Orwell’s 1984 may be a ways in the rearview mirror, but apparently DOGE is trying to catch the US government up with Big Brother’s…and not in a good way. Engadget.com reports that Reuters is saying DOGE is employing tech in its processes, including the alleged use of artificial intelligence to monitor communications. The initiative is said to be keeping an eye out for chatter that’s considered hostile toward Elon Musk or Donald Trump. Some managers at the Environmental Protection Agency have reportedly been told that DOGE is deploying AI to monitor communication apps and software such as the widely used Microsoft Teams for anti-Musk or anti-Trump sentiment. It’s said that DOGE is watching out for individuals whose work didn’t square with the administration’s agenda. One manager reportedly told EPA staffers to “Be careful what you say, what you type and what you do.” Let’s have a warm welcome to the Thought Police. 

Amazon has a new speech-to-speech AI model called Nova Sonic that unifies speech recognition and generation to deliver what Amazon calls more natural voice interactions. According to Geekwire.com, the new model is intended to compete with Google, OpenAI, and others. Amazon says that Nova Sonic picks up on the ton of voice, adapting to the style and emotions of users. An angry customer on a support call might hear a calm, steady voice in return, while someone sounding excited could get a more upbeat response. Amazon’s senior VP of artificial general intelligence Rohit Prasad says ‘I think of intelligence as inseparable from context.’ Nova Sonic is going to be available to third-party developers via Amazon’s Bedrock service. It currently just supports English with a few different voices and accents. Amazon says it’s working on supporting more languages. 

Framework, which sells modular and repairable laptops like the Framework Laptop 13, is temporarily pausing US sales on some configurations due to the new tariffs levied by the Trump administration. Arstechnica.com says models will be pulled from their online store for now. The company said in a statement that the laptops were priced when tariffs were zero percent on goods from Taiwan. With the new 10% tariff, they would be selling at a loss. They had offered pre-built versions of the Laptop 13 with certain options for $899 and $999. Those are gone for now, but you can still preorder the upcoming Rizen AI version of the Framework Laptop 13 for $1099.

Canadian Nintendo fans aren’t happy….the company has delayed Switch 2 preorders to match up with the US preorder date. Originally, preorders were to be live April 9th…tomorrow…and the console would launch June 5th. Bgr.com reports that the dates have been delayed to match the date for US preorders…which is now yet to be determined due to the Trump tariffs. The launch date for the Switch 2 remains June 5th. The price is a little fuzzy now with the tariffs, but since Nintendo has already shipped thousands of consoles to the US, the price may…MAY…stay at $450 for now. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.