool for professionals.

HMD describes it not just as a mobile phone, but as a “fully managed communications ecosystem.” The goal is clear: to serve those who work in environments where an iPhone or Galaxy wouldn't survive five minutes, from dusty construction sites to busy hospitals and airport runways.

The Terra M's design is utilitarian and brutalist. The device boasts a trinity of resistance certifications that command respect:

IP68: Resistance to immersion in water and dust.

IP69K: The highest possible rating, guaranteeing protection against high-pressure and high-temperature water jets.

MIL-STD-810H: Military-grade resistance to shocks, drops, and extreme temperatures.

Unlike modern smartphones, the Terra M relies on large physical keys, designed for use with gloves, and a 2.8-inch touchscreen that also responds to touch with gloves. The 2,510 mAh battery, while seemingly small by 2026 standards, is sufficient to power this efficient hardware during long work shifts.

"Push-to-Talk" Ecosystem...What distinguishes the Terra M from an old "brick" is its software and connectivity. The phone is designed to replace traditional radios, integrating Push-to-Talk (PTT) capabilities over cellular networks.

Through partnerships with Zello and Mobile Tornado, the device offers instant and secure group communication, with dedicated and programmable hardware keys (including an emergency button). Connectivity is managed by Lyfo, which ensures intelligent network switching between carriers to guarantee that the signal never fails, even in border or remote areas.

For businesses, data security is as important as physical resilience. HMD promises five years of quarterly security updates, a rare commitment in this segment.

The pre-installed software reflects this "no distractions" philosophy:

Threema: For end-to-end encrypted messaging, ensuring that corporate communications remain private.

Joplin: For secure note and knowledge management.

OsmAnd: Offline and privacy-focused browsing, essential for operations in network-free locations.

The HMD Terra M is the antithesis of the consumer smartphone. It's not for watching TikTok or playing games, but it promises to be the best friend of those who need to communicate in situations where failure is not an option.

by mundophone

 

SAMSUNG

Following Apple, Samsung could bring back a major camera feature with its Galaxy S27 series

Samsung is said to be making moves towards bringing a camera feature that it discontinued after the Galaxy S10. This comes after reports of Apple working on the same feature for its iPhone 18 lineup have surfaced.

There have been reports of Apple bringing variable aperture to its iPhone 18 lineup. Of course, that means Samsung will also try to bring the feature to its flagship phones, or at least that’s what it seems like from a new report coming out of Korea. Whether or not the feature actually makes it to either of the company’s phones, remains to be seen.

The information comes courtesy of ET News (machine translated from Korean) citing industry sources who claim that Samsung has asked multiple camera module manufacturers to develop variable aperture tech for smartphones. Two of the manufacturers, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and MCNEX, have already started working towards fulfilling the request. The report further adds that Samsung is “strongly committed” to using variable aperture in its Galaxy phones. Since it’s too late to bring the technology to the Galaxy S26 series that’s just around the corner, the Galaxy S27 series could feature the camera upgrade. That being said, there were reports early last year about Samsung bringing back variable aperture to its Galaxy S26 series but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Variable aperture allows users to control how much light reaches the camera sensor. In low-light conditions, a wider aperture lets in more light, which can reduce image noise and produce brighter photos and videos. In bright conditions, a narrower aperture helps prevent overexposure and increases the depth of field, keeping more of the scene in focus.

Samsung previously used a dual-aperture system with F1.5 and F2.4 settings on the Galaxy S9 series in 2018. It was also used in the Galaxy S10. However, Samsung later dropped the feature as it increased device thickness and cost. In recent years, the required components have reportedly become thinner and less expensive, which could make a return of variable aperture more practical.

As for Apple’s integration, the iPhone 18 series that is expected to launch in September this year is said to bring variable aperture. It is unclear if the feature will be exclusive to the Pro models. Variable aperture allows the camera lens to adjust the amount of light to the sensor, leading to potentially better photos in both day and night time. While this will be the first time for Apple to implement this feature into its phones, Samsung has had previous experience with the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S10 models that launched back in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Depending on how slim and compact the manufacturers can make variable aperture modules, Samsung may or may not use them for its Galaxy S27 lineup. For now, this is just conjecture and neither of the companies have given any indication on the feature being worked on for the next generation of phones.

mundophone

TECH

Diversifying lithium-rich mineral sources with petalit

Demand for lithium is surging, as the world transitions to renewable energy and adopts new technologies. Lithium-ion batteries play a central role in this shift, powering everything from cars to portable electronics. To meet the increasing demand, companies are recycling lithium from old batteries and also looking for new sources and better ways to extract it. While recycling supports a circular economy, experts agree that recycled lithium alone will not meet projected future needs.

This growing gap is driving the industry and researchers to explore alternative minerals and technologies for lithium extraction.

Mineral sources of lithium...When it comes to lithium, there's more to the story than just one mineral.

Spodumene is the most widely used due to its high lithium concentration and established processing techniques. Other notable lithium-bearing minerals include lepidolite, amblygonite and lesser-known petalite.

But perhaps petalite deserves a higher profile. After all, it played a central role in getting lithium onto the periodic table. It was first discovered in 1800 by Brazilian naturalist José Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva. A few years later, in 1817, Swedish scientist Johann August Arfvedson identified lithium as a previously undocumented element.

Sometimes called castorite, petalite is a lithium aluminum phyllosilicate (LiAlSi₄O₁₀). It forms in lithium-rich pegmatites alongside minerals like spodumene and lepidolite, and is found in well-known deposits in Zimbabwe, Canada, Brazil and the Yilgarn and Pilbara Cratons in Western Australia.

Petalite is a hard mineral (6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale) with a high melting point making it particularly well-suited to use for heat-resistant and scratch-resistant glass and ceramics.

Dr Leena Melag analysing petalite feedstock to study phase transformations associated with lithium extraction. Credit: CSIRO

Unlocking lithium...Although petalite has a simpler mineralogy than spodumene, lithium extraction from petalite is more complex, something CSIRO scientist, Dr. Leena Melag, is keen to understand.

"Lithium extraction processes from spodumene are well established, but with petalite, the process is trickier and involves extra steps," says Dr. Melag. "Petalite must be treated with both heat and pressure to convert it into a form that's easier to chemically process and liberate the lithium."

Despite these challenges, petalite remains an attractive supplementary lithium resource.

New technologies for a diversified lithium supply chain...With lithium in high demand, the industry is looking for new ways to find and use it. New technology is helping.

Funding from the Critical Minerals R&D Hub enabled CSIRO to develop the LithSonic process, an advancement of its earlier MagSonic technology

Lithium is a highly reactive metal and although it can be made using similar techniques to iron, it very quickly reacts again to revert to another form. The LithSonic process uses supersonic flow to quench the lithium metal before it can react, making it an attractive route for extracting lithium from minerals like petalite. These technologies promise cleaner and greener production methods and may reduce the environmental impact of traditional lithium extraction.

"We're looking at different feedstocks, like petalite, to use in our LithSonic process," said Dr. Melag.

Advancements in extraction technology and the use of supplementary resources like petalite are set to transform lithium production, making it more efficient and sustainable.

By diversifying sources and refining extraction processes, the industry can better meet growing demand and support a cleaner, more reliable energy future.

Provided by CSIRO

DOSSIER

DIGITAL LIFE

Will AI put me out of a job? How artificial intelligence is being used in casino gaming

Will artificial intelligence put me out of a job? That's the lingering fear some employees in the gaming industry are contemplating as rapidly evolving technology is deployed in workplaces across the globe, including in casino environments.

On the surface, the use of data, algorithms and computational power simulating cognitive functions that allow machines to operate like humans has been viewed as a good thing. AI can minimize repetitive work for math-driven calculations and can make accurate predictions about whether a gambler is showing signs of compulsive behavior when playing.

AI has become part of gaming and industry leaders have begun debating if and how it should be managed.

UNLV in May launched the Artificial Intelligence Research Hub (AiRHub) to tackle issues involving the pros and cons of AI in gaming and researchers expect to deliver papers later this year on whether regulatory guardrails should be implemented to prevent hurting consumers who play in the state's casinos and employees who work there.

"We basically launched this initiative because we saw a little bit of a gap," said Brett Abarbanel, executive director of UNLV's International Gaming Institute, in a panel discussion last month on AI's impact on the Las Vegas gaming economy, presented by the Economic Club of Las Vegas at Park MGM.

Deep dive into AI..."There wasn't any kind of academic institution or anyone really doing a deep dive into what AI means at the company sector," Abarbanel said.

"So the Gaming Institute always had a reputation of doing independent research, providing data-driven insights for the industry throughout the course of its 35-year history. So what better thing to do with the advent of this transformative technology, that is AI, than to set up an initiative to provide that leadership to the industry in terms of what it means for the sector?"

Abarbanel was joined on the panel by Kasra Ghaharian, director of research at the institute and the co-author of earlier reports on AI in gaming, and Rick Arpin, managing partner, Las Vegas at KPMG, a multinational professional services company specializing in accounting.

Ghaharian and Fatemeh Binesh, a professor in the University of Florida's Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management, wrote in a 2025 report that AI is being used in marketing, security and to detect compulsive gambling by players.

"While AI adoption in the casino industry is still evolving, it has been used in various facets," the report says. "For example, online gambling platforms use AI-driven analytics to create highly personalized marketing strategies, offering promotions and bonuses tailored to individual players' habits and preferences."

"Casino game developers are using AI to create more interactive games, and potentially the use of virtual and augmented reality in this area. And slot machine manufacturers are leveraging AI-based facial recognition technology to bolster security and compliance as well as enhance the customer experience when logging into loyalty programs."

But the authors also said it isn't all positive, and the industry is still learning how to use AI and meet challenges that are cropping up.

"Despite its potential, the adoption of AI in casinos faces challenges, such as resistance to change, infrastructure limitations and legal challenges," the report says.

"Digitization of the gambling product has evolved both the gambler's experience and the business' operations. Slot machines now include a vast array of designs with engaging visual displays, with back-end software allowing for the collection of granular bet-by-bet information. The internet has allowed consumers on-demand gambling access, and online operators can easily track these players' behaviors, including how much they bet, how often and which games they play."

AI and responsible gaming..."AI can enhance responsible gambling by detecting problematic behaviors early and offering personalized interventions," the report says.

"AI algorithms can analyze player data to identify patterns indicative of gambling addiction to enable timely support. This has led to the creation of strategies that seek to prevent gambling-related harms, including the implementation of responsible gambling tools such as limit-setting, mandatory play breaks, cooling-off periods, pop-up messaging, personalized messaging and self-exclusion programs."

But what's worrisome is that offshore casino operations may instead exploit a compulsive gambler instead of helping.

The panelists participating in the Economic Club event said AI could also be used as a tool to monitor and protect sports integrity by identifying prospective point-shaving and game-fixing scandals well before sportsbook operators could spot them. Abarbanel indicated discovering game-fixing scandals can sometimes lead to even bigger criminal violations.

"You may have noticed quite a few headlines recently in terms of scandals, some even as recently as last week and the other day around the NCAA," Abarbanel said in the panel discussion.

"You may have noticed the huge scandal around possible mob-run poker games associated with different NFL players, different MLB players who have been suspended because they've been found to be gambling.

"All of these things play into this bigger sphere of what sport integrity is and can mean, whether that's fixing an entire game, whether that's doing something like point shaving, spot fixing, where you're fixing just a single element within it that could be tied to something in a proposition bet."

Panelists also discussed concerns some casino workers have that they could lose their jobs if some AI applications are capable of thinning the workforce.

In most work sectors, the deployment of AI technology increases productivity and reduces repetitive work. Those pluses are why some casino IT departments are enthusiastic about implementing the use of AI in their workforces.

Can AI cut jobs?...Still, there are lingering concerns that implementing AI will put some people out of their jobs. Panelists concurred that most jobs are safe because live entertainment, including casino gambling, is a social activity that will be hard for a machine to replicate. Arpin is convinced human interaction will continue to thrive within casinos because that's why people enjoy them.

"The reason I go back to that is because this has been studied quite extensively and so there's a reason live entertainment has thrived regardless of some of the trends in the last 20 or 30 years," Arpin said.

"There's a reason that sports is one of the last live television experiences that is sought after. There's a reason that, whether it's Las Vegas or other casinos or other tourist destinations, they will continue to thrive. It's because humans like to gather and humans like interhuman experience."

The need for human interaction was fortified by the COVID-19 pandemic experience. While many enjoy the freedom of working from home, many companies have reopened their workplaces so that employees can interact.

"I know that some of you have teenagers who are on their headphones and devices all day, and some of you have 25-year-olds working for you who grew up in a generation of text messaging," Arpin said.

"But some of those 25-year-olds are now 30-year-olds going, 'Geez, that COVID thing really sucked.' I want to be back in the office and with people and I want to learn from interpersonal experience. And last time I checked, other than during COVID when we literally couldn't go to a resort, we're still here."

Arpin believes that, like every other time, Las Vegas has been threatened by potential market changes—like when gaming was legalized in New Jersey, when riverboat casinos were first introduced, when tribal casinos sprang up across the country—that Las Vegas reinvented itself to meet the challenges. He's also convinced that last year's downturn in tourism is the result of other factors and not AI.

"You can gather at a resort that has a 50-person stadium roulette game instead of individual roulette tables because that's more efficient and still brings a great experience and casinos love it and customers love it," Arpin said.

"So do you need a few less dealers? Yeah, but you still need dealers, you still need people on the floor and people bringing drinks and all that stuff. Is getting a drink from a robot as fun as getting it from a person? As far as I can tell, no, and not for the foreseeable future.

"I will say maybe that changes, but like people want to gather, people want interpersonal experiences. And so Las Vegas, just like it has reinvented itself dozens of times in the last 80 years, will reinvent itself as needed to address that."

2026 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

SAMSUNG

HPB: Samsung technology could end overheating in cell phones

The battle for the world's fastest mobile processor has an invisible cost, but one that we all feel in the palm of our hand: heat. Recent generations of Snapdragon chips, despite being incredibly powerful, have struggled with physics, leading many top-of-the-line devices to overheat and lose performance (throttling) after a few minutes of intense gaming. Now, a new rumor suggests that Qualcomm has found a solution for its next generation, and the help comes from an unexpected place: its rival and partner, Samsung.

According to information shared by leaker Fixed-Focus Digital on the Weibo social network, Qualcomm is planning to integrate a technology called "Heat Pass Block" (HPB) into its high-end processors that will be released later this year, presumably the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.

HPB technology is not magic software; it is a physical hardware solution developed by Samsung's semiconductor division. In simple terms, this is an advanced heat sink, usually a copper or composite material cover, that is integrated directly into the chip's (SoC) structure.

This block acts as a fast track to remove heat from the processor cores and transfer it to the cell phone's cooling system (such as the vapor chamber). Samsung already uses this technology in its own Exynos 2600 processor, which will equip some models in the Galaxy S26 series, with the aim of ensuring thermal stability.

Noisy fans...The importance of this adoption by Qualcomm cannot be underestimated. Currently, to combat the extreme heat of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, manufacturers such as Red Magic or ASUS have resorted to active cooling solutions, i.e., mechanical fans.

Although the fans work, they bring serious compromises:

-Battery Consumption: Moving parts consume energy.

-Durability: Fans can break or accumulate dust.

-Water Resistance: It is very difficult (or impossible) to certify a phone with fans as IP68 (waterproof).

If HPB allows the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 to run "cool" with only passive cooling, this will allow manufacturers to create thinner, more watertight phones with better battery life, without sacrificing sustained performance.

This rumor comes just two months after reports indicated that Samsung was trying to sell its HPB technology to external clients. If Qualcomm took the bait, a curious dynamic is created: next year's best Android phones may owe their speed to Qualcomm, but their "coolness" to Samsung.

It remains to be seen if there is enough time to integrate this technology into the Gen 6 development cycle, but if this happens, the biggest winner will be the end user, who will no longer feel the phone overheating during a gaming session.

Samsung's Heat Path Block (HPB) is an advanced thermal...management technology introduced for mobile Application Processors (APs), starting with the Exynos 2600. It uses a copper-based block directly on the chipset, combined with Fan-out Wafer Level Packaging (FoWLP), to improve heat dissipation by up to 30%, reduce thermal throttling, and maintain higher, more stable performance. 

Key features and benefits(below)

Structure: HPB acts as a "thermal highway" placed directly above the processor die to rapidly transfer heat away from the core.

Design Change: Unlike traditional PoP (Package-on-Package) designs where DRAM is stacked directly on the AP (trapping heat), HPB allows for a design where the DRAM is placed to the side, allowing the heat sink to make direct contact with the chip.

Performance: It improves thermal resistance by 16% to 30%, enabling higher sustained clock speeds for gaming and intensive, high-load tasks.

Adoption: While debuting on the Exynos 2600, this technology is expected to be used by other Android chipmakers, including in future Qualcomm Snapdragon, for improved thermal efficiency. 

The technology specifically solves overheating issues common in high-performance, small-body devices.

by mundophone