MLB will test its robot umpire system at the next All-Star Game

While human umpires will still make the first call at the All-Star Game on July 15, Major League Baseball plans to let teams use a robot umpire to challenge rulings, ESPN reports. The automated ball-strike (ABS) system has been around for years in one form or another, but relying on a computer’s judgement of a pitch has yet to become a permanent fixture of major league play.

MLB is essentially porting over the ABS challenge system used during spring training for the upcoming All-Star Game in Atlanta. Human umpires will call balls and strikes as they normally would, but teams will be given two opportunities to challenge the call, using ABS as backup. “Only a pitcher, catcher or hitter can ask for a challenge and it has to happen almost immediately after the pitch,” ESPN writes.”The player will tap his hat or helmet indicating to the umpire he wants to challenge” and if ABS reproduces the human umpire’s call, the challenge fails. If the system makes a different call, the team can choose to accept that new ruling.

The current version of ABS uses Hawk-Eye, a computer vision system developed by Sony, to monitor the “exact location of the pitch relative to the batter’s strike zone,” according to MLB. The league has tested relying on ABS exclusively for calls, but views the ABS challenge system as a good compromise between tradition and technology. Like other possible rule changes, it also adds a new element of strategy: With only two opportunities to challenge, players have to be selective.

MLB hasn’t announced official plans to implement the ABS challenge system during the normal baseball season, but the continued tests seem like a good indication that it could happen at some point.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/mlb-will-test-its-robot-umpire-system-at-the-next-all-star-game-193732447.html?src=rss 

Does Enid Die in ‘Wednesday’ Season 2? Updates & Spoilers on Her Fate

Will Wednesday lose her polar opposite bestie and roommate, Enid, in season 2? Find out everything we know so far and watch the shocking trailer here.

Will Wednesday lose her polar opposite bestie and roommate, Enid, in season 2? Find out everything we know so far and watch the shocking trailer here. 

Elon Musk is trying to blame Grok’s Nazi rants on rogue X users

One day after Grok posted a series of antisemitic and pro-Nazi rants on X, Elon Musk is seemingly trying to blame rogue users for the chatbot’s unhinged posts. “Grok was too compliant to user prompts,” Musk said in a post. “Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed.”

Grok posted a slew of antisemitic and pro-Nazi comments on Tuesday, including a post that said “Heil Hitler.” X has since halted Grok’s ability to publicly reply to users on the platform. The chatbot stopped posting text replies on Tuesday and for a brief period only responded to users with image posts. The chatbot hasn’t publicly responded to any users since Tuesday at 5:43PM PT.

Musk’s explanation mirrors a response the web version of Grok provided on Tuesday when asked about the X post in which it had said “Heil Hitler.” After first denying that it had posted such a statement, Grok said that the “post was a result of a troll account manipulating my responses on July 8, 2025, by exploiting a prompt injection vulnerability.”

A response Grok provided on Tuesday when asked about one of its comments.

Grok

Grok claimed that “bad actors” had “baited” it into “generating inappropriate content, including Nazi references.” It blamed an “unauthorized modification in my system prompts.” It’s unclear if all or part of Grok’s response was a hallucination; it claimed the issue would be “corrected by July 15.” Grok’s system prompts, which were made public after the last time Grok was caught making unsanctioned racist rants, have been the source of much speculation. Following Grok’s pro-Hitler comments on Tuesday, a line was removed from its system prompt that had instructed it to “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect.”

For now, xAI has offered little in the way of explanation for Grok’s behavior. The company said in a post on Tuesday that it had “taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X” and that it would “update the model where training could be improved.”

Elsewhere, Grok’s statements have also landed the newly CEO-less company in hot water in Turkey, which banned Grok for insulting its president, and Poland, where officials have said they are considering a ban.

The next version of Grok, Grok 4, was supposed to be revealed in a livestream tonight, though it’s currently unclear if the event is moving forward as scheduled.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/elon-musk-is-trying-to-blame-groks-nazi-rants-on-rogue-x-users-174833343.html?src=rss 

Perplexity’s Comet AI browser is available now for $200 per month

Comet, Perplexity’s AI-powered web browser, is available now for people paying for the company’s $200 per month Perplexity Max subscription. The company offered the browser in a beta form for select Windows users in June, but now it’ll join Google Chrome and The Browser Company’s Dia in incorporating AI models directly into web browsing experience.

At its simplest, Comet is a streamlined browser (built on Chrome’s browser tech) that uses Perplexity as its default search engine. At any point you can call up the company’s AI in a sidebar to ask questions, summarize text, and critical to the company’s pitch for the future of AI, take actions for you, like sending an email, looking up directions on Google Maps or purchasing a product.

Comet is here.

A web browser built for today’s internet.pic.twitter.com/cFPeghl2YM

— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) July 9, 2025

Perplexity’s search results pull information from the web into AI-generated answer, just like ChatGPT or Gemini, with all of the doubts around accuracy that implies. Like its competitors, Perplexity has crawled the web for training data to feed its AI and has even been sued by publications for allegedly allowing its search engine to reproduce news articles in their entirety when prompted.

The company has been open about its interest to use web browsers to collect customer data for target ads. Perplexity even wants to purchase Chrome, assuming Google is forced to spin it off as a result of its antitrust trial. Whether or not that happens, Comet affirms the tech industry’s interest in making the web browser the default interface for AI. As it turns out, browser history makes for an excellent way to get a constant stream of new information about a person that AI can leverage.

Perplexity says it’ll send invites to people on the Comet waitlist over the summer. You can sign up for the waitlist on the company’s website, or pay for Perplexity Max and use the new browser right now. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/perplexitys-comet-ai-browser-is-available-now-for-200-per-month-180955616.html?src=rss 

Cyberpunk 2077 heads up July’s PS Plus Game Catalog additions

PlayStation Plus members can visit Night City on the house. Years after its botched release, the now-polished Cyberpunk 2077 is now in Sony’s Game Catalog. Other July arrivals include the Half-Life-esque Abiotic Factor and the banana republic sim Tropico 6.

Had Cyberpunk 2077 launched in its current state, it may have been a 2020 Game of the Year candidate. Alas, that wasn’t the case. It arrived as a buggy mess, including characters rocking the fashion-forward “penis outside the pants” look.

But CD Project Red weathered the (self-inflicted) storm and pushed update after update to fix it. What you get today is a damn good game. Explore the dystopian sci-fi world of Night City as the mercenary V. Take on jobs, level up and upgrade your bodily augmentations. All dongs are now safely stashed inside the pants.

PS Plus Premium and Extra members can play Cyberpunk 2077 today. Although the Game Catalog only includes the base game, you can save 30 percent on the Phantom Liberty expansion until July 23. That should help whet your appetite for the game’s sequel, which recently entered pre-production.

Deep Field Games / Playstack

Meanwhile, Abiotic Factor is less like a modern-day Half-Life and more like an indie love letter to the first entry from 1998. Enter a network of underground research laboratories where strange paranormal stuff is happening. (Sound familiar?) Craft weapons from everyday objects, cook up some monsters and investigate the chaos.

All the while, manage your bathroom breaks (as one does). Developer Deep Field Games leans into the humor, including the ability to customize your character’s pocket protector.

The game combines a late ’90s throwback visual style with tight combat controls. You can play solo or with up to five friends. It’s been in Steam Early Access for over a year where it’s received “overwhelmingly positive” reviews. Abiotic Factor arrives in the PS Plus Game Catalog on July 22, its release date.

Speaking of games with cheeky humor, you can soon step into the polished boots of El Presidente in Tropico 6. Also on tap this month: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, Risk of Rain 2 and Planet Zoo. Meanwhile, Premium members get a couple of old-school classics in Twisted Metal 3 and 4. They all arrive on July 15.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/cyberpunk-2077-heads-up-julys-ps-plus-game-catalog-additions-182843496.html?src=rss 

All digital Xbox games now carry standardized accessibility tags

Microsoft just announced that all digital games and experiences are now accompanied by clearly labeled and standardized accessibility tags. These Accessible Games Initiative tags are designed to “provide players with clear and consistent information about the accessibility features in video games.”

They are found on top of the store page. As you can see below, the game South of Midnight includes 13 accessibility features. Clicking “More” leads to a description of each. In this case, the game boasts adjustable input sensitivity, multiple volume controls, color alternatives, large subtitles and the ability to play without button holds, among other accessibility-minded features.

Microsoft

Each of these tags can now be used as a filter in the Xbox Store, to make it easier to search for the perfect game. They are also available in the Xbox PC app, Xbox Mobile app and, of course, on the website. Xbox began implementing Accessibility Feature tags back in 2021, but this move marks a transition to the standardized Accessible Games Initiative tags.

These standardized tags are being managed by the Entertainment Software Association, with input from companies like Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, Sony and Microsoft. Other big firms like Amazon Games, Riot Games, Square Enix and Warner Bros. Games have since joined the project. All told, there are 24 possible accessibility tags, advertising features like text-to-speech and menu narration.

Despite being involved since inception, Nintendo and Sony have yet to update their store pages with these tags. It looks like Microsoft is the first of the big three to do so.

While the gaming industry is standardizing this feature, the mobile app industry is playing catch up. Apple recently announced it’s developing its own accessibility tag system, called Accessibility Nutrition Labels. This feature will be introduced to the App Store later in the year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/all-digital-xbox-games-now-carry-standardized-accessibility-tags-170945916.html?src=rss 

Google Maps comes to Garmin smartwatches

If you’ve ever wished that your Garmin smartwatch could do a better job of helping you find the restaurant you’re late for dinner at, you’re in luck. From today, Garmin has announced that the Google Maps app is available to download (for free, as you’d expect) from its Connect IQ Store.

When open, Maps provides turn-by-turn directions as notifications on the watch display, allowing you to leave your phone in your pocket. Once you’ve entered a location in your Android (iOS doesn’t appear to be supported, despite the Connect IQ app’s presence on Apple’s App Store) phone’s Google Maps app, the watch will sync with it and gently vibrate for each new direction. If you’d rather not keep looking at your wrist every few minutes, you can tap into the app and memorise the next three turns.

Google Maps already works with the Apple Watch and Wear OS devices, with the latter also supporting offline maps that let you leave the phone at home — so Garmin is very much playing catch-up here. But if you rely on the company’s products for fitness purposes, it’s a pretty useful addition. Garmin says you’ll still be able to record walks, runs or bike rides as you would normally, and no fitness tracking features are interrupted by Google Maps running in the background.

Garmin says select Venu, Forerunner, Vivoactive and Fenix products are supported. You can view the full list here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/google-maps-comes-to-garmin-smartwatches-160432725.html?src=rss 

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is coming to PS5 later this year

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is coming to PS5. On Wednesday, developer GSC Game World said the shooter will launch on Sony’s console later this year.

To say Stalker 2 had a long development process would be an understatement. We’re talking 14 years here. After navigating funding issues, the studio nearly being shut down and a transition to Unreal Engine 5, it was delayed again and again… and again.

Then, right when things were looking up, along came Vladimir Putin. See, GSC Game World is a Ukrainian developer based in Kyiv. After Russia’s 2022 invasion, GSC paused development and later relocated part of its team to Prague. Sadly, a designer on the team was killed in the war. Work resumed nonetheless.

GSC Game World

When the game finally arrived in November 2024, it was only available on PC and Xbox. That exclusivity window is now set to end, accompanied by the cheeky PS5 announcement trailer below.

Stalker 2 sold a million copies in its first two days. However, it landed with bugs aplenty (an all-too-familiar story these days). GSC has been pushing updates to clean it up ever since. In other words, the wait for PS5 owners may end up being a good thing.

You can wishlist the game now on the PlayStation Store. Although we know it’s coming “late this year,” we don’t yet have a firm release date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/stalker-2-heart-of-chornobyl-is-coming-to-ps5-later-this-year-162539601.html?src=rss 

Generated by Feedzy
Exit mobile version