Category: Technology

Grok, xAi’s chatbot most famous for going on an antisemitic spree last week, has now added the ability to perform as a synthetic companion for your enjoyment. Elon Musk announced the new feature, available to paid subscribers, which will take the form of animated characters Ani and Rudy. 

Both are distinctly not safe for work, with the former operating as a digital waifu for you to, uh, romance. Rudy, on the other hand, is a red panda with a smart mouth who likes to get rude with the people he’s speaking to. 

The companions have their own X accounts, because of course they do. Ani’s bio states, “Smooth, a little unpredictable—I might dance, tease, or just watch you figure me out. Let’s keep it chill… or not.” Meanwhile, Rudy’s just says, “The Only Pet in Grok Companion.” 

There also appears to be more AI companions on their way, including one called Chad. The male anime character is listed as “coming soon,” alongside another unnamed woman. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/groks-ai-chatbot-now-includes-companions-for-you-to-romance-133017601.html?src=rss 

NVIDIA will be able to start selling its H20 AI GPU to China again soon after gaining approval to do so from the US government, the company announced in a blog post. Earlier this year, the company was blocked from selling the H20 to China over concerns it could aid the nation’s military. 

“NVIDIA is filing applications to sell the H20 GPU again. The US government has assured NVIDIA that licenses will be granted and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon,” the article states. The company also announced the NVIDIA RTX Pro GPU that’s “fully compliant” for the Chinese market, designed for smart factories and logistics. 

The US government starting blocking sales of NVIDIA’s most powerful AI graphics processors, like the A100 and H200, to China back in 2022. The company subsequently developed the A800 and H800 chips for the Chinese market, but those were subsequently banned as well by the Biden administration back in 2023. NVIDIA then came up with the HGX H20 and two other chips that conformed to export rules. 

Sales of that chip were blocked too in April, but the US department of commerce has apparently reversed course again. That could be a tremendous help for NVIDIA financially as it’s currently holding $8 billion in unshipped orders and expects up to $5 billion in additional revenue for 2025, Bloomberg reported. 

Yesterday, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang dismissed concerns that China’s military would use the company’s chips to develop AI. “They don’t need NVIDIA’s chips, certainly, or American tech stacks in order to build their military,” he said, adding that it would be foolish of them to do so because “they simply can’t rely on it.” Huang has previously said that NVIDIA export bans didn’t stop China from developing AI and allowed its competitors, especially Huawei, to gain ground on US technology. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/nvidia-says-it-can-resume-selling-key-ai-chips-to-china-120015817.html?src=rss 

John Wick Hex, a stylish and well-received game based on the John Wick movies, will soon no longer be available to purchase. In a statement on the title’s Steam page, publisher Big Fan Games says it will be delisted from all platforms on July 17.

After that date, the publisher said, those who have already acquired the tactical action game from a digital storefront will still be able to download it. Physical console copies will still work too.

Big Fan didn’t provide an explanation as to why John Wick Hex is being removed from storefronts, though licensing issues may be at play. Mike Bithell, creative director at developer Bithell Games, said on BlueSky he was “unable to shed any light” on the reason for the delisting.

“This one was a weird journey. [It] initially polarized folks, but now it’s one of the consistent favourites people wanna chat with me about when I’m doing public stuff,” wrote Bithell, who came to prominence with Thomas Was Alone and whose most recently released game was Tron Catalyst. “My first disappeared game, a weird feeling.”

It’s always a shame to see a game vanish from storefronts. It’s terrible for game preservation, and it means those who made the game will never be able to find a larger audience for it. You still have a couple of days to pick up John Wick Hex, however. It’s on sale at Humble, where Steam keys are available for $4, or 80 percent off.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/john-wick-hex-will-be-delisted-from-all-platforms-on-july-17-123028996.html?src=rss 

It’s been a little over a year since Form released its second-generation smart swim goggles into the world. Since then, the company has been working on a way to ensure its headgear is even more attractive to swimmers who like to get out in the rough. Today, it’s announcing the Smart Swim 2 Pro, a modest upgrade on its predecessor with a focus on durability.

The 2 Pro’s lenses are now made of Gorilla Glass 3, which adds a gram or two more weight but should keep them scratch-free for far longer. Given the amount of open-water swimmers that use Form’s goggles, having faith that your lenses can take nature’s elbows is probably worth it.

If you’ve ever used a pair of regular goggles for a long time, you might notice how the anti-fog coating starts to wear off. Especially if you, like me, absentmindedly commit the sin of wiping the inside of their goggles with a finger when your view is obscured. Form may be proud of its current anti-fog coating, but realized there was a better way to keep the lenses clear for longer.

Consequently, the 2 Pro comes with a bottle of anti-fog spray that users need to apply before a swim. This isn’t a way of squeezing more cash out of the user base, however, as the company is proud to admit it’s just baby shampoo diluted with water. But Form has tested the correct ratio for optimal application and there are markings on the bottle showing you what you need to refill.

At the same time, Form is rolling out new features for its premium subscribers, including more data-driven program planning and more tips on where you need to improve. The company also revealed that its premium features are paying off, with swimmers seeing 1.4 times the gains in speed compared to the users who use the hardware alone.

The Form Smart Swim 2 Pro is available to buy July 15 for $329 in the US, $449 in Canada and €329 in Europe.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/form-makes-its-smart-swimming-goggles-tougher-with-gorilla-glass-lenses-060019264.html?src=rss 

YouTube has clarified its rules about repetitious content and your favorite reaction video channel won’t be impacted. Earlier this month, the platform said it would be changing its rules for monetization in an effort to address AI-generated materials, but didn’t include many specifics, which led many to sound the alarm that reaction videos might get swept up in the new rules. The company has now provided a few tweaks and more clear delineations in its guidelines about channel monetization policies.

For starters, the rule is being renamed to the inauthentic content policy. “This type of content has always been ineligible for monetization under our existing policies, where creators are rewarded for original and authentic content,” a note appended to the support page states. “There is no change to our reused content policy which reviews content like commentary, clips, compilations and reaction videos.”

YouTube provided a few examples of material that it would deem to be mass-produced or overly repetitive, and thus ineligible to be monetized. Inauthentic content includes video “that exclusively features readings of other materials you did not originally create, like text from websites or news feeds” or “image slideshows or scrolling text with minimal or no narrative, commentary, or educational value.” The company also shared examples of reused content. YouTube said those beloved reaction channels, as well as videos that contain clips for analysis, review or commentary, are unaffected by the new rules. The no-nos for reused content rules might include “Content uploaded many times by other creators” or “Content downloaded or copied from another online source without any substantive modifications.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/never-fear-reaction-videos-are-still-allowed-under-youtubes-new-inauthentic-content-policy-222401009.html?src=rss 

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is reportedly working on mixed reality goggles, The Information reports. The in-development device is designed to layer digital objects over your view of the real world, and is supposed to compete directly with Meta’s upcoming mixed reality products.

The goggles are being built by ByteDance’s virtual reality startup Pico, the creators of the Pico 4 VR headset. Pico’s past products have attempted to match Meta’s Quest headsets in terms of features, but these new goggles apparently represent a different approach (albeit one still positioned as an alternative to Meta). Rather than a bulky headset, the goggles are supposed to be small and light, about the size of the Bigscreen Beyond VR headset, which weighs 0.28 pounds. Pico is keeping the device lightweight by offloading most of the computing work to a puck that’s connected to the goggles over a wire. Meta’s prototype Orion AR glasses used a wireless puck for a similar weight-saving purpose when the company demoed them in November 2024.

Pico is also reportedly working on building “specialized chips for the device that will process data from its sensors to minimize the lag or latency between what a user sees in AR and their physical movements,” The Information writes.

Plenty of the details are still up in the air, but the report notes that the ByteDance / Pico goggles should be very similar to Meta’s next mixed reality device. Following the release of the Quest 3S, Meta reportedly postponed work on the Quest 4 in favor of developing lightweight mixed reality goggles, according to UploadVR. The company has been publicly pushing AI wearables like the newly introduced Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, and it seems like its next Quest device will be closer to smart glasses than a VR headset with controllers.

It’s not known when ByteDance’s goggles will actually be released or where they’ll be sold. Current Pico headsets aren’t sold in the US, and given the concern over ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok, it seems unlikely the company would be able to sell a mixed reality device without pushback.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/tiktok-owner-bytedance-is-reportedly-building-its-own-mixed-reality-goggles-212541450.html?src=rss 

In a world of flashy limited-edition video game consoles, the 30th anniversary PS5 hardware Sony released in September 2024 came off as remarkably refined, which might have been why it was so hard to actually buy. If you missed that original drop, you’ll have another chance to order it, according to a Facebook post on the official PlayStation Facebook page. Sony is doing a limited restock of the 30th Anniversary Limited Edition DualSense controller on September 5, and you’ll be able to preorder one for yourself next week.

Preorders start on July 21 at 10AM ET / 7AM PT for PlayStation Plus subscribers and July 23 at 10AM ET / 7AM PT for the general public. The controller will have to be ordered directly through the PlayStation Store — Sony hasn’t said if the restock will extend to other online marketplaces like Amazon or Best Buy. Based on what the company has shared, only the DualSense controller will be restocked in the US, but the PlayStation Store in the UK and Canada will also have restocks of the 30th Anniversary Limited Edition PlayStation 5 Console and the PS Portal, as well.

Sony’s 30th Anniversary Limited Edition hardware features the classic PS1 gray, with touches of color to represent the formerly cheery PlayStation logo and face buttons. On the DualSense in particular, the old-school red, green, yellow and blue PlayStation logo replaces the typical black one found on other PS5 controllers.

Limiting one round of preorders to PS Plus subscribers should hopefully make it easier to purchase the DualSense, something Sony didn’t bother to do when it first dropped the limited edition hardware last year. Managing online sales and avoiding scalpers has prompted some interesting strategies as of late. With the launch of the Switch 2, for example, Nintendo limited preorders of its new console to customers with a Nintendo Online account that was at least 12 months old and had at least 50 hours of total playtime logged.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-30th-anniversary-ps5-controller-will-be-available-again-for-a-limited-time-195731358.html?src=rss 

Anthropic’s Claude can now create and edit designs with visual studio Canva from within an AI chat. This integration is powered by a Canva server that uses Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol, or MCP. Claude can use Canvas’s tools to generate a design or search for materials within a user’s Canva workspace. This functionality requires a paid subscription to Claude, and access also varies based on the user’s Canva plan.

Multiple artificial intelligence platforms have started using MCP to connect their models to applications. Anthropic unveiled its MCP in November, and earlier this month, it announced that Wiley and Panopto had created MCP servers to connect to Claude.

In addition, Anthropic now has a directory of all the platforms that use its MCP tech. From that directory, users can discover and access the remote services and local apps that connect to Claude. Subscriptions are required for the remote connectors. It seems likely that the company will continue to expand its roster of supported services and get its chatbot active in more third-party platforms.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/claude-ai-now-integrates-with-canva-201808571.html?src=rss