Most Americans don’t have to think about where their energy comes from. If they’re lucky, they can just flip a switch or hit a button, and a hot meal or illuminated room is at their fingertips.

But as unprecedented climate events both put a premium on access to energy and disrupt critical infrastructure that delivers it, and as data centers double down on their consumption, the reliability of our energy supply has never been more important—or more tenuous.

As the first installment in Tech Brew’s series about the vulnerabilities (and opportunities) facing America’s power grids, we posed the most obvious questions to some experts.

So…just what is the grid, and how does it work?

Scott Harden, CTO at Schneider Electric, described the grid as “the most complex machine that mankind has ever created.” Despite its complexity, the concept is rather straightforward: “It’s essentially a system of wires that move electrons from sources of generation to points of use,” Harden told Tech Brew.

Keep reading here.—KG

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For many schools, returning to class also means returning to cyberattacks.

According to cybersecurity platform NordLayer, educational institutions can “expect a significant rise in cyberattacks targeting them” in September. That’s partly because, according to NordLayer, these institutions typically face budget constraints and tend to use older infrastructure, but there’s also a human learning curve that can be difficult to address.

The risk is widespread: A Sophos report from last year found that “80% of lower-education providers and 79% of higher-education providers reported that they were hit by ransomware,” in 2022—an increase from 56% and 64% the year before.

“Educational institutions need to prioritize cybersecurity, implementing measures that foster a culture of digital awareness among students and staff,” Andrius Buinovskis, NordLayer Head of Product, said in a press release. “The stakes are especially high at the start of the new academic year.”

Keep reading here.—KG

With the help of its “unhinged” green owl mascot, Duolingo has become the world’s most popular language learning app. Matt Skaruppa, Duolingo’s CFO, recently appeared on Morning Brew’s After Earnings podcast to discuss the company’s formula for growing its user base and how it’s using AI to improve language learning.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

With the likes of Google Translate able to translate human language in real time, do people need to learn languages anymore?

Absolutely, we do. When we ask our users, they say they’re using it for economic advancement, for school, for an upcoming trip, all of these reasons. And when they use Duolingo, they’re also bettering themselves and feeling better about how they’re spending their time on their phone.

You’ve been able to learn a language without an app since printed books have come into existence. The problem isn’t that it’s hard to do that; it’s that you need to stay motivated and stay engaged, and that’s what we feel like we figured out.

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—CV

Usually, we write about the business of tech. Here, we highlight the *tech* of tech.

Indebted to the bell: Most of our kids are back to school at this point, meaning parents have shelled out a small fortune in crayons, folders, glue, disinfecting wipes, tissues, and individually packaged snacks.

But gone are the days when caregivers could shove a pencil case in a backpack and walk their children to the bus: Retail Brew reported on a survey from ecoATM Gazelle, which sells used tech devices, that found that 55% of parents reported that having to shell out for a laptop, iPad, or something similar “required them to go into credit card debt, use a payment plan, or borrow money from friends or family.”

Ads, ads, everywhere: While it would be hypocritical for us to knock ad-supported content, we regret to inform you that yet another streamer has identified a new patch of pixels onto which they can slap an ad: the pause screen on your television.

Marketing Brew reported on a new ad-tech patent application from Roku called “HDMI customized ad insertion.” It’s exactly what it sounds like: You press pause, an ad appears. And Roku isn’t the only one, our sister Brew reports: Amazon Prime Video, Max, Peacock, and Hulu all utilize the practice of “pause ads,” and Netflix is presently testing it.