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11 Bit Studios has drawn the ire of players for the undisclosed use of artificial intelligence in its recent release, The Alters. The new project from the team behind Frostpunk and This War of Mine is a narratively and thematically interesting take on a science fiction survival game. The project contains a lot of dialogue and written text, and some players discovered in-game copy that appeared to be generated by a large language model. The Steam storefront requires that games disclose when they
In the early 80's in the US, a popular DIY electronics magazine had a book of the month club that I loved. Most were small and leather bound hardback with topics like: make your own hydrophone; augmented reality (required a full room and a boom arm, sadly); an LCD model rocket launcher ignition; computer vision; lots and lots of robots. One book I remember (large, softcover, yellow cover) featured black and white, pen and ink illustrations of fantastically complex robots and machines. One that
Jack Wallen / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET I can still remember the moment I switched from Windows to Linux. Back then, I didn't have anyone there to tell me what to expect. It would have been nice to get even a bit of advice from someone with Linux experience in the know to say, "Hey, you'll want to know about this before you start down that path." It would have made things easier. Instead, I took just dove right in, hoping I could figure it all out as I went. The good news: Linux today is n
Buyers should keep an eye on the possibility of rate cuts in the next few months. Tharon Green/CNET Mortgage market predictions have been clouded by economic uncertainty caused by the Trump administration's trade measures, deficit spending and geopolitical maneuvering. The big question hanging over the housing market is whether rates will rise due to tariff-induced inflation or fall due to a recession. Since early spring, average mortgage rates for 30-year fixed loans have been swinging betwee
A federal proposal that would ban states and local governments from regulating AI for five years could soon be signed into law, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other lawmakers work to secure its inclusion into a GOP megabill — which the Senate is voting on Monday — ahead of a key July 4 deadline. Those in favor — including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, and a16z’s Marc Andreessen — argue that a “patchwork” of AI regulation among states would stifle American innovation at a time when
A federal proposal that would ban states and local governments from regulating AI for five years could soon be signed into law, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other lawmakers work to secure its inclusion into a GOP megabill — which the Senate is voting on Monday — ahead of a key July 4 deadline. Those in favor — including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, and a16z’s Marc Andreessen — argue that a “patchwork” of AI regulation among states would stifle American innovation at a time when
Summer holidays are coming up, and while there will be some people who want to hop on a plane and go abroad, a lot of us prefer the great outdoors. If you do, and you want your camping trips or long days at the beach to be better than ever, then a solar generator can be an incredible investment to help you stay calm, cool, and powered up. See at Amazon There are a few great solar generators on the market, but there’s only one that’s 50% off right now and an incredible steal for those who know
Photoshop is all in on generative AI, and it wants you to give it a whirl, too. Adobe has added a number of AI features to its premiere photo editor over the past few years; if you use Photoshop regularly, you've probably seen these pop up on your task bars. I spend a lot of time reviewing AI image generators and other AI creative software, so I had to put the original photo editor's AI to the test. AI might not be right for every project, especially for professional creators who regularly use
CANNES — Fifteen years after flipping burgers at a McDonald 's and teaching himself to code at night in a cramped apartment near the French Riviera, Robinhood crypto chief Johann Kerbrat is back. The last time he lived around Cannes, he was 21 — with no connections, no funding, and no formal business training. But he had a knack for programming and a drive to solve real-world problems. Kerbrat, who is now senior vice president and crypto GM at Robinhood, quit his job just before starting unive
Mortgage rates have typically fallen during recessionary periods. Douglas Rissing/Getty Images In today's news cycle, recession headlines come and go. Amid trade war anxieties, stock market roller-coaster rides and global conflict, no one is hoping for a major economic setback -- except recessions have often created more favorable conditions for mortgage rates. Since the beginning of 2025, average 30-year fixed mortgage rates have been stuck in the high 6.5% to 7% range. Most housing experts,
Google is rolling out Veo 3 to everyone using Vertex AI, which is an ML-testing platform provided by Google Cloud. Unlike Sora and other generative video AI models, Veo 3 is a state-of-the-art video generator trained on millions of YouTube videos, and it can generate realistic videos, but great quality comes at a high cost. Veo 3 isn't free, but since it's part of Google Cloud, you can use it for free by subscribing to the $300 trial offered by Google. To get started, you can sign up for a Go
Since its inception, Let’s Encrypt has been sending expiration notification emails to subscribers that have provided an email address to us via the ACME API. This service ended on June 4, 2025. The decision to end the service is the result of the following factors: Over the past 10 years more and more of our subscribers have been able to put reliable automation into place for certificate renewal. Providing expiration notification emails means that we have to retain millions of email addresses c
The Sharpe ratio uses the risk-free rate as the baseline return. Typically, this is the yield on government treasury bills or bonds (like 3-month or 10-year Treasury rates). Our tool automatically uses the up to date Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR).
On Error Handling in Rust The current standard for error handling, when writing a crate, is to define one error enum per module, or one for the whole crate that covers all error cases that the module or crate can possibly produce, and each public function that returns a Result will use said error enum. This means, that a function will return an error enum, containing error variants that the function cannot even produce. If you match on this error enum, you will have to manually distinguish whi
is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. It has become almost impossible to browse the internet without having an AI-generated video thrust upon you. Open basically any social media platform, and it won’t be long until an uncanny-looking clip of a fake natural disaster or animals doing impossible things slides across your screen. Most of the videos look absolutely terrible.
The worst part of travel is the planning: the faff of finding and booking transport, accommodation, restaurant reservations—the list can feel endless. To help, the latest wave of AI agents, such as OpenAI’s Operator and Anthropic’s Computer Use claim they can take these dreary, cumbersome tasks from befuddled travelers and do it all for you. But exactly how good are they are digging out the good stuff? What better way to find out than deciding on a last-minute weekend away. I tasked Operator, w
A nostalgic dive into the Hacker News thread that in 2015 reminded us how beautiful we were when we dreamed in multithreading Once upon a time, in a galaxy not so far away called “the ’90s,” we still believed that the future of computing would be decided based on pure technical merit. What naivety! It was an era when an operating system could make you fall in love at first boot, when opening four videos simultaneously without hiccups seemed more magical than pulling a rabbit from a hat. BeOS wa
Privacy and security NovaCustom respects your privacy and focuses on security. We are switching to Dasharo coreboot firmware for our laptops, which is open-source and security-focused. You can find the Dasharo coreboot models here. We do not use Google Analytics. We use Signal and you can reach us via Protonmail. You can buy your laptop with Linux preinstalled. We setup your operating system with the most privacy-friendly settings. Even if we install Windows! Customisation We build your laptop
For overdetermined reasons, I’ve lately found the world an increasingly terrifying and depressing place. It’s gotten harder and harder to concentrate on research, or even popular science writing. Every so often, though, something breaks through that wakes my inner child, reminds me of why I fell in love with research thirty years ago, and helps me forget about the triumphantly strutting factions working to destroy everything I value. Back in 2022, I reported an exciting advance in BusyBeaverolo
Mortgage rates have typically fallen during recessionary periods. Douglas Rissing/Getty Images Recession headlines come and go in today's news cycle, which is filled with trade war anxieties, stock market roller-coaster rides and global conflict. No one wants to pin their hopes on a major economic setback. But since recessions have often created more favorable conditions for mortgage rates, many of my clients want to know: Will buying a home become more affordable in a recession? Since the beg
Before Duolingo wiped its videos from TikTok and Instagram in mid-May, social media engagement was one of the language-learning app’s most recognizable qualities. Its green owl mascot had gone viral multiple times and was well known to younger users—a success story other marketers envied. But, when news got out that Duolingo was making the switch to become an “AI-first” company, planning to replace contractors who work on tasks generative AI could automate, public perception of the brand soured
ZDNET's key takeaways The EcoFlow Wave 3 is a portable air conditioner and heater that costs $1,299 on its own and $1,399 with a battery, a limited-time discount This is a portable air conditioner and heater that is more powerful than its predecessor It is also off-grid ready for camping, RVing, and even helping in a pinch.The Wave 3 is pricey, loud in some settings, and is not as efficient in extreme heat, direct sun, or tent camping. $1,299 at Amazon Many parts of the US are sizzling right
Many Americans already track health statistics like heart rate and sleep cycles on app-connected accessories. Now the federal government wants to jump in. On June 24, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced "one of the largest HHS campaigns in history" to encourage the use of wearables to track health conditions, a trend CNET has recently covered. Kennedy is referring to the many different bands, watches and even clothes that use technology to track human vital signs. CNET's reviewers
ANDREY DENISYUK/Getty The Trump administration's tax bill -- also called its "big, beautiful bill" -- which rounds up key pieces of the president's agenda, also includes a rule that would prevent states from enforcing their own AI legislation for 10 years, if passed. After an initial budget hiccup, Republican senators successfully amended the rule to comply with budgetary requirements by adding that states trying to enforce AI regulations would not receive federal broadband funding. Here's why
SymbolicAI: A neuro-symbolic perspective on LLMs What is SymbolicAI? SymbolicAI is a neuro-symbolic framework, combining classical Python programming with the differentiable, programmable nature of LLMs in a way that actually feels natural in Python. It's built to not stand in the way of your ambitions. It's easily extensible and customizable to your needs by virtue of its modular design. It's quite easy to write your own engine, host locally an engine of your choice, or interface with tools l
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority TL;DR Google Maps is rolling out a tweaked sharing menu for places. When a place is selected, tapping on the Share chip will bring up a new Share sheet with options for: Share this place, Copy link, and Share as a collaborative list. In 2023, Google Maps introduced a feature to allow users to create collaborative lists with friends and family, consisting of places everyone wanted to visit. The process was as simple as selecting a place, tapping share, and fi
We use thermocouples linked to computer software to measure internal grill temperatures. Brian Bennett/CNET We test the main types of grills differently, but for most, we include a high-heat test like searing steak or grilling burgers, a medium, indirect heat test like grilling a whole chicken for more than an hour and a low-and-slow test with racks of ribs. With over 30 grills tested, we've got this down to a tee. To determine what should be the best outdoor barbecue grill, we collect data inc
A federal proposal that would ban states and local governments from regulating AI for 10 years could soon be signed into law, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other lawmakers work to secure its inclusion into a GOP megabill ahead of a key July 4 deadline. Those in favor – including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, and a16z’s Marc Andreessen – argue that a “patchwork” of AI regulation among states would stifle American innovation at a time when the race to beat China is heating up. Crit
Career NASA officials were seen looking mighty freaked out during a recent town hall event about the agency's dicey future. As Ars Technica's Stephen Clark reports based on a livestream of the town hall — which was not advertised and has since been taken down — acting NASA administrator and career agency official Janet Petro looked like a hostage as she answered questions from staff about the agency's dire standing under president Donald Trump. The hostage-taker in this scenario appears to be