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The European Space Agency (ESA) has released the first images from its Euclid space telescope - a spacecraft peering 10 billion years into the past to create the largest 3D map of the universe yet. From the distinctive Horsehead Nebula (pictured above) to a hidden" spiral galaxy that looks much like the Milky Way, Euclid is giving us the clearest look yet at both known and previously unseen objects speckling enormous swathes of the sky.Euclid is investigating the dark" universe, searching for signs of how dark energy and dark matter have influenced the evolution of the cosmos. It'll observe one-third of the sky over the next six years, studying billions of galaxies with its 4-foot-wide telescope, visible-wavelength camera and near-infrared camera/spectrometer. Euclid launched in July 2023, and while its official science mission doesn't start until early 2024, it's already blowing scientists away with its early observations.ESAEuclid's observation of the Perseus Cluster (above), which sits 240 million light-years away, is the most detailed ever, showing not just the 1,000 galaxies in the cluster itself, but roughly 100,000 others that lay farther away, according to ESA. The space telescope also caught a look at a Milky-Way-like spiral galaxy dubbed IC 342 (below), or the Hidden Galaxy," nicknamed as such because it lies behind our own and is normally hard to see clearly.ESAEuclid is able to observe huge portions of the sky, and it's the only telescope in operation able to image certain objects like globular clusters in their entirety in just one shot, according to ESA. Globular clusters like NGC 6397, pictured below, contain hundreds of thousands of gravity-bound stars. Euclid's observation of the cluster is unmatched in its level of detail, ESA says.The spacecraft is able to see objects that have been too faint for others to observe. Its detailed observation of the well-known Horsehead Nebula, a stellar nursery in the Orion constellation, for example, could reveal young stars and planets that have previously gone undetected.ESAESAEuclid also observed the dwarf galaxy, NGC 6822 (pictured above), which sits just 1.6 million light years away. This small, ancient galaxy could hold clues on how galaxies like our own came to be. It's only the beginning for Euclid, but it's already helping to unlock more information on the objects in our surrounding universe, both near and far.We have never seen astronomical images like this before, containing so much detail," said Rene Laureijs, ESA's Euclid Project Scientist, of the first batch of images. They are even more beautiful and sharp than we could have hoped for, showing us many previously unseen features in well-known areas of the nearby universe."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/esa-releases-stunning-first-images-from-euclid-its-dark-universe-detective-203948971.html?src=rss

Microsoft allegedly plans to bring Copilot, its generative-AI-powered personal assistant, to late adopters. Windows Central's Zac Bowden reports the Copilot button and sidebar from Windows 11 will soon" arrive in Windows 10. The AI assistant for Windows 11 launched in beta in August and officially in September.Bowden says the Windows 10 Copilot will include plugins that work across both operating systems. I understand the experience and capabilities of Copilot across Windows 10 and Windows 11 will be roughly the same, including plugin compatibility across both versions of the OS," the editor reported.The move would add significant numbers to Copilot's user base, as Windows 10 still runs on around one billion monthly active devices. Meanwhile, Windows 11, launched over two years ago, has around 400 million monthly active devices. Bowden suspects the move will also help Microsoft nudge developers into making Copilot plugins: Microsoft will also have an easier time selling developers on the idea that they should build plugins for Copilot when they can say Copilot is available on 1.4 billion devices, compared to just 400 million on Windows 11."Engadget contacted Microsoft for comment but didn't immediately receive a response. We'll update this article if we hear back.Bowden's report also mentions that Microsoft is revisiting its strategy of moving on quickly from Windows 10. The company reportedly plans to add select new features and services" previously exclusive to Windows 11 to the older OS. Windows 10 support is set to expire in October 2025, but Bowden's sources say the company is having ongoing internal discussions about possibly extending that.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-reportedly-plans-to-bring-its-ai-powered-copilot-to-windows-10-202010100.html?src=rss

The Apple Watch Series 9 is only a few months old, but it's already on sale. You can grab the smartwatch for $349 from Amazon or from Walmart as part of an early Black Friday deal. The standard price is $399, so that's a savings of $50 or 13 percent. The discount only applies to the 41mm model but includes multiple band and color options. The larger 45mm model is also on sale, but for $379.We admired the watch in our review, calling out many positive aspects. The newly-launched double tap feature is actually useful, the health and fitness tracking is as good as ever and the voice control options are on-point, thanks to having Siri on-board the actual watch. Previously, the watch interacted with your phone to call up Siri responses, so everything works much quicker now.This opens up plenty of new use case scenarios for the watch. You can ask it all about various health metrics, fitness goals and even how long you slept. You can raise the watch to your mouth to activate the digital assistant or say Hey Siri" as usual. We had a bit of trouble with the former, but a software update should patch that right up.We dinged the battery life a bit, as the Series 9 peters out after around 12 to 18 hours of use, depending on what you're doing with the watch. This is not a huge issue, but does impact the sleep-tracking features because when else are you supposed to charge it if it doesn't last an entire day and night? Beyond that, the $400 price tag is a bit difficult to swallow, but this sale certainly puts a bandage on that issue.Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo's Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-apple-watch-series-9-drops-to-349-in-an-amazon-black-friday-deal-200224064.html?src=rss

Cruise, General Motors' driverless car subsidiary, will soon lay off employees. According to Forbes, the company's CEO Kyle Vogt told staff of the decision in an all-hands meeting earlier this week. Cruise hasn't yet decided who or how many people will lose their jobs, Vogt said, but promised to provide more details in the next three weeks. The company will also conduct internal listening sessions", and explore building websites detailing collisions Cruise cars are involved in, Forbes said.The news comes on the heels of multiple crises facing the company since October after a Cruise robotaxi dragged a San Francisco pedestrian thrown into its path more than 20 feet before braking to a halt. That incident caused California's DMV to revoke Cruise's operating permit in the state. In a statement, the DMV said that Cruise's vehicles are not safe for the public's operation", and said that Cruise had misrepresented" information relating to the safety of its autonomous vehicles.Weeks after the incident, Cruise, which operated in San Francisco, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Miami, and Phoenix, fully paused its driverless operations. This week, General Motors recalled Cruise's entire fleet of 950 robotaxis.Other reports, based on Cruise's internal safety documents, showed that the car's algorithms had trouble identifying children, something that Cruise employees knew about.On Wednesday, Cruise published a blog post responding to the recent events. The company said that it was looking to hire a Chief Safety Officer who would report directly to Vogt. Cruise will also hire a third-party law firm to review its response to the October incident. The firm, Quinn Emmanuel, is known for its work for Tesla and Elon Musk, CNBC noted.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cruise-is-reportedly-planning-to-lay-off-employees-after-weeks-of-crises-195546324.html?src=rss

Lego just unveiled another set based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and boy is it a doozy. The massive 5,200-piece Avengers Tower set measures nearly three feet tall and ships with 31 minifigures, including Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige. It also includes several dioramas that let you create many of the important scenes that took place in Avengers Tower, from the Chitauri battle of the original film to the party scene from Age of Ultron and beyond.The set releases on November 24 and will cost an eye-watering $500. Still, this is the 17th-largest collection the company has ever made and the one with the most minifigures. Beyond Feige, other figures include Captain America, Thor, Loki, some Ultron drones and just about every other major character that appeared in Avengers Tower throughout the films. There's even an appropriately-scaled Hulk.In addition to the tower itself, which actually opens to allow for interior sequences, the set ships with a Quinjet and a Chitauri invasion ship. You also get plenty of accessories to help pose the minifigures in a variety of action-packed scenarios. About the only thing missing is the shawarma shop down the street.As previously mentioned, this isn't Lego's first MCU-adjacent set. The company has released a giant Hulkbuster suit from Age of Ultron, a battle scene based on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Iron Man's armory, among others. It has also shipped some sets based on other Marvel properties, like a Miles Morales figure and a Daily Bugle collection. Beyond superheroes, Lego launched a nifty Pac-Man arcade console set this year and one based on the Xbox 360.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/legos-5200-piece-avengers-tower-set-ships-with-31-minifigures-including-kevin-feige-193359347.html?src=rss

Winter is almost upon us and Airbnb has announced a new feature that could help folks avoid fumbling for keys while wearing a bunch of layers. Starting in the US and Canada later this year, Airbnb hosts who are in the invite-only Early Access program will be able to link compatible smart locks to their Airbnb account and generate a unique code for each reservation. Guests will then be able to input the code in the Airbnb app to open the lock. At the outset, Airbnb will support some models from Schlage, August and Yale.That could make some Airbnb pain points much easier to deal with. Hosts won't have to worry about bad actors sharing entry codes with other people after they check out, and guests should find it more straightforward to find and enter their code. They also won't have to download a separate app if they're staying at a place that uses a compatible smart lock.Airbnb is making a string of other changes as part of its winter update. You'll be able to access a collection of the 2 million most-loved homes on the platform. These Guest Favorites all have an average rating of above 4.9 with high marks for things like value, the check in process, cleanliness, listing accuracy, host communication and location. Hosts of Guest Favorites will all have strong track records of reliability and almost two-thirds of the listings are from Superhosts.You'll soon start seeing a badge denoting a listing as a Guest Favorite on the listing page and in search results. There'll also be an option to filter results by Guest Favorites.Elsewhere, you'll be able to sort reviews by recency or rating, while a new chart should make the distribution of reviews on the five-star scale easier to grok. When you leave a review, you'll be able to include more details that may be useful for context, such as where you're from, how long you stayed and whether you traveled with family, another group or pets. Airbnb is starting to roll out the reviews and Guest Favorites updates this week.Since last year, Airbnb has been making its pricing more transparent. To that end, service fees will now be included in the prices that hosts set. According to Airbnb, that will give hosts a better idea of how much guests are paying overall. It should be easier for hosts to compare their prices to similar listings through the calendar too.Hosts will have access to other new listing tools, such as an Ai-powered photo tour. Airbnb says its AI engine can recognize photos and assign them to up to 19 rooms to help guests better understand the layouts of properties. Hosts will be able to edit the photo tour whenever they like and pinpoint amenities in each room.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/airbnb-will-soon-let-you-open-smart-locks-in-its-app-192753343.html?src=rss

In addition to music and podcasts, Spotify has recently been working to cement its presence in the audiobook space. Today, the company announced Premium users in the US will be able to stream 15 hours of free audiobook content monthly as a part of their subscription. This offering was previously only available to Premium users in the UK and Australia.The company says there's no need for users to do anything. Audiobooks that are available to stream will be marked as Included in Premium" and users can hit play right away. Spotify notes that 15 hours is roughly two average audiobooks per month. If you end up hitting the limit, you can purchase a 10-hour top-up.The company says its Spotify Premium audiobook catalog now has something for everyone. Users with a Premium subscription can access over 70 percent of today's bestsellers, including Britney Spears' The Woman in Me and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend. There are also many classic pieces of literature, like Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Spotify believes its listeners will "love exploring the depths of our 200,000-strong catalog, unearthing genres from 'cozy mystery' to 'historical romance.'"Books that aren't eligible for free streaming will need to be purchased outright. Those books will have a lock on the play button, which means you'll need to purchase the title. To make a purchase, you'll follow a link to your browser. Once that's completed, you'll be taken back to the app to listen to your new book. All your purchased titles will show up in your library and be available for offline listening. Spotify also gives you the option to control playback speed so you can listen at your own pace.It makes sense that Spotify has included audiobooks in its app, but there are a few things that may deter users from tapping in. Yes, having a single place to listen to your music, podcasts and books is convenient but unlike with music and podcasts, you have a streaming limit here. Additionally, only a limited number of books are free to stream with your $11 subscription. While Audible also charges a subscription fee, users get one book to own every month, which may make it the more appealing and affordable option for some.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-subscribers-in-the-us-now-get-15-hours-of-audiobooks-every-month-192000398.html?src=rss

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company owned by General Motors, has issued a recall for 950 of its robotaxis following a collision with a pedestrian in San Francisco last month, as originally reported by NBC. This move comes after California revoked the company's driverless permits, requiring a human on-board at all times.The collision that started all of this occurred on October 2 when a pedestrian was thrown into the path of a Cruise robotaxi after being hit by a human driver. The robotaxi tried to brake aggressively and pull over to the side of the road, but ended up dragging the pedestrian 20 feet before finally stopping.This triggered a federal probe and several independent investigations into the company, which dredged up some unsavory data. For instance, reports indicate that Cruise's algorithm had real trouble identifying children. The data also suggests that Cruise knew about this incredibly dangerous blind spot but still kept its vehicles on the streets.Internal safety documents acquired by The Intercept state that Cruise AVs may not exercise additional care around children," and that the robotaxis may need the ability to distinguish children from adults so we can display additional caution around." The company responded by touting its safety features, writing in a statement that it has the lowest risk tolerance for contact with children."All of that's moot now, as Cruise's robotaxis are being recalled. GM and Cruise have not issued statements as to when and if the cars would return to the streets. GM did announce, however, that it has already lost $1.9 billion on the venture through September of this year, as reported by CNBC.Rival companies like Google-owned Waymo are still operating driverless vehicles in California and beyond. As a matter of fact, the company just doubled the service area for its robotaxis in San Francisco and Phoenix.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gm-recalls-nearly-1000-cruise-robotaxis-after-pedestrian-collision-183049933.html?src=rss

A group of Google employees has published an open letter on Medium calling out an alleged double standard in the company related to freedom of expression surrounding the Israel-Palestine war. The essay condemns hate, abuse and retaliation" within the company against Muslim, Arab and Palestinian workers. The employees who penned the letter, which doesn't include specific names out of fear of retaliation, demand that CEO Sundar Pichai, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and other senior leaders publicly condemn the ongoing genocide in the strongest possible terms." In addition, they urge the company to cancel Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion deal to supply AI and other advanced tech to the Israeli military.We are Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab Google employees joined by anti-Zionist Jewish colleagues," the letter opens. We cannot remain silent in the face of the hate, abuse, and retaliation that we are being subjected to in the workplace in this moment."The letter cites specific examples of emotionally charged and inappropriate workplace behavior. These include unnamed Googlers accusing Palestinians of supporting terrorism, committing slander against the Prophet Muhammad," and publicly calling Palestinians animals" on official Google work platforms. The group describes leadership as standing idly by" in the latter two cases, and it says Google managers have called employees sick" and a lost cause" for expressing empathy toward Gaza residents.The employees say Google managers have publicly asked Arab and Muslim people in the company if they support Hamas as a response to their concern for Palestinian families. There are even coordinated efforts to stalk the public lives of workers sympathetic to Palestine and to report them both to Google and law enforcement for supporting terrorism,'" the letter reads.Google CEO Sundar PichaiASSOCIATED PRESSOther examples cited include heartfelt appeals" to donate to a charity for Gaza citizens being met with multiple comments dehumanizing Gazans as being animals,' disregarding their plight and calling upon Googlers to boycott relief work for civilians due to the fact that Palestinian schools and hospitals were being used for terrorism.'" The letter also accuses Google managers of using their rank to question, report, and attempt to get fired Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian Googlers who express sympathy with the plight of the besieged Palestinian people." It describes one manager endorsing surveillance of Google employees on social media," and then openly harassing them on Google work platforms.You have to be very, very, very careful, because any sort of criticism toward the Israeli state can be easily taken as antisemitism," Sarmad Gilani, a Google software engineer who took part in the letter, said in an interview with The New York Times. It feels like I have to condemn Hamas 10 times before saying one tiny, tiny thing criticizing Israel."In an emailed statement to Engadget, Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini wrote, As we've shared, this is a highly sensitive time and topic in every company and workplace, and we have many employees who are personally affected. The overwhelming majority of those employees are not engaged in internal discussions or debate, and many have said they've appreciated our fast response and our focus on the safety of our employees." The company said the situation involves a small number of Googlers whose views don't represent the entire workforce. It encourages employees to voice concerns to HR, and it adds that it has taken action within the last month when conduct violates company policy.The tensions inflamed in the last month by the Israel-Palestine war have resurfaced resentments about Google's involvement in Project Nimbus. In 2021, Google and Amazon workers penned a similar open letter calling on their companies to pull out of the deal, which they said would enable surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians. Today's letter echoes that sentiment. We demand that Google stop providing material support to this genocide by canceling its Project Nimbus contract and immediately cease doing business with the Israeli apartheid government and military," it reads.In response to the Project Nimbus concerns, Google spokesperson Mencini wrote to Engadget, This is part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don't work at Google. We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial platform by Israeli government ministries such as finance, healthcare, transportation, and education. Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services."Update, November 8, 2023, 2:03 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a response from Google.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-workers-publish-letter-criticizing-companys-israel-palestine-double-standard-181516404.html?src=rss

Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE), which currently provides generative AI summaries at the top of the search results page for select users, is about to be much more available. Just six months after its debut at I/O 2023, the company announced Wednesday that SGE is expanding to Search Labs users in 120 countries and territories, gaining support for four additional languages and receiving a handful of helpful new features.Unlike its frenetic rollout of the Bard chatbot in March, Google has taken a slightly more measured tone in distributing its AI search assistant. The company began with English language searches in the US in May, expanded to English-language users in India and Japan in August and on to teen users in September. As of Wednesday, users from Brazil to Bhutan can give the feature a try. In addition to English, SGE now supports Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Indonesian (in addition to the existing English, Hindi and Japanese) so you'll be able to search and converse with the assistant in natural language, whichever form it might take. These features arrive on Chrome desktop Wednesday with the Search Labs for Android app versions slowly rolling out over the coming week.Among SGE's new features is an improved follow-up function where users can ask additional questions of the assistant directly on the search results page. Like a mini-Bard window tucked into the generated summary, the new feature enables users to drill down on a subject without leaving the results page or even needing to type their queries out. Google will reportedly restrict ads to specific, denoted, areas of the page so as to avoid confusion between them and the generated content. Users can expect follow-ups to start showing up in the coming weeks. They're only for English language users in the US to start but will likely expand as Google continues to iterate the technology.SGE will start helping with clarifying ambiguous translation terms as well. For example, if you're trying to translate "Is there a tie?" into Spanish, both the output, the gender and speaker's intention are going to change if you're talking about a tie, as in a draw between two competitors (e.g. "un empate") and for the tie you wear around your neck ("una corbata"). This new feature will automatically recognize such words and highlight them for you to click on, which pops up a window asking you to pick between the two versions. This is going to be super helpful with languages that, say, think of cars as boys but bicycles as girls, and you need to specify the version you're intending. Luckily, Spanish is one of those languages and this capability is coming first to US users for English-to-Spanish translations.Finally, Google plans to expand its interactive definitions normally found in the generated summaries for educational topics like science, history or economics to coding and health related searches as well. This update should arrive within the next month, again, first for English language users in the US before spreading to more territories in the coming months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-ai-empowered-search-feature-goes-global-with-expansion-to-120-countries-180028084.html?src=rss

If you happen to open up a gift containing an iPhone 15 Pro, a iPad or even an M3-powered MacBook Pro this holiday season, you'll be able to play one of this year's biggest games on your new device pretty swiftly. Capcom has announced that the Resident Evil 4 remake will hit iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, as well as iPads and Macs powered by an M1 or later chipset, on December 20. The Separate Ways expansion will be available on the same day.The remake of the 2005 survival horror classic will have Universal Purchase support, so you'll only need to buy it once to play it across iPhone, iPad and Mac. There's cross-progression too, so when you don't feel like sitting in front of your iMac anymore, you can move to your couch and continue where you left off on your iPhone or iPad.You can try a chunk of the game for free before you decide to take the plunge and buy it. That'll give you a chance to see how well Resident Evil 4 runs on your device and figure out whether the touch controls on iPhone and iPad work for you, though there's controller support as well. You'll be able to play using a keyboard and mouse on Mac, if you prefer.Apple has been focusing a bit more on bringing high-profile games to its devices as of late. Resident Evil Village is also available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and Apple Silicon-powered iPads, while it emerged this week that 2022 hit Stray is coming to Mac in December. Assassin's Creed Mirageand Death Stranding are among the other games slated to hit Apple devices in the coming months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-resident-evil-4-remake-will-hit-iphone-15-pro-ipad-and-mac-on-december-20-172920550.html?src=rss

Apple's 9th-gen entry-level iPad is on sale as part of an early Black Friday Amazon deal. You can snag the tablet for $249, instead of the usual price of $329. That's a savings of $80 and constitutes a discount of nearly 25 percent. This is the best price we've seen all year for Apple's tablet.This is the standard 10.2-inch iPad design that's been around since, well, forever. Despite lacking some of the more advanced features of the iPad Pro and some of the portability of the iPad Air, this model still offers plenty of bang for your buck. There's a reason, after all, that it made our list of best tablets in 2023, even with stiff competition.This model ships with 64GB of storage, an A13 Bionic chip and a decent battery that lasts a full day of use before requiring a trip to the outlet. The speakers are a bit janky but, wait for it, the 9th-gen iPad actually has a bona-fide headphone jack. The cameras are nothing spectacular, but tablets have never been on the cutting edge of image capturing tech, due to their increased size when compared to smartphones.The A13 Bionic chip is capable but lacks some of the oomph of Apple's newer chipsets, like the M1 and above. Even with the relatively ancient chipset, this iPad boasts more than enough speed for casual tasks. It also integrates with first-party accessories like Apple's Smart Keyboard and the first-gen stylus. At $249, this is a great deal for those looking for a simple tablet to watch movies on and peruse the web.Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo's Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-102-inch-ipad-drops-to-249-in-an-early-black-friday-deal-171501499.html?src=rss

Depending on the hardware you're using, training a large language model of any significant size can take weeks, months, even years to complete. That's no way to do business - nobody has the electricity and time to be waiting that long. On Wednesday, NVIDIA unveiled the newest iteration of its Eos supercomputer, one powered by more than 10,000 H100 Tensor Core GPUs and capable of training a 175 billion-parameter GPT-3 model on 1 billion tokens in under four minutes. That's three times faster than the previous benchmark on the MLPerf AI industry standard, which NVIDIA set just six months ago.Eos represents an enormous amount of compute. It leverages 10,752 GPUs strung together using NVIDIA's Infiniband networking (moving a petabyte of data a second) and 860 terabytes of high bandwidth memory (36PB/sec aggregate bandwidth and 1.1PB sec interconnected) to deliver 40 exaflops of AI processing power. The entire cloud architecture is comprised of 1344 nodes - individual servers that companies can rent access to for around $37,000 a month to expand their AI capabilities without building out their own infrastructure.In all, NVIDIA set six records in nine benchmark tests: the 3.9 minute notch for GPT-3, a 2.5 minute mark to to train a Stable Diffusion model using 1,024 Hopper GPUs, a minute even to train DLRM, 55.2 seconds for RetinaNet, 46 seconds for 3D U-Net and the BERT-Large model required just 7.2 seconds to train.NVIDIA was quick to note that the 175 billion parameter version of GPT-3 used in the benchmarking is not the full-sized iteration of the model (neither was the Stable Diffusion model). The larger GPT-3 offers around 3.7 trillion parameters and is just flat out too big and unwieldy for use as a benchmarking test. For example, it'd take 18 months to train it on the older A100 system with 512 GPUs - though, Eos needs just eight days.So instead, NVIDIA and MLCommons, which administers the MLPerf standard, leverage a more compact version that uses 1 billion tokens (the smallest denominator unit of data that generative AI systems understand). This test uses a GPT-3 version with the same number of potential switches to flip (s the full-size (those 175 billion parameters), just a much more manageable data set to use in it (a billion tokens vs 3.7 trillion).The impressive improvement in performance, granted, came from the fact that this recent round of tests employed 10,752 H100 GPUs compared to the 3,584 Hopper GPUs the company used in June's benchmarking trials. However NVIDIA explains that despite tripling the number of GPUs, it managed to maintain 2.8x scaling in performance - an 93 percent efficiency rate - through the generous use of software optimization."Scaling is a wonderful thing," Salvator said."But with scaling, you're talking about more infrastructure, which can also mean things like more cost. An efficiently scaled increase means users are "making the best use of your of your infrastructure so that you can basically just get your work done as fast [as possible] and get the most value out of the investment that your organization has made."The chipmaker was not alone in its development efforts. Microsoft's Azure team submitted a similar 10,752 H100 GPU system for this round of benchmarking, and achieved results within two percent of NVIDIA's."[The Azure team have] been able to achieve a performance that's on par with the Eos supercomputer," Dave Salvator Director of Accelerated Computing Products at NVIDIA, told reporters during a Tuesday prebrief. What's more "they are using Infiniband, but this is a commercially available instance. This isn't some pristine laboratory system that will never have actual customers seeing the benefit of it. This is the actual instance that Azure makes available to its customers."NVIDIA plans to apply these expanded compute abilities to a variety of tasks, including the company's ongoing work in foundational model development, AI-assisted GPU design, neural rendering, multimodal generative AI and autonomous driving systems."Any good benchmark looking to maintain its market relevance has to continually update the workloads it's going to throw at the hardware to best reflect the market it's looking to serve," Salvator said, noting that MLCommons has recently added an additional benchmark for testing model performance on Stable Diffusion tasks. "This is another exciting area of generative AI where we're seeing all sorts of things being created" - from programming code to discovering protein chains.These benchmarks are important because, as Salvator points out, the current state of generative AI marketing can a bit of a "Wild West." The lack of stringent oversight and regulation means, "we sometimes see with certain AI performance claims where you're not quite sure about all the parameters that went into generating those particular claims." MLPerf provides the professional assurance that the benchmark numbers companies generate using its tests "were reviewed, vetted, in some cases even challenged or questioned by other members of the consortium," Salvator said. "It's that sort of peer reviewing process that really brings credibility to these results."NVIDIA has been steadily focusing on its AI capabilities and applications in recent months. "We are at the iPhone moment for AI," CEO Jensen Huang said during his GTC keynote in March. At that time the company announced its DGX cloud system which portions out slivers of the supercomputer's processing power - specifically by either eight H100 or A100 chips running 60GB of VRAM (640 of memory in total). The company expanded its supercomputing portfolio with the release of DGX GH200 at Computex in May.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidias-eos-supercomputer-just-broke-its-own-ai-training-benchmark-record-170042546.html?src=rss

Walmart has already kicked of its Black Friday sale. That's good news for anyone who wants to spend the day after Thanksgiving doing something other than shopping. The early Black Friday deals went live online today - Walmart+ members get a few hours of early access before everyone else - and will hit physical stores this Friday.

We Met in Virtual Reality, a documentary shot entirely inside VRChat (now available to stream on Max), was one of the highlight's of last year's Sundance Film Festival. It deftly showed how people can form genuine friendships and romantic connections inside of virtual worlds - something Mark Zuckerberg could only dream of with his failed metaverse concept. Now the director of that film, Joe Hunting, is making an even bigger bet on virtual reality: He's launching Painted Clouds, a production studio devoted to making films and series set within VR.What's most striking about We Met in Virtual Reality, aside from the Furries and scantily-clad anime avatars, is that it looks like a traditional documentary. Hunting used VRCLens, a tool developed by the developer Hirabiki, to perform cinematic techniques like pulling focus, deliberate camera movements and executing aerial drone shots. Hunting says he aims to "build upon VRCLens to give it more scope and make it even more accessible to new filmmakers," as well as using it for his own productions.Additionally, Hunting is launching "Painted Clouds Park," a world in VRChat that can be used for production settings and events. It's there that he also plans to run workshops and media events to teach people about the possibilities of virtual reality filmmaking.His next project, which is set to begin pre-production next year, will be a dramedy focused on a group of online friends exploring an ongoing mystery. Notably, Hunting says it will also be shot with original avatars and production environments, not just cookie-cutter VRChat worlds. His aim is to make it look like a typical animated film - the only difference is that it'll be shot inside of VR. It's practically an evolution of the machinima concept, which involved shooting footage inside of game engines, using existing assets."Being present in a headset and being in the scene yourself, holding the camera and capturing the output, I find creates a much more immersive filmmaking experience for me, and a much more playful and joyful one, too," Hunting said. "I can look up and everyone is their characters. They're not wearing mo-cap [suits] to represent the characters. They just are embodying them. Obviously, that experience doesn't translate completely on screen as an audience member. But in terms of directing and the kind of relationship I can build with my actors and the team around me, I find that so fun."Throughout all of his work, including We Met in Virtual Reality and earlier shorts, Hunting has been focused on capturing virtual worlds for playback on traditional 2D screens. But looking forward, he says he's interested in exploring 360-degree immersive VR projects as well. It could end up being part of behind-the-scenes footage for his next VR film, as a part of an experimental project in the future. In addition to his dramedy project, Hunting is also working on a short VR documentary, as well as a music video.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-director-of-sundance-darling-we-met-in-virtual-reality-launches-a-vr-studio-164532412.html?src=rss

Samsung has joined the generative AI rat race by announcing its own model. Developed by Samsung Research, Gauss (named after mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss) will power several on-device AI technologies and could make its public debut in the next few months.Samsung Gauss Language can handle tasks like translations and summarizing documents. The tech will be able to write emails for you too, Samsung says. Samsung Gauss Code is a coding assistant, while Samsung Gauss Image is a generative image model. The latter can whip up images based on prompts and handle edits like style changes and additions. It can upscale low-resolution images too.Samsung employees are currently using Gauss in-house to bolster productivity, but the company plans to make it available to the public in the near future." According to The Korea Times, Samsung is likely to include it in Galaxy S24 devices, which should debut early next year.Running generative AI features on-device could help give Samsung a leg up over the likes of ChatGPT, which requires cloud connectivity. Qualcomm recently announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which supports on-device GAI operations and is likely to be used in Galaxy S24 phones. Google's Tensor 3, which is used in the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, handles certain GAI tasks on-device too.Meanwhile, Samsung says it is working on various activities that ensure safe AI usage." Its AI Red Team is bearing in mind the principles of AI ethics" as it focuses on potential privacy and security issues including data collection and the GAI model's output. The company also flagged AI model development and service deployment as possible pitfalls.Still, this is another instance of Samsung attempting to forge its own path, despite alternatives being available. Bixby never really took off, and despite its users by and large wanting Google Assistant instead, Samsung insisted on making its voice assistant as prevalent as possible on its devices. The list goes on, with things like the Chromium-based Samsung Internet Browser when Chrome is right there.In fairness, Samsung wants to make its devices distinct from other Android phones and tablets and give them a unique selling point. Its generative AI tech will largely run in the background too, so its not like users will see heavy Samsung branding when they ask Gauss to generate an image. But shareholders who might be feeling skittish about recent financial results may have questions about why Samsung has been investing in its own GAI tech instead of using one of the many other available options.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-gauss-is-the-generative-ai-that-nobody-asked-for-163009407.html?src=rss

Amazon Prime subscribers now have access to a deeply discounted One Medical membership for primary care services. The company announced today that Prime members can sign up for just $99 a year, or $9 per month. A One Medical membership typically costs $199 annually. In addition to the individual plan, Prime members who sign up for One Medical can add up to five other people for $6 each.Amazon announced its acquisition of One Medical in 2022 and finalized the $3.9 billion deal in February, when it began offering a temporary discount for One Medical memberships at $144 per year. It's now slashed that even further. One Medical has doctor's offices in major cities across the US, all of which will be available to Prime members who sign up. It offers all the basic health services, from annual physicals and maintenance for chronic conditions to same-day sick visits. One Medical also offers round-the-clock virtual care, or telehealth visits, and drop-in lab services. The membership doesn't cover the cost of visits though; patients will still have to bill through their insurance or pay out of pocket.Amazon has been pushing heavily into healthcare in recent years, with prescription services and even its own video- and text-based virtual clinic now among the perks of a Prime subscription. The company made its Amazon Clinic available to all states in the US over the summer, and began offering generic prescriptions for $5 a month with its RxPass at the beginning of the year. Amazon has also started offering drone deliveries for prescriptions in College Station, Texas.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-prime-now-comes-with-discounted-access-to-one-medical-health-services-161500277.html?src=rss

OpenAI's extremely popular ChatGPT service was down and non-functional for its 100 million weekly active users. The service went down just before 9AM ET. OpenAI has acknowledged the outage and said that it's also impacting the company's API services. However, the service was restored at around 10:50 AM ET.Instead of a working platform, ChatGPT users were greeted with a warning message that says it's at capacity right now." OpenAI wrote in an error report that it had identified an issue resulting in high error rates across the API and ChatGPT, and we are working on remediation." All told, the outage lasted around two hours.The services were also impacted for a few hours last night, but this was just a partial outage that didn't impact all users. OpenAI's chatbot platform has had very few, if any, operational issues until last night. The service has grown at a steady clip, reaching that aforementioned 100 million weekly user milestone without any hiccups. Also, there are over 2 million developers on the API side of things.OpenAI has been making announcements left and right, teasing customizable AI bots that anyone can create and even considering making its own chips to power the service.Update, November 8 2023, 10:55 AM ET: This story has been updated with information regarding ChatGPT's return to operational status.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/chatgpt-is-down-after-a-major-openai-outage-154223315.html?src=rss

A new feature in WhatsApp will let you hide your IP address from whoever you call using the app. Knowing someone's IP address can reveal a lot of personal information such as their location and internet service provider, so having the option to hide it is a major privacy win. This new feature provides an additional layer of privacy and security geared towards our most privacy-conscious users," WhatsApp wrote in a blog post.WhatsApp currently relays calls either through its own servers or by establishing a direct connection called peer-to-peer with whoever you are calling depending on network conditions. Peer-to-peer calls often provide better voice quality, but require both devices to know each other's IP addresses.Once you turn the new feature, known simply as "Protect IP address in calls" on, however, WhatsApp will always relay your calls through its own servers rather than establishing a peer-to-peer connection, even if it means a slight hit to sound quality. All calls will continue to remain end-to-end encrypted, even if they go through WhatsApp's servers, the company said.WhatsApp has been adding more privacy features over the last few months. In June, the company added a feature that let people automatically silence unknown callers. It also introduced a Privacy Checkup" section to allow users to tune up a host of privacy settings from a single place in the app, and earlier this year, added a feature that lets people lock certain chats with a fingerprint or facial recognition.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whatsapp-will-let-you-hide-your-ip-address-from-whoever-you-call-140045546.html?src=rss

Providing read receipts has long been a choice across almost every messaging platform. Now, one of the biggest holdouts, Instagram, is finally testing a feature that lets users hide when they've "seen" a message. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri both announced the update on their Instagram Broadcast channels.Mosseri also shared an image of how the feature will work. The option will live under the Privacy and Safety tab, accessible by clicking on the person's name from inside the chat. From there, a section will appear called "Who can see your activity." Just switch the toggle below and all views moving forward should then become private. However, any messages sent in vanish mode will still have read receipts.MetaWhether you open a message with a video and can't listen right away or just don't want to respond in the moment, there are lots of reasons why hiding your read receipts can be beneficial. However, they didn't say when the option will roll out to everyone or even how exactly they're testing it. Also unclear is if you'll have to turn it off for each person or if there will eventually be an overarching option.Meta-owned WhatsApp has allowed users to hide their read receipts since 2014, but Messenger, like Instagram, still automatically shows when a message is viewed. Maybe one day all Meta platforms will allow for checking messages discreetly, but until then, we'll watch how the Instagram test goes.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagram-finally-begins-testing-an-option-to-turn-off-read-receipts-131557528.html?src=rss

Google is rolling out new features and improvements for Home and Nest, one of which could make it much easier for users to create complex home automations even if they don't know how to code. The company's experimental "help me script" feature leverages the power of generative AI to create home automation scripts from the natural language prompts users type in. They can, for instance, write "when the TV turns on after sunset, dim the living room lights and close the blinds" to instantly generate a script they can use."Help me script" lives inside Google Home for the web, and it appears as a panel inside the script editor when users click on "+ Add new." All they have to do is write a prompt, press enter and then copy-paste the script results into the script editor. They'll then have to validate the script to verify that it has no errors and that it's working as intended before saving it to activate the automation. Based on the other potential home automation prompts that Google listed, including "use lights and TVs to make my house look occupied when I arm the security system" and "send me a notification when the doorbell rings but nobody is home," it could be a valuable security tool. It's just a test feature at this point, though, and is only available in Public Preview on Google Home for the web for a limited time only.In addition to the generative AI-powered script generator, Google has also announced that expanded controls for compatible smart home devices across different brands are coming to Home's Public Preview soon. The home panel, a Pixel-exclusive that gives users quick access to their smart home controls on their lock screen, is also making its way to other Android 14 devices.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-wants-to-help-you-create-new-smart-home-automations-with-ai-generated-scripts-124008376.html?src=rss

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood performers, has reportedly responded to studios' last, best and final" offer to end the strike, rejecting clauses letting studios re-use AI-created likenesses of high-demand and deceased performers without consent from their estate or families. They can't have that loophole to exploit performers," a union-side source told The Hollywood Reporter. We could not allow that language to stand."Reportedly, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) would secure AI scans" for Schedule F performers - union members earning more than $32,000 per TV episode or $60,000 per film. Studios would pay once to scan the likenesses of these performers without paying for their use or re-use - essentially giving them eternal rights to their face after paying once upfront. It appeared to offer limitless use of dead performers' AI-created likenesses without proper permission.After this part of the dispute became public, the union reportedly reached a common understanding" with AMPTP on thorny issues" like AI consent after an actor dies.- Mat SmithYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest stories you might have missedRockstar may announce Grand Theft Auto VI this weekThe best retro gaming gifts for the holidaysStranger Things is coming back to Dead by DaylightWaze will now warn you if a road has a history of crashesThe best budget laptopsMaster & Dynamic debuts MW09 earbuds with upgraded sound, ANC and battery lifeStray is coming to macOS on December 5Things go from bad to worse for Cruise's robotaxisThe company reportedly kept operating its robotaxis despite issues recognizing children.GM's autonomous vehicle Cruise division is already going through a rough patch, with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) recently suspending its driverless permits over safety issues. Now, several new reports highlight other issues, including problems with its autonomous vehicles' (AVs) sensors' recognizing children and the frequency with which human operators must remotely take control. The cars apparently also struggle to identify large holes too. Now, it appears Cruise has halted production of its Origin autonomous vehicle after the California DMV pulled its license. A GM spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that the company is finishing production on a small number of pre-commercial vehicles and after that, plan[s] to temporarily pause production."Continue reading.Zelda, Mario and Pikmin give Nintendo a boost as console sales dwindleSelling almost 20 million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.EngadgetAs the Nintendo Switch nears the end of its time, digital game sales are helping the company continue to perform well. From March to September 2023, Nintendo reported selling 19.5 million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was released in May. It also sold 2.61 million units of Pikmin 4 after it came out in July, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe gained 3.22 million more sales. The racing game has now sold 57 million copies. Nintendo is expected to release its new flagship console sometime next year.Continue reading.The Sony A9 III is the fastest full-frame camera everIt's been a while since Sony updated its epic A9 series.SonySony's latest pro-oriented mirrorless camera was four years in the making. The Alpha A9 III is the first full-frame camera on the market with a global stacked sensor, a sort of holy grail in the photographic world. It allows for some wild specs, like 120 fps shooting speeds with no blackout, up to a 1/80,000th of a second shutter speed and zero rolling shutter. The global shutter also allows for shutter speeds of 1/80,000th of a second (1/16,000th during continuous shooting), ten times faster than most cameras. Ten times! The Alpha A9 III goes on pre-order tomorrow for $6,000, with a vertical grip available for $400 - but won't arrive until spring.Continue reading.WatchOS 10.1.1 fixes Apple Watch battery-life bugThe patch just rolled out alongside a bug-fix update for iOS 17.If your Apple Watch hasn't been holding its charge like it used to, it's time to update to the latest version of watchOS. Earlier this month, several Apple Watch users noticed their batteries draining faster than usual after they installed watchOS 10.1. Apple acknowledged the battery drain issue and promised to release a fix - which happened today with the latest version of watchOS, 10.1.1.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-hollywood-studios-wanted-to-use-ai-generated-likenesses-of-dead-actors-without-permission-121531437.html?src=rss

The PlayStation Store at Amazon is selling various colors of the Playstation DualSense Wireless Controller for only $50 as part of its early Black Friday deals. You can get the controller for your PS5, which also works for PCs, right now for up to 33 percent off their usual prices. Yes, the models on sale include the colors that typically go for $75 - Cosmic Red, Starlight Blue, Nova Pink, Galactic Purple, Gray Camouflage, Volcanic Red and Cobalt Blue - in addition to the basic $70 white and the Midnight Black controllers.The DualSense controller has adaptive L2 and R2 triggers with varying levels of force and tension that change as you interact with your game's environment. It also comes with haptic feedback meant to add a layer of immersion to your gaming sessions. DualSense has a built-in microphone array, so you can chat with friends without a headset, though you can always plug one in through the controller's 3.5mm jack. And if you quickly want switch voice capture on or off, you can simply click the controller's dedicated mute button.In case you've still yet to buy a PS5, or if you're looking to gift one these holidays, you can get one bundled with Marvel's Spider-Man 2 at a discount, as well. The bundle is selling for $500, down $60 from its regular price. We enjoyed Spider-Man 2 when we reviewed it and found it even better than the first installment. It was action-packed from the beginning, with a gameplay that allows you to quickly swap between Peter Parker and Miles Morales for two different types of Spidey-experiences. We also praised Insomniac for expanding and streamlining the game's combat mechanics. The game is exclusive to the PS5, and you'll get a full game voucher to download it from the PlayStation Network when you purchase this bundle.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/playstation-dualsense-controllers-fall-to-50-in-early-black-friday-sale-115513371.html?src=rss

The long fight to make Apple's iMessage compatible with all devices has raged with little to show for it. But Google (de facto leader of the charge) and other mobile operators are now leveraging the European Union's Digital Market Act (DMA), according to the Financial Times. The law, which goes into effect in 2024, requires that "gatekeepers" not favor their own systems or limit third parties from interoperating within them. Gatekeepers are any company that meets specific financial and usage qualifications, including Google's parent company Alphabet, Apple, Samsung and others.The European Commission is investigating whether iMessage's current functioning violates the DMA. Apple argues that its "small scale relative to other messaging services" and the lack of required use (or cost to do so) makes it irrelevant to the law. However, a letter from executives at companies such as Google, Vodafone and Orange argues that it should qualify as "enriched" messaging is only available to Apple users.Apple's iMessage not so subtly rewards you for communicating with other Apple devices (and for being an Apple user). Chats on iMessage stay blue until you add an Android user into the mix, and, suddenly, everything is green. On the tech side, Android users also get lower-quality photos and videos when they're sent through iMessage. Plus, iMessages can be sent over Wi-Fi, reducing the need for data when traveling or if you're simply running low on gigabytes for the month.In a statement aimed at keeping iMessage's benefits exclusive to Apple users, the company said, "Consumers today have access to a wide variety of messaging apps, and often use many at once, which reflects how easy it is to switch between them. iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications, and we look forward to explaining to the commission why iMessage is outside the scope of the DMA."If the fight against Apple is successful, changes to iMessage would be the latest shift forced by the European Commission. Apple's new iPhone 15 dropped the lightning charger following a law mandating all new mobile devices sold in the EU have a USB-C port by the end of 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-and-eu-mobile-carriers-push-european-commission-to-force-apple-to-open-imessage-110558675.html?src=rss

Meta will require advertisers to disclose whether the ads they submit for its websites have been digitally altered, including through the use of AI tools, if they're political or social in nature. Ads that have been digitally altered will be marked as such on Meta's platforms, in the same way some advertisements come with a "Paid for" disclaimer. The company will start implementing the rule in the new year, just as the campaign period for what's expected to be a brutal and divisive 2024 US presidential elections heats up.In a blog post, Meta explained that advertisers have to disclose in the advertising flow if they submit a social issue, electoral or political ad with photorealistic images or videos - or one with realistic sounding audio - that was altered to make a real person say or do something they didn't actually say or do. They're also required to tell Meta whether they're submitting an ad with a realistic-looking person that doesn't exist, a realistic-looking event that didn't happen or an altered footage of a real event that truly occurred. If they submit a fake image, video or audio recording of an event that allegedly took place - say, something they created with the help of AI image generators - they have to notify Meta, as well. Advertisers don't need to disclose if they'd only size adjusted, cropped, color corrected and sharpened their ads.Meta, which already expects some advertisers to run afoul of the new rule, warned that it will reject ads if it determines that they failed to or deliberately didn't disclose that they'd digitally altered their submissions. Further, it said that repeated strikes against the rule "may result in penalties." It has yet to elaborate on the authorization process advertisers have to go through and the safeguards in place to prevent them from gaming the system, but it promised to share more details in the future.Politicians and supporters from both sides of the aisle have already raised concerns about the possibility of AI being used to propel election misinformation to new heights this campaign season. There's already an altered video of President Joe Biden that was edited to make him appear as if he was inappropriately touching his granddaughter circulating on Facebook. Meta's Oversight Board opened a case after users appealed to have the video removed, and it's expected to release a decision in the near future.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-will-mark-political-and-social-ads-altered-by-ai-starting-next-year-110033484.html?src=rss

Google is rolling out a new feature that allow advertisers to create AI generated content using the same technology as the Bard chatbot, confirming a report from earlier this year. The feature is now available in beta on Google's Performance Max advertising product, allowing US advertisers to create and scale text and image assets for campaigns using AI, the company announced in a blog post.Performance Max is already an AI-powered product that works across multiple Google products including Youtube, search, display and others. It optimizes ads by analyzing performance data, and the new feature supplements that by using AI to assist in asset creation as well. As Google puts it, the features will allow advertisers to quickly create high-quality, personalized assets on various Google platforms."Asset variety is a key ingredient for a successful Performance Max campaign," wrote Google's Pallavi Naresh. "You've told us that creating and scaling assets can be one of the hardest parts of building and optimizing a cross-channel campaign. Now, you'll be able to generate new text and image assets for your campaign in just a few clicks."GoogleMuch like Bard or ChatGPT, users feed prompts to the AI, and it creates unique images and text for each business. Marketers can review and edit any assets created by the system prior to publication. It can be used to create versions of the same ad, or build new ads from scratch. All AI-generated imagery contains a visible watermark and is tagged as such. "We also have guardrails in place to prevent our systems from engaging with inappropriate or sensitive prompts or suggesting policy-violating creatives," Naresh wrote.The feature should help marketers create advertising materials more quickly, while of course helping Google post those ads and make money more quickly. In that sense, it's pretty much a perfect AI use case for Google, which makes the vast majority of its revenue from advertising. The new system is currently in beta and only available in the US, but is expected to roll out more widely by the end of 2023.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-is-rolling-out-tools-that-let-advertisers-create-ai-generated-content-080255864.html?src=rss

Many Pixel owners have been left with a bad taste in their mouths after it took Google over a month to fix a serious bug, Ars Technica has reported. It first appeared with the launch of Android 14 back on October 8th, locking some users with multiple accounts out of their device's local storage. It affects multiple devices ranging from the Pixel 4 to the Pixel 8, and for many users, it was akin to being locked out of their phone by ransomware.Some folks were unable to unlock their devices, while others were able to boot up but had no access to lock storage. However, the bug rendered some phones completely unusable, as they would continuously bootloop and never reach the home screen. Reports of the issue appeared shortly after Android 14 launched, but Google kept rolling out the buggy release and only acknowledged the flaw some 20 days after it appeared.The November update patch is now rolling out, but the initial November 2 release notes weren't very positive. Google said users locked out of their storage may only get some data back, and those experiencing a bootloop may lose everything. Today's update, however, states that users who were unable to access media storage should get all their data back once they install the November patch.Those stuck in a reboot may not be as lucky, though. Those folks will be able to at least get up and running again after submitting a form. However Google said that "data recovery solutions are still being investigated for devices that are repeatedly rebooting," adding that "we'll share additional updates soon."The sordid episode shows how Google failed to properly implement its own much-touted failsafe systems, as Ars Technica noted. It kept rolling out Android 14 with the flaw despite multiple reports, and the vaunted dual partition system didn't work because it didn't accurately detect a boot failure. Finally, it took Google ages to elevate the issue to a higher priority, leaving many users stuck with bricked phones for weeks. "Little did I realize that 'seven years of updates' was not a feature, but a threat," said one disgusted user on Google's issue tracker.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-has-fixed-a-bug-in-android-14-that-locked-pixel-users-out-of-their-devices-061040556.html?src=rss

We may get official details about Grand Theft Auto VI very, very soon, if Bloomberg's report turns out to be true. Rockstar Games plans to announce the next entry in the GTA franchise as early as this week, according to the news organization. Plus, Rockstar is reportedly publishing a trailer for the game next month as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. It's one of the most anticipated games for the current crop of consoles, especially since the fifth main installment in the series - the second-best selling video game of all time, as Bloomberg notes - came out way back in 2013.While Rockstar has yet to launch the title, some fans may have already gotten a glimpse of early-days gameplay footage due to a leak that a hacker uploaded online in 2022. It contained 90 seconds of gameplay from a GTA VI test build, showing one of the two playable protagonists, a female character named Lucia, robbing a store. Another clip showed the other playable character riding the "Vice City Metro," indicating that its story takes place in Rockstar's fictionalized version of Miami. The developer later confirmed the contents of the leak and said that the game's creation would continue "as planned."Rockstar will likely reveal GTA VI's release period when it announces the game, but its parent company Take-Two previously hinted that it's coming out sometime in 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rockstar-may-announce-grand-theft-auto-vi-this-week-045219455.html?src=rss

It's been rumored for years, but Nintendo still managed to surprise us with a late-day announcement: a live-action film based on The Legend of Zelda is in the works, directed by Wes Ball. Ball's most recent films are the Maze Runner series, the latest of which was released in 2018. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto is producing the film along with Avi Arad, who has produced or executive produced loads of Marvel movies over the last decade-plus.Surprisingly, the film is being co-financed by Nintendo and none other than Sony Pictures Entertainment. You know, part of the same company that owns PlayStation. Nintendo was quick to point out that it is financing more than 50 percent of the film, but that Sony Pictures Entertainment will be the the theatrical distributor.Aside from that, there's no other detail besides this tweet from Miyamoto:

If your Apple Watch hasn't been holding its charge like it used to, it's time to update to the latest version of watchOS. Earlier this month, several Apple Watch users noticed their batteries draining faster than usual after they installed watchOS 10.1. Of course, users took to social media to voice their observations and to make sure it wasn't an isolated happening. Later, Apple acknowledged the battery drain issue and promised to release a fix -- which happened today with the latest version of watchOS. 10.1.1. Specifically, Apple says that the update "address an issue that could cause the battery to drain more quickly for some users."Apple has come a long way with its software updates over the years. These days, most of Apple's updates are fairly stable but that doesn't mean they're immune to getting hit by the occasional bug that can significantly affect users. The Apple Watch is a wearable device that has become enmeshed in the routines of many. To keep up with the needs of users, good battery life on a smartwatch is essential.So, this fix could not have come soon enough as the battery drain problem has been affecting quite a few users. One user said "watchOS 10.1 is killing the battery on my Apple Watch," causing it to drop from 100 to 50 percent in less than an hour. Additionally, the issue has affected Apple Watches across the board, including older ones like the SE and the latest models like the Apple Watch Ultra 2.Apple's watchOS 10.1.1 also includes unspecified bug fixes, as usual. As usual, this update comes alongside a corresponding iOS one, 17.1.1. This update addresses Apple Pay and NFC features that stop working on iPhone 15 models after wirelessly charging in certain vehicles. It also has a all-important fix for the snowing graphic on the weather widget on the Lock Screen.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-watch-battery-life-bug-is-fixed-with-watchos-1011-215917460.html?src=rss

It's been quite some time coming, but Annapurna Interactive has revealed when Mac gamers can get their paws on one of the most adorable titles of the last few years. Stray is coming to macOS on December 5 via the Mac App Store and Steam. You'll need a fairly recent system, though. Stray will be compatible with Macs that have an Apple Silicon chipset, so if you have an Intel-based machine you're out of luck (unless you check it out on a cloud service or another platform).Stray debuted on PC and PlayStation in July 2022 and it arrived on Xbox this August. It's one of Engadget's favorite games of last year, and it's neat that more people will soon get to check out this absorbing cyberpunk adventure on Mac before it's adapted into a movie.Apple has been making a slightly bigger push into gaming, and some notable publishers are bringing their titles to Mac (and even iPhone). Resident Evil Village arrived on iPhone 15 Pro and some iPad models last week, while Assassin's Creed Mirage, Death Strandingand the Resident Evil 4 remake are all coming to the Apple ecosystem in the coming months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/stray-is-coming-to-macos-on-december-5-204920804.html?src=rss

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood performers, has reportedly responded to studios' last, best and final" offer to end the strike, rejecting clauses that would let them re-use AI-created likenesses of high-demand and deceased performers without consent. The union allegedly plans to make a counter-offer that removes the current AI-related language. They can't have that loophole to exploit performers," a union-side source told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday. We could not allow that language to stand."THR reports that The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) proposed to secure AI scans" for Schedule F performers (union members earning more than $32,000 per TV episode or $60,000 per film). The studios' suggested deal would require them to pay once to scan the likenesses of Schedule F performers without paying for their use or re-use - essentially giving them eternal rights to their likenesses after paying once upfront.An even more striking detail is that the way the proposal was written appears to advocate for limitless use of dead performers' AI-created likenesses without proper permission. The language currently in the AMPTP's offer would see the studios and streamers secure the right to use scans of deceased performers without the consent of their estate or SAG-AFTRA," writes THR. SAG-AFTRA reportedly wants to attach a consent requirement and compensation for each time a studio or streamer re-uses performers' AI scans. However, after this part of the dispute became public, Variety reported that the union reached a common understanding" with AMPTP on the thorny issues" like AI consent after an actor dies.We think it's not just reasonable but is absolutely vital to the sustainability of the performance industry," a source told THR before news of the modified offer broke. [The Schedule F AI language in the AMPTP's proposal] behooves them to have you dead in that they need consent when you're alive but not when you're dead."SAG-AFTRA reportedly updated union members about negotiations on Monday, assuring them it won't agree to a lousy contract. Please know every member of our TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee is determined to secure the right deal and thereby bring this strike to an end responsibly," the union wrote to its members. There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI. We will keep you informed as events unfold."Update, August 24th, 2023, 5:22 PM ET: This story has been updated to note a new Variety report that claims the two sides have now resolved their differences over the AI rights of deceased actors.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hollywood-studios-reportedly-want-recycle-202227051.html?src=rss

Ubisoft Montreal just laid off 98 people as part of a corporate restructuring and reorganization effort, as reported by Kotaku. The cuts primarily impact workers in business administration services and IT. Ubisoft says it will support all affected Canadian employees" with severance packages and career assistance to help them navigate their transition."The Montreal office is widely considered to be the most reputable subsidiary of Ubisoft and its largest in-house development team, employing around 4,000 people. Ubisoft Montreal is responsible for many of the company's big-wig franchises, from Assassin's Creed to Far Cry and Rainbow Six Siege.Ubisoft wrote in a statement provided to Kotaku that it feels the utmost gratitude and respect" for the impacted employees and noted that these cuts do not extend to the various production teams, likely to assuage consumers worried about game delays. In addition to the 98 that have already been let go, Ubisoft Montreal anticipates about two dozen more layoffs in the near future.Ubisoft has been on a firing spree this past year, laying off over 1,000 people from its various global branches, according to its most recent earnings report. This has led to some game cancellations, like the arena battler Project Q, among others. Despite these layoffs, the company still employs over 19,000 people worldwide.This is, of course, part of a larger trend that finds multiple game studios laying off people as a cost cutting measure. Epic Games slashed its workforce by 16 percent earlier this year and CD Projekt Red, the company behind Cyberpunk 2077, laid off 100 employees back in July. The same thing has been happening across the entire tech space, as Google, Microsoft, Meta, IBM and many more companies turned 2023 into a bonanza of pink slips.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ubisoft-montreal-lays-off-98-people-as-part-of-a-corporate-restructuring-effort-195616771.html?src=rss

Another Meta whistleblower has testified before Congress regarding safety issues on the company's platforms. On the same day that Frances Haugen told Congress in 2021 how Meta could fix some of its safety problems, Arturo Bejar, a former director of engineering for Protect and Care at Facebook, sent CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives an email regarding the harms that young people may face while using the company's products.Two years later, Bejar was the sole witness in a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled "Social Media and the Teen Mental Health Crisis." In his testimony, Bejar claimed he was subpoenaed earlier this year to testify regarding emails he sent Meta higher-ups. He said he realized that since he sent them, nothing had changed at the company."Meta continues to publicly misrepresent the level and frequency of harm that users, especially children, experience on the platform," Bejar told the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law in prepared remarks. "And they have yet to establish a goal for actually reducing those harms and protecting children. It's time that the public and parents understand the true level of harm posed by these 'products' and it's time that young users have the tools to report and suppress online abuse."Bejar was an engineering director at Meta between 2009 and 2015, during which time he was responsible for protecting Facebook users. He supported a team that worked on "bullying tools for teens, suicide prevention, child safety and other difficult moments that people go through," according to his LinkedIn profile.He testified that he initially left Meta feeling "good that we had built numerous systems that made using our products easier and safer." However, he said that, since they were 14, his daughter and her friends "repeatedly faced unwanted sexual advances, misogyny and harassment" on Instagram. According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on Bejar's claims, he stated that Meta's systems typically ignored reports they made or responded to say that the harassment they faced didn't break the rules.Those issues prompted him to return to Meta in 2019, where he worked with Instagram's well-being team. "It was not a good experience. Almost all of the work that I and my colleagues had done during my earlier stint at Facebook through 2015 was gone," Bejar said in his testimony. "The tools we had built for teenagers to get support when they were getting bullied or harassed were no longer available to them. People at the company had little or no memory of the lessons we had learned earlier."Bejar claimed that Instagram and internal research teams gathered data showing that younger teens dealt with "great distress and abuse." However, "senior management was externally reporting different data that grossly understated the frequency of harm experienced by users," he told senators.In a 2021 email to Zuckerberg and other executives laying out some of his concerns, Bejar wrote that his then-16-year-old daughter uploaded a car-related post to Instagram only for a commenter to tell her to "get back to the kitchen." Bejar said his daughter found this upsetting. At the same time the comment is far from being policy violating, and our tools of blocking or deleting mean that this person will go to other profiles and continue to spread misogyny," Bejar wrote. "I don't think policy/reporting or having more content review are the solutions."Bejar said that along with his daughter's experiences with the app, 13 percent of users aged between 13 and 15 indicated in user perception surveys that they received unwanted sexual advances on Instagram within the previous seven days. While former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg offered sympathy toward his daughter for her negative experiences and Instagram head Adam Mosseri asked to set up a meeting, according to Bejar, Zuckerberg never responded to the email."That was unusual," Bejar said in his testimony. "It might have happened, but I don't recall Mark ever not responding to me previously in numerous communications, either by email or by asking for an in-person meeting."Bejar told the Associated Press that Meta has to change its approach to moderating its platforms. This, according to Bejar, would require the company to place a greater onus on tackling harassment, unwanted sexual advances and other issues that don't necessarily break the company's existing rules.He noted, for instance, that teens should be able to tell Instagram that they don't want to receive crude sexual messages, even if those don't violate the app's current policies. Bejar claims it would be easy for Meta to implement a feature through which teens could flag sexual advances that were made to them. "I believe that the reason that they're not doing this is because there's no transparency about the harms that teenagers are experiencing on Instagram," he told the BBC.Bejar laid out several other steps that Meta could take to reduce harm users face on its platform that "do not require significant investments by the platforms in people to review content or in technical infrastructure." He added that he believes adopting such measures (which primarily focus on improving safety tools and getting more feedback from users who have experienced harm) would not severely impact the revenues of Meta or other companies that adopt them. "These reforms are not designed to punish companies, but to help teenagers," he told the subcommittee. "And over time, they will create a safer environment.""My experience, after sending that email and seeing what happened afterwards, is that they knew, there were things they could do about it, they chose not to do them and we cannot trust them with our children," Bejar said during the hearing. "It's time for Congress to act. The evidence, I believe, is overwhelming."Every day countless people inside and outside of Meta are working on how to help keep young people safe online," a Meta spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. "The issues raised here regarding user perception surveys highlight one part of this effort, and surveys like these have led us to create features like anonymous notifications of potentially hurtful content and comment warnings. Working with parents and experts, we have also introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families in having safe, positive experiences online. All of this work continues."Bejar hopes his testimony will help spur Congress to pass the legislation that they've been working on" regarding the online safety of younger users. Two years ago, Haugen disclosed internal Facebook research indicating that Instagram was "harmful for a sizable percentage of teens." Growing scrutiny led Meta to halt work on a version of Instagram for kids.Since Haugen's testimony, Congress has made some efforts to tackle online safety issues for kids, but those have stuttered. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) twice advanced from a Senate committee (in the previous Congress and earlier this year), but it hasn't reached a floor vote and there's no companion bill in the House. Among other things, the bill seeks to give kids aged under 16 the ability to switch off "addictive features and algorithm-based recommendations, as well as having more protections for their data. Similar bills have stalled in Congress.Last month, attorneys general from 41 states and the District of Columbia sued Meta over alleged harms it caused to young users. Meta designed and deployed harmful and psychologically manipulative product features to induce young users' compulsive and extended Platform use, while falsely assuring the public that its features were safe and suitable for young users," according to the lawsuit. Bejar said he consulted with the attorneys general and provided them with documents to help their case."I'm very hopeful that your testimony, added to the lawsuit that's been brought by state attorneys general across the country ... added to the interest that I think is evidenced by the turnout of our subcommitee today, will enable us to get the Kids Online Safety Act across the finish line," subcommittee chair Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told Bejar. Blumenthal, one of KOSA's original sponsors, expressed hope that other legislation "that can finally break the straitjacket that Big Tech has imposed on us" will be enacted into law.Over the last few years and amid the rise of TikTok, Meta has once again been focusing on bringing younger users into its ecosystem, with Zuckerberg stating in 2021 (just a couple of weeks after Haugen's testimony) that the company would refocus its teams to make serving young adults their North Star rather than optimizing for the larger number of older people." Recently, the company lowered the minimum age for using its Meta Quest VR headsets to 10 through the use of parent-controlled accounts.Update 11/7 5:28PM ET: Added Meta's statement.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-whistleblower-tells-senate-the-company-cannot-be-trusted-with-our-children-185616936.html?src=rss

Sony has just unveiled its latest pro-oriented mirrorless camera, and we now know why it took them four years to develop it The Alpha A9 III is the first full-frame camera on the market with a global stacked sensor, a sort of holy grail in the photographic world. It allows for some wild specs, like 120fps shooting speeds with no blackout, up to a 1/80,000th of a second shutter speed and zero rolling shutter - albeit with a 24.6 megapixel resolution that may disappoint some.The new tech opens up a lot of new possibilities for photographers. Without the constraints of a physical shutter (no, there isn't one), it can shoot full-resolution, blackout-free 14-bit RAW bursts at up to 120fps with a 1.6 second buffer (around 180 shots). Sony also installed the latest Bionz XR image processor and "high-density focal plane phase detection AF" that allows for real-time autofocus (AF) tracking.Sony"A designated AI processing unit uses real-time recognition AF to recognize a wide variety of subjects with high precision," Sony explains in the press release. "By combining high-speed performance of up to 120 fps with highly accurate subject recognition performance, it is possible to easily photograph scenes and moments that cannot be seen with the naked eye."SonyThe global shutter also allows for shutter speeds of 1/80,000th of a second (1/16,000th during continuous shooting), ten times faster than most cameras. Compatible flashes can be synced all the way up to the maximum shutter speed, rather than being limited to much lower speeds in electronic shutter mode - normally around 1/250th to 1/500th of a second. It also allows the shutter speed to be finely adjusted to eliminate flicker in video. And Sony is offering a 1-second pre-burst feature that can capture scenes before the shutter button is pressed, reducing the possibility of a missed shot.SonyThe stacked global shutter provides large benefits for video, as well. It's Sony's first camera to support 4K 120p video with no cropping and does so with no rolling shutter distortion (skewing), along with 4K 60p with 6K oversampling. It also offers 10-bit recording with S-Log3 capture in all video modes (including 4K 120p), along with S-Cinetone borrowed from the company's high-end Venice lineup that "makes human skin tones and subjects stand out beautifully," Sony said. It should be one of Sony's best-focusing cameras for video, as all the photo subject tracking features work in that mode, too.It's got a long list of other features you'd expect on a high-end Sony camera, most notably in-body stabilization with up to 8 stops of shake reduction. The electronic viewfinder is Sony's best with 9.44 million dots, and It resolves the rear display tilt vs. flip debate by doing both of those things. And to help clear the buffer as quickly as possible, the A9 III supports fast CFexpress Type A cards on top of SD UHS II, much like the Alpha A1.SonyOther specs show an ISO range of 250-25600 (expandable to ISO 125-51200) with a minimum ISO that's a bit on the high side. That shouldn't bother photographers on sunny days, given the extremely fast shutter speeds, but video shooters will need ND filters to block some light.What will be a key for this camera is the image quality and low-light sensitivity, given that this is an all-new sensor and there's not a lot of data on global shutters. Sony didn't release any sample photos yet from what I've seen, so upcoming reviews of this model will be key. The Alpha A9 III goes on pre-order tomorrow for $6,000, with a vertical grip available for $400 - but won't arrive until next spring.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-sony-a9-iii-is-the-fastest-full-frame-camera-ever-thanks-to-a-global-stacked-sensor-175522418.html?src=rss

Samsung's Smart Monitor M80C is one of the more unique monitors on the market, as it blends a 4K display for your computer with the features of a small smart TV and smart home hub. We've seen this latest model in the Smart Monitor series go on sale a few times since it arrived in June, but right now the 32-inch M80C is down to $400 at Amazon with an on-page coupon. We could always see a better deal on Black Friday, but for now this is the lowest price we've seen and roughly $200 below the display's average street price in recent months. Other stores like Best Buy, B&H and Samsung.com have the monitor for $100 more (though you can also get it for $400 at Best Buy if you subscribe to the retailer's My Best Buy Plus service). This deal applies to the white colorway.You'd buy a Samsung Smart Monitor for its versatility first and foremost. The display comes with a remote and runs on Samsung's Tizen OS, the same as you'd find on the company's smart TVs, so you can access streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and others without having to turn on your computer. You can also stream cloud games using the Xbox app and Nvidia GeForce Now or beam content directly from an iPhone via AirPlay. The Bixby and Alexa voice assistants are both built in and, since the monitor also works as a SmartThings hub, you can use it to control compatible smart home devices. There's a detachable webcam and two built-in speakers as well; neither is great, but they should work in a pinch. The whole thing is a relatively minor upgrade over last year's M80B monitor, though it now has a full-size HDMI port instead of micro-HDMI, plus two USB-A ports and a 65W USB-C port.That said, this is still a "jack of all trades, master of none" situation. The 4K resolution keeps it sharp, but the M80C is limited to a basic 60Hz refresh rate and lacks local dimming. It's also a VA panel, which gives the monitor decent contrast but means the image will wash out when viewed from an angle. Other reviews suggest that the M80C can get decently bright, though you shouldn't expect an especially vibrant picture with HDR content. And while the monitor itself looks clean and supports basic adjustments, this discounted model isn't VESA-mountable.All of this means the M80C is a bit of a niche device. If you don't care about its bonus features, you can find better values in our guides to the best monitors and gaming monitors. You can replicate many of those extra perks directly from a PC, after all. But if you want a monitor that doubles as a small TV for your home office, it should be a decent value at this price.Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo's Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog's experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-32-inch-smart-monitor-m80c-is-down-to-400-in-an-early-black-friday-deal-155149266.html?src=rss

Master & Dynamic hasn't debuted new wireless earbuds since 2021 when the company revealed the MW08 and MW08 Sport within a few months of each other. Now M&D is back with a new model, the MW09, with a refined design, better battery life, redesigned acoustics and upgraded call quality. As is typically the case with the company's audio gear, the MW09 is made with premium materials, including aluminum, Kevlar and sapphire glass. Master & Dynamic is also introducing all of its updates without raising the price as the new model costs the same at the company's most recent true wireless option.Like the MW08 Sport, the MW09's outer panel is a combination of aluminum and sapphire glass, with a similar overall D shape to the two previous versions. Master & Dynamic says it gave this new model a more ergonomic shape on the other side and reduced the weight with an updated acoustic enclosure and construction. It explains that this should offer a better fit for a wider range of ear shapes while also increasing comfort. Another key design difference is that outer panel now has a circular section where the company's "M" branding is prominently displayed. It's not a touch panel though as the physical controls still reside on the top edge.Inside, M&D gave the MW09 a new acoustic architecture with its 11mm beryllium drivers. The company promises its "most expansive sound profile ever" as a result of the improvements there. When it comes to active noise cancelation (ANC), Master & Dynamic explains that updated microphone and sensor placement alongside new adaptive noise-blocking algorithms combat more environmental noise. For calls, a new AI-powered "high-definition" speech setup should keep you sounding clear and natural even in loud settings, according to the company. What's more, there's improved battery life of up to 12 hours with ANC on (16 hours with it off). That's two hours longer than the MW08 Sport (four hours more with ANC off).Master & Dynamic is also making significant updates to its M&D Connect App for its earbuds and headphones. For the MW09, the app will provide a fully adjustable EQ, battery monitoring, an earbud fit test and sidetone, or the ability to hear your voice better during calls. The new model supports Bluetooth 5.4, Snapdragon Sound and Auracast in addition to multipoint connectivity for easier switching between devices.The MW09 will be available in black, white and gold options with an aluminum case for $349. That's the same price at the MW08 Sport, but it's $150 more than the MW08. If you prefer a Kevlar case, you can choose from green, blue or gunmetal hues and those cost an extra $50. All colors and case options will be available for purchase or preorder at the company's website on November 14.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/master--dynamic-debuts-mw09-earbuds-with-upgraded-sound-anc-and-battery-life-130042393.html?src=rss

Waze's latest feature focuses on safety and will give you the knowledge needed to make an informed choice about the route you're taking. The Google-owned navigation app has launched crash history alerts, which will send you a notification if you're driving along a crash-prone road. Waze will publish a prompt that says "history of crashes" in-app before you reach, say, a curve that's particularly tricky to navigate. That way, you can slow down or be on the lookout for anything that could derail your vehicle.WazeThe app decides whether to show you a notification based on reports from the Waze community and an AI analysis of your route, such as its traffic levels, its elevation and whether it's a highway or a smaller local road. It will not show you crash alerts for routes you usually take in order to minimize distractions, which suggests that its main purpose is to give you a heads up if you should drive with more caution than usual in places you're not familiar with.Waze has released several protective features intended to keep you safe on the route you're planning to take over the years. A few years ago, it started sending out real-time accident data so that you can take an alternate route if needed and first responders can get to accident sites sooner. In 2020, it also rolled out guidance prompts telling you to get in the right spot for an upcoming merge or exit before you get there.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/waze-will-now-warn-you-if-a-road-has-a-history-of-crashes-130011100.html?src=rss

Apple's MacBook problem was a confusing lineup of similar machines with different names, different chips, different hardware and the rest. But it may have finally solved the problem. The long-rumored 15-inch MacBook Air arrived months ago, and then Apple surprised us by delivering two MacBook Pro revisions - notably in less than 12 months - to showcase the company's most powerful chips yet. These new M3-equipped MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch are a clearer sign of Apple's direction.EngadgetThe company has killed off the long-suffering 13-inch MacBook Pro, and in the same stroke, put an end to an aging design and the divisive, frustrating Touch Bar. These Pro machines - especially the M3 Max models - are great for professionals, and the MacBook Airs are for everyone else.I think, for the first time in a long time, Apple's laptop lineup finally makes sense.- Mat SmithYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest stories you might have missedFinal Cut Pro uses Apple's latest chips to improve face and object trackingMeater 2 Plus review: A more precise and durable wireless meat thermometerVolvo EX30 first drive: Charming and eco-friendly with power to spareBored Ape NFT event leads to at least 15 attendees reporting severe eye burnOrganizer Yuga Labs is aware of the eye-related issues.'@CryptoJune777 / XSo you thought just the idea of attending an NFT event was torturous enough. At least 15 visitors at Yuga Labs' ApeFest, a celebration of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs (which are still a thing), may have experienced serious eye injuries. Bloomberg reports that multiple people attending the event in Hong Kong last weekend experienced vision problems, which they suspect stem from the event's stage lighting. Some claim doctors subsequently diagnosed them with welder's eye, a condition caused by overexposure to ultraviolet rays. The company is apparently investigating the reports.Continue reading.Every car is a smart car, and it's a privacy nightmareSmart cars, dumb privacy policies, terms and conditions.Mozilla recently reported that all 25 car brands it reviewed failed its privacy tests. While all, in Mozilla's estimation, overreached in their data collection and use policies, some even included caveats about obtaining highly invasive information. Today's cars can collect personal information, and the fine print of user agreements describes how manufacturers get you to consent every time.Continue reading.WeWork files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protectionThe company has struggled.Another twist in the WeWork saga this week as the office space rental company has filed for bankruptcy protection. Following reports last week that the company was expected to file for Chapter 11 protection, WeWork's shares were halted on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. According to The New York Times, it described its bankruptcy filing as a comprehensive reorganization" of its business. WeWork has been toiling in a real estate market shaken by rising borrowing costs while also facing the pandemic-accelerated change of millions more people working remotely.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-apples-new-macbook-lineup-makes-much-more-sense-121543140.html?src=rss

The holiday season might be the most wonderful time of the year, but it's arguably also the most expensive. Ahead of the mad dash to find the best presents for the lowest prices, Google is attempting to undo some of that financial load with the launch of its new deals hub. Now, if you type in "shop deals" on Google, the search engine will bring you to a page filled with markdowns on categories like electronics and apparel.If you're looking for a specific type of item, you can Google something like "shop headphone deals" and see promotions for that product. Displayed items should come from a range of sources, including big box stores, luxury brands, and local shops. Google will also show items based on what you've browsed for in the past while signed into your account. Plus, if you've looked at a certain shirt or a watch, for instance, it might appear in your "resume browsing" card alongside any current promotions on it.Google is also coming for extensions like Honey and Capital One Shopping, with a new discount tag icon right in the Chrome address bar. Click on the button, and, just like with the others, you'll get a list of coupon codes for the site you're currently shopping on.Plus, Google is providing more tracking information to monitor whether a price is above average - or has recently dropped. Participating sites will have a "shopping insights" label in the address bar that you can click on to view an item's 90-day price history. This chart could give you an idea of whether the item goes on sale frequently or if its sticker price has dropped recently. You can also click the bell icon on Search for mobile to receive push and email notifications when a product goes on sale. Bookmark the item instead if you're shopping on Chrome from your computer.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-creates-a-brand-new-hub-for-shopping-deals-120042109.html?src=rss

Nintendo's digital game sales are helping the company continue to perform well as the Switch nears the end of its tenure as its flagship console. In its latest earnings report (PDF) from March to September 2023, Nintendo has revealed that it sold 19.5 million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was released in May. It also sold 2.61 million units of Pikmin 4 after it came out in July, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe posted 3.22 million more in unit sales after The Super Mario Bros. Movie was shown in April. Nintendo has sold 57.01 million copies of the kart racing game so far.The gaming company says other Switch titles also continued to grow steadily, including those from other publishers, and that there were 16 games that posted sales of millions of units for the aforementioned period alone. In all, the company's digital sales amounted to 217.5 billion Yen ($1.45 billion) from March to September, which is almost 16 percent higher than its digital sales for the same timespan last year."As a result of these factors," Nintendo says, its unit sales for the entire Switch family rose by 2.4 percent year-on-year to 6.84 million units. The only model that sold well and brought the average up, however, was the Switch OLED console. Nintendo sold 32.8 percent more Switch OLEDs this period compared to last year, but it only moved 1.25 million units of the basic Switch model, representing a 44 percent decrease in sales year-on-year. The decrease in sales for the Switch Lite wasn't quite as dramatic, but Nintendo still sold 1.9 percent fewer units.Going forward, Nintendo intends to release more games so as to entice people to keep playing on the Switch and to buy more than one console for their homes. For this holiday season, it has a few releases in pipeline, including WarioWare: Move It!, Super Mario RPG and add-on content for Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. Nintendo is expected to release its new flagship console sometime next year and has reportedly started showing developers the upcoming device's ray-tracing capabilities and other more advanced technologies.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/zelda-mario-and-pikmin-give-nintendo-a-boost-as-switch-sales-continue-to-dwindle-112508240.html?src=rss

Dead By Daylight has brought a fan-favorite collaboration back into its universe: Gamers can once again access the Stranger Things chapter, entering The Upside Down and choosing to play as Survivors Nancy Wheeler or Steve Harrington against the Killer, The Demogorgon.Behaviour Interactive first released a Dead By Daylight and Stranger Things crossover in 2019 on the heels of other horror collaborations like A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, the license ended in 2021, and - despite pleas from fans for Netflix to renew the contract - the TV show-inspired board and characters left. To be fair, anyone who already owned the game could still play as Nancy or Steve, but no updates or additional purchases were available.Now, the Stranger Things chapter is once again available to all "including the Underground Complex Map from the Hawkins National Laboratory, and the iconic Survivor duo composed of Nancy Wheeler, a tough aspiring journalist, and Steve Harrington, a former high school jock with a knack for finding trouble," Mathieu Cote, head of partnerships for Behaviour Interactive, said in a statement. Players can also grab new outfits from the in-game store, including items for the Demogorgon.Speaking of the ever-frightening Demogorgon, the creature can navigate the map through a series of portals. Then, when it finds its prey, the Demogorgon uses one lunging strike to end things. While much of the Stranger Things chapter mirrors its initial iteration, as of now, related achievements and trophies won't be available.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/stranger-things-is-coming-back-to-dead-by-daylight-104511407.html?src=rss

GM's autonomous vehicle Cruise division is already going through a rough patch, with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) recently suspending its driverless permits over safety issues. Now, several new reports have highlighted other issues with the company, including problems with its autonomous vehicles (AVs) recognizing children and the frequency with which human operators must remotely take control. The company also just announced that it's temporarily suspending production of its fully autonomous Origin transport.The most concerning issue is that Cruise reportedly kept its vehicles on the streets even though it knew they had problems recognizing children, The Intercept reported. According to internal, previously unreported safety assessment materials, Cruises autonomous vehicles may have been unable to effectively detect children in order to take extra precautions."Cruise AVs may not exercise additional care around children," the document states. Because of that, the company was concerned that its robotaxis might drive too fast near children who could move unexpectedly into the street. Cruise also lacks data around child-specific situations, like kids separating from adults, falling, riding bicycles or wearing costumes.In one simulation, the company couldn't rule out a scenario where a vehicle strikes a child. In another specific test drive, a vehicle detected a child-sized dummy but still struck it with a mirror at 28 MPH. The company chalked up the problems to a inadequate software and testing - specifically, it lacks AI software that could automatically detect child-shaped objects around the car and maneuver accordingly.In a statement to The Intercept, Cruise admitted that its vehicles sometimes temporarily lost track of children by the side of the road during simulation testing. It added that the problem was fixed and only seen in testing and not on public streets, though it didn't say what specific actions it took to resolve the issue. A spokesperson also said that the system hadn't failed to detect the children, but did fail to classify them as such.It further stated that the odds of an accident involving children were relatively low. "We determined from observed performance on-road, the risk of the potential collision with a child could occur once every 300 million miles at fleet driving, which we have since improved upon. There have been no on-road collisions with children."The report also notes that Cruise AVs have trouble detecting large holes in the road, such as construction site pits with crews inside, something the company itself called a "major risk." GM's own documents indicated that even with its small AV fleet, a vehicle was likely to drive into such a hole at least once a year - and into a pit with people inside once every four years.That scenario almost happened, according to video reviewed by The Intercept. Onboard cameras show an AV driving right to the edge of a pit, inches away from workers, despite the presence of construction cones. It only stopped because someone waved a "slow" sign in front of the windshield."Enhancing our AV's ability to detect potential hazards around construction zones has been an area of focus, and over the last several years we have conducted extensive human-supervised testing and simulations resulting in continued improvements," the company said in a statement. "These include enhanced cone detection, full avoidance of construction zones with digging or other complex operations, and immediate enablement of the AV's Remote Assistance support/supervision by human observers."All of that raises the question of whether Cruise should be operating its vehicles on public roads. "If you can't see kids, it's very hard for you to accept that not being high risk - no matter how infrequent you think it's going to happen," Carnegie Mellon engineering professor Phil Koopman told The Intercept.The child detection issue isn't the only recent expose on Cruise, as it turns out that the robotaxis aren't really autonomous at all. In fact, they require human assistance every four to five miles, according to a report in The New York Timesconfirmed in large part by Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt in Hacker News."Cruise AVs are being remotely assisted (RA) 2-4 percent of the time on average, in complex urban environments." wrote Vogt. That equates to someone intervening every four to five miles, which could be multiple times on many trips. There is typically one remote assistant "for every 15-20 driverless AVs," Cruise stated later.In a statement to CNBC, the company provided additional details: "Often times the AV proactively initiates these [remote assistance actions] before it is certain it will need help such as when the AV's intended path is obstructed (e.g construction blockages or detours) or if it needs help identifying an object," a spokesperson wrote. "Remote assistance is in session about 2-4 percent of the time the AV is on the road, which is minimal, and in those cases the RA advisor is providing wayfinding intel to the AV, not controlling it remotely."Finally, it appears that Cruise has halted production of its Origin autonomous vehicle after the California DMV pulled its license, Forbes reported. In an all-hands meeting with employees, Vogt, referring to the DMV license withdrawal, stated that "because a lot of this is in flux, we did make the decision with GM to pause production of the Origin," according to audio from the meeting.Cruise is still operating its AVs in California, but now must have a human backup driver at the wheel. Meanwhile, California says it has given Cruise a path back to driverless operation The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department's satisfaction," it said in a statement.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/things-are-going-from-bad-to-worse-for-cruises-robotaxis-094529914.html?src=rss

TikTok only launched its Creator Fund a few years ago, but is already killing it off in favor of a new monetization scheme that arrived earlier this year. "Starting December 16, 2023, the Creator Fund will be discontinued in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany," a spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. "All creators currently enrolled in the Creator Fund can upgrade to the Creativity Program."The Creativity Program emphasizes longer content, with a required minimum video length of at least one minute (TikTok now allows videos up to 30 minutes long). The company said it wants to create "the best possible experience" on the platform with the new system, but longer videos also help TikTok sell more ads. The main benefit for streamers is that it pays up to 20 times the amount offered by the Creator Fund, according to the company."We developed the Creativity Program based on the learnings and feedback from the Creator Fund, and we'll continue listening and learning from our community as we explore new features and enhance existing ones to further enrich the TikTok experience," TikTok said. The Creator Fund will continue to be available for users in Spain and Italy, at least for now.The Creator Fund was unveiled in 2020 with an initial commitment of $200 million to be paid out to top streamers. Soon after, the company said it would support hundreds of thousands of creators with over $2 billion in funding over the next three years.However, it got off to a rough start after top users complained that they weren't receiving very much money. Last year, streamer Hank Green shared that he made about 2.5 cents per 1,000 views on the platform - a fraction of his YouTube earnings and about half of what he earned on TikTok prior to the fund.

Xbox has teamed up with a startup called Inworld AI to create a generative AI toolset that developers can use to create games. It's a multi-year collaboration, which the Microsoft-owned brand says can "assist and empower creators in dialogue, story and quest design." Specifically, the partners are looking to develop an "AI design copilot" that can turn prompts into detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests and other game elements in the same way people can type ideas into generative AI chatbots and get detailed scripts in return. They're also going to work on an "AI character runtime engine" that developers can plug into their actual games, allowing players to generate new stories, quests and dialogues as they go.On Inworld's website, it says its technology can "craft characters with distinct personalities and contextual awareness that stay in-world." Apparently, it can provide developers with a "fully integrated character engine for AI NPCs that goes beyond large language models (LLMs)." The image above was from the Droid Maker tool it developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm's storytelling studio ILM Immersive when it was accepted into the Disney Accelerator program. As Kotaku notes, though, the company's tech has yet to ship with a major game release, and it has mostly been used for mods.Developers are understandably wary about these upcoming tools. There are growing concerns among creatives about companies using their work to train generative AI without permission - a group of authors, including John Grisham and George R.R. Martin, even sued OpenAI, accusing the company of infringing on their copyright. And then, of course, there's the ever-present worry that developers could decide to lay off writers and designers to cut costs.Xbox believes, however, that these tools can "help make it easier for developers to realize their visions, try new things, push the boundaries of gaming today and experiment to improve gameplay, player connection and more." In the brand's announcement, Haiyan Zhang, General Manager of Gaming AI, said: "We will collaborate and innovate with game creators inside Xbox studios as well as third-party studios as we develop the tools that meet their needs and inspire new possibilities for future games."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-will-let-xbox-game-makers-use-ai-tools-for-story-design-and-npcs-083027899.html?src=rss

Following the recent launch of the new M3-equipped MacBook Pros, Apple will soon be releasing an update for its Final Cut Pro to make further use of its own silicon. According to the company, its updated video editing suite will leverage a new machine learning model for improved results with object and face tracking. Additionally, H.264 and HEVC encoding will apparently be faster, thanks to enhanced simultaneous processing by Apple silicon's media engines.On the user experience side, the new Final Cut Pro comes with automatic timeline scrolling, as well as the option to simplify a selected group of overlapping connected clips into a single storyline, and the ability to combine connected clips with existing connected storylines. As for Final Cut Pro for iPad, users can take advantage of the new voiceover recording tool, added color-grading presets, new titles, general workflow improvements and stabilization tool in the pro camera mode. Both the Mac and iPad versions of Final Cut Pro will receive their updates later this month.With Logic Pro's new Quick Sampler Recorder mode, users can create sampler instruments from any sound using the iPad's built-in microphone or a connected audio input.AppleFor those who need to focus on music creation, Apple has also updated Logic Pro with some handy new tools. For both the Mac and iPad versions, there's a new Mastering Assistant which claims to help polish your audio mix, by analyzing and tweaking "the dynamics, frequency balance, timbre, and loudness." You can use this tool to refine your mix at any point throughout the creation process. Another good news is that to avoid digital clipping and to boost low-level sensitivity, both flavors of Logic Pro now supports 32-bit float recording when used with compatible audio interfaces.If you're a fan of "Sample Alchemy" - a sample-to-instrument tool - and "Beat Breaker" - an audio multi-effect plug-in - on Logic Pro for iPad, you'll be pleased to know that both features have been ported over to Logic Pro for Mac. Similarly, the Mac app has gained two free sound packs, "Hybrid Textures" and "Vox Melodics," which can be found in the Sound Library. Some may also find the new "Slip" and "Rotate" tools in the "Tool" menu handy.Meanwhile, the updated Logic Pro for iPad offers a better multi-tasking experience. The app now supports iPadOS' "Split View" and "Stage Manager," thus letting you quickly drag and drop audio samples from another app - such as Voice Memos, Files or a browser - into Logic Pro. There's also a new "Quick Sampler" recorder plug-in for easily creating sampler instruments from any sound, via the iPad's built-in microphone or a connected audio input. This update, along with a handful of related in-app lessons, are available immediately.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/final-cut-pro-uses-apples-latest-chips-to-improve-face-and-object-tracking-065025314.html?src=rss

Lucid's electric vehicles will be able to plug into over 15,000 Tesla Superchargers in North America starting in 2025. The automaker is the latest entry in the growing list of companies pledging to support the North American Charging Standard (NACS), also known as the Tesla charging standard. Lucid will give customers access to a NACS adapter for its current vehicles, which are equipped with the Combined Charging System (CCS), in 2025. The company intends to start building NACS ports into its EVs within the same year, as well, so that newer models no longer need to use adapters.Ford was the first automaker to announce this year that it was going to give its customers access to Superchargers after the White House convinced Tesla to share its charging network with vehicles from other companies. In the months after that, Mercedes, Volvo, Polestar, Honda, Toyota (and Lexus), BMW, Hyundai and Subaru revealed that they will also give their customers access to NACS adapters and will ultimately incorporate the standard into their vehicles over the next two years.As TechCrunch notes, Lucid vehicles use a 900-volt charging architecture, which became the basis of a Lucid Air promotion that called it the "fastest charging electric vehicle ever." At the moment, most Superchargers are rated at around 500 volts, and that means charging times won't be as fast as the company promises. That said, Tesla has started deploying V4 Superchargers that offer higher voltage charging in the US, and supporting NACS could convince potential customers in the region to purchase Lucid EVs. As company CEO Peter Rawlinson said, "[a]dopting NACS is an important next step to providing [its] customers with expanded access to reliable and convenient charging solutions for their Lucid vehicles."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lucid-evs-will-be-able-to-access-teslas-superchargers-starting-in-2025-055045292.html?src=rss

There has been another twist in the WeWork saga as the office space rental company has filed for bankruptcy protection. Following reports last week that the company was expected to file for Chapter 11 protection, WeWork's shares were halted on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday. According to The New York Times, it described its bankruptcy filing as a "comprehensive reorganization" of its business. "As part of today's filing, WeWork is requesting the ability to reject the leases of certain locations, which are largely nonoperational, and all affected members have received advanced notice," the company told the publication in a statement.A number of factors played into WeWork's fall, including trying to grow too fast in its early days. The company has attempted to cut costs in recent years (including by closing several co-working spaces in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns) while its revenue has grown.However, WeWork has been toiling in a real estate market that has felt the pinch of inflation and the rising costs of borrowing money. It has also been contending with another pandemic-accelerated change as millions more people are opting to work remotely instead of going to their company's offices. In its most recent earnings report in August, WeWork said it had "substantial doubt" about its ability to remain operational.WeWork first attempted to go public in 2019, though it withdrew plans for an initial public offering after investors expressed concerns over profitability and corporate governance. Its S-1 filing showed losses of over $900 million for the first half of 2019 and indicated that WeWork was on the hook for over $47 billion worth of lease payments - WeWork takes out long-term leases on office space and rents it to workers and companies on a short-term basis.That fiasco led to Softbank, which at one point led an investment round into WeWork when it had a valuation of $47 billion, taking control of the company. Softbank pushed out co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann with an exit package that was said to be worth $445 million.The business eventually went public in 2021 after it merged with a special-purpose acquisition company. WeWork shares cost more than $400 two years ago, but by Monday the price had dropped to under $1.WeWork has made more attempts to steady the ship. In September, the company completed a reverse stock split. It said this was conducted to help it continue to comply with the $1 minimum share closing price required to stay listed on the NYSE.Later that month, WeWork said it would try to renegotiate the vast majority of its leases. At the time, CEO David Tolley pointed out that the company's lease liabilities amounted to over two-thirds of its operating income in the second quarter of this year.On October 31, WeWork said it would withhold some interest payments - even though it had the cash to make them - in an attempt to improve its balance sheet. The company then entered a 30-day grace period before an event of default.Meanwhile, Neumann has a new real estate venture, this time focused on residential rentals. It emerged last year that he had bought more than 3,000 apartments in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta and Nashville. Flow, the company that will manage those properties, has reportedly received an investment of $350 million from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wework-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-protection-030708470.html?src=rss

Facebook is no stranger to moderating and mitigating misinformation on its platform, having long employed machine learning and artificial intelligence systems to help supplement its human-led moderation efforts. At the start of October, the company extended its machine learning expertise to its advertising efforts with an experimental set of generative AI tools that can perform tasks like generating backgrounds, adjusting image and creating captions for an advertiser's video content. Reuters reports Monday that Meta will specifically not make those tools available to political marketers ahead of what is expected to be a brutal and divisive national election cycle.Meta's decision to bar the use of generative AI is in line with much of the social media ecosystem, though, as Reuters is quick to point out, the company, "has not yet publicly disclosed the decision in any updates to its advertising standards." TikTok and Snap both ban political ads on their networks, Google employs a "keyword blacklist" to prevent its generative AI advertising tools from straying into political speech and X (formerly Twitter) is, well, you've seen it.Meta does allow for a wide latitude of exceptions to this rule. The tool ban only extends to "misleading AI-generated video in all content, including organic non-paid posts, with an exception for parody or satire," per Reuters. Those exceptions are currently under review by the company's independent Oversight Board as part of a case in which Meta left up an "altered" video of President Biden because, the company argued, it was not generated by an AI.Facebook, along with other leading Silicon Valley AI companies, agreed in July to voluntary commitments set out by the White House enacting technical and policy safeguards in the development of their future generative AI systems. Those include expanding adversarial machine learning (aka red-teaming) efforts to root out bad model behavior, sharing trust and safety information both within the industry and with the government, as well as development of a digital watermarking scheme to authenticate official content and make clear that it is not AI-generated.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-reportedly-wont-make-its-ai-advertising-tools-available-to-political-marketers-010659679.html?src=rss