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World Password Day: Check if your passwords are safe

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World Password Day: Check if your passwords are safe

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World Password Day is here, and it is the perfect excuse to check something most of us ignore until it is too late. Your passwords.

Think about it. You are scrolling on your phone, maybe checking email or social media, when you see a message claiming someone has access to your account. You want to ignore it. It feels like spam.

But this time, you pause. Because breaches happen all the time, and stolen passwords are still one of the easiest ways for hackers to get in.

So instead of waiting for a scare, today is a good day to get ahead of it.

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AMERICA’S MOST-USED PASSWORD IN 2025 REVEALED

World Password Day is a reminder to update weak or reused passwords before hackers use stolen login details to access your accounts. (Pekic/Getty Images)

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 Why World Password Day actually matters

This isn’t just another made-up holiday. It is a reminder of a very real problem. Companies get breached. Databases leak. And once login details are exposed, they often get shared or sold online.

From there, attackers try those same passwords across other accounts. This is called credential stuffing, and it works more often than you would think. That is why even one weak or reused password can put multiple accounts at risk. 

How to check and protect yourself today

You do not need a complicated process. Start simple and work your way through it.

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1) Change your most important passwords

Start with your email, banking and social media accounts. If any of those passwords are old or reused, update them now.

2) Stop reusing passwords

Using the same password across sites is one of the biggest risks. If one account is exposed, the rest can fall like dominoes.

3) Turn on two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a second layer of protection. Even if someone has your password, they still cannot get in without that extra step.

10 SIGNS YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS BEING SOLD ONLINE

Reused passwords can put multiple accounts at risk if one company breach exposes login details to hackers. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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4) Reduce how much of your data is online

This step is often overlooked, but it matters more than people think. The more personal information floating around online, the easier it is for scammers to target you or break into your accounts. You can take a more proactive approach. Some data removal services offer a free scan that checks whether your personal information is exposed on data broker and people-search sites. It only takes a minute to run, and the results can show you which companies may have your data. From there, you can decide whether to remove that information and reduce your exposure going forward. Results arrive by email in about an hour.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting CyberGuy.com.

How to create a strong password

If you are updating passwords today, make sure you are doing it right.

Make it long

Aim for at least 12 characters. Longer passwords are much harder to crack. 

Mix different types of characters

Use uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols to increase complexity.

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Avoid common words and phrases

Simple words or predictable combinations are easy for attackers to guess. What are the top 5 passwords to avoid? The most commonly used and insecure passwords are:

  • 123456
  • 123456789
  • 12345678
  • password
  • Qwerty123

These passwords are extremely easy to guess and should be avoided at all costs.

Skip obvious substitutions

Replacing letters with symbols, like “$” for “S,” is no longer effective. Hackers already account for that.

HOW SECURE IS MY PASSWORD? USE THIS TEST TO FIND OUT

Strong passwords, two-factor authentication and password managers can help protect email, banking and social media accounts from attackers. (Neil Godwin/Future via Getty Images)

Why a password manager is worth it

Managing strong passwords on your own isn’t realistic. That is why password managers exist.

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These tools can generate strong, unique passwords for every account and store them securely. You only need to remember one master password.

It also makes logging in faster and easier, while removing the temptation to reuse passwords. That alone can prevent a lot of problems.

Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2026 at CyberGuy.com.

Kurt’s key takeaways

World Password Day is a reminder, but it should not be the only day you think about this. Still, it is a good starting point. A few quick changes today can prevent a major headache later. Strong passwords, two-factor authentication and reducing your online footprint all work together. Tools like Incogni help take that one step further by limiting how much information is out there to begin with. Pair that with a password manager, and you are not just reacting to threats. You are building a much stronger defense.

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When was the last time you updated your passwords, and what made you finally do it? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.

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Live updates from Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAI

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Live updates from Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s court battle over the future of OpenAI

Sam Altman and Elon Musk are facing off in a high-stakes trial that could alter the future of OpenAI and its most well-known product, ChatGPT. In 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding mission of developing AI to benefit humanity and shifting focus to boosting profits instead.

Elon Musk, his financial manager and Neuralink CEO, Jared Birchall, and OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman have already testified before the jury. Now, on Wednesday, May 6th, Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who shares four children with Musk, is taking the stand, and the courtroom is seeing testimony from former OpenAI exec Mira Murati via video.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled to appear on Monday, with OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever lined up to testify after that.

Musk was a cofounder of OpenAI and claims that Altman and Brockman tricked him into giving the company money, only to turn their backs on their original goal. However, OpenAI says that “This lawsuit has always been a baseless and jealous bid to derail a competitor” in a bid to boost Musk’s own SpaceX / xAI / X companies that have launched Grok as a competitor to ChatGPT.

Elon Musk — plaintiff, OpenAI cofounder and now CEO of rival xAI

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Steven Molo — lead counsel for plaintiff

Jared Birchall — manager of Musk’s family office

Shivon Zilis — former OpenAI board member who shares multiple children with Musk

Sam Altman — defendant, CEO of OpenAI

William Savitt — lead counsel for defendant

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Greg Brockman — president of OpenAI as well as a cofounder

Ilya Sutskever — former chief scientist at OpenAI and a cofounder

Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers — aka YGR, trial judge

Here’s all the latest on the trial between Musk and Altman:

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Musk’s biggest loyalist became his biggest liability

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Musk’s biggest loyalist became his biggest liability

I sat down in the Musk v. Altman trial courtroom today, painfully aware that no one was going to ask Shivon Zilis the question on everyone’s minds: Girl, what the fuck are you doing?

Zilis, who testified under oath that she is the mother of four of Musk’s children, was… what’s the best way to characterize this? A Musk advisor? She denies she was a “chief of staff” but says she worked for Musk’s “entire AI portfolio: Tesla, Neuralink, and OpenAI” starting in 2017. The two met through OpenAI, and they had what she referred to as a “one off” before becoming “friends and colleagues.” The “one off,” she confirmed, was “romantic in nature.”

Her job under Musk was “to go find bottlenecks and solve them,” and she claims to have worked 80 to 100 hours a week doing that. “It was just bananas,” she said. Her first two children by Musk — twins — were born in 2021, while Zilis was serving on OpenAI’s board. She kept this a secret. She did not tell the board who the father was until Business Insider reported on court documents that listed Musk as the father.

“My first call was to my dad,” said Zilis, who testified that even her own family didn’t know the children’s paternity. “The call right after that was to Sam Altman.” Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, had testified he found out about Zillis’ children from news reports. When he talked to her about it, she claimed her relationship with Musk was “platonic” and that she’d had kids via IVF. This was reassurance enough for Brockman, who’d been friends with her since 2013. She remained on the board.

On the stand, Zilis spoke softly and quickly. She seemed mousy. A significant part of what made her testimony so bad for Musk was that she appeared to be the only person taking notes on what Brockman, Altman, Ilya Sutsekever, and Musk were discussing when the cofounders considered their options for creating a for-profit arm of OpenAI. She also was “aiding and facilitating communication between the principal parties.” Those notes are the trial’s most important evidence — more important, even, than Brockman’s diary.

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The goal of the direct testimony seemed to be to take the sting out of what Zilis and the plaintiff’s lawyers had to know was coming. So she told the court that her role also meant telling Altman when Musk was “in a good headspace” for a conversation — perhaps inadvertently strengthening Brockman’s testimony yesterday that at one point he feared Musk would physically attack him —while vehemently denying that she funneled information to Musk.

Look, she and Musk testified they lived together and have a romantic relationship and four kids. She was originally a plaintiff in the suit. She kept her children’s paternity secret from her own father. All of those things would be reason enough to doubt her testimony about thinking OpenAI betrayed its mission during the chaos when Altman was fired by the board. She claimed that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said something to the effect of “we are above them, we are below them, we are around them” during that chaotic period as being “terrifying.” (The quote was “We are below them, above them, around them.”)

But the notes are really what did Musk’s case in. Try as she might, Zilis couldn’t explain them away.

There were a lot of ideas batted around in 2017 and 2018. We saw a lot of Zilis’ emails from that period. Notably in one, an option was “switch to for profit in next couple of weeks (woah fast!).” Another email noted that a “complete non-negotiable” for Altman, Brockman and Sutskever “is an ironclad agreement to not have Elon (or anyone) have absolutely [sic] control of AGI they create.” In another she wrote to Musk money manager Jared Birchall, “They say they will not move forward without a guarantee to switch away from him having control. You and I can argue that’s stupid all we want but they are holding firm on it.”

“If he hung around E perhaps it would force him to think about humanity more”

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Zilis also knew about Musk halting donations before OpenAI did. On August 20, 2017, she wrote, “Funding freeze: OpenAI is likely to realize this week that their $5M in Q3 is, albeit correctly, on hold. Unsure how this will impact negotiations but wanted to flag it since it’s likely to have a big psychological impact on them if they find out.” Musk told Brockman and Sutskever over a week later, on September 1st, that he’d pulled funding.

There were other machinations:

  • At one point, Musk seemed to have suggested that she, Sam Teller, and Birchall — two of Musk’s closest fixers — should all take seats on OpenAI’s board so that Musk would have control of the nonprofit. Zilis wrote to Teller that she didn’t share that with the OpenAI team.
  • In November 2017, Musk was thinking of creating a “world-class AI lab” inside Tesla. To that end, Musk offered Altman a board seat at Tesla.
  • Zilis wrote an email to Musk saying that to save him time she’d brainstormed some solutions for him. Three of them involved developing AGI at Tesla. One was making OpenAI a public benefit corporation subsidiary of Tesla. One was getting Altman as an “anchor” for TeslaAI.
  • My favorite of those solutions was: “Find a way to get Demis. Seriously…. Demis really does fanboy hard and I don’t think he’s immoral… just amoral. If he hung around E perhaps it would force him to think about humanity more.”
  • After hiring Andrej Karpathy, Musk asked for a list of top OpenAI people to poach.

We had already seen one of her text messages in the docket — the one where Musk leaves the board and she asks him whether she should remain “close and friendly” to continue funneling him information. In her direct testimony, she tried to put that in the context: “They were going through this weird half-breakup,” she said. But in the cross, we found out that she didn’t remember that in her deposition.

“Your long-lost memories have been recovered,” said Sarah Eddy, the OpenAI attorney, in one of the trial’s funnier moments. Sure, Musk’s team objected and the objection was sustained, but we all heard it. In fact, it was one of several times Zilis seemed to have recovered memories she didn’t have at her deposition, memories that — coincidentally I’m sure — happened to be good for Musk’s case.

To be fair, Zilis performed the best under cross examination of anyone we’ve seen so far, but she doesn’t exactly come across as truthful. And there was even more reason to be skeptical of her when we discovered how she left the board, which — according to her deposition — happened “because I picked up a call from Sam and he said, ‘I’ve heard Elon is starting a competitive venture’ and I said, ‘Well if that’s true, this is the time to resign.’”

Her primary allegiance was and is to Musk

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Mysteriously, she had forgotten that call between the deposition and today. But she did seem to know that Musk was moving on AI when she texted a friend, who was in her phone as “Shahini Rubicon Fluffer.” (Incredible name. Thomas Pynchon will be so jealous.) “Have to resign OpenAI board btw,” she wrote. “E’s effort has become well-known.” Her friend didn’t seem surprised by the revelation. Zilis went on: “When the father of your babies starts a competitive effort and will recruit out of OpenAI there is nothing to be done.”

Zilis added that Musk “proactively apologized that he had pruned my friend network through this.”

Here’s what it added up to, as far as I am concerned: Her primary allegiance was and is to Musk. To believe she didn’t know about xAI, I would have to believe that despite their — at the time — three children and the time he spent with them every week, he never discussed it with her. I don’t believe that. Who would? There’s enough evidence in her meeting notes to suggest she routinely held back information from OpenAI on Musk’s behalf — xAI would be no different. I also don’t believe that she didn’t give Musk information about the Microsoft deals she approved while sitting on OpenAI’s board.

Musk didn’t have a problem converting the whole of OpenAI to a for-profit or kneecapping the charity by recruiting its strongest researchers. He didn’t mind the idea of subsuming it into Tesla in any of a variety of ways. The thing he did mind was not being in control of it. That’s what I took away from Zilis’ texts and emails.

Brockman and the OpenAI board were incredibly naive to allow Zilis to continue working there after learning of her twins’ paternity. But then, maybe no one expected someone so meek to be so devious. She was smart enough not to raise her voice or nitpick obvious questions during her cross-examination, so her bearing read as more trustworthy than anyone we’ve seen yet. It’s just that the overall takeaway from her written communications is that she’s put Musk first in her life. Everyone else — including, apparently, her own father — comes second. So on the stand, you might as well assume she’s saying what Musk wants to hear too.

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New AI brain lets robots move like humans

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New AI brain lets robots move like humans

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Genesis AI, a global full-stack robotics company, has unveiled GENE-26.5, a robotic brain designed to help general-purpose robots perform complex physical tasks with human-level manipulation.

The company says the system pairs a robotics foundation model with a human-scale dexterous robotic hand. It also includes a new data engine. Together, these pieces help robots learn from human movement and handle tasks that require precision and coordination.

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ROBOTS LEARN 1,000 TASKS IN ONE DAY FROM A SINGLE DEMO

Genesis AI says its robotic hand can learn from human motion data to complete detailed, multistep tasks such as cooking an omelet. (Genesis AI)

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What is GENE-26.5 and why it matters

Theo Gervet, co-founder and president of Genesis AI, says the easiest way to understand GENE-26.5 is to think of it as the system guiding the robot’s actions.

“Think of GENE-26.5 like a robotic brain that takes in information and tells the robot what to do,” Gervet said. “It is the industry’s most advanced robotic brain, with the most advanced capabilities. We’ve proven this by releasing a few videos showing GENE-26.5 powering the most complex tasks ever performed by robots.”

He says that matters because most robots still struggle with detailed hand movements. They often repeat one task in a controlled setting, but real life is less predictable.

“We’ve developed a way to feed GENE-26.5 massive amounts of data about how human hands move, so it can tell our robotic hands exactly how to move like a human’s hands,” Gervet said. “GENE-26.5 can also tell our robotic hands how to do tasks with many, many steps.”

He pointed to a cooking example to show the difference. “For example, powered by GENE-26.5, our robotic hands can follow a 20-step process to make a full omelet from start to finish,” Gervet said.

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“That’s why we’re obsessed with innovating across the full-stack, from AI to hardware. By controlling every layer, we can build a cohesive system and solve the problem holistically. Our approach gives us a huge competitive advantage by harnessing unprecedented amounts of data, as that ultimately defines what foundation models can achieve.”

How the AI brain helps robots move like humans

Human hands constantly adjust, even during simple actions. That level of control has been hard for robots to replicate. To explain, Gervet used a Rubik’s Cube as an example. “Imagine you’re playing with a Rubik’s Cube. You have to hold it with the perfect grip strength. If you grip it too loosely, you’ll drop it.”

He said people make small adjustments without noticing. “You may not even realize it, but your brain is taking notice of how the cube feels. Even if you’re just holding the cube, your hands are never perfectly still.”

Those small movements are constant. “They’re constantly making micro adjustments to make sure the cube doesn’t slip and stays balanced,” he said. “It takes a lot of complicated, intentional and coordinated movements that involve over 20 joints in your fingers, knuckles and wrists. Our robotic hands can do exactly that.”

How Genesis AI trains robots using human data

Genesis AI built a robotic hand that mirrors the human hand in form and function. It pairs with a glove that captures motion and pressure. “The glove system helps us directly transfer information about how human hands move to our robot hands,” Gervet said.

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He explained how the system captures detail. “When a human wears the gloves as they interact with objects or do their work, we can capture details about the exact movements their fingers and wrists make. Our robotic hands are built to exactly match a human’s hands, so that data works extremely well.”

Genesis AI says the glove is 100 times cheaper than typical options. It has also shown up to five times greater data collection efficiency compared with traditional methods.

AI VIDEO TECH FAST-TRACKS HUMANOID ROBOT TRAINING

Genesis AI unveiled GENE-26.5, a robotic brain designed to help general-purpose robots perform complex physical tasks with humanlike precision. (Genesis AI)

Why robots struggled before this AI brain

Robots have lacked usable training data for physical tasks. “Robots have always had a data problem,” Gervet said. “When you think about the AI chatbots you use on your computer, they have the entire internet to access.”

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Robots did not have that advantage. “The big problem comes from the fact that unless the robot’s hand exactly matches a human’s hand, any information you capture about how human hands move won’t translate well,” Gervet said.

He said matching the human hand solves that gap. “We’ve solved this problem by creating a robotic hand that exactly matches a human hand.”

How video and simulation improve robot learning

Genesis AI also uses other sources of data to train its system. “In addition to data from the glove, we use videos from humans wearing camera headbands so we can see how their hands move,” Gervet said. “We also use massive amounts of internet videos.”

The company says its simulation system is a major accelerator, allowing AI to train itself in a fully virtual environment before moving into the real world. This helps teams test and improve systems much faster than traditional physical testing, which can be slow and expensive. 

Where robots with AI brains could be used first

For now, Genesis AI expects the first use cases to be in workplaces such as warehouses and manufacturing facilities. “We see our technology being used in industrial settings to start and then later in the home,” Gervet said.

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He described a phased rollout. “To start, it can be deployed for industrial use in warehouses and for manufacturing logistics. We’re already having conversations with industrial customers.”

After that, the technology could expand further. “After the industrial phase, we’ll offer our technology to the service industry. Next, it can be offered to consumers in their homes.” Gervet went on to say that “In addition, we’re hoping that in a home setting, our technology will be able to help handle daily chores, freeing up time for people to spend doing what they actually enjoy. Robots have been humans’ biggest fantasy for years. This is our collective hope, and we want to be the company to get us there.”

ROBOTS PERFORM LIKE HUMAN SURGEONS BY JUST WATCHING VIDEOS

The company says its glove-based data system captures finger, wrist and pressure movements to train robots more efficiently. (Genesis AI)

How safety is built into the technology 

Gervet says safety testing is a core part of development. “Our technology goes through extensive testing and validation, first in simulation running millions of scenarios, then in controlled real-world environments,” he said. “It has to earn its way into the room.”

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He added that the company also follows established safety standards and industry regulations designed to govern how robots operate around people. 

He went on to say the company is currently showcasing individual components, including the robotic brain, robotic hands and data collection system and plans to unveil a full general-purpose robot that brings everything together. Early, small-scale deployments with select partners could begin later this year.

What this AI brain means for you

This technology will likely show up first in places like warehouses, factories and service environments where the work is repetitive or physically demanding. Gervet says, “In the future, we see our technology being able to fill some of the critical labor gaps there are today. Our hope is that this will increase productivity, while creating space for people to focus on meaningful, creative and high-value work.”

Over time, that could change. Robots that can use the same tools as people may fit into existing spaces more easily, without needing everything redesigned around them.

“The beauty of the technology is that it’s meant to fit seamlessly into the human world,” Gervet said. “Humans will still lead, but our reach won’t be limited by what we can do with our own hands.”

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Kurt’s key takeaways

This can feel like another robot demo, but the difference is how these robot hands move. They are starting to handle objects more like people do, using the same kinds of motions and tools. That is what makes this worth paying attention to. If robots can work in spaces built for humans without everything being redesigned, that is when things start to change in a more noticeable way. It also raises a bigger question about where this shows up first and how quickly it spreads. Not everything will change overnight, but this is the kind of progress that tends to build quietly and then suddenly feel like it is everywhere. So, be on the lookout for general-purpose robots that can suddenly handle objects more like human hands and start showing up in places you might not expect.

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As robots move and handle objects more like humans, do you want one helping you at home, or would that feel like a step too far at this point? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.

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