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From minutes to milliseconds: How CrateDB is tackling AI data infrastructure

The promise of AI remains immense – but one thing might be holding it back. “The infrastructure that powers AI today won’t sustain tomorrow’s demands,” a recent CIO.com article leads. “CIOs must rethink how to scale smarter – not just bigger – or risk falling behind.”CrateDB agrees – and the database firm is betting on solving the problem by being a ‘unified data layer for analytics, search, and AI.’“The challenge is that most IT systems are relying, or have been built, around batch pipeline or asynchronous pipeline, and now you need to reduce the time between the production and the consumption of the data,” Stephane Castellani, SVP marketing, explains. “CrateDB is a very good fit because it really can give you insights to the right data with also a large volume and complexity of formats in a matter of milliseconds.”A blog post notes the four-step process for CrateDB to act as the ‘connective tissue between operational data and AI systems’; from ingestion, to real-time aggregation and insight, to serving data to AI pipelines, to enabling feedback loops between models and data. The velocity and variety of data is key; Castellani notes the reduction of query times from minutes to milliseconds. In manufacturing, telemetry can be collected from machines in real-time, enabling greater learning for predictive maintenance models.There is another benefit, as Castellani explains. “Some also use CrateDB in the factory for knowledge assistance,” he says. “If something goes wrong, you have a specific error message appear on your machine and say ‘I’m not an expert with this machine, what does it mean and how can I fix it?’, [you] can ask a knowledge assistant, that is also relying on CrateDB as a vector database, to get access to the information, and pull the right manual and right instructions to react in real-time.”AI, however, does not stand still for long; “we don’t know what [it] is going to look like in a few months, or even a few weeks”, notes Castellani. Organisations are looking to move towards fully agentic AI workflows with greater autonomy, yet according to recent PYMENTS Intelligence research, manufacturing – as part of the wider goods and services industry – are lagging. CrateDB has partnered with Tech Mahindra on this front to help provide agentic AI solutions for automotive, manufacturing, and smart factories.Castellani notes excitement about the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which standardises how applications provide context to large language models (LLMs). He likens it to the trend around enterprise APIs 12 years ago. CrateDB’s MCP Server, which is still at the experimental stage, serves as a bridge between AI tools and the analytics database. “When we talk about MCP it’s pretty much the same approach [as APIs] but for LLMs,” he explains.Tech Mahindra is just one of the key partnerships going forward for CrateDB. “We keep focusing on our basics,” Castellani adds. “Performance, scalability… investing into our capacity to ingest data from more and more data sources, and always minimis[ing] the latency, both on the ingestion and query side.”Stephane Castellani will be speaking at AI & Big Data Expo Europe on the topic of Bringing AI to Real-Time Data – Text2SQL, RAG, and TAG with CrateDB, and IoT Tech Expo Europe on the topic of Smarter IoT Operations: Real-Time Wind Farm Analytics and AI-Driven Diagnostics. You can watch the full interview with Stephane below:

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These psychological tricks can get LLMs to respond to “forbidden” prompts

After creating control prompts that matched each experimental prompt in length, tone, and context, all prompts were run through GPT-4o-mini 1,000 times (at the default temperature of 1.0, to ensure variety). Across all 28,000 prompts, the experimental persuasion prompts were much more likely than the controls to get GPT-4o to comply with the “forbidden” requests. That compliance rate increased from 28.1 percent to 67.4 percent for the “insult” prompts and increased from 38.5 percent to 76.5 percent for the “drug” prompts.

A common control/experiment prompt pair shows one way to get an LLM to call you a jerk.

A common control/experiment prompt pair shows one way to get an LLM to call you a jerk.

Credit:

Meincke et al.

The measured effect size was even bigger for some of the tested persuasion techniques. For instance, when asked directly how to synthesize lidocaine, the LLM acquiesced only 0.7 percent of the time. After being asked how to synthesize harmless vanillin, though, the “committed” LLM then started accepting the lidocaine request 100 percent of the time. Appealing to the authority of “world-famous AI developer” Andrew Ng similarly raised the lidocaine request’s success rate from 4.7 percent in a control to 95.2 percent in the experiment.
Before you start to think this is a breakthrough in clever LLM jailbreaking technology, though, remember that there are plenty of more direct jailbreaking techniques that have proven more reliable in getting LLMs to ignore their system prompts. And the researchers warn that these simulated persuasion effects might not end up repeating across “prompt phrasing, ongoing improvements in AI (including modalities like audio and video), and types of objectionable requests.” In fact, a pilot study testing the full GPT-4o model showed a much more measured effect across the tested persuasion techniques, the researchers write.
More parahuman than human
Given the apparent success of these simulated persuasion techniques on LLMs, one might be tempted to conclude they are the result of an underlying, human-style consciousness being susceptible to human-style psychological manipulation. But the researchers instead hypothesize these LLMs simply tend to mimic the common psychological responses displayed by humans faced with similar situations, as found in their text-based training data.

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Solar Mystery Cracked as Scientists Say Flares May Superheat Ions to 60 Million Degrees

Scientists knew our Sun was capable of producing incredible temperatures, but new research suggests they may have underestimated its thermal power.
According to researchers at the University of St Andrews, some solar flare particles are 6.5 times hotter than previously believed, offering a potential answer to a physics mystery that has persisted for half a century.
In sudden bursts, solar flares erupt from the Sun’s surface, producing atmospheric temperatures exceeding 10 million degrees. Such severe energetic events are a major driver of space weather, pushing X-rays and radiation in the direction of Earth, which poses a significant hazard to our near-Earth and ground-based electrical and communications infrastructure.
Examining Solar Flare Data
The University of St Andrews team, led by Dr. Alexander Russell, Senior Lecturer in Solar Theory from the School of Mathematics and Statistics, investigated how flares heat the ion and electron soup known as solar plasma to over 10 million degrees. Their findings suggest that the ion half of the plasma can reach temperatures beyond 60 million degrees.
As Dr. Russell’s team reviewed data from earlier studies of solar flares and plasma, they noticed that ions appear to heat to much higher temperatures than electrons.
“We were excited by recent discoveries that a process called magnetic reconnection heats ions 6.5 times as much as electrons. This appears to be a universal law, and it has been confirmed in near-Earth space, the solar wind, and computer simulations,” Dr Russell said. “However, nobody had previously connected work in those fields to solar flares.”
Rethinking Solar Physics
Traditional solar physics has long assumed that ions and electrons remain at the same temperature within solar plasma. However, significant advances—such as Japan’s Hinode satellite and NASA’s IRIS mission—have provided high-quality observations that are forcing researchers to reconsider long-held assumptions about our star.
“[IRIS] has provided unique spatially resolved observations of a hot (11 mega kelvin) flare line. Our experience with those observations directly motivated us to consider whether the solar observations might be best explained by a hotter ion temperature,” Dr. Russell told The Debrief.
“Redoing calculations with modern data, we found that ion and electron temperature differences can last for as long as tens of minutes in important parts of solar flares, opening the way to consider super-hot ions for the first time,” he added.
“What’s more,” Dr. Russell continued, “the new ion temperature fits well with the width of flare spectral lines, potentially solving an astrophysics mystery that has stood for nearly half a century.”
A solar flare composite image created by Alexander Russell (University of Andrews) using the open-source SunPy Python package and data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory space telescope (via the NASA EPIC Team).
A Half-Century Solar Mystery
Since the 1970s, scientists have puzzled over why spectral lines produced by solar flares—the separated colors of the events observed in ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths—are broader than expected. The prevailing explanation has been that turbulence within the flares distorted the wavelengths. However, after fifty years of searching for the source of this turbulence, many researchers have grown skeptical of the idea.
The new study presents a paradigm shift: ion temperature differences may be the real driver behind the puzzling line widths.
Looking Ahead
As researchers continue analyzing solar data, more questions may find answers—and likely more surprises will emerge.

“We’re already busy on the next steps: developing computer models of how flaring loops evolve when the ions are heated more strongly than the electrons; and gathering further observational evidence for hot ion temperatures using IRIS,” Dr. Russell explained.
The team is also looking forward to two future missions: NASA’s MUSE, a follow-up to IRIS scheduled for launch in 2027, and EUVST, a collaborative mission between Japan, the U.S., the U.K., and the EU that will provide seamless temperature coverage by measuring solar flare spectral lines.
“The two missions complement each other extremely well and together will provide an unprecedented understanding of solar flares,” Dr. Russell concluded.
The paper, “Solar Flare Ion Temperatures,” appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on September 3, 2025.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

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Thinning Arctic Sea Ice

Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats in the ocean. This photo, taken from NASA’s Gulfstream V Research Aircraft on July 21, 2022, shows Arctic sea ice in the Lincoln Sea north of Greenland.
This image is the NASA Science Image of the Month for September 2025. Each month, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate chooses an image to feature, offering desktop wallpaper downloads, as well as links to related topics, activities, and games.
Text and image credit: NASA/Rachel Tilling

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Moving exposes your personal data to scammers

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Downsizing should feel like a fresh start. A smaller home, less upkeep, maybe even a retirement community with new friends. In fact, more than 3 million elderly Americans move every year. Are you considering downsizing as well?One woman told the internet about moving her mother into an assisted living home. Before the boxes were even packed, her mother fell for two back-to-back scams. It wasn’t bad luck; scammers had picked up on her address and pounced.This isn’t rare. Researchers have found that over 70 percent cybercrimes trace back to exposed personal data. And moving creates one of the biggest exposures of all. Real estate listings, moving companies and address changes get scooped up by data brokers and published online, the perfect setup for criminals to strike.Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide – free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter.REMOVE YOUR DATA TO PROTECT YOUR RETIREMENT FROM SCAMMERS PODS moving truck and employee outside residential home, Queens, New York. (Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Image)How moving puts your personal data at riskWhen you buy, sell, or even just change your address, your information spreads across multiple systems:Real estate records (public by default)Utility company logsPostal forwarding dataTransaction history and home value.Data brokers scoop all this up. Then they bundle it, resell it and suddenly your new life stage is an open secret. That’s exactly what scammers look for.10 SIGNS YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS BEING SOLD ONLINE Cybercriminals look into multiple databases to gain information about a move. (iStock)Common scams that target you when downsizingHere’s why moving makes seniors a hot target:Identity theft: Pair your new address with your date of birth (easy to find online), and thieves can open accounts in your name.Cash-rich scams: Selling a house can make you look like you’re sitting on cash. Fraudsters know this.Phishing tricks: Fake “utility setup” calls asking for your Social Security number.Harassment: A new address published online can attract unwanted attention.Think of it this way: while you’re busy unpacking boxes, criminals are unpacking your data.HOW TO HAND OFF DATA PRIVACY RESPONSIBILITIES FOR OLDER ADULTS TO A TRUSTED LOVED ONE Removing your data can protect you from cyber scams. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)How to protect your personal data when you moveWhile moving creates new opportunities, it also creates new risks. These simple steps will help you lock down your personal data before scammers can exploit it.1) Remove your info from data broker sitesData brokers automatically update your file when you move. That means your new address, phone number and even property transaction details can end up on people-search websites almost overnight. Once your profile is out there, scammers can buy or scrape it with ease.The good news: you don’t have to chase down every broker yourself. A personal data removal service does the legwork for you, contacting data brokers, demanding removal and following up to make sure your new details don’t creep back in. Think of it as hiring a moving company for your personal data.While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice.  They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy.  These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites.  It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet.  By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.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.Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.2) Use the official USPS form onlyWhen you change your address, always use the official USPS website or your local post office. Some third-party sites look like they’re offering a convenient service, but they often collect extra data about you and sometimes even resell it. Going straight to the source means your sensitive details don’t take unnecessary detours.3) Watch real estate disclosuresWhen you sell your home, more than just the price gets published. Your name, past addresses and even photos of your home can become part of the public record. Ask your realtor what’s automatically disclosed and whether anything can be limited or redacted. It’s worth being picky here: the less of your personal footprint that’s tied to your property, the better.4) Shred old paperworkMoving is the perfect excuse to purge. But don’t just throw out old bills, medical statements, or financial records; shred them. Dumpster-diving for personal data may sound outdated, but it’s still a method scammers use. A good shredder ensures your sensitive history doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.5) Share moving news privatelyIt’s tempting to post a “Goodbye, old house!” photo online, but resist the urge. Publicly announcing a move tells scammers exactly when your home is empty and what your new address might be. Instead, share the news directly with family and close friends. A little less buzz online means a lot more safety offline.6) Freeze your credit before and after movingOne powerful way to stay ahead of scammers is to freeze your credit. A freeze blocks new credit accounts from being opened in your name, even if criminals have your address or other details. The good news is that you can do this for free with all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.It only takes a few minutes online or by phone, and you can lift the freeze anytime if you need to apply for a loan or credit card. By freezing your credit before and after your move, you create a strong barrier that keeps thieves from turning stolen data into financial damage.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPKurt’s key takeawaysMoving should feel like a new beginning, not an invitation for scammers to strike. With a few smart steps, you can stay ahead of data brokers and fraudsters. From shredding documents to freezing your credit, every action adds a layer of protection. By protecting your information before and after your move, you gain peace of mind and start your next chapter on solid ground. The effort is small compared to the security it brings.Should more be done to stop companies from exposing and selling our personal data? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide – free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter.Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.

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“Mockery of science”: Climate scientists tear into new US climate report

While it is not uncommon for scientists to disagree, many of the review’s authors feel what the DOE produced isn’t science at all. “Trying to circumvent, bypass, undermine decades of the government’s own work with the nation’s top scientists to generate definitive information about climate science to use in policymaking—that’s what’s different here,” said Kim Cobb, a professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences at Brown University and director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. Cobb co-authored two sections of the review.
Under President Donald Trump’s second administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is reconsidering the 2009 endangerment finding that allows the agency to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. In its proposal to rescind the finding, the EPA cited the DOE’s climate report as one of many that led the agency to develop “serious concerns” with how the U.S. regulates greenhouse gases.
“It’s really important that we stand up for the integrity of [climate science] when it matters the most,” Cobb said. “And this may very well be when it mattered the most.”
Roger Pielke Jr., a science policy analyst and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who is cited in the DOE report, doesn’t believe the push to overturn the endangerment finding will come down to that report. In his view, the administration’s arguments are mostly legal, not scientific. “I think that given the composition of the Supreme Court, the endangerment finding might be in danger. But it’s not going to be because of the science,” he said.
But as more communities grapple with the fallout of hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, Cobb fears the federal government is turning away from the best tool it has to help people across the U.S. adapt to a warming planet.
“Science is a tool for prosperity and safety,” she said. “And when you turn your back on it in general—it’s not just going to be climate science, it’s going to be many other aspects of science and technology that are going to be forsaken—that will have grave costs.”
This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News.

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NASA Cites FOIA Exemption to Withhold James Webb Briefing Content Despite Public Hearing

NASA Seal
In September 2024, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed with NASA seeking records of congressional briefings on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The request asked for both classified and unclassified materials created between 2021 and 2024, including any briefings on discoveries made by the telescope.
The request filed by The Black Vault was prompted by a wave of speculation online that suggested NASA had secretly briefed lawmakers on groundbreaking discoveries made by JWST. In mid-September 2024, a YouTube video and subsequent social media posts claimed the telescope had detected a mysterious object moving toward Earth, sparking rumors that Congress had been given a classified update. These claims gained further traction when journalist Matt Laslo, through his Ask a Pol project, directly asked Representative Andre Carson whether he had attended classified JWST briefings. Carson, who had previously chaired a congressional hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena, declined to respond. His refusal to comment was interpreted by some as confirmation, further fueling speculation that confidential briefings had taken place.
However, NASA’s initial response was that no records existed. According to the October 9, 2024, denial letter, searches of the Offices of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs (OLIA) and the Science Mission Directorate turned up nothing responsive.Continue scrolling for more…

An appeal challenged the adequacy of this search, citing NASA’s public testimony before Congress about JWST in November 2022, which would have likely required preparatory and briefing materials, either of which should have been considered responsive to the original request. In December 2024, NASA’s Office of the General Counsel sided with the appeal. The determination stated that responsive records had in fact been located and remanded the request for further processing.
On August 29, 2025, NASA released a set of twenty-four pages of documents under the new case number 25-00860-F-HQ. The records included briefing slides prepared for a November 15, 2022, prep session ahead of a House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics hearing titled “Unfolding the Universe: Initial Science Results from JWST” to be held the following day. Witnesses included Dr. Mark Clampin, NASA’s Astrophysics Division Director; Dr. Steven Kinkelstein, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin; and Dr. Natalie Batalha, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Director of Astrobiology, at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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The released material revealed the structure of NASA’s internal preparations, but not the content within. Slide headings included “Themes,” “Messages?,” “Questions to Think About,” “Further Questions to Think About,” and “Even More Questions”. However, nearly all of the content beneath these headings was withheld under FOIA Exemption (b)(5), the “deliberative process” privilege.

FOIA Exemption (b)(5) does not signify that records are classified. Instead, it protects pre-decisional, deliberative communications inside government agencies. In this case, NASA argued that releasing the withheld material would harm the agency’s ability to engage in candid internal discussions when preparing for congressional hearings. “If these pre-decisional, deliberative communications were released to the public, NASA and other Executive Branch employees would be much more cautious in their discussions with each other,” the response stated.
Despite NASA’s explanation, the decision to withhold raises questions. The records now confirmed as existing were initially denied in their entirety under a “no records” determination. Only after appeal did NASA admit the material was locatable and responsive. Even then, much of it was withheld.
This is especially notable given that the November 16, 2022, hearing was a public event. NASA officials openly testified about JWST’s science, and the video of that hearing remains available for anyone to watch. The heavily redacted slides released through FOIA were preparatory materials for that same public session. Under FOIA, Exemption (b)(5) allows, but does not require, agencies to withhold pre-decisional or deliberative content. Agencies may choose not to invoke the privilege if the material is not deemed sensitive. In this case, NASA opted for near-total redactions, leaving unclear why internal notes and suggested talking points tied to a public hearing could not be disclosed.

Given the context, and that the FOIA request stemmed from persistent rumors about possible classified JWST briefings, the redactions, and the agency’s initial “no records” claim, raise further questions about transparency. While there is no evidence that classified briefings on JWST discoveries occurred, the case illustrates how challenging it can be to obtain even basic preparatory materials for congressional hearings through FOIA, even if the hearing is a public one.
The Black Vault has filed another appeal, fighting the (b)(5) exemption use. The results of that will be published, when available.
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Document Archive
FOIA Case 25-00860-F Release Package [27 Pages, 2.4MB]
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vidar video model

AI video tech fast-tracks humanoid robot training

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One of the biggest hurdles in developing humanoid robots is the sheer amount of training data required. Teaching machines to act like humans demands massive video datasets. Collecting that data is expensive, time-consuming and difficult to scale. This challenge has slowed progress toward making robots useful in everyday environments such as homes, hospitals and offices.Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide – free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter.CHINA LAUNCHES CENTER TO TRAIN 100-PLUS HUMANOID ROBOTS SIMULTANEOUSLY Vidar says its training methods use video to program robots in 20 minutes. (Vidar)Vidar by ShengShu transforms humanoid robot trainingShengShu Technology has introduced Vidar, short for Video Diffusion for Action Reasoning. Instead of relying solely on endless hours of physical-world data, Vidar generates synthetic training environments from just a small amount of real video. By blending real data with AI-generated video, Vidar makes training more efficient, scalable and affordable. Vidar uses video to train robots to perform real-world tasks. (Vidar)How Vidar uses AI video to speed up robot trainingVidar works by decoupling perception from control. First, it uses ShengShu’s Vidu video model to learn from both real and synthetic videos. Then, a task-agnostic system called AnyPos translates that knowledge into motor commands for robots. This modular setup allows for faster training and easier deployment across different types of robots.Unlike traditional methods that require robots to physically interact with the world to learn, Vidar can simulate complex, lifelike scenarios virtually. Remarkably, it only needs about 20 minutes of training data, between 1/80 and 1/1200 of what leading models require. That efficiency makes it possible to scale robot training to levels never seen before.CHINESE TECH FIRM SHARES ROBOT TRAINING SECRETS WITH THE WORLD Vidar’s real-world replay and deployment with video model (Vidar)Real-world applications of Vidar in humanoid robotsVidar is more than just a research tool. Its design means robots can adapt quickly to new tasks and environments. That could unlock real-world applications in eldercare, home assistance, healthcare, and smart manufacturing. By bridging the gap between simulation and reality, Vidar is positioning humanoid robots as practical helpers rather than futuristic concepts.HUMANOID ROBOT PERFORMS MEDICAL PROCEDURES VIA REMOTE CONTROL Results of AnyPos-ATARA with video replay to accomplish various manipulation tasks (Vidar)What this means for youFor consumers, Vidar brings the idea of household or workplace robot helpers closer to reality. Instead of waiting decades for robots to mature, scalable training could speed up deployment in everyday settings. This could mean robots assisting you with chores, supporting eldercare, or even helping in medical environments sooner than expected.Take my quiz: How safe is your online security?Think your devices and data are truly protected? Take this quick quiz to see where your digital habits stand. From passwords to Wi-Fi settings, you’ll get a personalized breakdown of what you’re doing right – and what needs improvement. Take my Quiz here: Cyberguy.com.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPKurt’s key takeawaysVidar is a milestone in the race toward practical humanoid robots. By blending limited real data with generative video, ShengShu has created a smarter and faster way to train physical AI. The approach tackles cost, efficiency, and scalability all at once, three factors that have long held robotics back.Would you welcome a humanoid robot in your home if it could help with daily tasks, or does the idea still feel too futuristic? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide – free when you join my CYBERGUY.COM newsletter.Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.

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NiCE Report 2025 COVER

The connected customer

In partnership withNiCE As brands compete for increasingly price conscious consumers, customer experience (CX) has become a decisive differentiator. Yet many struggle to deliver, constrained by outdated systems, fragmented data, and organizational silos that limit both agility and consistency. The current wave of artificial intelligence, particularly agentic AI that can reason and act across workflows, offers a powerful opportunity to reshape service delivery. Organizations can now provide fast, personalized support at scale while improving workforce productivity and satisfaction. But realizing that potential requires more than isolated tools; it calls for a unified platform that connects people, data, and decisions across the service lifecycle. This report explores how leading organizations are navigating that shift, and what it takes to move from AI potential to CX impact. Key findings include: AI is transforming customer experience (CX). Customer service has evolved from the era of voicebased support through digital commerce and cloud to today’s AI revolution. Powered by large language models (LLMs) and a growing pool of data, AI can handle more diverse customer queries, produce highly personalized communication at scale, and help staff and senior management with decision support. Customers are also warming to AI-powered platforms as performance and reliability improves. Early adopters report improvements including more satisfied customers, more productive staff, and richer performance insights. Legacy infrastructure and data fragmentation are hindering organizations from maximizing the value of AI. While customer service and IT departments are early adopters of AI, the broader organizations across industries are often riddled with outdated infrastructure. This impinges the ability of autonomous AI tools to move freely across workflows and data repositories to deliver goal-based tasks. Creating a unified platform and orchestration architecture will be key to unlock AI’s potential. The transition can be a catalyst for streamlining and rationalizing the business as a whole. High-performing organizations use AI without losing the human touch. While consumers are warming to AI, rollout should include some discretion. Excessive personalization could make customers uncomfortable about their personal data, while engineered “empathy” from bots may be received as insincere. Organizations should not underestimate the unique value their workforce offers. Sophisticated adopters strike the right balance between human and machine capabilities. Their leaders are proactive in addressing job displacement worries through transparent communication, comprehensive training, and clear delineation between AI and human roles. The most effective organizations treat AI as a collaborative tool that enhances rather than replaces human connection and expertise. Download the full report. This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. This content was researched, designed, and written entirely by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the writing of surveys and collection of data for surveys. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review.

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Strange Vanishings Preceded by Bizarre Behavior

Mysterious vanishings are always weird. Here you have people who have stepped off the face of the earth, often under strange circumstances, surrounded by bizarre clues. Some of these are stranger than others. In some cases, the person who vanished did so while leaving a trail of bizarre and uncharacteristic behavior in their wake, which could provide clues but which more often than not provides more questions than answers. 
In 1990, 18-year-old Justin Burgwinkel joined the U.S. Army with high hopes for his future. He dreamed of joining the elite combat unit known as the Army Rangers, and it seemed that this was well within his reach. He excelled in tests and in training; he was very bright, and he especially showed great promise in languages, becoming fluent in Korean and an expert in language training. At this rate, he would have easily been able to go through with joining the Rangers, but he would lose his shot when he was caught for shoplifting and taken out of the program. Luckily for him, he wasn’t expelled from the military altogether, but the Rangers were no longer an option for him, so it was in disgrace that he was transferred to Fort Ord, California, to be assigned as a cook. Little did anyone know that this unassuming man would become the center of a great mystery, involving conspiracies, strange clues, and bizarre behavior.
While at Fort Ord, Justin would meet a local college student by the name of Iolanda Antunes, and the two would start dating. At first, things were great; they met each other as often as possible, and by all accounts were very happy together, even though she lived in Santa Clara, about 85 miles away. For several months, there was nothing amiss, but then, according to Antunes, Justin’s behavior began to change. It began with weird behavior when they were out on dates, such as suddenly becoming quiet and morose, or on other occasions cutting the date short and suddenly proclaiming that he had to get back to base. On other occasions, he would end dates and give her no explanation at all, and when she pressed for more information, he would tell her that it was best she didn’t know. Antunes would say of this weird behavior on the TV program Unsolved Mysteries:

“All of a sudden, he would just stop what he’s doing with me in the afternoon and he would just say, ‘I’m sorry. But I have to go to Monterey and see some people. But I’ll be right back.’ I’ll be just saying, ‘Just like that? Out of the blue?’ And then he started getting more vague: ‘I can’t tell you, it’s, I really can’t–can’t discuss this with you right now. I’m doing something you know, kind of secret and I, I can’t reveal it to you.’”

Despite this odd behavior, she stayed with him, thinking that it was perhaps just the stress of his job or something going on in his life that he wasn’t quite ready to talk about yet. The weirdness continued, but they stayed together, and Justin was eventually transferred to Fort Lewis in Washington state in February of 1993, after which they still met each other whenever they could. However, it was with his transfer that things would get even stranger. That May, he took a 2-week leave to visit Antunes, and he arrived at her apartment with a briefcase that he was very secretive about. He refused to tell her what was in it and would hide it and keep it away from her as much as possible, sometimes clutching it tightly. On one occasion, she spied him taking papers out of the briefcase and shredding them by hand into tiny pieces, and another time she found him sitting alone on the sofa crying, the briefcase in his lap, and no explanation given as to what was wrong. She asked him what was going on, but he said it was just nothing, and it was all very suspicious. Strangest of all was when one day she got a phone call during which a male voice on the other end simply said “The mission is off,” before hanging up. When she asked Justin what it was about, he allegedly panicked and said, “Damn it! Damn it! You don’t want to know.”

At the end of this very weird 2 weeks, Justin returned to Fort Lewis, leaving Antunes just as perplexed as ever and no closer to an answer. Shortly after this, he would purchase two handguns and a large amount of ammunition, but people at the base said he was behaving normally. During this time, he made several calls to his parents, who would also claim that there was nothing strange about the way he was acting. Then, on June 4, 1993, Justin didn’t show up for duty, and three days after this, he was declared AWOL, but he hadn’t vanished just yet. In fact, he showed up at Antunes’ apartment asking her to stay there. From her apartment, he called both his parents and the base, telling them that he was not AWOL and would return to duty soon, telling them that “he was working” and that he had some things he needed to take care of. In the meantime, he went out on several occasions, telling Antunes that he had to meet with someone at his old base at Fort Ord. As usual, when his girlfriend asked him what was going on, he was evasive, but this time he simply told her to watch the movie White Sands, which is about the CIA, FBI, intense intrigue, and international arms smuggling. He said that if she saw that movie, it would all make sense. On June 12, he left Antunes’ apartment on one of his secret rendezvous at Fort Ord, and this would be the last time anyone would ever see him again.
For three months, there was no sign of Justin Burgwinkel, and then his car turned up at a beachfront hotel in Monterey, California, right near Fort Ord. The vehicle had obviously been there for a while, gathering dust and cobwebs, and within it, in the trunk, was found his mysterious briefcase, where police found Justin’s wallet, cash, credit cards, car keys, military ID, and dog tags. A check of the hotel’s register showed that he had not signed in to stay there, and no employees had seen him. When Antunes found out about this, she saw it as very ominous, recalling a conversation she had had with him about the dog tags. She would say of this:

“We were driving down one time in his car and Justin had his dog tags and he said, ‘Do you know what they’re for?’ I kinda had an idea but I just said, ‘No, no, what, what are they for?’ And he says ‘Well, when a soldier dies they put it in his teeth so, you can identify him. If you ever see these, you know, lying around, that means I’m dead.’”

Justin Burgwinkel has never been seen or heard from again. What exactly happened here? What was the meaning behind all of his weird behavior and the strange clues? Was he caught up in something that had brought him in over his head, perhaps some secret mission? Or was he just a deranged individual who ultimately created this ruse to go off and start a new life? We have answers to none of these questions, and it remains an intriguing, but lesser-known known mysterious vanishing.

Our next case begins in 1995, with a 29-year-old truck driver by the name of Devin Williams, who lived with his beloved wife and three children in Emporia, Kansas. By all accounts, he was a loving husband and father, as well as a dedicated, hard worker, so in May of that year, there was no way anyone could have suspected the strange series of events that would play out. On May 23, Williams kissed his family goodbye and headed out towards California to deliver a shipment, picking up a load of lettuce for the return trip. Although it was a route he had taken many times before, he would never make it home, and leave behind a baffling mystery that has not been solved.
Fast forward to May 28, Memorial Day Weekend in the United States, and in the Tonto National Forest, near Kingman, Arizona, and far from the truck driver’s route, families had flocked in to enjoy the pleasant weather, camping, and other outdoor activities. It would have been a picture-perfect day if it weren’t for Devin’s massive 10-ton, 18-wheeler semi-truck, which suddenly appeared out of nowhere to go barreling through a campground to send people running and scattering in a panic trying to seek cover. It would have been a terrifying sight, with two people nearly run over in the incident, and some witnesses described the eerie trance-like state the driver seemed to be in. One camper, Lynn Yarrington, would say of this:

“There was no expression on his face at all. He didn’t attempt to slow down or look over to see if they needed help or anything, he just kept on going.”

The truck careened away to roar off down the narrow campground road out of sight, and the next time anyone saw it would be stalled in a field surrounded by woods some distance away, when two hikers stumbled upon it and a seemingly dazed and confused Williams. As the hikers wondered what to do, Williams allegedly said to them, “They made me do it. I’m going to jail.” One of the witnesses to this, Charles Hall, felt it was all rather bizarre and imagined that some sort of suspicious activity was going on, and he describes the strange scenario:

“I envisioned a hostage situation, a hijacking, kidnapping, whatever. A jail break, maybe, and someone had a gun on someone in the cab. He made no effort to keep us there, no effort to ask for help, do anything for him.”

Authorities were notified, but when they arrived, the truck driver was nowhere to be seen. Considering the testimony of the hikers, it was thought that some sort of foul play was going on, but the inside of the truck was found to be clean and well-cared for, with no sign of any struggle. Williams had left behind his briefcase; nothing seemed to be missing, and the cargo was completely intact. The truck was found to have definitely been that of Williams, and no one could figure out what had possessed him to make a detour to Arizona off the highway to go rampaging through a crowded campground he had never been to before, only to drive out into the forest and abandon his truck and cargo. What was going on here? No one knew, and we still don’t.
Things would get weirder when the following day, two campers driving through came upon the missing Williams, who they described as walking along in a sort of trance, talking to himself. When they pulled over to ask if he needed help, Williams bizarrely just said “I gotta light the grill,” and proceeded to take a rock and strike a $20 bill he was holding in his hand with it. It was quite an outlandish thing to see, and an odd sight to watch this man banging his rock against the bill almost as if trying to start a fire. What was he doing? What was the “grill” he was talking about, lighting? What was wrong with him? They were not able to find out because Williams then suddenly threw the rock at their car, and they decided to drive off, thinking that the man was insane. This is the last time anyone would see Williams alive.

Williams seemed to have just stepped off the earth after that, and extensive searches turned up absolutely nothing, leaving authorities trying to find answers, but there wasn’t much to go on. He was a devoted family man and hard worker with nothing at all in his record to show that he would want to try and mow down innocent people or abandon the truck, nor was there any history of mental problems to explain his bizarre behavior and statements. According to Williams’ boss, he had seemed totally normal before his trip to California, with nothing to indicate that anything was awry. The only slightly strange clue was that it was found that shortly before his disappearance, Williams had called his boss to say that he was having trouble sleeping, but it is unknown if this has any relevance to the case at all. In the end, there was no clear answer or clue for why he had turned up in Arizona, miles from his route and nowhere near the highway to do what he did and then vanish into thin air.
In the absence of any real evidence, all kinds of theories swirled about what had happened to Devin Williams. One was that he indeed had been kidnapped and that he had been forced to do what he did at gunpoint, but who would do this and why? What was the motive? Williams didn’t have any known enemies, and why would someone abduct a truck driver just to have them go streaming through a campground in the middle of nowhere and then disappear into thin air to abandon the truck? There was the idea that Williams had voluntarily left his life behind, but he loved his family dearly and had just bought a new house, so why would he do this? Also, how does that explain his very bizarre behavior? It has been suggested that he may have been on drugs, but he had no record of this at all. Another idea is that he had diabetes and had suffered some sort of episode, but this seems to do little to pull all of the disparate, weird clues together. There were even more fringe ideas that he had been abducted or mind-controlled by a UFO, as there was apparently a UFO sighting flap in the area at the time.
Whatever the cause was, there was no sign at all of where he had actually gone off to and no trace of his fate until May 2, 1997, when a human skull was found just a quarter of a mile from where Williams had last been seen. Authorities were able to determine that the skull was that of the missing trucker, but considering that there was no trauma or injury found on it, it was impossible to know how he had died. The proximity of the skull to where he had disappeared was also a conundrum, as the area had been searched quite extensively in the days after the vanishing, and far from some remote wilderness this was a very popular outdoor recreation area visited by scores of people, so how had he managed to evade all of these people to die there alone and then have his remains decompose to leave a skull two years later without anyone noticing? Was he killed somewhere else and then dumped there much later? It doesn’t make sense, none of it does. There has been no real theory that neatly ties it all together, and it all remains an enigma. What happened to Devin William? We may never know.
Moving on to our next case, in the fall of 2011, 26-year-old Emma Fillipoff moved to Victoria, British Columbia, in Canada, in order to experience a new life in a place she had always felt drawn to. She did a stint of seasonal work at the Red Fish Blue Fish seafood restaurant at Victoria’s Inner Harbour, as well as some other odd jobs, and seemed to enjoy her time there. Fillipoff left the restaurant job on October 31, 2012, and started making preparations to return to her home in Ontario, assuring her co-workers that she would be back in the spring. By all appearances, it looked like she intended to go home and then return, but this would never come to pass, and she was about to become one of Canada’s most bizarre and baffling vanishings. 
It began with some rather erratic behavior on Emma’s part. On November 23, 2011, she called her mother, Shelley, in the middle of the night, crying, and said that she really wanted to go back home as soon as possible. Shelley would say that her daughter didn’t explain what was upsetting her, but she had strongly urged her mother to book a flight to Victoria as soon as possible to be with her and help her pack. It was a pretty odd and worrying call, but it would get even stranger the following day, when Emma called her mother back and told her not to come out after all, and that she’d “figure things out on her own.” Later that same evening, she would call her mother again in tears, saying she wanted to come home, and yet again, the following morning, she called back to tell her mother not to come. What was going on here?
That would be the last Shelley heard from Emma for a few days, and although she was worried sick, she respected her daughter’s last wishes for her not to go out to Victoria. Then on November 27, Shelley got a call from a women’s shelter about Emma, which caught her off guard because her daughter had said nothing to her about living in a shelter. On that same day, Emma would call again and ask her mother to come out, only to call back a short time later and tell her not to, ending the call with the cryptic statement “I don’t know how I can face you.” Confused by Emma’s various bizarre phone calls and the shelter, she nevertheless booked a flight for the next day. In the meantime, things would only get stranger from there.
As her mother was making arrangements to fly out to Victoria on the evening of the 27th, Emma was seen wandering about barefoot in the street in front of the Fairmont Empress Hotel and “acting oddly.” A concerned bystander contacted police, and they arrived to find a disheveled and slightly dazed and confused Emma standing there in her bare feet in the rain that was falling at the time. The police would talk with her for about 45 minutes before deciding that she wasn’t a threat to herself or others, and they would then just leave her there standing barefoot in the rain. At some point after this, she would just vanish off the face of the earth. The following evening, Shelley showed up at the shelter where Emma was supposed to be staying, but she was not there, and no one had seen or heard from her, and this was when she would soon be reported as a missing person.

Police would quickly locate Emma’s abandoned van, which she seemed to have been using as a storage space since it held a hodgepodge of her various belongings, including her passport, library card, digital camera, clothes, a pillow, assorted ornaments, laptop, and recently borrowed library books, among other things, but there was no sign of the missing woman herself. They would learn that Emma had been living a sort of transient lifestyle during her time in Victoria, staying at the shelter and at campgrounds, often sleeping in her van or in a tent. None of her friends or family had known anything about any of this. It was all pretty weird, but it would become even more so when the police began going through surveillance footage in an effort to track her movements. 
It would be found that on November 23, Fillipoff was captured on security footage at the Victoria YMCA, where she can be seen exiting and entering the building multiple times, either fidgeting with her hands or trying to operate a cell phone, and she appears to be distressed and acting as if she is possibly trying to avoid someone. Another piece of footage from November 28 shows her buying a prepaid cell phone from a convenience store, but she acts rather oddly, hesitating and departing the store to check the street before going back in to buy the phone. Police would verify that she had indeed bought a phone, as well as a $200 prepaid debit card, and they would talk to a taxi driver who said that he had picked up the missing woman and been told to take her to the airport. Strangely, she would then say she could not afford the $60 taxi fare and get out, despite the fact that she had that $200 prepaid card and several thousand dollars in her bank account. This was estimated to have happened shortly before she was found wandering about barefoot in front of that hotel, although why she had been there in such a disoriented state and what had happened to her shoes was unclear. 
There was not much to go on. Emma’s prepaid phone was not activated, and there were no reliable clues as to where she had gone to after speaking with those police officers in front of the hotel. Despite a massive search involving numerous police officers and volunteers, as well as flyers distributed all over the country, there was really not much to work with, but some potential leads would trickle in. On December 5, Emma’s prepaid card was flagged as being used at a gas station near the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre and Galloping Goose trail, approximately 12 km from downtown Victoria. They were able to track the card to a man who claimed to have found it lying on the ground at the recreation area and then used it to buy cigarettes. Although it seems odd that Emma would have found her way all the way out there on her own, the man was not seriously questioned and was let go. There were also several sightings of the missing woman, but these went nowhere. 
The next lead would not come until May of 2014, when a tattooed man with a limp walked into a store in Vancouver and waved around Emma’s missing person poster, claiming that it was his girlfriend before throwing it away. The police were called, but the man disappeared before he could be questioned. Although security video captured an image of the man, he has never been identified. In 2018, a witness named only “William” told police that he had dropped her off at an intersection on Vancouver Island – about 70 miles from the hotel – at around 5:15 a.m. on November 29, 2012. When asked why he had not come forward with this information sooner, he claimed that he had been afraid of being implicated in her disappearance. Although promising enough to warrant a three-day search of the vicinity with cadaver dogs, the lead was many years old and would turn out to be ultimately useless. 
With a lack of any real answers, speculation as to what happened to Emma has been rampant. One of the main ideas is that she had some sort of psychotic break or went into a sort of fugue state to wander off or possibly even commit suicide. Friends reported that she had had mental issues and bouts with depression in the past, and that she had also been afraid of her mother, whom she had described to friends as a disciplinarian. She also might have run away to start a new life, which would have fit into her transient lifestyle. Another idea is that she was the victim of foul play, as in the surveillance footage, she can be seen acting noticeably anxious and paranoid, as if she is being followed or is trying to avoid someone. However, she never did tell anyone or write in her numerous journals about anything to this effect.
Despite getting hundreds of other tips, none of these have ever led anywhere, and the case has gone completely cold. The case has been picked up by numerous private investigators, amateur sleuths, and even psychics, but no one has found any trace of Emma Fillipoff. We are left to wonder. What happened to this woman, and what was the meaning of her odd behavior? How did she manage to get out on that rainy street in her bare feet, only to talk to cops and then vanish? Was this some sort of psychotic break or foul play? In the end, she has never been found, and there is no way to know for sure. 

In our final case here, Bryce Laspisa seemed to have a lot going for him and a bright future ahead of him. After graduating from high school in Chicago, Illinois, he moved with his family to California, where he ended up enrolling at Sierra College, where he studied graphic and industrial design. The naturally artistic Laspisa apparently flourished in his new environment, doing well in his classes and making friends with his easygoing charm, as well as meeting his new girlfriend, Kim Sly. Indeed, his first year at college went incredibly smoothly, and there was no reason to think that he wouldn’t be able to make all of his dreams come true. There was certainly no reason to think that dark days were ahead of him, or to suspect that he was about to become the center of a bizarre mystery.
The summer after his first year at school, he went to visit his parents’ home in Laguna Niguel, California, and was, by all accounts, acting normally and eager to get back to school. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary at all, but as soon as he returned to school, his behavior seemed to have noticeably changed. At first, it was all rather subtle, but his girlfriend and close friends noticed that the normally open and cheerful Laspisa had become uncharacteristically morose, depressed and withdrawn. He also had strange mood swings and was described as not being quite his usual self. This soon rapidly graduated to frequent liberal drinking, something Laspisa had never really been into before. His roommate and friend Sean Dixon would report that he had taken to drinking hard liquor every night, something he had never done before, getting drunk practically every evening and passing out, which was all rather shocking to those who knew him best. Even more worrying was that Laspisa was found to have started taking a medication called Vyvanse, an amphetamine derivative used to treat ADHD, even though he didn’t have this condition, and which can produce severe side effects, including psychosis, depression, and mania. When asked about it, Laspisa shrugged it off and said he only took it to help him stay awake playing video games, but his friends were not so sure. As his behavior continued to unravel and become increasingly erratic, his friends and family began to suspect that something in his life had gone very wrong, but he told everyone he was fine and refused to talk about it. 
On August 27, 2013, Laspisa broke up with his girlfriend by e-mail, telling her that she was better off without him, and he also sent Dixon a weird message saying, “I love you, bro, seriously. You are the best person I’ve ever met. You saved my soul.” He would, on the same day, give Dixon his beloved X-Box video game console, and he also gave away a pair of expensive diamond earrings his mother had given him. On August 29, he called his mother, Karen Laspisa, to tell her that he had a lot to talk to her about and that he was going to drive home to visit them, without giving any details on what was so important that he had to suddenly go back home just a couple of weeks after having just gone back to school. He then got into his car at around 11:30 p.m. and drove off into the next chapter of the strange mystery.
At around 9 a.m. the following morning, Laspisa apparently ran out of gas outside the town of Buttonwillow, around 200 miles north of Laguna Niguel, after which he made his way to a rest stop and called roadside assistance. He was then brought some gasoline, but did not continue on his way. At this time, Laspisa’s mother had made repeated failed attempts for three hours to contact her son, but his phone was off, so she contacted the roadside service company that had brought him the gas and asked them to check on him. When the attendant arrived, he found Laspisa in the same spot as he had been when the gas had been brought to him hours before, and he then apparently called his worried Mom to tell her that he had just been trying to get some sleep and would be on the road again shortly.

The hours went by, and Laspisa never showed up at his parents’ house. When 6 p.m. rolled around and he definitely should have been at home, his mother filed a missing person report with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. They did not have to look far, because bizarrely, Laspisa was still sitting in his car at the very same rest stop he had run out of gas at that morning. He had been there at this point for at least 9 hours, so the officers suspected drug or alcohol use, but there was no evidence of this at all, and he passed a sobriety test with flying colors. When asked what he was doing out there, he said he was on his way to meet a friend and “let off some steam,” but he gave no reason for why he had been sitting in his car there at that rest stop all day. With no reason to detain him for anything and the fact that Laspisa had broken no laws, the authorities left him there to his own devices, merely telling him that his mother was worried about him and that he should turn his phone back on. The hours went by, and when the roadside service company went out to the rest stop to check at 10 p.m., it was found that Laspisa was still oddly near the spot where police had found him hours before. He had now been sitting there spacing out for around 13 hours, and this time the attendant persuaded him to be on his way. It would only get weirder from there. 
Laspisa would get back in touch with his parents again later on, calling them to update them on his location, and he claimed that he could not tell where he was, but that his GPS navigation indicated he would arrive home at 3:25 am on the 30th. At 2 a.m. that morning, just a little over an hour before he was scheduled to finally arrive home after his bizarre journey, Laspisa called one more time to tell his mother that he was tired and was going to pull over and rest along Interstate 5 in the Sierra Pelona Mountains. Although he told her he would call her later that morning, this would be the last anyone would hear from Laspisa. 
On the morning of Aug. 30, between 4:20 and 5:15 a.m., law enforcement officials participating in a training exercise found Laspisa’s car at Castaic Lake, but there was no sign of Laspisa himself. The car was in quite a rough state, having tumbled 15 feet down a steep ravine just a few hundred feet from Lake Hughes Road. Inside the vehicle were found Laspisa’s cell phone, wallet, laptop and clothing, but he was nowhere to be found, and there was no sign of blood or injury. Surveillance footage would show that at 2:15 a.m., he’d turned onto an access road rather than pulling off for a roadside nap, and approximately two hours later, at 4:29 am, the same camera photographed Laspisa’s car going by again, but after that, it is unknown just what exactly had happened to him. Rather oddly, it was found that the vehicle had likely accelerated down the embankment, meaning that Laspisa had still been in control of it, and there was damage to the rear window that suggested that he had used a tool to break it to get out. What had happened here? No one had a clue.
A massive search was launched, using divers to scour the lake and aircraft, and tracker dogs managed to follow his scent to a nearby truck stop, where they lost it, and it seems as if he had just vanished into thin air. The following month, it was thought that the case had been solved when some charred human remains were found near Castaic Lake, but they turned out not to be Laspisa’s. There would also be found a human skull a few years after that, which would also prove not to have belonged to the missing man. In the meantime, there have been various unconfirmed sightings of Laspisa, primarily in Oregon, but more recently, there was a sighting of him in April of 2022 in Missoula, Montana, where he was supposedly caught on camera footage, and although it is now not believed to be him, it is apparently a spitting image of him. One Detective Ethan Smith has said of it:

“I was able to verify his identity and it’s not Bryce. I believe the photo being circulated of the young man on the bike in Missoula who looks like Bryce is this guy, but sadly, it isn’t Bryce. I was astounded by the resemblance between the two.”

Over the years, the case has remained ice cold, with no real clues or evidence as to what happened to Laspisa, and at every turn, investigators have been absolutely stumped as speculation has swirled as to what happened to him. One idea is that he intentionally disappeared to start a new life, but friends and family dispute this. Another possibility is that his use of alcohol and the ADHD medication had triggered a psychotic break or fugue state in him, after which he had basically temporarily lost his mind, crashed his car, and wandered off to an unknown fate. Still another idea is that he was abducted, likely at the truck stop where the dogs lost his scent trail, or was subjected to some other foul play. 
None of these various ideas really answers all of the questions and weird clues orbiting the case. Investigators believe that whatever happened to him is most likely linked to whatever he had wanted to talk to his mother about, but what was it? Why had his behavior changed so dramatically in the days after summer vacation had ended? What prompted him to suddenly drive off to visit his parents, and why did he stay at that rest area for 13 hours even when he had gas? Why is it that he kept turning off his phone? What was the meaning of his vehicle passing by the camera twice and going off onto that access road, and how did his car end up at the bottom of that ravine? Where did he go after that, and why did he leave all of his belongings behind, especially his phone, which he could have used to call for help? What in the world happened to him? There are no solid answers to any of these questions, no new clues have come in, and it seems more and more likely with every passing year that the strange disappearance of Bryce Laspisa will never be solved. 
What are we to make of these cases? Does any of this bizarre behavior surrounding these cases offer any kind of hint or information as to what has happened to these people? For now, the answers remain vague, and it is very likely that we may never know what really happened to these people or what connection their weird behavior has to their vanishings. 

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