The former Netflix personality is enjoying life as an author, entrepreneur and speaker following her stint on ‘Love Is Blind.’
The former Netflix personality is enjoying life as an author, entrepreneur and speaker following her stint on ‘Love Is Blind.’
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
Fridays Health is redefining modern weight care with a holistic telehealth platform that makes access to GLP-1 medications simple, affordable, and fully supported. The program combines cutting-edge science with compassionate care, bringing together everything patients need to reach a healthier weight — from medication and labs to nutrition, fitness, and mental wellness coaching — all…
Fridays Health is redefining modern weight care with a holistic telehealth platform that makes access to GLP-1 medications simple, affordable, and fully supported. The program combines cutting-edge science with compassionate care, bringing together everything patients need to reach a healthier weight — from medication and labs to nutrition, fitness, and mental wellness coaching — all…
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
Magic Leap is once again trying to make a name for itself in augmented reality. The company revealed an Android XR smart glasses prototype and it extended an existing partnership with Google. It said it built the glasses “as a reference design for the Android XR ecosystem.”
They look similar to other modern smart glasses, with thick frames to house all of the electronics and what appears to be a camera lens on the left side. Magic Leap hasn’t revealed too much more about the glasses, other than to say that, “by combining Magic Leap’s waveguides and optics with Google’s Raxium microLED light engine, the two companies are developing display technologies that make all-day, wearable AR more achievable.”
The glasses, of course, use Google’s Android XR operating system. Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset, the first device that runs on the operating system, arrived last week.
Although it has been through the wringer over the last several years, Magic Leap is still kicking around. In 2022, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund became the majority owner of Magic Leap and it has since pumped over $1 billion into the company.
Magic Leap failed to make headway in the consumer market with its AR headset after reportedly selling just 6,000 units in six months. Magic Leap pivoted to focus on the enterprise market with the Magic Leap 2, which it released in 2022.
In July 2024, it was said to have laid off 75 employees — primarily from the sales and marketing teams — as part of another change in direction to license its tech. A couple of months before that, Magic Leap announced a deal with Google to “advance the potential of [extended reality] technologies,” and that partnership is starting to bear fruit. It was reported late last year that Google brought in 100 Magic Leap staffers to work on Android XR projects.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/magic-leap-reveals-an-android-xr-smart-glasses-prototype-165200068.html?src=rss
It looks like a hundred thousand people fell for a fake NVIDIA livestream featuring an AI-generated version of CEO Jensen Huang, as reported by PC Gamer. Perhaps the scariest part is that the fake stream ran at the same time as an actual NVIDIA event and dwarfed the live viewership numbers.
The actual keynote speech of NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC) garnered around 20,000 live views, while the fake stream maxed out at 100,000 live views. Even weirder? The fake Huang was talking about some crazy stuff mostly involving bogus crypto investments.
The deepfake spoke of “a crypto mass adoption event that ties directly into NVIDIA’s mission to accelerate human progress.” The avatar urged viewers to scan a QR code to, uh, send in cryptocurrencies. It’s unclear if any of the 100,000 viewers fell for this obvious scam that asked people to send the world’s richest company money to “accelerate human progress.”
The fake video has since been deleted. I haven’t been able to check it out to see just how real it looked and, thereby, how it was able to lure in 100,000 viewers. Before we all start screaming into the night about how reality doesn’t matter anymore, there are a few things worth considering.
First of all, we don’t know anything about the 100,000 accounts that were watching the fake stream. We don’t know where they’re from or even if the accounts were tied to real people. It’s also worth noting that the real stream has since garnered 200,000 views, despite just having 20,000 live viewers. We don’t know what kind of promotional tools the fakers used to draw in people or how long people stayed once they clicked.
Finally, there’s Huang himself. The man has hosted four GTC conferences just this year, and dozens upon dozens in previous years. There is an absolute abundance of footage of him standing on a stage and talking about stuff. That’s a whole lot of video for bad actors to use as AI training data.
Also, the real stream wasn’t exactly a barn burner. The most notable news we got was the announcement of a partnership with Uber to promote autonomous driving. This wasn’t an event to hype up new graphics cards or anything like that. The company revealed some government contracts, if that’s your bag.
Down.. pic.twitter.com/SqyS7LFfx5
— SamAI – Sora Sam Altman (@SoraSamAi) October 12, 2025
So we might not be cooked just yet, but the water is certainly getting hotter. Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman donated his likeness to the growing Cthulhu that is the AI video generator Sora 2. Users quickly got to work making Altman do all kinds of unsavory things, like stealing GPUs from Target and eating a grilled Pikachu.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/more-people-watched-a-fake-nvidia-livestream-than-the-real-thing-170035672.html?src=rss
YouTube is rolling out some updates aimed at making visuals look better on its TV apps, including automatic AI video upscaling. To begin with, YouTube plans to upscale videos that were uploaded in under 1080p to an HD resolution. It aims to support 4K upscaling in the future.
The platform will still retain the original files and video resolution options. Creators can opt-out of the AI upscaling feature, which it’s calling Super Resolution, as well as automated audio adjustments. The platform says it’s also working with select creators to test larger video uploads to allow for higher-quality footage.
Creators will soon be able to upload thumbnails in higher quality too. YouTube will increase the thumbnail file limit from 2MB to 50MB.
As for viewers, it seems like YouTube saw those annoying automatic previews Netflix has had for the last decade and decided to copy that playbook. “Viewers will be able to see and flip through their favorite YouTube channels with immersive previews on the homepage, enhancing content discovery and engagement,” Kurt Wilms, the senior director of product management for YouTube on TV, wrote in a blog post.
Elsewhere, YouTube has added a contextual search function to its TV apps. When you search for something from a creator’s channel page, videos from said channel will appear first in the results. That’s a smart, logical idea.
With people watching YouTube on TV more than on mobile these days, it only makes sense for the platform to invest in improving the experience there.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/youtube-adds-automatic-ai-upscaling-for-low-res-videos-170342511.html?src=rss
The 2025 Fall Classic is tied up again after Game 4 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays saw Toronto dominate to win 6-2. The World Series continues with one more game in Los Angeles tonight — Wednesday, Oct. 29 — at 8PM ET/5PM PT. The World Series odds favor the Dodgers ahead of tonight’s game. Every 2025 MLB World Series game will air on Fox and Fox Deportes.
Of course, Fox is a “free” over-the-air channel, so any affordable digital antenna will pull in the game if you live close enough to a local affiliate. But if that’s not an option, here’s a full rundown of how to watch the Dodgers vs. Blue Jays World Series, even without cable.
You can stream Fox on any live TV streaming service that airs Fox local stations, including DirecTV, Fubo and Hulu + Live TV. MLB World Series games will also be available on Fox’s new streaming platform, Fox One.
Game 5 of the Dodgers vs. Blue Jays World Series is tonight, Oct. 29 at 8PM ET/5PM PT.
Every game in the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays, will air on Fox and Fox Deportes.
Game 5 of the World Series between the Dodgers and Blue Jays is scheduled for Oct. 29, 2025.
All times Eastern. Series tied-2-2.
Game 5: Wednesday, Oct. 29, 8PM ET
Game 6: Friday, Oct. 31, 8PM ET
Game 7*: Saturday, Nov. 1, 8PM ET
*if necessary
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/dodgers-vs-blue-jays-game-5-tonight-how-to-watch-the-2025-mlb-world-series-without-cable-173501690.html?src=rss
Microsoft’s Azure cloud service is experiencing an outage that appears to have hit both Microsoft 365 and Xbox. Both services show spikes in outage reports on DownDetector around 12PM ET, and the Azure status page indicates Microsoft is dealing with issues with “Azure Portal access.”
In the most recent Azure status update as of writing, Microsoft says that “starting at approximately 16:00 UTC, we began experiencing Azure Front Door issues resulting in a loss of availability of some services. In addition, customers may experience issues accessing the Azure Portal.”
Developing…
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/an-azure-outage-is-affecting-microsoft-365-xbox-and-minecraft-172032483.html?src=rss
