All posts tagged: managed

Google’s Managed Agents API promises one-call deployment at the cost of execution layer control

Google’s Managed Agents API promises one-call deployment at the cost of execution layer control

Published by skeptic

At Google I/O, the company unveiled Managed Agents in its Gemini API — a service that promises to collapse weeks of agent deployment work into a single API call. It’s also a sign that Google believes its ecosystem, including the newly launched Antigravity CLI, is ready to own the execution layer end-to-end. Before a single agent is written, teams are already spending days on the unglamorous work: standing up execution environments, managing sandboxes, wiring tool call infrastructure. Model providers like Anthropic have launched platforms to handle much of that work — but Google’s approach is different. Google said in a blog post that Managed Agents in the Gemini API abstracts “away the complexity so that you can focus on your product experience and agent behavior.” The service is available in preview via new custom templates in Google AI Studio. The growth has introduced a real architectural question: should agent management live at the execution layer — embedded in the model or its harness — or at the infrastructure layer, as a separate runtime? Comparing Google’s …

This free app makes journaling so easy that I’ve managed to do it for 3 months

This free app makes journaling so easy that I’ve managed to do it for 3 months

Published by skeptic

Jack Wallen/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET key takeaways Diarly is the best journaling app I’ve ever used. It makes journaling easy and actually pleasant. The app is available for all Apple devices. It’s been a rough year for me. So much so that I found myself needing to do something I thought that I’d never do… journal. Journaling for someone who writes for a living is like an auto mechanic working on their own car: they know they need to, but the idea of doing it, after a long day of working on other people’s cars, isn’t exactly their idea of fun. Also: 9 essential Mac apps everyone should be using in 2026 – and why I vouch for them But my therapist said journaling would be good for me, so I decided to give it a go. Initially, I struggled to do this, mostly because the journaling apps I’d tried might as well have just been glorified notepads or to-do lists. I wanted something that was not only dedicated …

Anthropic’s Claude Managed Agents gives enterprises a new one-stop shop but raises vendor ‘lock-in’ risk

Anthropic’s Claude Managed Agents gives enterprises a new one-stop shop but raises vendor ‘lock-in’ risk

Published by skeptic

Anthropic announced a new platform last week, Claude Managed Agents, aiming to cut out the more complex parts of AI agent deployment for enterprises and competes with existing orchestration frameworks. Claude Managed Agents is also an architectural shift: enterprises, already burdened with orchestrating an increasing number of agents, can now choose to embed the orchestration logic in the AI model layer. While this comes with some potential advantages, such as speed (Anthropic proposes its customers can deploy agents in days instead of weeks or months), it also, of course, then also turns more control over the enterprise’s AI agent deployments and operations to the model provider — in this case, Anthropic — potentially resulting in greater “lock in” for the enterprise customer, leaving them more subject to Anthropic’s terms, conditions, and any subsequent platform changes. But maybe that is worth it for your enterprise, as Anthropic further claims that its platform “handles the complexity” by letting users define agent tasks, tools and guardrails with a built-in orchestration harness, all without the need for sandboxing code …

Remembering how we managed Covid can help SEND challenge

Remembering how we managed Covid can help SEND challenge

Published by skeptic

The long awaited and now much dissected schools white paper suggests three main drivers to achieve its ambitious aims: investing in people, collaboration and innovation.  These are core elements the system has been calling for. But can collaboration be the driver for the cultural shift required for SEND reform, unlocking ambitions for the disadvantaged and creating unity in a fragmented system? In 2020 leaders took collaboration into their own hands providing the civic leadership and agency that ensured they did all they could collectively to reach young people isolated by the pandemic in more ways than one.  Even the 2022 education white paper challenged organisations to work towards a proposed “collaborative standard”.  Repeated studies show collaboration between teachers, schools and networks of schools is beneficial for improving teacher knowledge, skills and job satisfaction, as well as confidence and trust, all of which boost teacher retention.  So why does this still need to be stated, encouraged and structured by government? If the ambition and associated levers determining system behaviours are fulfilled to their potential, collaboration could …

U.S., China discuss farm goods, managed trade in Paris talks: Reuters

U.S., China discuss farm goods, managed trade in Paris talks: Reuters

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gives a statement during the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting, at the USA House venue, in Davos, Switzerland, January 19, 2026. Denis Balibouse | Reuters Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials held “remarkably stable” talks in Paris on Sunday that touched on potential areas of agreement in agriculture, critical minerals and managed trade for U.S. President Donald ⁠Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider in Beijing, two sources familiar with the talks said. The sources told Reuters that ​the “candid and constructive” Paris talks ​led by U.S. Treasury Secretary ​Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng would set in motion possible “deliverables” for Trump’s trip to China to meet with Xi at the end of March. But they added that the leaders would have the ⁠final say ‌on the proposals. The Chinese side showed openness to potential ⁠additional purchases of U.S. agricultural goods including poultry, beef and non-soybean row crops, one of the sources said, adding that China was still committed to buy 25 million metric …

Absent family support, they went from children’s home to rented flat. This is how they managed

Absent family support, they went from children’s home to rented flat. This is how they managed

Published by Sam Flores

Deciding how to spend their money can feel like one of the few choices that is truly theirs after growing up with little control over their lives. “Of course, it’s not easy when we see them make bad decisions,” Soh said, adding that sometimes these lessons must be learnt “the hard way”. She stressed, however, that expecting 19- to 21-year-olds without family backing to shoulder the full expense of open market rents is “not realistic” — and that Thrive21+ is meant to give them support and space to practise independent living. When the participants’ two-year lease ended last July, there was another lesson for them. Paint was peeling in some parts of the flat, and they were required to pay for a full repaint. While some of the defects were not their fault, said Edward, he acknowledged that the contract stated that tenants were responsible for repairs. The episode highlighted how landlords and tenants may interpret certain clauses differently. “Lesson learnt,” he said. “If we were ever to rent again, … (we’ll know) what to …

AI could transform how construction projects are managed

AI could transform how construction projects are managed

Published by Jenni Sidey

Dust swirls around scaffolding. Cranes swing massive beams. On paper, the schedule says everything should move smoothly, but somewhere, a delayed delivery or an overlooked safety hazard is quietly threatening the plan. Now, imagine if the construction site could respond on its own, adjusting timelines the moment a problem appears. That’s the vision outlined in a new study by researchers at the University of East London (UEL), suggesting artificial intelligence could connect warning signals to planning software in real time. Construction projects already generate an enormous amount of data daily—alerts from safety monitoring, notes on design clashes, updates about supply deliveries. Yet most of this information never automatically changes the schedule. “Projects generate enormous amounts of warning data every day, but nothing in the schedule actually changes when these signals appear,” said Dr. Jawed Qureshi, Senior Lecturer in Structural Engineering at UEL and lead author. “Our work shows how those signals can be converted into scheduling constraints so the plan adapts before delays escalate.” Productivity growth comparison between whole economy and construction: Office for National …

I read 95 books last year – here’s how I managed it

I read 95 books last year – here’s how I managed it

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter At the start of the year, I open a new note in my phone’s app, ready to begin a list of everything I’ll read over the next 12 months. It’s a little tradition that I’ve stuck to since 2018; while some readers prefer sites like Goodreads or apps like Storygraph, I enjoy the organised chaos of my slightly unwieldy inventories. According to 2025’s list, I managed to read 95 books that year, starting off with Nathan Hill’s Wellness and ending with Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin. That’s a new record for me – scrolling back through the archives shows that I’ve previously tended to get through somewhere around 70 titles annually. This also makes me something of an anomaly. According to research from YouGov released last year, the average Brit read or listened to just three books over a 12-month …

L.A. County beaches could be managed by the federal government

L.A. County beaches could be managed by the federal government

Published by Sam Flores

While most environmental exchanges between California and the federal government these days are adversarial, one process has been quietly underway for two decades and is just now ripening: an examination of whether the federal government should manage Los Angeles County coastal areas. The National Park Service held a first public meeting Wednesday to help determine whether most of the county coastline should be part of a “park unit.” There are 28 park units in California, including the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Channel Islands National Park and Yosemite. Management is flexible. It can mean ownership with management, management only or co-management with a nonprofit. Most people at the meeting, held over Microsoft Teams, expressed excitement at the potential for conservation in an area stretching from Will Rogers State Beach to Torrance, plus 200 yards inland. The designation would mean no change for the hundreds of private property owners in the zone. One person at the meeting asked if the park service could prevent oil and gas projects, including an upgrade of an underground gas …

Publishers say Google search traffic in ‘managed decline’, not dead

Publishers say Google search traffic in ‘managed decline’, not dead

Published by Sam Flores

Google search for ‘Ed Sheeran wife’, the type of search being impacted by arrival of AI Overviews, which brings up a summary citing sources like ABC News and the BBC Talk of “Google zero” has been overplayed, according to audience growth experts at leading UK publishers who say the right content can still do well on search. Daily Mail director of SEO and editorial e-commerce Carly Steven said the traffic impact of Google rolling out AI Overviews has actually not been that severe overall. “Our own findings are consistent with broader studies: when an AI Overview appears, clickthrough rates drop sharply,” she said. “But the frequency of AIOs hasn’t increased in the way many expected. Across the keywords we track, AIO visibility has actually plateaued – around 12% of non‑brand terms on mobile in the UK and 19% in the US, slightly higher on desktop. That’s down from what we saw in mid‑2024. “Crucially, most of our search traffic comes from branded enquiries, and more than half our users visit directly, so the overall impact …