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General Motors announced that it will cut more than 1,700 manufacturing jobs in reaction to changes in the electric vehicle market. “In response to slower near-term EV adoption and an evolving regulatory environment, General Motors is realigning EV capacity,” the company said in a statement reported by CNBC. “Despite these changes, GM remains committed to our US manufacturing footprint, and we believe our investments and dedication to flexible operations will make GM more resilient and capable of leading through change.”

The layoffs are primarily happening at a Michigan plant that builds GM’s EVs and at an Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Ohio. The company is also “temporarily” laying off 700 at an Ultium Cells plant in Tennessee.

The regulatory issues in question are likely the $7,500 federal tax rebate that had previously been granted to EV purchases, which expired earlier this year under the “Big Beautiful Bill” that made things a lot less pretty for many environmentally-focused programs and industries. But GM had also said earlier this month that it would sunset much of its hydrogen fuel cell R&D in order to place more focus on batteries, charging tech and EVs, so announcing layoffs in those very areas is a rough move.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gm-will-cut-more-than-1700-jobs-in-ev-and-battery-manufacturing-200814378.html?src=rss 

Character.AI will no longer permit teenagers to interact with its chatbots, as AI companies face increasing pressure to better safeguard younger users from harm. In a statement, the company confirmed that it is removing the ability for users under 18 to engage in any open-ended chats with AI on its platform, which refers to back-and-forth conversations between a user and a chatbot.

The changes come into effect on November 25, and until that date, Character.AI will presents users with a new under-18 experience. It’ll encourage its users to use chatbots for creative purposes that might include, for example, creating videos or streams, as opposed to seeking companionship. To manage the transition, under-18s can now only interact with bots for up to two hours per day, a time limit the company says it will reduce in the lead-up to the late November deadline.

Character.AI is also introducing a new age assurance tool it has developed internally, which it says will “ensure users receive the right experience for their age.” Along with these new protections for younger users, the company has founded an “AI Safety Lab” that it hopes will allow other companies, researchers and academics to share insights and work collaboratively on improving AI safety measures.

Character.AI said it has listened to concerns from regulators, industry experts and concerned parents and responded with the new measures. They come after The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently launched a formal inquiry into AI companies that offer users access to chatbots as companions, with Character.AI named as one of seven companies that had been asked to participate. Meta, OpenAI and Snap were also included.

Both Meta AI and Character AI also faced scrutiny from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the summer, who said chatbots on both platforms can “present themselves as professional therapeutic tools” without the requisite qualifications. Seemingly to put an end to such controversy, Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand told TechCrunch that the company’s new strategic direction will see it pivot from AI companion to a “role-playing platform” focused on creation rather than mere engagement-farming conversation.

The dangers of young people relying on AI chatbots for guidance has been the subject of extensive reporting in recent months. Last week, the family of Adam Raine, who claim that ChatGPT enabled their 16-year-old son to take his own life, filed an amended lawsuit against OpenAI for allegedly weakening its self-harm safeguards in the lead-up to his death.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/characterai-to-ban-teens-from-talking-to-its-chatbots-180027641.html?src=rss 

Sony just announced the PS Plus Monthly games for November and there are some standouts. All of these titles will be available to download on November 4 until December 1.

First up, there’s the cat sim Stray. We praised the third-person cyberpunk adventure in our initial review, in which we lauded the game’s unique mechanics and puzzles. After all, you play as a cat in a dystopian and futuristic city. That’s a one-of-a-kind premise, which is one reason it became such a big hit. It’ll be available for both PS4 and PS5. It’s also worth noting that this was a day-one release for PS Plus Extra and Premium back in 2022. 

EA Sports WRC 24 is a popular racing sim developed by Codemasters, who made the Dirt series, the Grid franchise and plenty of official F1 games. This new one lets players participate in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC.) Racers get access to a bunch of WRC, WRC2 and Junior WRC cars from the 2024 season, complete with current drivers and teams. This one is only for PS5.

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator is certainly a battle similar, but not an accurate one. The game lets you design all kinds of bizarre battle scenarios with “the wobbliest physics system ever created.” This is the best game ever made that lets you battle a wooly mammoth with balloon arrows, thus forcing that beast into the sky. It’ll be available for both PS4 and PS5.

As always, a crop of new games means that some pre-existing titles are heading to that farm upstate. You have until November 3 to download Alan Wake 2, Goat Simulator 3 and Cocoon to their game library. Dang. Last month was stacked.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/stray-leads-novembers-lineup-of-ps-plus-games-180339318.html?src=rss 

Chalk this one up under “The most clever (alleged) legal sidesteps this side of Tony Soprano.” On Wednesday, The Guardian published a report about a so-called “winking mechanism” regarding Israeli cloud computing contracts with Amazon and Google. The stipulation from 2021’s Project Nimbus is said to require the US companies to send coded messages to Israel. According to the report, whenever Google or Amazon secretly complies with an overseas legal request for Israeli data, they’re required to send money to Israel. The dollar amount indicates which country issued the request.

The coding system reportedly involves country dialing prefixes. For example, if Google or Amazon hand over Israeli data to the US (dialing code +1), they would send Israel 1,000 shekels. For Italy (code +39), they would send 3,900 shekels. (Out of morbid curiosity, I discovered that the highest dialing code is Uzbekistan’s +998.) There’s reportedly even a failsafe: If a gag order prevents the companies from using the standard signal, they can notify Israel by sending 100,000 shekels.

The Guardian says Microsoft, which bid for the Nimbus contract, lost out in part because it refused to accept some of Israel’s terms.

In a statement to Engadget, an Amazon spokesperson highlighted customer privacy. “We respect the privacy of our customers, and we do not discuss our relationship without their consent, or have visibility into their workloads,” they wrote.

The Amazon spokesperson denied that the company has any underhanded workarounds in place. “We have a rigorous global process for responding to lawful and binding orders for requests related to customer data,” they said. “[Amazon Web Services] carefully reviews each request to assess any non-disclosure obligations, and we maintain confidentiality in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. While AWS does not disclose customer information in response to government demands unless we’re absolutely required to do so, we recognize the legitimate needs of law enforcement agencies to investigate serious crimes. We do not have any processes in place to circumvent our confidentiality obligations on lawfully binding orders.”

We also reached out to Google and the Israeli government for statements, and we’ll update this story if we hear back. The Guardian’s full report has much more detail on the alleged leak.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-and-amazons-israeli-cloud-contracts-reportedly-require-them-to-sidestep-legal-orders-164635805.html?src=rss