Week in IT Digest #52

The single most important news this week: Google turned on long-term memory for Gemini by default. For founders and developers, this flips the table—from one-off chatbots to persistent, personalized assistants that remember context across sessions—forcing product teams to design for consent, data boundaries, and agent-ready experiences while seizing a powerful new retention and UX lever.

TL;DR

• AI assistants are shifting to persistent memory by default, raising the bar for personalization, consent, and data governance.

• Platform instability is real: OpenAI reinstated older models after GPT-5 backlash—build model-agnostic, swappable stacks.

• AI agents now drive a large share of brand-bound traffic—optimize content and APIs for agent retrieval, not just human SEO.

• Security debt is compounding: PQC timelines, critical vulns, and supply-chain risks make crypto agility and patch velocity mandatory.

• Infra is the bottleneck: storage fabrics, networking, and even grid capacity are where AI performance and cost are won.

• Regulators are cracking open app stores; tax changes and capital inflows favor AI-native distribution and agent layers.

Change Summary

The center of gravity is moving from headline model launches to durable, memory-rich assistants embedded in products and devices. Google’s default-on memory for Gemini and OpenAI’s quick reversal on deprecations signal two forces colliding: users want continuity and control, and builders need stable primitives. As AI agents capture a growing share of brand-bound traffic, distribution itself is being renegotiated—SEO is giving way to AIO (AI optimization).

Expect product roadmaps to prioritize personalization memory, privacy controls, and agent-ready content over pure benchmark wins. Under the surface, ROI pressure is reshaping roadmaps: studies calling out LLM-induced code defects, reports of limited near-term payoff, and indications that GPT-5’s changes lean toward cost efficiency all push teams to invest in guardrails, evals, and observability.

On the infrastructure side, the money is flowing into storage fabrics, networking, and even grid optimization to keep AI fed and powered—an admission that the bottlenecks are data and energy, not just FLOPS.

Meanwhile, post-quantum cryptography and relentless zero-days raise the compliance bar line-by-line across supply chains—making security upgrades and crypto agility unavoidable backlog items rather than optional modernization.

Regulators are also prying open platform gates: Australia’s ruling against app store power foreshadows regional pathways to alternative distribution and payments. Combined with friendlier R&D expensing and intense capital interest in AI-native search and agent layers, entrepreneurs are being handed both new channels and new constraints.

The winners will be those who build model-agnostic, agent-discoverable experiences with verifiable privacy and security postures—and who can compose the right mix of infrastructure to serve them efficiently.

Change Patterns

Compared to recent weeks that celebrated Nvidia’s $4T milestone and deep enterprise integrations, this week highlights a pivot from raw capability to durable usability: assistants with memory, agent-mediated discovery, and device-level embodiment (Apple’s smart hub/robot path).

The pattern is consistent—AI becomes more ambient and integrated—but we’re seeing a new emphasis on privacy UX, opt-outs, and stable model choices as platforms face user backlash when moving too fast. The infrastructure thread from prior weeks continues: momentum keeps consolidating around data movement and storage (Supermicro, Cisco) while power constraints hit the mainstream via dynamic line rating—echoing earlier signals that AI’s limits are increasingly IO- and energy-bound.

On the business side, the talent-and-capital arms race persists (major valuations and poaching), yet ROI sobriety is rising: reports of limited payoffs and LLM coding pitfalls are pushing teams toward testing, evals, and cost-aware architectures. Regulation remains a drumbeat: where previous weeks flagged transparency and data rights, this week’s app store ruling shows real teeth—regional decisions can unlock new distribution and monetization for developers.

Notable patterns:

1. Agentic interfaces are becoming a core distribution channel—optimize docs, APIs, and metadata for AI retrieval.

2. Platform oscillation (feature rollouts, reversions) rewards model-agnostic design and contract-based evaluation.

3. Security is a moving target with a long tail—PQC migration is the new Y2K-style program for large estates.

4. Hardware meets home: Apple’s path from LLM Siri to embodied devices aligns with the broader trend from chat to ambient computing.

The throughline from earlier weeks holds: those who orchestrate infra, trust, and user-centric design are widening their lead.

Topic Clusters

AI assistants grow long-term memory as model ecosystem fragments

1. Gemini will remember more (or less) of what you say read full article

2. Google adds a default-on memory feature and Temporary Chats to Gemini 2.5 Pro, balancing personalization with privacy controls and enabling context carryover across sessions.

3. OpenAI restores GPT-4o access in ChatGPT after user complaints read full article

4. OpenAI reinstates GPT-4o and increases limits after pushback on GPT-5 changes, underscoring user demand for model choice and platform stability.

5. Why GPT-5's rocky rollout is the reality check we needed on superintelligence hype read full article

6. A sober read on GPT-5: higher expectations meet mixed outcomes, revealing cost pressures and slower-than-hyped capability gains.

7. AI Agents Make Up a Third of All Search Traffic Toward Brands, Report Says read full article

8. AI agents now drive a significant share of brand-directed search traffic, pushing marketers and builders to optimize for AI-mediated discovery.

Ambient AI devices and the smart home robotics push

1. Apple's Smart Home Hub and LLM Siri Coming in 2026 read full article

2. Apple plans a 7-inch smart home hub running a new OS with an LLM-powered, more personal Siri and multi-user features.

3. Apple's 'tabletop robot' companion rumored for 2027 launch read full article

4. A movable-display tabletop robot with a cheerful, interactive Siri signals Apple’s pivot to embodied personal AI.

5. Apple Developing Ring-Like Home Security Camera read full article

6. A HomeKit-integrated security camera with facial recognition and long battery life positions Apple to compete with Ring and Nest.

Security, post-quantum readiness, and the mounting vulnerability backlog

1. Is the World Adopting Post-Quantum Cryptography Fast Enough? read full article

2. NIST’s PQC standards move the risk from hypothetical to compliance with a 2035 horizon, but complex retrofits across diverse stacks remain a major hurdle.

3. High-severity WinRAR 0-day exploited for weeks by 2 groups read full article

4. A zero-day in a ubiquitous tool enabled persistent backdoors via malicious archives, reinforcing supply-chain and endpoint hardening needs.

5. Fortinet discloses critical bug with working exploit code amid surge in brute-force attempts read full article

6. A critical Fortinet flaw with public exploit code is under active attack, urging immediate patching and credential hygiene.

Chips, storage, and power: scaling the AI backbone

1. Cisco reports Q4 revenue up 8% YoY and guides above estimates read full article

2. Networking demand tied to AI cloud growth lifts Cisco’s results and outlook, spotlighting data movement as a profit center.

3. Supermicro and its partners tackle storage challenges for next-gen AI workloads read full article

4. Enterprises re-architect storage into high-speed, distributed fabrics to feed agentic and inference-heavy AI pipelines.

5. Power Grid Congestion Is a Problem. Here's a Solution read full article

6. Dynamic line rating boosts existing transmission capacity—critical as AI data centers, electrification, and renewables strain the grid.

Policy, platform power, and capital flows

1. Australian court finds Apple, Google abused app store market power read full article

2. A landmark ruling strengthens third-party distribution and payments, with Fortnite set to return to iOS in Australia.

3. US tech startups revive hiring plans with accelerated R&D tax deductions read full article

4. Policy changes that speed R&D expensing are loosening hiring constraints for cash-strapped startups starting in 2025.

5. Perplexity seeks new funding at a $20B valuation read full article

6. AI search’s momentum—and changing distribution dynamics—attract premium capital as agentic interfaces reshape discovery.