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Reporting, explainers, and analysis on data and AI, updated continuously by the newsroom.

Donut chart for London robotaxi trust showing 79 percent of Londoners would not trust or feel comfortable in a driverless car and 21 percent would.

London robotaxi race starts with Uber interest list

London robotaxi service is moving from policy to product with Uber and Wayve sign-ups, but safety drivers and tiny fleets keep it a pilot.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 8, 2026

Matillion Context Engine operating surface with 2 crawler types, 3 warehouse selection patterns, 6 crawler statuses, and Mission Control's 10 task in progress cap.

Matillion Context Engine: setup, limits, and costs

Matillion Context Engine is a public preview knowledge graph for Maia AI Agents. Start with restricted domain graphs and watch crawler scope.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 8, 2026

Snowflake Adaptive Compute claimed benchmark gains: 1.6x analytical speed, 2.2x throughput, and 3.5x DML execution.

Snowflake Adaptive Compute: the bill owner playbook

Snowflake Adaptive Compute is query-based adaptive warehouse compute. Use its 2 knobs to cap bursts, monitor credits, and avoid blind migrations.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 8, 2026

ICEBERG_MERGE_ON_READ_BEHAVIOR AUTO routes 3 of 4 Iceberg table cases to merge-on-read and 1 of 4 to copy-on-write.

ICEBERG_MERGE_ON_READ_BEHAVIOR changes Iceberg DML

ICEBERG_MERGE_ON_READ_BEHAVIOR is Snowflake's GA switch for Iceberg DML mode. AUTO sends 3 of 4 table cases to merge-on-read.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 8, 2026

AI data center backlash chart showing U.S. data center electricity rising from 176 TWh in 2023 to 325 to 580 TWh in 2028.

AI data center backlash hits Shelbyville's $2B bet

AI data center backlash is now a zoning risk: Shelbyville's $2B Prologis campus shows trust can bottleneck compute before power does.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 7, 2026

Abstract orange donut splitting Databricks into storage and Unity Catalog at 40 percent, compute at 40 percent, and Mosaic AI at 20 percent.

Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, explained for builders

The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform is a lakehouse that unifies storage, compute, governance, and AI on open Delta tables. Here is how the pieces fit and where the cost goes.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 7, 2026

Matillion Context Engine control counts: 2 crawler types, 2 graph availability modes, 4 Mission Control board columns, and a 10 task in-progress limit.

Matillion Context Engine grounds Maia agent work

Matillion Context Engine is a public preview metadata layer that gives Maia AI Agents knowledge graphs for safer pipeline work.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 7, 2026

Abstract green donut splitting a Matillion project across low-code Designer at 50 percent, code at 35 percent, and Maia AI at 15 percent.

Matillion's Data Productivity Cloud, explained for builders

The Data Productivity Cloud is Matillion's cloud-native platform for building, running, and orchestrating data pipelines with low-code, code, and AI. Here is how the pieces fit and where the cost goes.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 7, 2026

Heatmap of password strength by length and character set, where short passwords crack instantly and a 16-character full-set password resists for 8.7 trillion years against one GPU.

How long would it take to brute force your password with today's computing power?

A random 12-character password can outlast every computer on Earth, but an 8-character one on a weak hash falls in hours. Here is the brute-force math, mapped.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 7, 2026

Illustrative Snowflake Adaptive Compute chart showing 2 primary tuning knobs, default QUERY_THROUGHPUT_MULTIPLIER of 2, and 3 AWS preview regions.

Snowflake Adaptive Compute: a bill owner's guide

Snowflake Adaptive Compute is query billed warehouse compute with 2 tuning knobs. Use it when tuning costs more than control.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 7, 2026

Snowflake Adaptive Compute benchmark gains showing analytics 1.6x faster, operational throughput 2.2x higher, and DML execution 3.5x faster.

Snowflake Adaptive Compute rewrites warehouse sizing

Snowflake Adaptive Compute is query-billed warehouse compute. Its default XLARGE cap and multiplier 2 force FinOps teams to retest sizing.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 7, 2026

Bar chart of Cortex Agent cost components: orchestration tokens 30 percent, Cortex Analyst tokens 25 percent, Cortex Search index 20 percent, warehouse run 25 percent

Building an AI agent on your Snowflake data with Cortex Agents

Cortex Agents let you build an AI agent that reasons across structured tables, unstructured documents, and custom tools inside Snowflake. It orchestrates a plan-act-reflect loop, and the bill is the sum of four meters you need to watch.

Lars Cornelissen · Jun 7, 2026