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The US Supreme Court dismissed an NVIDIA case it previously agreed to hear as “improvidently granted.” In other words: “Oops, we never should’ve taken this one.” The decision lets most of the lawsuit, brought by shareholders against the chip maker, proceed.

An investment firm and a pension fund brought the case against NVIDIA, claiming the company misled investors about its reliance on the crypto-mining industry. The suit claims NVIDIA concealed its dependence on the market before a 2018 crash that sunk the chip maker’s stock prices. (For better or worse, cryptocurrency has rebounded, and Bitcoin recently passed the $100,000 plateau for the first time.)

The court’s unanimous dismissal reflected its apparent aversion to hearing the case’s complex technical details. “The writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted” is all the decision said. That language was identical to a remarkably similar dismissal in a case SCOTUS heard last month against Meta, which also accused it of deceiving investors.

The Washington Post reports that the justices offered hints at the NVIDIA dismissal when they heard arguments in mid-November. “It becomes less and less clear why we took this case … and … why you should win it,” Justice Elena Kagan reportedly said. The New York Times says court members across the ideological spectrum sounded frustrated with the arguments. “This is a highly technical subject,” Justice Samuel Alito said at one point. “It just seems to me that you’re asking us to engage in a kind of analysis that we are not very good at and weren’t expecting to when we took this case,” Kagan said.

As AI’s thorny and ultra-high-stakes legal and ethical questions loom, we can take comfort in the fact that the highest court in the world’s most powerful nation sounds… utterly uninterested in diving into Big Tech’s often head-spinning technical details. At least the stakes are much lower in this case, only affecting the finances of a crazy-rich corporation and a group of (likely rich) Wall Street investors.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/us-supreme-court-bails-on-nvidia-case-allowing-a-shareholder-lawsuit-to-proceed-214001377.html?src=rss 

MasterClass is expanding beyond pre-recorded video lessons to offer on-demand mentorship from some of its most popular celebrity instructors. And if you’re wondering how the company has gotten some of the busiest people on the planet to field your questions, guess what? The answer is generative AI.

On Wednesday, MasterClass debuted On Call, a new web and iOS app that allows people to talk with AI versions of its instructors. As of today, On Call is limited to two personas representing the expertise of former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss and University of Berkeley neuroscientist Dr. Matt Walker. In the future, MasterClass says it will offer many more personas, with Gordon Ramsay, Mark Cuban, Bill Nye and LeVar Burton among some of the more notable experts sharing their voices and knowledge in this way.

“This isn’t just another generic AI chatbot pulling data from the internet,” David Rogier, the CEO of MasterClass, said on X. “We’ve built this with our experts — training the AI on proprietary data sets (e.g. unpublished notes, private research, their lessons, emails, [and] expertise they’ve never shared before).”

Per Inc., MasterClass signed deals with each On Call instructor to license their voice and expertise. Judging from the sample voice clips MasterClass has up on its website, the interactions aren’t as polished as the one shown in the ad the company shared on social media. In particular, the “voice” of Chris Voss sounds robotic and not natural at all. On Call is also a standalone product with a separate subscription from the company’s regular offering. To use On Call, users will need to pay $10 per month or $84 annually.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/masterclass-on-call-gives-you-on-demand-access-to-ai-facsimiles-of-its-experts-215022938.html?src=rss 

Microsoft has started a beta test that will finally bring cloud streaming to Xbox consoles. Participants in the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha tiers of the Xbox Insiders program can start using this feature now on their Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. 

This news is an extension of the “stream your own game” feature that Microsoft announced in November. That initial launch allowed Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to stream select games they’ve digitally purchased to their televisions, Meta Quest VR headsets and to some supported browser setups. The company said at the time that it planned to also bring streaming to Xbox consoles and to the Windows Xbox app in 2025.

While this update is a welcome addition to the “stream your own game” hardware, there are still some caveats on the feature. First, it’s limited to Game Pass Ultimate members. Second, the game needs to support cloud streaming. There’s a short list of titles included in the program for now, but several of them are excellent ones that are well worth a look: Baldur’s Gate 3, Balatro, Cyberpunk 2077, Animal Well, Stray and the first six Final Fantasy games, to name a few highlights. Once this goes live to the whole Xbox audience, it should be a useful way to streamline game downloads and to access your whole library without needing to shell out for external storage.

In related Microsoft news, the Windows Xbox app is getting a couple updates. The new Home screen for the app will highlight curated game collections and suggested titles, as well as recent game news, releases and sales.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-previews-cloud-streaming-of-games-you-own-on-consoles-211008822.html?src=rss 

Apple’s Voice Memos app just got the promised layering functionality that was shown off back in September at the iPhone event. This allows people to layer another track on top of a pre-existing track, which turns the app into an extremely-limited, though still useful, recording tool. This update is part of iOS 18.2, which also brings more AI tomfoolery like a custom emoji maker. 

There’s one major caveat here. The Voice Memos software tweak is only available for the iPhone 16 Pro and the Pro Max. This is a bummer, given that track layering isn’t exactly rocket science, but the company says there’s a good reason to exclude other models.

The software lets people add that second layer without wearing headphones, which is possible thanks to some algorithmic wizardry, the A18 Pro chip and those new “studio-quality” microphones that come with the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. That’s a pretty neat trick but, you know, not exactly necessary. I don’t mind wearing headphones for a minute.

The update can also split the voice memo into its two composite tracks, for use later with legitimate recording software. That’s another neat little trick and sort of similar to what The Beatles did for their latest (and final) song. Singer Michael Bublé and country star Carly Pearce used the Voice Memos app to make a little Christmas song, as seen below. 

As with all things recorded with Voice Memos, the files will be synced across devices thanks to Apple iCloud. These multi-layered tracks will also be available on Mac computers to drag-and-drop into a session with Logic Pro.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/apple-finally-launches-its-multi-track-recording-tool-for-voice-memos-194623218.html?src=rss 

Meta apps and services like Instagram, Facebook, Threads and Messenger are down as part of an apparent outage. Staff at Engadget and users across X and Bluesky have reported issues loading Meta’s websites and logging in. Even Meta’s company site is currently displaying the text “This page isn’t available right now.”

There were over 90,000 reports of issues for Facebook.com alone on Downdetector, and the site is also showing outage reports for Whatsapp, Threads, and Messenger too. The issue is clearly not concentrated on a single Meta app or service. The company’s own status page for enterprise customers shows multiple issue across APIs and ad tools, too.

Engadget has reached out to Meta for more information on the outage and will update this post once we learn more. The company noted that people have been experience issues on X and said a fix is in the works.

Meta last dealt with a major outage in March 2024 that prevented users from accessing its apps and services for two hours. The last outage was attributed to a “technical issue” by Meta communications director Andy Stone, which is the same explanation Meta has offered so far today, but it’s not clear when the issue will be resolved.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-threads-whatsapp-and-more-down-as-part-of-meta-outage-184608535.html?src=rss 

Sony’s PlayStation 2024 Wrap-Up has a slight problem: It isn’t working. The site for accessing your year-end PlayStation stats and achievements has been down for maintenance since it launched nearly 24 hours ago. Push Square reports that, although some folks could briefly access their summaries, it quickly began showing errors to many before eventually collapsing. It now displays the “We’ll be back soon” message in the above image. Oops!

The year-end replay is similar to Spotify Wrapped and other year-end summaries. Assuming Sony eventually gets it back up and running, it will show stats like your most played games, achievements, monthly gaming breakdowns, personal gaming style and more.

For the first time this year, Sony added historical data like the number of games played since creating your account and reflections on trophies you’ve earned. The 2024 edition includes a nod to PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, with a retro PlayStation aesthetic and graphics that pay tribute to the brand’s history.

The year-end rewind will be continually updated until the end of the year, so (once the kinks are ironed out), you’ll still have a chance to change it with some furious December marathon sessions.

When Wrap Up returns, you can find it here. However, there are several requirements to be eligible. You’ll need to be 18 or older with an active PlayStation Network account in your region and have played at least 10 hours on a PS4 or PS5 in the 2024 calendar year. Another point to consider is that you’ll have to opt in to share “Full Data” (or “Additional Data” in some regions, including the EU) from your PS5 console. So, if you’re (wisely) cautious about big corporations hoovering up your data, consider whether a few moments of profiled nostalgia justify that cost.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/playstations-2024-wrap-up-has-been-mostly-out-of-commission-for-24-hours-190522062.html?src=rss 

Earlier today, Google debuted Gemini 2.0. The company says its new machine learning model won’t just enhance its existing products and services. It will also power entirely new experiences. To that point, Google previewed Project Mariner, an AI agent that can navigate within a web browser. Mariner is an experimental Chrome extension that is currently available to select “trusted testers.”

As you can see from the video Google shared, the pitch for Mariner is a tool that can automate certain rote tasks. In the demo, Mariner assists Google’s Jaclyn Konzelmann with finding the contact information of four outdoor companies.

Clearly, there’s more work Google needs to do before the software is ready for public use. Notice that Konzelmann is very specific when prompting Mariner, instructing the agent to “memorize” and “remember” parts of her instructions. It also takes Mariner close to 12 minutes to complete the task given to it.

“As a research prototype, it’s able to understand and reason across information in your browser screen, including pixels and web elements like text, code, images and forms,” Google says of Mariner.

If Project Mariner sounds familiar, it’s because The Information reported in October that Google was working on something called Project Jarvis. The publication described it as a “computer-using agent” that Google designed to assist with tasks like booking flights. In November, an early version of Jarvis was briefly available on the Chrome Web Store. A Google spokesperson told Engadget Jarvis and Mariner are the same project.

The confirmation of Mariner’s existence comes after Anthropic introduced a similar but more expansive feature for its Claude AI, which the company says can “use a wide range of standard tools and software programs designed for people.” That tool is currently available in public beta.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/jarvis-googles-web-browsing-ai-is-now-officially-known-as-project-mariner-191603929.html?src=rss