Gizmodo

Friday, June 30 was meant to be the cutoff date for negotiations between Hollywood studios and SAG-AFTRA. Had a deal not been struck by then, the actors guild was going to join the WGA's strike efforts in a more official capacity. But much like what recently happened with the DGA, actors have gotten something of a...Read more...

Rapid progress in artificial intelligence (AI) has spurred some leading voices in the field to call for a research pause, raise the possibility of AI-driven human extinction, and even ask for government regulation. At the heart of their concern is the idea AI might become so powerful we lose control of it.

June brought with it another major Apple event where the company revealed its first headset device, the Apple Vision Pro, which could be its next iPhone or its next Newton. But the month also delivered lots of other new hardware announcements that may have slipped under your radar.Read more...

It's a good time to be a Disney foodie if you're a Star Wars or Marvel Studios fan.Read more...

A new class action lawsuit accuses ChatGPT creator OpenAI of criminally scraping data from all over the internet, then using the stolen data to create its popular automated products. The lawsuit, filed this week by the Clarkson Law Firm in a Northern California court, is only the latest in a slew of legal challenges...Read more...

Nimona is now streaming on Netflix and if you've seen it, you know the long wait for its arrivalwas incredibly worth it. (If you haven't yet watched, you're in for a delight.) To celebrate the animated film-adapted from the graphic novel by ND Stevenson (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)-Netflix shared a featurette...Read more...

The European Space Agency (ESA) is gearing up for the launch of its highly anticipated mission to explore the cosmic dark side.Read more...

With that exciting new trailer for Dune: Part II arriving this week, there's no better moment to pile on more good Dune news. This time, it concerns the long-in-development Dune streaming series, Max's Dune: The Sisterhood, which has added new cast members as it moves forward.Read more...

Animations created by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio include images and videos showing what carbon emissions would look like if they were visible in our atmosphere. The videos of the swirling emissions were released this month-and it looks like a grosser, creepier version of the Northern Lights.Read more...

Google Chrome users will soon see a pop-up when they update their browser to version 115 , initiating the first phase of Google's years-long Privacy Sandbox project. The prompt, which describes the changes as Enhanced ad privacy in Chrome," is the first stage in Google's astonishingly complicated plan to kill...Read more...

July is here, and it's brought with it an almost overwhelming array of new sci-fi, horror, and fantasy books. Whether you're in the mood for magic, monsters, or mysteries-or some combination of all three-io9's monthly list of new releases has you covered.

The cosmos is a hostile but beautiful place; from Earth, its phenomena-from our Sun and the aurorae it generates to nebulae and distant galaxies-are worth capturing.Read more...

A few mosquitos in Florida have tested positive for the the parasite that causes malaria. The finding follows multiple confirmed human cases of the disease-four in Florida and one in Texas-believed to be the first domestically acquired instances of malaria in the U.S. in 20 years. The newly reported mosquito test...Read more...

Let's get streaming! Welcome to io9's latest edition of the Nerd's Watch, where we pare down the enormous lists of new films and television shows arriving on all your favorite streaming services into the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles we think you'll like most. (And sometimes, just the ones that we like most.)

It looks like baby talk isn't just for humans. New research this week suggests that dolphin mothers also adopt a higher-pitched tone during certain forms of communication with their young.Read more...

Apple TV+ viewers are in for a busy summer of sci-fi. In addition to Silo, which just wrapped its first season and was renewed for another, Foundation season two arrives July 14-and now we know Invasion season two (not to be confused with Marvel's Secret Invasion over on Disney+) will be premiering August 23.Read more...

Dylan Mulvaney, a trans influencer who was sponsored by Bud Light for two Instagram posts, is speaking out after receiving hate mail and threats while reportedly receiving no support from the beer company. The sponsorship garnered a mass anti-trans response and calls for a boycott which has decimated Bud Light's sales...Read more...

Casting continues for the long-awaited third Tron film and now, for the first time in a long time, we think this movie might actually be happening. No, seriously.Read more...

Reddit is facing a crisis both in its user base and its finances. After protests and backlashed ravaged the platform in the wake of Reddit opting to charge for access to its API, the company's valuation has been sliced.

Some lucky person just became a millionaire by opening a pack of cards. That's because it has been revealed that the rarest, most sought-after card in the entire new Lord of the Rings expansion of Magic: The Gathering has been found.Read more...

An outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to two surgery clinics in Mexico appears to have claimed more lives. This week, the Centers for Disease and Prevention updated its case tally, reporting seven confirmed or probable deaths linked to the outbreak. Officials are still trying to contact everyone at potential risk...Read more...

Although the Fourth of July isn't until next Tuesday, most Americans will be lighting up the bbq, setting off fireworks, and heading to the beach this weekend to celebrate early. Lego is getting in on the festivities, too, with the reveal of a new bright red 1961 Corvette model: an icon of American automotive design.Read more...

Like the rest of us, Lego apparently can't help but be distracted by thoughts of long weekends, vacations, and trips to the beach. The lineup of new building sets arriving in July is about as lengthy as the amount of work you get done on a July Friday afternoon-there's just three worth adding to your collection.

When does a squirrel become a pancake? Answer: Apparently, when the world becomes a griddle. It's officially sweat season for humans in the U.S., which means it's sploot season for squirrels. And if you don't know what that means, keep reading.

Apple and Google may soon have a new app store competitor to deal with. Meta, the maker of Facebook and Instagram, is reportedly working on a way for users in the European Union to directly download apps through a new type of Facebook ad. If successful, the move could potentially shake up the current duopoly of app...Read more...

Google employees booed the company at its second annual drag show following the company's decision to reverse its support for the event. Google withdrew its support of the planned drag show after some employees signed a petition saying the event was offensive to their Christian religion.Read more...

In February 2013, an asteroid about the size of a house punched its way through Earth's atmosphere and broke apart over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. The blast was so strong, it left a bright streak in the skies and triggered a powerful shockwave, shattering glass and resulting in the injury of over a 1,000 people.Read more...

After Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law that requires teens and kids to get parental consent before signing up for social media, that law is now in the crosshairs of a tech trade group called NetChoice, which filed a lawsuit against it.

One thing that has enchanted the internet almost as much as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse itself has is getting glimpses from artists into the work that made the movie such a visual treat. Now, some of that work is about to be collected into a sumptuous new artbook, and io9 has your first look inside.Read more...

Twenty-five years after the Game Boy Camera first debuted back in 1998, fans are not only still enjoying lo-fi, black and white, pixelated photography, they're also re-engineering the camera to make it better, even going so far as to shrink it down to the size of a regular Game Boy cartridge.Read more...

Now that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is almost here, director James Manfold is ready to head to the swamp. Speaking of, Phoebe Waller-Bridge hopes you haven;t seen the last of Helena Shaw. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds explains the niceties of storming a castle. All thus and mch mre, because the spoilers are...Read more...

Google is trying out a new show of force to keep users from watching YouTube videos without ads. Some users are reporting that the company will allow access to just three videos before prompting to either disable ad blockers or otherwise pay Google for the privilege of ad-less viewing.Read more...

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Warnings about artificial intelligence (AI) are ubiquitous right now. They have included fearful messages about AI's potential to cause the extinction of humans, invoking images of the Terminator movies. The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has even set up a summit to discuss AI safety.

When I got a chance to try out Apple's Vision Pro headset several weeks ago, there was one big difference between what I wore and the display models shown off by Apple.

The list of Star Wars projects that have started and never seen the light of day is very long. Heck, we even made one ourselves. However, arguably the most intriguing of those was a Boba Fett movie by director James Mangold. Mangold, the director of Logan, The Wolverine, and 3:10 to Yuma was working on a Fett film...Read more...

This July, not only will Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny be playing in a theater near you, Harrison Ford will turn 81 years old. Suffice to say, when the actor who brought Indy, Han Solo, and Jack Ryan to life says this is his last time with the hat and fedora, we believe him.Read more...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court made prosecuting online harassment more difficult. In a 7-2 ruling on Tuesday, SCOTUS determined that a lower court's decision to convict and imprison a Colorado man for stalking was flawed. The majority opinion in the case (Counterman v. Colorado), authored by Justice Elena Kagan,...Read more...

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Google says it plans to remove Canadian news links from its search results and other major products once Canada's hotly contested Online News Act takes effect in the coming months. The bold show of force comes less than one week after Meta announced it would cut off Canadian users' access to news links on Facebook and...Read more...

It's the end of June and tens of thousands of Americans have struggled through sweltering heat throughout this month. Texas has seen a pretty long heat wave that has brought on triple digit heat, and heat indices higher than 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in some cities. Residents have cranked up the air...Read more...

Women job candidates were allegedly asked sexually explicit and personal questions while interviewing for a position at Bill Gates's private investment office, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The women went through an extensive screening process and were reportedly asked intrusive questions including if...Read more...

Ghosts melting Nazis. Rocks healing villages. Immortality is real and so are spaceships. Indiana Jones movies are often defined by their shocking, genre-breaking endings, and the new one, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is no different. Things get... pretty crazy there at the end, so let's talk about it and see...Read more...

Orcas in the Pacific Northwest are battling some kind of unknown skin disease, new research out this week suggests. The study found photographic evidence that these orcas have been developing more and more mysterious lesions over the years. It's not clear yet how harmful this trend may be, but it's the latest...Read more...

Strange New Worlds is always going to be playing with fire when it brushes up against a legendary episode of the original Star Trek. The nature of its place in the series' timeline, its wheelhouse in remixing spins on classic tropes, the comparisons will always be there. Last season, it proved it could play in those...Read more...

Have you caught your breath yet? Warner Bros. just dropped an incredibly massive trailer for Dune: Part Two and it gives us an even better ideaof all the awesomeness Denis Villeneuve is getting ready to drop on the world. If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely check it out at this link. Then, once your...Read more...

California officials have recently voted to permanently protect the otherworldly western Joshua tree, as the desert plant faces challenges caused by development and climate change.

The Webb Space Telescope recently peered into a gassy region of the Orion Nebula and managed to spot a carbon-based molecule that could be a cornerstone of interstellar organic chemistry," according to a European Space Agency release.

What's mightier than a Power Ranger? Tax breaks. Or so seems to be the reason that the Power Rangers TV series, which has been filming in New Zealand for the past 20 years because of its relatively low cost, will be made somewhere else for its next and 31st season.

It's not exactly been the greatest of times, public relations-wise, when it comes to Warner Bros. lately. Whether it's The Flash speeding headfirst into disaster, its CEO becoming the perpetual media industry villain of the week, or HBO Max's troubled relaunch as simply Max. But! A small glimmer of good news.Read more...