Meta has created a system that can embed hidden signals, known as watermarks, in AI-generated audio clips, which could help in detecting AI-generated content online. 

The tool, called AudioSeal, is the first that can pinpoint which bits of audio in, for example, a full hourlong podcast might have been generated by AI. It could help to tackle the growing problem of misinformation and scams using voice cloning tools, says Hady Elsahar, a research scientist at Meta. Malicious actors have used generative AI to create audio deepfakes of President Joe Biden, and scammers have used deepfakes to blackmail their victims. Watermarks could in theory help social media companies detect and remove unwanted content. 

However, there are some big caveats. Meta says it has no plans yet to apply the watermarks to AI-generated audio created using its tools. Audio watermarks are not yet adopted widely, and there is no single agreed industry standard for them. And watermarks for AI-generated content tend to be easy to tamper with—for example, by removing or forging them. 

Fast detection, and the ability to pinpoint which elements of an audio file are AI-generated, will be critical to making the system useful, says Elsahar. He says the team achieved between 90% and 100% accuracy in detecting the watermarks, much better results than in previous attempts at watermarking audio. 

AudioSeal is available on GitHub for free. Anyone can download it and use it to add watermarks to AI-generated audio clips. It could eventually be overlaid on top of AI audio generation models, so that it is automatically applied to any speech generated using them. The researchers who created it will present their work at the International Conference on Machine Learning in Vienna, Austria, in July.  

AudioSeal is created using two neural networks. One generates watermarking signals that can be embedded into audio tracks. These signals are imperceptible to the human ear but can be detected quickly using the other neural network. Currently, if you want to try to spot AI-generated audio in a longer clip, you have to comb through the entire thing in second-long chunks to see if any of them contain a watermark. This is a slow and laborious process, and not practical on social media platforms with millions of minutes of speech.  

AudioSeal works differently: by embedding a watermark throughout each section of the entire audio track. This allows the watermark to be “localized,” which means it can still be detected even if the audio is cropped or edited. 

Ben Zhao, a computer science professor at the University of Chicago, says this ability, and the near-perfect detection accuracy, makes AudioSeal better than any previous audio watermarking system he’s come across. 

“It’s meaningful to explore research improving the state of the art in watermarking, especially across mediums like speech that are often harder to mark and detect than visual content,” says Claire Leibowicz, head of AI and media integrity at the nonprofit  Partnership on AI. 

But there are some major flaws that need to be overcome before these sorts of audio watermarks can be adopted en masse. Meta’s researchers tested different attacks to remove the watermarks and found that the more information is disclosed about the watermarking algorithm, the more vulnerable it is. The system also requires people to voluntarily add the watermark to their audio files.  

This places some fundamental limitations on the tool, says Zhao. “Where the attacker has some access to the [watermark] detector, it’s pretty fragile,” he says. And this means only Meta will be able to verify whether audio content is AI-generated or not. 

Leibowicz says she remains unconvinced that watermarks will actually further public trust in the information they’re seeing or hearing, despite their popularity as a solution in the tech sector. That’s partly because they are themselves so open to abuse. 

“I’m skeptical that any watermark will be robust to adversarial stripping and forgery,” she adds. 

Nintendo has brought the summer’s season of game announcements to a close in a big way, making good on promises that many worried had been forgotten. The Nintendo Switch 2 might be on the way, but meanwhile, in 2024 and 2025, owners of the original Nintendo Switch have a packed schedule to look forward to. Here’s just a few of today’s biggest announcements.

Metroid Prime 4

Seven years after it was first announced and five years after Nintendo said it had restarted development on the title, Metroid Prime 4 finally has a release window, plus a new subtitle. 

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will release for Nintendo Switch in 2025 and see Samus once again go up against Space Pirates and Metroids, as well as a new foe in an all-black power suit similar to her own. The graphics seem to be using a similar art style to the original Metroid Prime’s Switch remaster, and environments appear to be large with many enemies on screen. Could this be a cross-gen title, with a version also being prepared for the Switch successor?

Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Mario’s other other RPG series is coming back for an all-new entry, titled Mario & Luigi: Brothership. The first entry for home consoles, it features a total graphical overhaul and seems to focus on Mario and Luigi being lost at sea. There, it looks like the brothers will encounter a group of characters that resemble electrical appliances. The game will keep its traditional turn-based-with-timed-button-presses combat, and despite the premise separating Mario and Luigi from the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach and Bowser make appearances in the trailer.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership launches on November 7, 2024 for Nintendo Switch.

Two big games are finally leaving Apple Arcade jail

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Fantasian earned rave reviews when it released exclusively on Apple Arcade in 2021, with critics praising its diorama visuals and unique approach to turn-based encounters. Now, RPG enthusiasts on other platforms will be able to enjoy the game, too, with Fantasian: Neo Dimension. 

The port will keep the same story and mechanics, but will feature enhanced visuals, and will come to Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox consoles, and Steam in Holiday 2024.

Joining Fantasian in leaving Apple Arcade exclusivity is Hello Kitty Island Adventure, an Animal Crossing style life-sim that earned praise for its continual updates and its deep exploration elements. The game will now be coming to Switch and PC in 2025, with a port for PS5 and PS4 planned for some time after.

Dragon Quest III is back

Originally revealed in 2021, the Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake, which reimagines the classic Super Nintendo RPG in a style similar to Octopath Traveler, finally got a solid release date today, plus some company. The game, featuring designs from late Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, will launch on Switch, PS5, Xbox consoles, and PC on November 14, 2024. But as a surprise, the trailer also announced that it will be joined by remakes of its two predecessors sometime in 2025, bringing the whole Erdrick trilogy into HD-2D.

It’s clobberin' time

After years of stagnating in rights limbo, Marvel vs. Capcom is finally seeing some love again. Capcom’s classic Marvel arcade games from the (mostly) ‘90s are all coming together in one collection, which will give superhero fans access to six classic fighting games starring the X-Men, Spider-Man, the cast of Street Fighter, and more. Yes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is here, but oddly enough, also a beat-em-up starring The Punisher.

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics will release for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Steam sometime in 2024.

Ace Attorney gets a hand-drawn revamp

Capcom’s Ace Attorney series normally sees players defending innocent clients in court, but in these spin-offs starring Phoenix Wright rival Miles Edgeworth, you’ll instead be playing the prosecution. Ace Attorney Investigations Collection brings two Nintendo DS games to home console, including one previously only released in Japan. Players can choose between the original pixel art or new hand-drawn art from the original series character designer when the game launches on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 6, 2024.

A Zelda Game Actually Starring Zelda

Fans have long joked about how The Legend of Zelda doesn’t actually star the titular princess (we don't talk about the CD-I), but that changes today. What first looked like a remake of the Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages games in the same style as the Link’s Awakening remake instead turned out to be a brand-new adventure starring Zelda herself.

Titled The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the game sees Link, several villagers, and even parts of Hyrule sucked into various strange vortexes, leaving Zelda to save the day.

Her gameplay is a little different than her green-hatted companion’s, instead focusing on her role as a princess. Early into the game, players will encounter the fairy Tri and earn the Tri rod, which they’ll then be able to use to summon “echoes” of various objects and even monsters. It’s a more analytical play style befitting of a wise leader, and will see you building structures and commanding armies to save your kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom launches for Nintendo Switch on September 26, 2024, alongside a new Zelda themed Nintendo Switch Lite console.

Other announcements

That’s just a taste of today's direct, but there’s plenty else to see in the whole stream, including a Switch port of Stray and a new Mario Party. Click below to watch the whole event.

With a record-breaking heat dome roasting the eastern half of the United States this week, it’s important to not only stay cool for comfort but to actively avoid experiencing heat exhaustion and its more serious cousin, heat stroke. Knowing the signs of both can help keep you and your friends and family safe.

Heat stroke is a serious condition that can result in seizures, organ failure, and more. And before you get heat stroke, you’ll experience a milder condition called heat exhaustion. Both conditions occur when the body overheats. Normally, our bodies try to cool us down by bringing hot blood from our core to the surface of the skin, where we radiate that heat into our environment. The evaporation that results from sweating also helps to cool our skin. We get into trouble when the environment is too hot or too humid for these mechanisms to cool us down.

Who is at risk for heat exhaustion and heat stroke?

Heat stroke in healthy people is often associated with exercise, since working out raises your core temperature. This is especially the case if you’re not very fit, or if you’re used to working out in cooler weather. As you get used to exercising in the heat, your body learns how to cool itself more efficiently.

Things that increase the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke include:

• Exercising in high temperatures and humidity

• Poor fitness

• Being large (regardless of your body type—having a lot of fat or a lot of muscle both affect your ability to cool down)

• Dehydration

• Wearing or carrying gear, like football pads or a hiking pack

• Drinking alcohol

• Using certain medications or supplements, including beta blockers and diuretics

• Any disability or illness that makes it harder for you to get out of the heat or to cool yourself

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Signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion

Heat exhaustion occurs when your core body temperature is elevated, but not enough to involve your brain. If you or an overheated friend shows any sign of being confused, for example, assume it’s heat stroke and get medical help right away.

Signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion may include, according to the CDC:

• Dizziness

• Nausea and vomiting

• Headache

• Fatigue or weakness

• Heavy sweating

• Cold, pale, and clammy skin

• A fast, weak pulse

If you begin to feel these symptoms, start cooling yourself down right away: move to the shade or air conditioning, loosen your clothing, have a cold drink, and keep watch for any signs that you’re feeling worse or not getting better. If you haven’t recovered within an hour, seek medical help.

Signs and symptoms of heat stroke

Heat stroke occurs when the body’s temperature is extremely high (over 104, taken rectally) and can affect the brain as well as the body. The person with heat stroke may be too confused to realize that they are in danger, so watch out for the signs in other people.

Heat stroke is a serious condition, so if you suspect it, get medical help right away. If you’re at an event with medical staff (like if you’re running a marathon or playing in a football game), alert them. Otherwise, call 911 or the emergency number for your area. Signs of heat stroke can include some of the symptoms above, like headache, dizziness, and nausea, plus:

• Confusion, irritability, or hallucination

• Passing out or collapsing

• Trouble walking

• Seizures

• Reddened skin, with or without sweating

You can help the person cool down while you wait for help. Medical staff may decide it’s best to cool the person down before transporting them to a hospital, but that depends on whether the person needs other medical treatment. The ideal way of cooling down a person with heat stroke is to put them in a tub of cold water with ice, and stir the water constantly.

If that’s not possible, a cold shower or a cold hose can work, or apply icy wet towels to the person’s body and swap them out every three minutes or whenever they stop being icy cold.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | SOPA Images )

T-Mobile has agreed to change its advertising for the "Price Lock" guarantee that doesn't actually lock in a customer's price, but continues to defend the offer.

T-Mobile users expressed their displeasure about being hit with up to $5 per-line price hikes on plans that seemed to have a lifetime price guarantee, but it was a challenge by AT&T that forced T-Mobile to agree to change its advertising. AT&T filed the challenge with the advertising industry's self-regulatory group, which ruled that T-Mobile's Price Lock ads were misleading.

As we've reported, T-Mobile's guarantee (currently called "Price Lock" and previously the "Un-contract") is simply a promise that T-Mobile will pay your final month's bill if the carrier raises your price and you decide to cancel. Despite that, T-Mobile promised users that it "will never change the price you pay" if you're on a plan with the provision.

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Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank recently announced that it has been developing "emotion-canceling" technology powered by AI that will alter the voices of angry customers to sound calmer during phone calls with customer service representatives. The project aims to reduce the psychological burden on operators suffering from harassment and has been in development for three years. Softbank plans to launch it by March 2026, but the idea is receiving mixed reactions online.

According to a report from the Japanese news site The Asahi Shimbun, SoftBank's project relies on an AI model to alter the tone and pitch of a customer's voice in real-time during a phone call. SoftBank's developers, led by employee Toshiyuki Nakatani, trained the system using a dataset of over 10,000 voice samples, which were performed by 10 Japanese actors expressing more than 100 phrases with various emotions, including yelling and accusatory tones.

Voice cloning and synthesis technology has made massive strides in the past three years. We've previously covered technology from Microsoft that can clone a voice with a three-second audio sample and audio-processing technology from Adobe that cleans up audio by re-synthesizing a person's voice, so SoftBank's technology is well within the realm of plausibility.

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Notifications are an inescapable part of modern life at this point, but they can vary from the important to the irrelevant. Striking the right balance is key, so that you're not going to miss the alerts you need to see, but aren't bombarded and distracted by the ones you don't.

Phones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches, smart speakers, and more can all ping us with notifications, so it's worth taking some time to configure these interruptions in a way that works for you—whether it's on Android, on an iPhone, or whatever gadgets you have.

Here I'm going to dive into notification management on Chromebooks. While ChromeOS is essentially just a browser, any website you've visited can trigger a notification, as can any Android app you've installed, as well as ChromeOS itself. Here's how to stay on top of it all and keep Chromebook notifications under control.

Website notifications

Notifications can be on or off for specific sites. Credit: Lifehacker

Many websites will want to ping you with alerts about new articles, special offers, and more besides, and you'll sometimes see a request to allow notifications when you visit a site for the first time in ChromeOS, just below the address bar—choose Block or Allow on the dialog as you prefer.

To change permissions for a site, click the three dots inside a browser tab (top right), then Settings. Open the Privacy and security page, then select Site settings and Notifications. You'll see sites allowed to send notifications, and sites blocked from sending notifications—click Add at the top of either list to enter a new URL, if there's a site you specifically do or don't want to hear from.

For existing sites in the list, click the three dots next to the site name, then choose either Allow, Block, Edit, or Remove—so, for example, if you need to tweak the URL for the site you're stopping notifications from, you can do this here. If you remove a site from either of the lists, then you might get prompted to allow notifications again from that site.

At the top of the list you can set the default behavior when it comes to sites asking for notifications. You can choose to have these requests hidden if you want to, which means you'll specifically need to seek them out: If a site is asking for permission to send alerts, you should see a small bell icon in the address bar you can click.

You can also get to a site's notification settings via the icon on the far left of the address bar (it looks like two toggle switches)—click this to find a Notifications toggle switch (if alerts have been enabled or disabled). Follow the Site settings link for more options for the website—as well as notification settings, you're also able to set permissions such as location and camera access, as well as manage how pop-ups and ads are handled.

App notifications

App notifications are handled separately to websites. Credit: Lifehacker

When it comes to any web apps or Android apps you've decided to install on your Chromebook, the notifications for these are handled separately: Click the time widget down in the lower right corner, then the gear icon to bring up the main Settings panel. From there, select Security and privacy on the left.

Select Notifications to see a list of all the apps installed on your Chromebook, whether they're web apps you've pinned to the ChromeOS app drawer, or Android apps installed through the Play Store. Next to each app you can see a toggle switch—use this to control whether or not the app can send notifications.

At the top of the list you've got a Do not disturb toggle switch, which can be used to turn all notifications on or off—that covers websites, apps, and system messages sent by ChromeOS. You can still view notifications at any time by clicking on the small notification button to the left of the time and date on the ChromeOS shelf—it'll either be labeled with the number of unread notifications, or show the do not disturb circle icon, or not be there at all (if you've got no notifications).

Bear in mind that individual apps may have their own notification settings too, which can be managed inside the apps themselves. Instagram, for instance, gives you a wealth of options when it comes to which events trigger an alert: From your profile page, click the three horizontal lines (top right), then Notifications to make changes.

It's also worth noting you can find a Do not disturb tile on the panel that pops up when you click on the time (in the lower right corner). Once you've worked through notification settings for both websites and apps, you should be in a more manageable position in terms of only seeing what you want to see on your Chromebook.

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Apple has abruptly discontinued its "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) service, Apple Pay Later, which turned Apple into a money lender when it launched last March in the US and became widely available in October.

The service previously allowed users to split the cost of purchases of up to $1,000 into four installments that were repaid over six weeks without worrying about extra fees or paying interest. For Apple, it was likely a move to increase total Apple Pay users as the company sought to offer more core financial services through its devices.

Now, it appears that Apple has found a different route to offer short-term loans at checkout in Apple Pay. An Apple spokesperson told 9to5Mac that the decision to end Apple Pay Later came ahead of the company's plan to start offering new types of installment loans globally.

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If you're only looking to do the occasional outdoor cooking session this summer, you'll probably only need a simple charcoal grill. If you've got bigger plans—say, grilling every Sunday—or prefer less mess and hassle, you can choose a smokeless electric grill, or a gas grill.

But maybe you fancy yourself a real pitmaster: one who makes a point of discerning the difference between grilling and barbecuing, who strives for smoke rings and bark on every piece of meat. If this is a world you’d like to be a part of, it’s time to consider a smoker. 

The smokers listed in this article:

This wifi enabled smoker allows you to check the temperature from the app.

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This smoker ticks the boxes for a large-scale smoker on a tight budget.

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Is a smoker right for you?

Compared to grilling cooking with a smoker is in a different league. It’s often done with indirect heat at a low temperature, usually anywhere between 225°F and 275°F. While there are a few types of smokers, most of them involve the fuel (be it wood chips, wood pellets, charcoal, or a combination) burning at a low heat in the firebox. Smoke fills the cook chamber, slowly heating the food and imbuing it with smoky flavor. The smoke passes through the chamber and out the smokestack or a vent. 

Depending on what you’re cooking, smoking can take anywhere from 45 minutes for delicate items like fish, to over 12 hours for hefty cuts of meat. Based on your personality and what type of apparatus you opt for, you might be carefully monitoring the process and adjusting the dampers to control the temperature, or chilling by the pool and checking your smart smoker’s app to make adjustments.

Smokers work for all different types of outdoor cooking enthusiasts, which leads me to the benefits of getting yourself a smoker:

• Flavor. Few grilling methods can compete with the flavorful bark and smoky aroma on barbecued meats. The slow cooking time ensures thorough and robust flavoring.

• Flexibility. There are a wide range of smokers, from completely automated and wifi enabled pellet smokers, to traditional offset barrel smokers. Plus, you can use many smokers as regular charcoal grills too, if you’re ever in the mood to do a quick grilling session. 

• A mostly hands-off process. Unlike the speedy cooking of a gas grill or cooking over direct heat from charcoal, smoking requires a lot of time and patience, but allows you to be less glues to your grill. You’ll want to keep the cook chamber shut as much as possible when smoking, which naturally eliminates some of the desire to mess with the food within. Besides periodically keeping an eye on the temperature and adjusting the dampers and fuel if necessary, you can carry on with your day. 

Safety first

Anytime you have charcoal, fires, or embers kicking around, spare a thought for safety. Always follow the directions of the apparatus you choose, especially if you’re a beginner. Keep the smoker at least 10 feet from buildings, if not for the fire risk then to keep your living room couch from smelling like hickory and charcoal.  

Don’t forget to close up the vents to choke out the embers of your fuel after you’ve finished using your smoker. And if I’ve said it once—it’s a good idea to keep a fire extinguisher nearby, just in case.

For ease, consider the Traeger electric wood pellet grill and smoker

This Traeger smoker uses electricity to control how quickly the pellets are released into the firebox, so the temperature doesn’t fluctuate without your intervention. It's also wifi enabled, which allows you to check on the time and temperature from anywhere. It’s great for a range of barbecue enthusiasts, from beginners, to multitaskers, and seasoned experts alike.

For smaller spaces, try the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker

Not every pitmaster needs a piece of equipment as big as a cow. For a more manageable size, the Smokey Mountain will be equally at home on a spacious patio or the sidewalk outside of your apartment building (adhering to your local laws, of course). This smoker uses coals for fuel and a water pan to help catch grease and keep the heating gentle. Although best for smaller batches, this Weber comes in a few sizes, ranging from 14 inches to 22 inches.

If you prefer a hulking offset design, take a look at the Royal Gourmet Offset Smoker

This highly-rated behemoth boasts 443 square inches of main cooking surface and offers the multi-barreled design you might be looking for. As many heavy duty offset smokers can come with a price tag in the thousands, the Royal Gourmet smoker is a surprising bargain. The materials may not be as durable as more expensive smokers, but this model could be appealing for a first-timer on a budget, and looking to enter the world of barbecue. 

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The year is still young, but the shape of the year's movie landscape is already apparent. Comic book movies are in a bit of a holding pattern, opening up space for non-superhero movies; as a result, we're seeing some more unique movies move to the forefront.

Unlike last year, though, when Barbie and Oppenheimer dominated the zeitgeist, there's no consistent theme—unless it's the fact that would-be big-budget blockbusters, even good ones like Furiosa and The Fall Guy, have struggled. It's not entirely clear why (Dune: Part Two still cleaned up), but mid-year, the movies are looking a little peaked on a macro level, even as there is a lot to celebrate on a micro level—as evidenced by these 23 releases that have already made it to streaming or digital rental.

(Note that a few entries on this list are technically 2023 movies that either played internationally or only in limited release in the U.S. I'm defining a 2024 film as one that had the bulk of its North American run this calendar year.)

Dune: Part Two

Release date: March 1
U.S. box office gross: $282 million

Did Denis Villeneuve stick the landing on his adaptation of the latter part of Frank Herbert's epic novel? Yes, and so much so that Dune zealots are already looking ahead to a third film, adapting the second book in the series. The chilly (metaphorically) and cerebral film was a critical as well as a box office success—surprising on both counts, especially considering that the beloved book had come to be seen as more-or-less unadaptable.

Where to stream: Max, Digital rental

Lisa Frankenstein

Release date: Feb. 7
U.S. box office gross: $10 million

This neon-lit horror comedy from director Zelda Williams and writer Diablo Cody got short shrift at the box office but remains a genre-hopping good time. Kathryn Newton plays teen outcast Lisa, who accidentally revives and then develops romantic feelings for a decaying Victorian-era young man (Cole Sprouse). The blend of sweet romance, horror, and dark comedy is not for every taste, but if any of that sounds at appealing, you're in for a grisly treat.

Where to stream: Peacock, digital rental

Late Night With the Devil

Release date: March 22
U.S. box office gross: $11 million

David Dastmalchian stars as Jack Delroy, the host of a late-night talk show in 1977—not quite Johnny Carson, but in that ballpark. A Halloween night broadcast about demonic possession brings Jack's dark secrets to the foreground and soon spirals out of control, with grisly consequences. The conceit is that we're watching a live recording of actual events, and the filmmakers have a lot of fun laying out the period vibe trappings things start to go south for the host, guests, and studio audience.

Where to stream: Shudder, digital rental

I Saw the TV Glow

Release date: May 3
U.S. box office gross: $4 million

What if your favorite TV show was more than just a show, but, instead, a view of a different world? As a couple of kids in 1989 get caught up in their favorite TV show, their senses of identity begin to fracture, for better or worse. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun's second effort (after the extremely online experimental horror flick We're All Going to the World's Fair) is on one level a stylish and trippy consideration of the dangers of nostalgia, and on another, a beautiful, emotionally wrenching vision of the trans experience.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Infested

Release date: April 6 on streaming
U.S. box office gross: N/A

What, you don't like spiders? This 2023 French import, released in the U.S. in April, sees a giant housing project overrun by a rare species of arachnid that never should have been imported. It's not exactly rigorously science-based, just the story of scrappy young people trying to survive an onslaught of rapidly breeding, rapidly growing spiders, even as the authorities are more interested in containing the problem then in actually helping the low-income Parisians trapped inside the building. Good fun for fans of creepy crawlies.

Where to stream: Shudder, AMC+, digital rental

Hit Man

Release date: May 24 on streaming
U.S. box office gross: N/A

Not sure why we're still going direct to streaming for films from major directors, but such is the case with Richard Linklater's Hit Man. Glen Powell stars as a sullen New Orleans professor who discovers he's surprisingly good at his new side gig: impersonating a hired assassin for the police in order to catch people willing to pay to kill. Things get rather complicated (in a darkly comedic way) when he's approached by Madison (Adria Arjona) to bump off her abusive husband, and he's suddenly not so clear about who is a hero and who is a villain.

Where to stream: Netflix

Challengers

Release date: April 26
U.S. box office gross: $50 million

Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) brings us the horny bisexual romantic tennis drama we didn't know we needed. Zendaya stars as a former tennis pro turned coach who falls into a love triangle with her champion husband (Mike Faist) and her low-circuit boyfriend (Josh O'Connor). The chemistry between the three is a smash.

Where to stream: Digital rental

River

Release date: Early 2024 on streaming
U.S. box office gross: N/A

A delightful import from Japanese director Junta Yamaguchi, River is set at a bucolic health spa where nothing much ever happens...until staffer Mikoto finds herself sent back in time exactly two minutes. Every two minutes, actually, and she's not the only one affected. The sci-fi comedy is appropriately frantic, as staff and guests try to figure out how to live their lives two minutes at a time, but there's a winning sweetness that balances nicely with the genre elements. It's really fun.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Hundreds of Beavers

Release date: April 15 on streaming
Box office gross: $420,000 in limited release

This one's been a hit on the festival circuit, delighting roadshow audiences with its Looney Tunes-esque charms and, naturally, an abundance of beavers. A 19th century applejack (that's a kind of booze) salesman Jean Kayak kicks off a war with said beavers (played by humans is giant, absurd costumes) when one eats through a support beam and destroys his home. What ensues is absolute comic anarchy, with one legitimately hilarious silent film-style gag after another. You wanted something unique? This is it.

Where to stream: Digital rental

Love Lies Bleeding

Release date: March 8
Box office gross: $8.3 million

Writer/director Rose Glass (Saint Maud) returns with a darkly comic, neo-noir crime thriller involving a reclusive gym manager (Kristen Stewart) and a bodybuilder (Katy O'Brian) who get involved with the mob after conspiring to cover up a murder. It's a wonderful bit of modern queer pulp with a couple of great lead performances.

Where to stream: Digital rental

The First Omen

Release date: April 5
Box office gross: $20 million

If you had told me that a prequel to the long-defunct Omen franchise would be one of the year's more effective horror movies (so far), I'd have looked at you the way everybody looks at Gregory Peck when he tried to kill his satanic kid way back in the 1976 original. But here we are! First-time feature director Arkasha Stevenson brings a ton of '70s period style and an appropriately paranoid vibe to the story of future antichrist Damien's birth, blending themes of bodily autonomy with genuine horror and one of the freakiest birth scenes in movie history.

Where to stream: Hulu, digital rental

Bosco

Release date: Feb. 2
Box office gross: N/A

Based on a memoir from Quawntay “Bosco” Adams (played here by Aubrey Joseph), who was sentenced in 2004 to 35 years in a maximum security prison for the heinous, unforgivable crime of—well, the movie keeps that under wraps for quite a while. Suffice it to say that, once the truth is revealed, it’s not hard to root for him as he plans an ingenious and fairly spectacular escape with the help of a prison pen pal (Nikki Blonsky). Tyrese Gibson, Theo Rossi, Thomas Jane, and Vivica A. Fox round out the cast.

Where to stream: Peacock, digital rental

Orion and the Dark

Release date: Feb. 2 on streaming
Box office gross: N/A

Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) wrote the early drafts of this DreamWorks animated adaptation of the Emma Yarlett novel. When young Orion is visited by the literal incarnation of his fear of the dark, he's taken on a whirlwind journey to explore the world of night, with the hope it will help him face his fears. Without ever feeling age-inappropriate, this Netflix animated film tackles some bigger themes than we're used to seeing in modern kids' movies (existential dread, anyone?).

Where to stream: Netflix

The Fall Guy

Release date: May 3
Box office gross: $88 million

While theatrical audiences didn't go wild for this action-comedy take on the 1980s TV show, this Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt vehicle, from John Wick director David Leitch, is an impressively enjoyable bit of summer fun. The stunts are, perhaps unsurprisingly, continuously impressive, as are the special effects, but the real star is the chemistry between Gosling and Blunt. It's the kind of satisfying, enjoyable, standalone entertainment we don't get to see tht often these days (and given it's on track to lose buckets of money, perhaps ever again).

Where to stream: Digital rental

Drive-Away Dolls

Release date: Feb. 23
Box office gross: $5 million

Ethan Coen goes it solo as director (co-writing with his wife Tricia Cooke) for this gloriously unhinged tribute to '70s exploitation romances. Marian and Jamie are a couple of friends who, setting off on a road trip to Tallahassee, Florida, discover that they've taken the wrong rental car. The tipoff: A briefcase full of sex toys and a human head in the trunk. Of such circumstances are great lesbian adventures born. If it's not quite a match for the Coen brothers' best work (a tall order), it's still an awfully good time.

Where to stream: Peacock, Digital rental

Shirley

Release date: March 22 on streaming
U.S. box office gross: N/A

John Ridley (screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave) directs this rather necessary biopic of Shirley Chisholm. The first Black woman elected to Congress (in 1969), she ran a forcefully progressive campaign for president just three years later. While the film doesn't stray too far stylistically from the biopic formula, Regina King gives a moving, powerhouse performance in the title role.

Where to stream: Netflix

Scoop

Release date: April 5 on streaming
U.S. box office gross: N/A

Gillian Anderson plays real-life British journalist Emily Maitlis, who lead the BBC2 team that secured a disastrous (for the prince) interview with Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) that laid bare his associations with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Anderson is phenomenal in a movie that manages to make the hunt for an interview suitably dramatic.

Where to stream: Netflix

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Release date: March 22
U.S. box office gross: $113 million

Look, there's no question the whole Ghostbusters thing has grown a little perfunctory. Still, there's fun to be had in this Avengers-esque mash-up that brings together generations of Ghostbusters more formally than did the previous film, Afterlife. It also returns to New York City, which just feels right, and Ernie Hudson remains the unsung franchise MVP.

Where to stream: Digital purchase

Bob Marley: One Love

Release date: Feb. 14
U.S. box office gross: $97 million

In many ways standard issue as biopics go, this one's entirely saved by the brilliant lead performance from Kingsley Ben-Adir and, of course, a killer soundtrack. An underdog box office success story.

Where to stream: Paramount+, Digital rental

Monkey Man

Release date: April 5
U.S. box office gross: $25 million

Dev Patel writes, directs, and stars in this bloody action thriller that winds up giving John Wick a run for its money. Loosely inspired by the Hindu deity Hanuman, the film casts Patel as a nameless fighter in a sleazy bare-knuckle establishment who is wronged, and sets his mind on revenge. The actor is incredibly compelling onscreen, and appears to have a clear eye behind the camera; Monkey Man stands out from the action-movie pack by eschewing highly stylized fight choreography in favor of a more brutal, gritty style.

Where to stream: Peacock, Digital purchase

Jim Henson Idea Man

Release date: May 31 on streaming
U.S. box office gross: N/A

Ron Howard directs this moving, funny, and generally essential biography of the man behind The Muppets, Sesame Street, and The Dark Crystal . It's por anyone who's ever laughed along with Gonzo, or cried their way through a frog singing "Rainbow Connection" (so, all humans, essentially).

Where to stream: Disney+

The Promised Land

Release date: Feb. 2
U.S. box office gross: $300,000

In 18th-century Denmark, down-on-his-luck war hero Capt. Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) hopes to turn his meager retirement pension into some kind of life for himself by cultivating a portion of a vast wilderness that no one else has been able to make anything of. A covetous local magistrate quickly finds himself threatened by Kahlen's reputation, with the intent of spoiling all his plans. The beautifully forbidding Nordic drama plays out with some of the style of westerns.

Where to stream: Hulu, Digital rental

All of Us Strangers

Release date: Jan. 4 (U.S. wide release)
U.S. box office gross: $4 million

This is another that was technically released in 2023, though it didn't go into wide release in the U.S. until January 2024. A ghost story on the surface, All of Us Strangers follows lonely screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) as he starts a romantic relationship with his very mysterious neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal), the two of them the only residents of an imposing new apartment building. The relationship draws Adam to return to his family home, where he finds his (long dead) parents acting very much alive and well. The movie goes to very dark places from there, providing a strong reminder that loss is an inevitable part of life, yes, but also that the only real comfort is in forgetting and moving on. Emotionally raw, but beautiful.

Where to stream: Hulu, Digital rental

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Amazon has seemingly figured out that part of our obsession with security cameras is being able to share the moments we capture, whether funny, scary, or just plain weird. As a way to sweeten the deal for subscribers of the Blink Plus plan, Blink will now give you a daily summary of your events, stitched together in a single “moment” made for sharing.  

Jonathan Cohn, head of product at Blink, seems to acknowledge that most of the videos on security cams aren’t dangerous or threatening, but rather another format for capturing our daily lives. Per a press release from Blink, “Whether it’s their family playing outside, packages being delivered, or pets exploring the yard, Blink Moments combines the moments that matter into one video.”

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While Blink Moments is starting to roll out today, it’ll take a few weeks for all subscribers to see the feature. Blink offers two tiers of plans: Blink Basic ($3/month) for one camera, or Plus ($10/month) for more than one. Moments is only available on the higher tier, but according to Amazon, most customers have at least three Blink cameras anyways. The Plus plan already offers person detection, live view recording, up to 60 days of video cloud storage, and motion-detection video recording. 

Sharing aside, if your camera grabs a lot of footage, it can be painful to scroll through all the saved clips. I suspect most people, like me, simply don’t. A similar feature is available to me via my Eufy Pet Camera, which gives me an end-of-day collection of my dog’s hilarity all ready to share, and I admit has made me more likely to actually see what the camera is recording (and share it).

Blink, which is owned by Amazon, offers a range of indoor and outdoor cameras. I’ve reviewed a number of them and found them generally to be affordable and easy to install cameras with a neat, easy app for viewing.

Nobody likes to feel sluggish and sweaty, so when the sun is set to “broil,” I understand that you’d rather take your workout to an air-conditioned gym. But the human body really can acclimate to exercising in the heat! After a few weeks, these temperatures will be your new normal—and research suggests you may enjoy a small performance boost when the weather cools down again.

Hot workouts can be dangerous, so I trust that you know common sense advice about running in the heat. Among the most important: Drink to thirst (or a little bit more), and stop and get help if you start feeling symptoms of heat illness like nausea, dizziness, or weakness. And while it’s great to work on your ability to run in the heat, don’t be stupid about it—stay inside if the temperature is hotter than you can handle, and stay aware of smog and ozone levels (which get worse on hot days) if you live in an urban area.

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Why exercising in the heat feels so miserable

Running is miserable and heat is miserable, therefore running in the heat is miserable. But there’s more to it than that, and exercising in the heat feels even worse than you'd expect from stacking those two factors together.

Your brain perceives effort differently in the heat, so even before you overheat, you feel sluggish. In a study published in the European Journal of Physiology, cyclists who worked out in a lab with a temperature of 95 degrees were slower than when they did the same time trial at 59 degrees. That makes sense, but here’s the weird part: They didn’t overheat and then slow down. They were slower from the start. It seems our brains slow our bodies down proactively on hot days in order to conserve energy.

As a workout continues, our bodies heat up. In another study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, when asked to cycle to exhaustion, participants pooped out when their core temperatures reached 104 degrees, no matter what temperature they started at. The athletes that took the longest to reach that temperature were the ones who wore a fancy water-cooling jacket. You can mimic this effect in your own workouts by drinking ice-cold beverages and pouring water over your head. The longer you can keep your body cool, the longer you can keep up a hard effort.

It's the heat and the humidity

But cooling your body isn’t a complete solution. Dumping a cup of ice water over your head or putting one into your belly only provides momentary relief, and water-cooling jackets aren’t practical outside of physiology labs. So let’s look at what happens in real world conditions.

Your body tries to cool off, in part, by sweating. When moisture evaporates from your skin, it takes some body heat with it. In humid weather, though, sweat doesn’t evaporate as easily because the air is already full of water vapor. So when we’re talking about “heat,” we really mean something more like “perceived heat,” which is a combination of heat and humidity. This heat index chart shows the relationship:

Credit: NOAA

You’ll run slower in the heat (and humidity). While you can find charts like this one that predict how much slower you will run a race, the truth is that heat's effect on your running depends on whether you’re used to the heat, and on your body size.

That’s right—not your fitness level, but your actual physical size. People who are larger have more muscle, fat, or both. Muscle generates heat, and fat acts as an insulator. On the other hand, smaller folks generate less heat, but have more skin through which to dissipate that heat—the ol’ surface area to volume ratio. This is why petite runners place better in races on hot days.

Some people think being more fit makes you better at dealing with heat, but that's only partially true: The fitter you are, the more body heat you produce, just because you’re so good at working hard. Short of changing your body shape (which is possible, but hardly a short-term fix), what can you do to tolerate exercising in the heat better? The answer is simple: Spend more time exercising in the heat.

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Why you should start a heat adaptation protocol

Running in the heat makes you better at running in the heat—and it makes you better, period.

Say you do all your workouts outdoors this summer, while your equally fit twin does identical workouts on a treadmill in an air-conditioned gym. Who do you think will finish first in a 5K on a hot weekend in August? That’s right, you will.

But even if the weather is unseasonably cool on that August day, your heat training will still help you beat your twin. Part of the magic of heat training is that it increases the amount of blood in your veins (the better to put it towards your skin for cooling, while still having enough to fuel your muscles). The effect has been compared to a mild, totally legal version of blood doping. Scientists are still debating exactly how this effect works, and whether it always happens when people attempt to adapt to heat adaptation, but overall the evidence is strong enough that I believe we should all try to get some of those adaptations if we can do so safely.

Here’s the bad news: Heat adaptation takes work. It’s not enough to sit around in the air conditioning all summer, only venturing outside for occasional workouts. A study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found that people who made no particular effort to exercise in the heat didn’t have any better heat tolerance in the fall than in the spring. If you want the advantages of heat training, you have to work for them.

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How to adapt to exercising in the heat

Option 1: Train normally, but without avoiding the heat, for two weeks

In scientific research, heat acclimation protocols for athletes generally involve 7 to 10 consecutive days of exercising in the heat, for 60 to 90 minutes each day. A simpler method that can be done by entire teams, or by individuals, is to simply do your normal training in the heat for about two weeks.

Take it easy at first. Remember that your body is still trying to convince you that you are super tired and need to slow down. Safety guidelines for workers provide a reality check here. On their first day in the heat, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends giving workers just 20% of their usual workload. Within a week, they should slowly ramp up to 100%.

Option 2: Spend two hours in the heat every day, whether you're exercising or not

This US Army training protocol provides a good road map for adapting yourself to the heat: Spend at least two hours in the heat each day, it says, and include cardiovascular exercise (like running, cycling, or anything that gets your heart rate up) as part of that. If you can’t handle two hours without feeling symptoms like nausea or dizziness, do what you can and view the two-hour benchmark as a goal to work toward.

You can expect to be better adapted to the heat after about two weeks of spending two hours per day in the heat, although you may be able to start seeing results in just a few days.

Option 3: Visit the sauna after each workout

A way to combine the protocols above, without relying on the weather, is to step into a sauna or hot bath after your workout. If your gym has a sauna, this is a great way to use it. The post-workout sauna time will help your heat adaptation, and you can do it even if your workout was done in less-than-sweltering temperatures. The time spent in the sauna can be 15 to 30 minutes, starting with a shorter time and working up to longer.

How to keep your heat adaptations even when the weather cools off

To stay adapted to the heat, you have to keep spending time in it. You can take a few days off, but if you slack off for a week, you’ll start to lose your hot weather superpowers. This snowballs quickly: you'll lose about 75% of your adaptations after three weeks, according to the Army’s estimates.

To keep up your heat training in cool weather, you can try wearing long sleeves and tights, like elite runner Kara Goucher did when training for a world championship race in muggy Osaka. (She won a bronze medal, the first American ever to do so). She also spent a few weeks in Osaka before the race began; traveling to experience the heat might be an option worth considering if you’re a dedicated athlete with vacation time to burn.

You can also try the opposite of this keep-cool advice, and choose to run at the hottest time of day on asphalt roads with no shade. Or return to the sauna protocol after your cooler-weather workouts. Whatever you do, stay safe, and enjoy your new superpowers.

It's summertime, and you gotta fill the empty hours somehow, so young people are clicking bananas, creating imaginary shows on Netflix, and developing very strong opinions about Star Wars.

Why gamers are spending all day clicking bananas

Video game companies typically spend between $60 and $80 million producing a single AAA video game, but a free-to-play game that probably cost about six bucks to develop is currently sitting at the number two position on Steam’s online chart and threatening to take over Counter-Strike's top spot. There are around 800,000 people currently “playing” Banana, up from about 400,000 last week, so it’s going a little bananas. As for what it actually is, here’s the official description: “Banana is a clicker Game, in which you click a Banana!” That’s really all you do.

Many users seem to be into it because it’s dumb and ridiculous, but there’s another driver for Banana’s popularity. If you leave the program running for three hours, you “own” a digital banana skin. Leave it running for 18 hours and you own a rare digital banana skin. These assets can then be sold on Steam’s marketplace. Common bananas sell for pennies. Rare ones can sell for over $100. So gamers are making a little money by playing it too.

While there’s something unseemly about how Banana strips the “game” part away from selling gaming assets, it doesn’t seem like a scam or an NFT-style pyramid scheme. The developers aren’t making any untrue claims about their game. People are willing shell out the price of digital bananas (for some reason), so everyone makes a few cents—Steam gets its cut, Banana’s developers get their cut, and the banana-clicking user gets their cut. 

As Banana’s popularity continues to increase, it seems possible that Steam will decide its doesn’t want to be the internet’s home of clicking bananas and pull the game, but for now, you can still click bananas all day, if you’re that kind of person. 

What is Smiling Friends?

Smiling Friends is this year's must-watch program for the younger set. The first season of the animated series premiered on Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network’s nighttime programming block, in 2022, but it started really catching on this May, when season two began. Like Adventure Time before, it’s one of those shows everyone likes, to the tune of a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Smiling Friends combines traditional animation with stop-motion, live action, rotoscoping, and really any other technique, to tell the story of The Smiling Friends Corporation, a small business dedicated to making people happy. From that simple concept, Smiling Friends spins unexpected, innovative, and bizarre tales that are funnier, smarter, and more cutting than just about anything else on TV. Creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel started on YouTube before collaborating on Smiling Friends, and they bring the online sensibility to every episode. Definitely check it out if you like watching things that are good. New episodes of Smiling Friends air on Adult Swim on Sundays at midnight, and are available to stream on Max the following day.

Is there a Netflix show called My Best Day?

If you’ve been seeing promos on Instagram, X, or TikTok for a Netflix series called My Best Day and thought, “I’d like to see that show,” you can’t. It’s not a real show; it’s a meme. Last week, Instagrammers, Snapchatters, Xers, and others started inserting pictures of themselves, artwork, and videos into a fake Netflix homepage preview screen for a series called “My Best Day.” Here’s the Snapchat filter if you want to make your own. And here are a few examples for inspiration. 

New meme stock alert: internet bullish on Grindr?

In the middle of Pride Month, the financial wizards at Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets are hyping a new meme stock: Grindr. Late last week, a ton of posts started appearing on the subreddit, with users promising to put “everything I own + my mothers chemotherapy fund into this stock.” Grindr’s price jumped from $9.23 a share to $10.37 in a single day on Friday, but I don’t know how anything works, so who knows whether that was due to Reddit or not. Today the stock is sinking back to earth, for what that’s worth. Whether Grindr will go the way of GameStop and become a financial saga that goes on for years and inspire a feature film, or is just a flash-in-the-pan online joke that will not be remembered eight minutes from now remains to be seen. Note: please do not take any investing advice from Reddit.

Viral video of the week: The Acolyte Episode 3: Absolute Garbage

This week’s viral video comes from YouTube channel Star Wars Theory. In “The Acolyte Episode 3: Absolute Garbage,” Star Wars Theory gives their unvarnished opinion about the latest episode of Disney+’s new series Star Wars: The Acolyte. The verdict: It's really bad.

A negative review from a fan isn’t that interesting on its own—no one hates Star Wars as much as Star Wars fans after all—but the review is part of a larger trend within Star Wars fandom. The Acolyte is a critical hit. It’s got an 83% “fresh” rating among Rotten Tomatoes critics. But the fans are seemingly rejecting it: the audience score is only 15%, and there's a lot going on here.

Part of The Acolyte's bad audience score seems to come from that depressing "white dude" faction of the fandom that doesn't like "wokeness" in "their" Star Wars—the series' diverse cast and its "space witch" coven proclaiming that the galaxy doesn't welcome “women like us" is the kind of thing that rubs cretins the wrong way (as if science fiction hasn't always commented on current culture). Star Wars Theory raised some controversy recently by saying that women don't like Star Wars, but his gripe here (if we take him at face value) is about the show's lore not fitting in with the established Star Wars universe.

"This isn't what Star Wars is supposed to be" has been a common criticism of the franchise since the prequels were released in the 1990s. A lot of fans don't like The Acolyte for the same reason I thought the prequels were dogshit: The movie/show/cartoon that defines the series for each fan is the one they happened to have seen when they were 11.

It's not a dumb criticism like "this is too woke," but the sheer volume of canonical Star Wars product, new audience expectations, and changing mores, make lore consistency impossible. Since Star Wars: A New Hope premiered in the late 1970s, twelve Star Wars feature films, six Star Wars live-action TV shows, nine animated series, and around 100 video game adaptations have been released, all at different times and aimed at different people. This isn’t generally a problem for critics or casual viewers, because it’s a just a show, so who cares, but if you’ve made your love of Star Wars part of your identity, and you have a lot of time to think about how it all fits together because you don’t have a job or family yet, it’s serious. 

Lore creep isn't the whole problem, though. On the meta level, a critical mass seems to have been reached that is forcing Star Wars fas to confront the sausage-making behind the thing they love. Star Wars is special to the people who love it. It's personal. But whatever specialness is left in the series is being rapidly smothered under a mountain of mediocrity slapped with the Star Wars name. Along with the shows, books, movies, and video game tie-ins, there’s more official Star Wars merchandise—t-shirts, figurines, coffins, etc.—than anyone could collect in a lifetime. It's exhausting, and it's becoming impossible to ignore that whole thing is a money-grab, where fans are seen as walking wallets. See also, the backlash over the Star Wars Hotel.

The original films became merchandising opportunities after they became successful, but at least you could argue that the action figures and t-shirts were in response to people wanting them, not the other way around. Now the Star Wars cart is permanently before the Star Wars horse and selling dolls and shit is the entire point. The ruthless efficiency with which the intellectual property is managed is revealing an emptiness beneath the surface that's impossible to ignore.

You'll need a hug after Shadow of the Erdtree gets its claws around you. The follow-up to the 2022 gaming phenomenon presents a new realm to explore, new mysteries to unravel, and new bosses to get utterly demolished by.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Enlarge (credit: Bandai)

Elden Ring was my first leap into FromSoftware titles (and Dark-Souls-like games generally), and I fell in deep. Over more than 200 hours, I ate up the cryptic lore, learned lots of timings, and came to appreciate the feeling of achievement through perseverance.

Months ago, in preparation for Elden Ring's expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree (also on PlayStation and Xbox, arriving June 21), I ditched the save file with which I had beaten the game and started over. I wanted to try out big swords and magic casting. I wanted to try a few new side quests. And I wanted to have a fresh experience with the game before Shadow arrived.

I have had a very fresh experience, in that this DLC has made me feel like I'm still in the first hour of my first game. Reader, this expansion is mopping the floor with me. It looked at my resume, which has "Elden Lord" as its most recent job title, and has tossed it into the slush pile. If you're wondering whether Shadow would, like Elden Ring, provide a different kind of challenge and offer, like the base game, easier paths for Souls newcomers: No, not really. At least not until you're already far along. This DLC is for people who beat Elden Ring, or all but beat it, and want capital-M More.

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Microsoft's AI chatbot, Copilot, has been steadily growing and adding new features since its introduction last year. (At that time, Microsoft called it Bing Chat.) As with all things AI, it can be difficult to keep up with the updates, changes, and new features, but Microsoft is adding them to Copilot at a steady clip. Here are some of the best features and changes Microsoft has made to Copilot this year.

Copilot has an app now

If you're still using the Copilot web app, feel free to keep doing so. However, since the beginning of this year, Microsoft has offered Copilot as a dedicated mobile app as well. You can choose to use the experience signed in or signed out, but signing into your Microsoft account gives you access to more features (including bypassing the very strict prompt limit).

Everyone can use Copilot in Microsoft 365 (if you pay)

One of Copilot's flagship features is its integration with Microsoft 365. Microsoft turned the bot into an AI Clippy, adding AI assistant options to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. However, Copilot in 365 was only available to business users—the rest of us that use these apps outside of work were out of luck.

That changed early this year, when Microsoft rolled out Copilot support in Microsoft 365 to all Copilot Pro users. As long as you subscribe to the plan for $20 per month, you can try out Copilot in this suite of apps. While it's a pricey subscription, if you're interested in Copilot, it might be worth the price, since Microsoft is adding most of Copilot's new features to Microsoft 365 apps.

You can use Copilot in Outlook

Previously, if you wanted to use Copilot in Outlook, you needed to head to the web app or go the long way through Microsoft Teams. Since last month, however, Microsoft has offered Copilot support in the Outlook app itself. That makes it easier to use some of the new Copilot features in Outlook, like email draft coaching, choosing the tone of a draft (e.g. neutral, casual, formal).

Reference files when prompting Copilot

Since last month, you've been able to pull in files from your device, SharePoint, and OneDrive when prompting Copilot. If you want the bot to summarize a Word doc, or to have the context of a Powerpoint presentation when responding to your prompt, just type a / when prompting to pull up the file locator.

New options in Word with Copilot

Personally, if there's one app that could benefit most from Copilot, I feel it's Word. Generative AI's main strength in my opinion is text-based, so having an assistant to help you manage your word processing could be a big help.

This year, Microsoft has given Copilot in Word a boost. Here are some of the highlights:

• Use Rewrite on specific sections of a document.

• Highlight a portion of text to summarize and share.

• Create tables from your text.

• Make new tables based on the format of previous tables in your doc.

• Confidential docs are labeled as confidential when referencing them in new docs.

New features for Copilot in Excel

Microsoft has been adding new Copilot features to Excel, as well. Since the beginning of this year, here's what you've been able to do:

• Request a chart of your data.

• Ask Copilot follow-up questions, including requesting clarifications to previous responses.

• Generate formula column options with one prompt.

• Use Copilot to figure out why you're running into issues with a task.

Copilot in OneNote

OneNote actually has had quite a few new Copilot features since January. If you have access to Copilot in OneNote and frequently use the app, here's what you can expect:

• Create notes from audio recordings and transcriptions, then ask Copilot to summarize the notes and arrange them in different ways.

• Create to-do lists with Copilot.

• Copilot can search through information within your organization for added context to your requests.

• Ask Copilot to organize your notes for you.

Copilot for Teams got an upgrade

If you use Copilot in Teams, you may notice now that the bot can now automatically take notes during meetings. If you head to Recap the meeting, you can get a summary of what your team or the call just talked about.

You may also see a new Copilot option attached to the top of your Teams chats. This lets you quickly prompt Copilot inside chats, pulling in documents with the / key. You'll also see that Teams will alert you when AI is being used in a meeting, such as when Copilot is in use without transcriptions.

Let the AI do the prompting for you

Soon, Copilot will start autocompleting your prompts for you. When you start typing, the bot will offer suggestions for what it thinks you might want to do. If you say "Summarize," before you can say what you want summarized, Copilot will guess what you want to round up, including things like your "last 10 emails."

The more accessories I add to my tablets, the more I feel like I’m missing the point. Should I really buy a brand new M4 iPad complete with a $350 Magic Keyboard, or should I just get a MacBook at that point? That’s why I like portable but separate keyboards like Logitech’s new Keys-To-Go 2, which takes what I like about my home keyboard and makes it far more travel friendly.

Logitech’s current small keyboards

I’m a big fan of Logitech keyboards. At home, I use the MX Mechanical Mini, a tenkeyless low-profile keyboard with tactile mechanical switches. While away, I usually swap that out for the MX Keys Mini, which is roughly the same but with membrane switches—not as satisfying to type on, but quieter to those around me.

This usually works out for me, but I do have a few gripes. First is durability: the MX Keys Mini is entirely exposed when it’s in my bag, so I worry about keys getting damaged in transit. Second is size: It’s a small keyboard, but it’s still a little wide at 11.65 inches, and the angled riser it uses for greater comfort when typing makes it harder to store away.

This is partially my fault, since the MX Keys Mini isn’t meant for travel. That's why Logitech released the original Keys-To-Go, a completely flat keyboard that’s so thin its keys don’t have much opportunity to get damaged.

This comes with its own problems, though, mostly in the form of comfort. There’s a reason my MX Keys Mini has that angle, even if its riser likes to get caught on notebooks and flaps when packed away.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

How the Keys-To-Go 2 improves on what came before

With the Keys-To-Go 2, Logitech is trying for the best of both worlds, completely redesigning its portable keyboard for both greater durability and greater comfort.

The change mostly comes down to one new design feature: The keyboard comes with an attached cover now. This allows the Keys-To-Go 2 to protect its keys while packed away, plus provide a greater angle while typing.

That steeper angle is thanks to a magnetic bottom, which allows the cover to fold underneath the keyboard to act like a riser. When fully deployed like this, the Keys-To-Go 2 has an 18mm pitch, slightly up from the original Keys-To-Go. It’s also got 1mm of key travel, which is equivalent to the Magic Keyboard's.

The entire Keys-To-Go 2 is smaller than the original Keys-To-Go, too, since the cover replaces what was a large rectangle of empty space at the top of the original. Plus, the shortcut keys are now a full function row when used on non-mobile operating systems.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Still room to grow

There’s still compromises (I scored 86 wpm on the Keys-To-Go 2 vs. 92 on the MX Keys Mechanical), but the overall experience is now much more similar to a Magic Keyboard or an MX Keys Mini at a fraction of the cost.

Whereas my previous Logitech keyboards needed me to plan my packing around them, I could easily see myself just making the Keys-To-Go 2 part of my everyday carry routine. It’s just under 10 inches long and only 0.18 inches tall (with the cover closed), so I certainly have room for it.

That said, this is still a tablet or phone keyboard through-and-through. There’s no touchpad, so it expects you to control your device via its own touch screen. Or you could pair a mouse, although that sort of defeats the purpose of this being a neat and tidy all-in-one package.

There’s also a sacrifice that comes with having a neat and tidy package: the batteries. To get this keyboard so thin, there’s no room for rechargeable batteries, so instead you need to supply replaceable ones. Some people actually prefer these, since they don’t limit your device’s lifespan, but they’re a bit hard to swap out in the Keys-To-Go 2. You’ll need both a nonstandard screw bit (T5) and nonstandard batteries (CR2032 coin batteries) for this. The keyboard comes with batteries already installed, but not a compatible screwdriver, so you might be in for a bit of frustration when your battery first runs dry.

Logitech does promise up to 36 months of battery life with up to two hours of continuous typing per day, a metric I didn’t have time to test in the couple weeks of early access Logitech gave me with the Keys-To-Go.

One more minor complaint: I was sometimes able to press keys even with the cover closed. While I don’t expect this would damage the keyboard, it could turn on your connected devices while it jostles around in your bag.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

It’s a bit pricey

The Keys-To-Go 2 is purposefully designed for one specific task, and at that task, it succeeds just about as well as it could. While I would personally like to see a touchpad on the device, the extra space or thickness needed for that would just turn this into an entirely different product.

For non-attachable tablet keyboards, this implements a lot of smart upgrades over its predecessor and is among the best options you have right now.

Unfortunately, that also means there’s a bit of a premium for it. The price here starts at $80, which while far under what an attachable keyboard can run you, is still lot to pay for a one-purpose device. It's also $10 more than its predecessor.

Whether that’s worth it to you depends on how much you appreciate Logitech’s build quality, as well as convenience features like its shortcut keys for easily mapping across three different devices. For me, these are well worth the price of entry, especially with the smart changes Logitech has made to durability here, meaning the keyboard is likely to last a long time.

Enlarge (credit: Ric Tapia via Getty)

Hackers who stole terabytes of data from Ticketmaster and other customers of the cloud storage firm Snowflake claim they obtained access to some of the Snowflake accounts by first breaching a Belarusian-founded contractor that works with those customers.

About 165 customer accounts were potentially affected in the recent hacking campaign targeting Snowflake’s customers, but only a few of these have been identified so far. In addition to Ticketmaster, the banking firm Santander has also acknowledged that their data was stolen but declined to identify the account from which it was stolen. Wired, however, has independently confirmed that it was a Snowflake account; the stolen data included bank account details for 30 million customers, including 6 million account numbers and balances, 28 million credit card numbers, and human resources information about staff, according to a post published by the hackers. Lending Tree and Advance Auto Parts have also said they might be victims as well.

Snowflake has not revealed details about how the hackers accessed the accounts, saying only that the intruders did not directly breach Snowflake’s network. This week, Google-owned security firm Mandiant, one of the companies engaged by Snowflake to investigate the breaches, revealed in a blog post that in some cases the hackers first obtained access through third-party contractors, without identifying the contractors or stating how this access aided the hackers in breaching the Snowflake accounts.

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This post is part of Lifehacker’s “Living With AI” series: We investigate the current state of AI, walk through how it can be useful (and how it can’t), and evaluate where this revolutionary tech is heading next. Read more here.

AI-generated art isn’t a concept: It’s here. Thanks to numerous tools with simple and approachable interfaces, anyone can hop on their computer can start generating whatever image ideas pop into their minds. However, as more people have started experimenting with these tools, serious ethical and legal issues have cropped up, and just about everyone online seems to have an opinion on this divisive technology.

As part of our series on living with AI, we put together this guide to demystify how AI art tools work, explain the controversies around them, and show how they impact everyone, from professional artists to curious casuals.

Where and how to make AI art

Before we get too far in the weeds on the tech and ethics of AI art, let’s quickly overview the tools themselves.

There are many AI art generators out there, but the major players would be Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Copilot, DALL-E 3, and Craiyon. All of these tools are accessible via the web or desktop, and some also have mobile apps.

Midjourney is one of the most powerful options, but it requires a subscription starting at $10 per month. Midjourney also requires a Discord account, since it operates entirely through a dedicate Discord chat server. (Although this is changing.) That means you’re working alongside other users, and all your images are posted publicly on Midjourney’s web gallery, unless you pay $60 per month for the “stealth mode” feature included with the Pro plan.

DALL-E 3 is another powerful option, and is easy to use, since OpenAI now bundles it with ChatGPT Plus. However, you don't need to pay $20 per month to use it: Copilot has free access to DALL-E 3, so as long as you have a Microsoft account, you have DALL-E.

Stable Diffusion is also free and let you make as many images as you want, but image generation takes longer, especially if the servers are busy. Craiyon is also free, but subject to longer generation times, and image quality is lower.

In terms of approachability, DALL-E 3 via Copilot by far the best option if you’re just curious about these tools. It’s free and you can access it from Copilot's web app, Microsoft Edge, or from the Copilot mobile app.

That said, despite the differences in quality and and interface, these tools all work the same way: You type a prompt into a text box describing the image you want to see, press enter, then wait a few moments for the AI to generate the picture based on your description.

The quality of the final product will depend on which tool you’re using and how detailed your prompt is. Some tools, like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, have guides on coming up with better prompts, and even extra features that can help the AI get closer to your intended result. But even with these extra steps, the process only takes a few moments, and every tool is simple to start using.

How do these tools learn how to draw? And why are there too many fingers?

The images you get from these tools can be impressive, but it’s not because the software actually knows how to draw.

As I pointed out earlier this year, calling these products “AI” is a misnomer. Unlike the common conception of artificial intelligence as seen in science fiction media, these tools are not alive, sentient, or aware in any way, and they do not reason or learn. This is true of both text-based chatbots and generative art tools. In the simplest terms, they work like your phone’s predictive text, pulling from a list of possible solutions to your prompt. When it comes to generative art tools specifically, the tool simply searches for images that match the keywords or descriptions in your prompt, then mashes the elements together.

This is entirely different from the actual process of drawing—in fact, the AI never “draws” anything at all, which is why these tools are notorious for “not knowing how to draw hands.”

As video game designer Doc Burford explains, “If I tell a machine ‘show me Nic Cage dressed as Superman,’ the machine may have images tagged with ‘Nic Cage,’ and it may have images tagged ‘Superman,’ but where the thinking mind of an actual intelligence will put those ideas together and fill in the blank spots with things it knows—like an artist who has also memorized human anatomy—the AI is still gonna give me an imperfect S-Shield on Superman’s chest, it’s gonna mess up the fingers.”

Ethical and legal concerns of AI art

These tools are easy to use and can often spit back compelling results—discounting the occasional extra digits and wonky faces—but there are major ethical concerns around making and distributing AI-generated art that go beyond quality and accuracy.

The main issue with generative AI art tools is they’re built on the backs of uncredited, unpaid artists whose art is used without consent. Every image you generate only exists because of the artists it’s copying from, even if those works aren’t copyrighted. Some AI evangelists like to claim these tools work “just like the human brain” and that “human artists are inspired by or reference other artists the same way,” but this is untrue for multiple reasons.

First, there is no being or mind in an AI, and therefore no memory, no intention, and no skill. Stable Diffusion isn’t “learning” how to draw or taking inspiration from another piece of art: It’s just an algorithm that searches and auto-fills data in the ways it’s programmed to. Humans, on the other hand, think, feel, and act with intention. Their works come from their memorized skill and lived experience. Even using another person’s art as a reference or inspiration is a deliberate choice informed by the artist’s goals.

To help explain the distinction, I reached out to Nicholas Kole, an illustrator and character designer who works with major film and video game studios like Disney, Activision, and DreamWorks. “The work I do, as a concept artist and illustrator, begins with digging deeply into the context of each project,” he says. “I ask pointed questions, tease out ideas about worldbuilding, story, gameplay [and] the process from start to finish is extremely specific, bespoke, and tailored to the precise needs of my colleagues and clients. Every single cufflink, belt buckle, prop, and motif—the art we make is the careful work of thoughtful design, done lovingly and with attention to detail.”

“The intrusion of an algorithm into that process that doesn’t care for context, that doesn’t know whether people have five or 17 fingers, that mashes up visual guesswork based on stolen data, and functions essentially like a million monkeys at a million typewriters is anathema to me.”

Kole says AI art “flies in the face of everything I stand for creatively, and everything I’ve wanted to do with my life’s work. It’s an insult to the reason I make and engage with art—I want to see thoughtful human craft that is expressive, and express myself with thoughtful human craft.” A quick glance through portfolio sites like Art Station shows Kole is not alone in those sentiments, with many professional artists taking a hard stand against AI art.

This hardline stance isn’t just for ideological or aesthetic reasons, either. AI automatization poses a threat to job security for many industries. The threat to working artists is just as real.

AI art also poses a risk to the companies that employ these artists. There have already been major legal battles over AI art infringing on copyrighted materials, and the system is starting to favor original artists. As such, some companies outright ban the use of AI art and reject any applications from artists with AI-generated works in their portfolios to avoid any copyright issues.

Are there ethical uses of AI art?

Despite the ethical and legal issues, some argue there is a place for these tools, and that they can even be helpful to professional artists. In an interview with Kotaku, visual artist RJ Palmers says artists could use AI to “come up with loose compositions, color patterns, lighting, etc.,” for example, and that the tools “can all be very cool for getting inspiration.”

Similarly, author and animator Scott Sullivan argues in his blog that AI is helpful for ideation and iteration while brainstorming, and that “it’s all about the artist’s intention and how they use the tool.”

AI art generators also aren't strictly a "prompt to image" creator, either. Some options, like Microsoft Designer, have multiple other purposes as well. You can use the AI photo editing tools to remove a subject from a photo, or swap out the background entirely; you can create messaging stickers from AI to plop relevant images into conversations; you can even create social media posts from prompts, in case you don't know how to use designer tools yourself. So these tools can have a purpose above simply "generating art."

But while AI art is contentious among professional artists, casual users may wonder whether any of this matters for the layperson or hobbyist that just wants to play with them once in a while. And, sure, AI tools could be used as toys, but it’s important to note that’s not how the creators of these products treat them.

Almost all AI art generators are commercial products in some way. Some are paid products, while free services may earn money through ad revenue. Some are also used as “proof of concept” examples to entice commercial clients to pay for the more powerful version of the tool.

In all cases, the people that make these tools earn money off the work of the artists whose work is used to create the image you’re generating, even if it’s just for fun. As Kole explains, “The generative system can’t function without the stolen life's work of countless passionate people just like me. They each brought their lived experiences, opinions, fixations, and points of view to their bodies of work, only now to have them smashed together inexpertly and touted as original art.” Even if you don’t share or sell images you make, many of these tools keep a public record of all generated content that other users can download and distribute.

Given all these concerns, it’s hard to recommend AI art generators, even if the intent to use them is innocent. Nevertheless, these tools are here, and unless some future regulations force them to change, we can’t stop folks from giving them a try. But, if you do, please keep in mind the legal and ethical issues associated with making and sharing AI art, think twice about sharing it, and never claim an AI-generated image as your own work.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

As the Intel Mac era has wound down over the last couple of years, we've been painstakingly tracking the amount of software support that each outgoing model is getting. We did this to establish, with over 20 years' worth of hard data, whether Intel Mac owners were getting short shrift as Apple shifted its focus to Apple Silicon hardware and to software that leveraged Apple Silicon-exclusive capabilities.

So far, we've found that owners of Intel Macs made in the mid-to-late 2010s are definitely getting fewer major macOS updates and fewer years' worth of security updates than owners of Intel Macs made in the late 2000s and early 2010s but that these systems are still getting more generous support than old PowerPC Macs did after Apple switched to Intel's processors.

The good news with the macOS 15 Sequoia release is that Apple is dropping very few Intel Mac models this year, a much-needed pause that slows the steady acceleration of support-dropping we've seen over the last few macOS releases.

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Unlike conventional energy sources, green hydrogen offers a way to store and transfer energy without emitting harmful pollutants, positioning it as essential to a sustainable and net-zero future. By converting electrical power from renewable sources into green hydrogen, these low-carbon-intensity energy storage systems can release clean, efficient power on demand through combustion engines or fuel cells. When produced emission-free, hydrogen can decarbonize some of the most challenging industrial sectors, such as steel and cement production, industrial processes, and maritime transport.

“Green hydrogen is the key driver to advance decarbonization,” says Dr. Christoph Noeres, head of green hydrogen at global electrolysis specialist thyssenkrupp nucera. This promising low-carbon-intensity technology has the potential to transform entire industries by providing a clean, renewable fuel source, moving us toward a greener world aligned with industry climate goals.

Accelerating production of green hydrogen

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and its availability is key to its appeal as a clean energy source. However, hydrogen does not occur naturally in its pure form; it is always bound to other elements in compounds like water (H₂O). Pure hydrogen is extracted and isolated from water through an energy-intensive process called conventional electrolysis.

Hydrogen is typically produced today via steam-methane reforming, in which high-temperature steam is used to produce hydrogen from natural gas. Emissions produced by this process have implications for hydrogen’s overall carbon footprint: worldwide hydrogen production is currently responsible for as many CO₂ emissions as the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined.

A solution lies in green hydrogen—hydrogen produced using electrolysis powered by renewable sources. This unlocks the benefits of hydrogen without the dirty fuels. Unfortunately, very little hydrogen is currently powered by renewables: less than 1% came from non-fossil fuel sources in 2022.

A massive scale-up is underway. According to McKinsey, an estimated 130 to 345 gigawatts (GW) of electrolyzer capacity will be necessary to meet the green hydrogen demand by 2030, with 246 GW of this capacity already announced. This stands in stark contrast to the current installed base of just 1.1 GW. Notably, to ensure that green hydrogen constitutes at least 14% of total energy consumption by 2050, a target that the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates is required to meet climate goals, 5,500 GW of cumulative installed electrolyzer capacity will be required.

However, scaling up green hydrogen production to these levels requires overcoming cost and infrastructure constraints. Becoming cost-competitive means improving and standardizing the technology, harnessing the scale efficiencies of larger projects, and encouraging government action to create market incentives. Moreover, the expansion of renewable energy in regions with significant solar, hydro, or wind energy potential is another crucial factor in lowering renewable power prices and, consequently, the costs of green hydrogen.

Electrolysis innovation

While electrolysis technologies have existed for decades, scaling them up to meet the demand for clean energy will be essential. Alkaline Water Electrolysis (AWE), the most dominant and developed electrolysis method, is poised for this transition. It has been utilized for decades, demonstrating efficiency and reliability in the chemical industry. Moreover, it is more cost effective than other electrolysis technologies and is well suited to be run directly with fluctuating renewable power input. Especially for large-scale applications, AWE demonstrates significant advantages in terms of investment and operating costs. “Transferring small-scale manufacturing and optimizing it towards mass manufacturing will need a high level of investment across the industry,” says Noeres.

Industries that already practice electrolysis, as well as those that already use hydrogen, such as fertilizer production, are well poised for conversion to green hydrogen. For example, thyssenkrupp nucera benefits from a decades-long heritage using electrolyzer technology in the chlor-alkali process, which produces chlorine and caustic soda for the chemical industry. The company “is able to use its existing supply chain to ramp up production quickly, a distinction that all providers don’t share,” says Noeres.

Alongside scaling up existing solutions, thyssenkrupp nucera is developing complementary techniques and technologies. Among these are solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOEC), which perform electrolysis at very high temperatures. While the need for high temperatures means this technique isn’t right for all customers, in industries where waste heat is readily available—such as chemicals—Noeres says SOEC offers up to 20% enhanced efficiency and reduces production costs.

Thyssenkrupp nucera has entered into a strategic partnership with the renowned German research institute Fraunhofer IKTS to move the technology toward applications in industrial manufacturing. The company envisages SOEC as a complement to AWE in the areas where it is cost effective to reduce overall energy consumption. “The combination of AWE and SOEC in thyssenkrupp nucera’s portfolio offers a unique product suite to the industry,” says Noeres.

While advancements in electrolysis technology and the diversification of its applications across various scales and industries are promising for green hydrogen production, a coordinated global ramp-up of renewable energy sources and clean power grids is also crucial. Although AWE electrolyzers are ready for deployment in large-scale, centralized green hydrogen production facilities, these must be integrated with renewable energy sources to truly harness their potential.

Making the green hydrogen market

Storage and transportation remain obstacles to a larger market for green hydrogen. While hydrogen can be compressed and stored, its low density presents a practical challenge. The volume of hydrogen is nearly four times greater than that of natural gas, and storage requires either ultra-high compression or costly refrigeration. Overcoming the economic and technical hurdles of high-volume hydrogen storage and transport will be critical to its potential as an exportable energy carrier.

In 2024, several high-profile green hydrogen projects launched in the U.S., advancing the growth of green hydrogen infrastructure and technology. The landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides tax credits and government incentives for producing clean hydrogen and the renewable electricity used in its production. In October 2023, the Biden administration announced $7 billion for the country’s first clean hydrogen hubs, and the U.S. Department of Energy further allocated $750 million for 52 projects across 24 states to dramatically reduce the cost of clean hydrogen and establish American leadership in the industry. The potential economic impact from the IRA legislation is substantial: thyssenkrupp nucera expects the IRA to double or triple the U.S. green hydrogen market size.

“The IRA was a wake-up call for Europe, setting a benchmark for all the other countries on how to support the green hydrogen industry in this startup phase,” says Noeres. Germany’s H2Global scheme was one of the first European efforts to facilitate hydrogen imports with the help of subsidies, and it has since been followed up by the European Hydrogen Bank, which provided €720 million for green hydrogen projects in its pilot auction. “However, more investment is needed to push the green hydrogen industry forward,” says Noeres.

In the current green hydrogen market, China has installed more renewable power than any other country. With lower capital expenditure costs, China produces 40% of the world’s electrolyzers. Additionally, state-owned firms have pledged to build an extensive 6,000-kilometer network of pipelines for green hydrogen transportation by 2050.

Coordinated investment and supportive policies are crucial to ensure attractive incentives that can bring green hydrogen from a niche technology to a scalable solution globally. The Chinese green hydrogen market, along with that of other regions such as the Middle East and North Africa, has advanced significantly, garnering global attention for its competitive edge through large-scale projects. To compete effectively, the EU must create a global level playing field for European technologies through attractive investment incentives that can drive the transition of hydrogen from a niche to a global-scale solution. Supportive policies must be in place to also ensure that green products made with hydrogen, such as steel, are sufficiently incentivized and protected against carbon leakage.

A comprehensive strategy, combining investment incentives, open markets, and protection against market distortions and carbon leakage, is crucial for the EU and other countries to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving global green hydrogen market and achieve a decarbonized energy future. “To advance several gigawatt scale or multi-hundred megawatts projects forward,” says Noeres, “we need significantly more volume globally and comparable funding opportunities to make a real impact on global supply chains.”

This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff.

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Why does AI hallucinate?

The World Health Organization’s new chatbot launched on April 2 with the best of intentions. The virtual avatar named SARAH, was designed to dispense health tips about how to eat well, quit smoking, de-stress, and more, for millions around the world. But like all chatbots, SARAH can flub its answers. It was quickly found to give out incorrect information. In one case, it came up with a list of fake names and addresses for nonexistent clinics in San Francisco.

Chatbot fails are now a familiar meme. Meta’s short-lived scientific chatbot Galactica made up academic papers and generated wiki articles about the history of bears in space. In February, Air Canada was ordered to honor a refund policy invented by its customer service chatbot. Last year, a lawyer was fined for submitting court documents filled with fake judicial opinions and legal citations made up by ChatGPT.

This tendency to make things up—known as hallucination—is one of the biggest obstacles holding chatbots back from more widespread adoption. Why do they do it? And why can’t we fix it? Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Will’s article is the latest entry in MIT Technology Review Explains, our series explaining the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can check out the rest of the series here.

The story is also from the forthcoming magazine issue of MIT Technology Review, which explores the theme of Play. It’s set to go live on Wednesday June 26, so if you don’t already, subscribe now to get a copy when it lands.

Why artists are becoming less scared of AI

Knock, knock. Who’s there? An AI with generic jokes. Researchers from Google DeepMind asked 20 professional comedians to use popular AI language models to write jokes and comedy performances. Their results were mixed. Although the tools helped them to produce initial drafts and structure their routines, AI was not able to produce anything that was original, stimulating, or, crucially, funny. 

The study is symptomatic of a broader trend: we’re realizing the limitations of what AI can do for artists. It can take on some of the boring, mundane, formulaic aspects of the creative process, but it can’t replace the magic and originality that humans bring. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä 

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The US government is suing Adobe over concealed fees
And for making it too difficult to cancel a Photoshop subscription. (The Verge)
+ Regulators are going after firms with hard-to-cancel accounts. (NYT $)
+ Adobe’s had an incredibly profitable few years. (Insider $)
+ The company recently announced its plans to safeguard artists against exploitative AI. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The year’s deadly heat waves have only just begun
But not everyone is at equal risk from extreme temperatures. (Vox)
+ Here’s what you need to know about this week’s US heat wave. (WP $)
+ Here’s how much heat your body can take. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Being an influencer isn’t as lucrative as it used to be
It’s getting tougher for content creators to earn a crust from social media alone. (WSJ $)
+ Beware the civilian creators offering to document your wedding. (The Guardian)+ Deepfakes of Chinese influencers are livestreaming 24/7. (MIT Technology Review)

4 How crypto cash could influence the US Presidential election 
‘Crypto voters’ have started mobilizing for Donald Trump, who has been making pro-crypto proclamations. (NYT $)

5 Europe is pumping money into defense tech startups
It’ll be a while until it catches up with the US though. (FT $)
+ Here’s the defense tech at the center of US aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. (MIT Technology Review)

6 China’s solar industry is in serious trouble
Its rapid growth hasn’t translated into big profits. (Economist $)
+ Recycling solar panels is still a major environmental challenge, too. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ This solar giant is moving manufacturing from China back to the US. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Brace yourself for AI reading companions
The systems are trained on famous writers’ thoughts on seminal titles. (Wired $)

8 McDonalds is ditching AI chatbots at drive-thrus
The tech just proved too unreliable. (The Guardian)

9 How ice freezes is surprisingly mysterious
It’s not as simple as cooling water to zero degrees. (Quanta Magazine)

10 Keeping your phone cool in hot weather is tough
No direct sunlight, no case, no putting it in the fridge. (WP $)

Quote of the day

“My goal was to show that nature is just so fantastic and creative, and I don’t think any machine can beat that.”

—Photographer Miles Astray explains to the Washington Post why he entered a real photograph of a surreal-looking flamingo into a competition for AI art.

The big story

The Atlantic’s vital currents could collapse. Scientists are racing to understand the dangers.

December 2021

Scientists are searching for clues about one of the most important forces in the planet’s climate system: a network of ocean currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. They want to better understand how global warming is changing it, and how much more it could shift, or even collapse.

The problem is the Atlantic circulation seems to be weakening, transporting less water and heat. Because of climate change, melting ice sheets are pouring fresh water into the ocean at the higher latitudes, and the surface waters are retaining more of their heat. Warmer and fresher waters are less dense and thus not as prone to sink, which may be undermining one of the currents’ core driving forces. Read the full story.

—James Temple

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ This cookie is the perfect replica of those frustrating maze games.
+ Each year, the Roland Garros tennis tournament commissions an artist to create a poster. This collection is remarkable
+ Sesame Street is the best.
+ If your plants aren’t flourishing, these tips might help to get them looking their best.

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.

Knock, knock. 

Who’s there? 

An AI with generic jokes. Researchers from Google DeepMind asked 20 professional comedians to use popular AI language models to write jokes and comedy performances. Their results were mixed. 

The comedians said that the tools were useful in helping them produce an initial “vomit draft” that they could iterate on, and helped them structure their routines. But the AI was not able to produce anything that was original, stimulating, or, crucially, funny. My colleague Rhiannon Williams has the full story.

As Tuhin Chakrabarty, a computer science researcher at Columbia University who specializes in AI and creativity, told Rhiannon, humor often relies on being surprising and incongruous. Creative writing requires its creator to deviate from the norm, whereas LLMs can only mimic it.

And that is becoming pretty clear in the way artists are approaching AI today. I’ve just come back from Hamburg, which hosted one of the largest events for creatives in Europe, and the message I got from those I spoke to was that AI is too glitchy and unreliable to fully replace humans and is best used instead as a tool to augment human creativity. 

Right now, we are in a moment where we are deciding how much creative power we are comfortable giving AI companies and tools. After the boom first started in 2022, when DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion first entered the scene, many artists raised concerns that AI companies were scraping their copyrighted work without consent or compensation. Tech companies argue that anything on the public internet falls under fair use, a legal doctrine that allows the reuse of copyrighted-protected material in certain circumstances. Artists, writers, image companies, and the New York Times have filed lawsuits against these companies, and it will likely take years until we have a clear-cut answer as to who is right. 

Meanwhile, the court of public opinion has shifted a lot in the past two years. Artists I have interviewed recently say they were harassed and ridiculed for protesting AI companies’ data-scraping practices two years ago. Now, the general public is more aware of the harms associated with AI. In just two years, the public has gone from being blown away by AI-generated images to sharing viral social media posts about how to opt out of AI scraping—a concept that was alien to most laypeople until very recently. Companies have benefited from this shift too. Adobe has been successful in pitching its AI offerings as an “ethical” way to use the technology without having to worry about copyright infringement. 

There are also several grassroots efforts to shift the power structures of AI and give artists more agency over their data. I’ve written about Nightshade, a tool created by researchers at the University of Chicago, which lets users add an invisible poison attack to their images so that they break AI models when scraped. The same team is behind Glaze, a tool that lets artists mask their personal style from AI copycats. Glaze has been integrated into Cara, a buzzy new art portfolio site and social media platform, which has seen a surge of interest from artists. Cara pitches itself as a platform for art created by people; it filters out AI-generated content. It got nearly a million new users in a few days. 

This all should be reassuring news for any creative people worried that they could lose their job to a computer program. And the DeepMind study is a great example of how AI can actually be helpful for creatives. It can take on some of the boring, mundane, formulaic aspects of the creative process, but it can’t replace the magic and originality that humans bring. AI models are limited to their training data and will forever only reflect the zeitgeist at the moment of their training. That gets old pretty quickly.

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Deeper Learning

Apple is promising personalized AI in a private cloud. Here’s how that will work.

Last week, Apple unveiled its vision for supercharging its product lineup with artificial intelligence. The key feature, which will run across virtually all of its product line, is Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI-based capabilities that promises to deliver personalized AI services while keeping sensitive data secure. 

Why this matters: Apple says its privacy-focused system will first attempt to fulfill AI tasks locally on the device itself. If any data is exchanged with cloud services, it will be encrypted and then deleted afterward. It’s a pitch that offers an implicit contrast with the likes of Alphabet, Amazon, or Meta, which collect and store enormous amounts of personal data. Read more from James O’Donnell here. 

Bits and Bytes

How to opt out of Meta’s AI training
If you post or interact with chatbots on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, or WhatsApp, Meta can use your data to train its generative AI models. Even if you don’t use any of Meta’s platforms, it can still scrape data such as photos of you if someone else posts them. Here’s our quick guide on how to opt out. (MIT Technology Review) 

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella is building an AI empire
Nadella is going all in on AI. His $13 billion investment in OpenAI was just the beginning. Microsoft has become an “the world’s most aggressive amasser of AI talent, tools, and technology” and has started building an in-house OpenAI competitor. (The Wall Street Journal)

OpenAI has hired an army of lobbyists
As countries around the world mull AI legislation, OpenAI is on a lobbyist hiring spree to protect its interests. The AI company has expanded its global affairs team from three lobbyists at the start of 2023 to 35 and intends to have up to 50 by the end of this year. (Financial Times)  

UK rolls out Amazon-powered emotion recognition AI cameras on trains
People traveling through some of the UK’s biggest train stations have likely had their faces scanned by Amazon software without their knowledge during an AI trial. London stations such as Euston and Waterloo have tested CCTV cameras with AI to reduce crime and detect people’s emotions. Emotion recognition technology is extremely controversial. Experts say it is unreliable and simply does not work. 
(Wired) 

Clearview AI used your face. Now you may get a stake in the company.
The facial recognition company, which has been under fire for scraping images of people’s faces from the web and social media without their permission, has agreed to an unusual settlement in a class action against it. Instead of paying cash, it is offering a 23% stake in the company for Americans whose faces are in its data sets. (The New York Times) 

Elephants call each other by their names
This is so cool! Researchers used AI to analyze the calls of two herds of African savanna elephants in Kenya. They found that elephants use specific vocalizations for each individual and recognize when they are being addressed by other elephants. (The Guardian)