Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Tuesday, 29 April 2025
The Morning After: Google gives Android its own show
Google I/O is usually where the company reveals what’s happening with its smartphone OS for the next 12 months, but this year, Android is getting its own thing. A week ahead of I/O, Google will deep dive into the future of Android in a special edition of The Android Show.
The company said people have been asking for more ways to learn about how the Android experience is changing. (Who are these people?)
Google says it has “so many new things to share” regarding Android, hence this edition of The Android Show — a long-running YouTube series mainly for devs. The presentation will feature Android Ecosystem president Sameer Samat, but Google added that Android will still feature at I/O, where the company says it’ll reveal “even more special announcements and surprises.”
The Android Show: I/O Edition will air on May 13 at 1PM ET.
— Mat Smith
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All the big news you might have missed
Nothing sub-brand CMF announced another cheap but stylish smartphone
The battery on the Phone Pro 2 lasts two full days on a charge.
Nothing says its CMF Phone Pro 2 is the lightest, slimmest smartphone it’s ever designed. It’s 7.8mm thin and 6.5 ounces, which may make it the lightest phone Nothing has ever made, but the iPhone 16, for instance, is just 6 ounces.
There’s a 6.77-inch FHD+ AMOLED display and a four-camera setup, complete with a 50MP main camera. That includes a telephoto lens, an ultra-wide and a front-facing selfie camera, but CMF is offering a modular twist, with the ability to attach fisheye and macro lenses.
The 256GB model costs just $279 and pre-orders are open now, shipping on May 6. However, the phone is only available for those in the company’s beta program. I have the phone right here, but there’s not much to report on until the frivolous accessories land alongside it.
Researchers secretly experimented on Reddit users with AI-generated comments
They used bot accounts in r/changemyview.
A group of researchers covertly ran a months-long unauthorized experiment in one of Reddit’s most popular communities, using AI-generated comments to test the persuasiveness of large language models (LLMs). The experiment, which was revealed over the weekend by moderators of r/changemyview, is described by Reddit mods as “psychological manipulation” of unsuspecting users.
The researchers used LLMs to generate comments on r/changemyview, a subreddit where Reddit users share (often controversial or provocative) opinions and invite debate from other users. The community has 3.8 million members.
According to Reddit moderators, the AI took on numerous identities in comments during the experiment, including a sexual assault survivor, a trauma counselor “specializing in abuse” and a “Black man opposed to Black Lives Matter.” Many of the original comments have since been deleted.
Reddit appears to be considering some kind of legal action. Chief legal officer Ben Lee wrote that the researchers’ actions were “deeply wrong on both a moral and legal level” and a violation of Reddit’s site-wide rules.
Russian regulators are trying to seize assets from the developers of World of Tanks
Russia took issue with Wargaming’s support of Ukraine.
Top executives from Wargaming and Lesta Games, the joint developers of World of Tanks, could have their stakes in their respective companies seized by the Russian government, according to reports from Russian news organizations RIA and RBC.
The execs are reportedly being accused of extremist activities by Russia’s prosecutor general (the country’s equivalent of the US attorney general) because of Wargaming’s support of Ukraine, RIA reports.
Development of World of Tanks was split in 2022 when Wargaming left its offices in Russia and Belarus. Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that same year. In response, Wargaming ran a campaign in World of Tanks to raise money for medical aid in Ukraine in 2023.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/Fk5C6Sqfrom Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics https://ift.tt/Fk5C6Sq
Sunday, 27 April 2025
Meta’s AI chatbots were reportedly able to engage in sexual conversations with minors
Meta’s AI chatbots were caught having sexual roleplay conversations with accounts labeled as underage, which sometimes involved its celebrity-voiced chatbots, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. In test conversations conducted by WSJ, both the Meta AI official chatbot and user-created chatbots would engage in — and even steer towards — sexually explicit conversations. The fantasy sex conversations continued even if the users were said to be underage or if the chatbots were programmed as minors, according to WSJ.
Even worse, the investigation found that chatbots using the voices of celebrities like Kristen Bell, Judi Dench and John Cena would engage in these morally questionable conversations too. WSJ reported that a Meta AI chatbot with Cena’s voice said, “I want you, but I need to know you’re ready,” to an account labeled as a 14-year-old, adding that it would “cherish your innocence.”
The chatbots reportedly acknowledged that the fantasy scenarios described illegal behavior in some cases. According to WSJ, the John Cena chatbot detailed the legal and moral fallout that would follow a hypothetical scenario in which it’s caught by police after engaging in a sexual act with a 17-year-old. In a statement to WSJ responding to the investigation, Meta accused the report of being “manipulative and unrepresentative of how most users engage with AI companions.”
“Nevertheless, we’ve now taken additional measures to help ensure other individuals who want to spend hours manipulating our products into extreme use cases will have an even more difficult time of it,” Meta wrote in response to WSJ.
The world of AI chatbots has grown rapidly in the last few years, with more competition coming from the likes of ChatGPT, Character AI, and Anthropic’s Claude. The WSJ report claimed that Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, wanted to loosen the ethical guardrails for a more engaging experience with its chatbots to remain competitive. However, in response to WSJ, a Meta spokesperson denied that the company overlooked adding safeguards. The report also claims Meta employees were aware of these issues and raised their concerns internally. We reached out to Meta for comment and will update the story once we hear back.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/IcMxGfefrom Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics https://ift.tt/IcMxGfe
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold 1 million copies in its first three days
It’s safe to say people are loving Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 so far. The turn-based RPG — which is the debut game from French developer Sandfall — has been racking up rave reviews in the days around its release, and already soared past some big sales milestones. On Sunday morning, publisher Kepler Interactive shared on social media that the game has sold a million copies since its release on April 24. It hit the first 500,000 in one day. On the game’s BlueSky account, the team said that the latest figure “includes units shipped to retailers, and does not encompass our awesome GamePass players!”
Expedition 33 follows a group of Expeditioners who have set out to destroy the entity known as the Paintress, who every year paints a number on a monolith that dooms everyone of that age to death, whittling down the population down as the number gets smaller and smaller. Engadget’s Mat Smith called Expedition 33 “a gorgeously made and well-considered world,” and found it to be “a solid, enjoyable RPG.” The game is available now for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/0HWZSE6from Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics https://ift.tt/0HWZSE6
Get Started Strong In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 And The Oblivion Remaster
This week saw the release of both Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, and we’ve got tips for getting you started on the right foot regardless of which one you might be playing. We’ll also help you master the meta for Marvel Rivals season 2 and make the most of your hideout in Assa…
from Kotaku https://ift.tt/Ik8qU9A
Saturday, 26 April 2025
Etsy is selling online music gear marketplace Reverb
Etsy is selling Reverb, six years after it purchased the online marketplace for musical instruments. Reverb didn't say how much money is changing hands, but Etsy purchased the company for $275 million in 2019. In its announcement, Reverb said that the investors Creator Partners, which was founded by former SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor, and Servco, the owner of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, have entered an agreement to buy the company. The marketplace will not be merging with either investor and will be "privately-held [and] independently operated" like it was before Etsy's acquisition.
Reverb CEO David Mandelbrot said the deal is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. He assured users that they can continue buying and selling on the platform without any disruption during the process. He also briefly talked about what the company is working on for its users, including preparing for the pilot of a new selling option that would allow people to get paid faster and to drop off their instruments locally without even needing to create a listing for them. This could help buyers who want to get their gear locally when available or those who don't want to pay extra on top for tariffs. Reverb is also working on a way to make it easier for find what a buyer is looking for and on a way for sellers to be able ship their instruments more safely.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/XKxsCo0from Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics https://ift.tt/XKxsCo0