Congress keeps kicking surveillance reform down the road
Congress keeps kicking surveillance reform down the road

Congress has reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – but only for another 45 days. The extension is meant to give legislators more time to negotiate reforms to the controversial wiretapping bill. If the past few weeks are any indication of how future debates will go, however, we’re in for a bumpy […]

With Saros, Housemarque makes a case for doing next-gen games differently
With Saros, Housemarque makes a case for doing next-gen games differently

It is generally frowned upon to care too much about appearances. We have a lot of little aphorisms discouraging this – books and their covers, beauty being skin deep, style over substance, that sort of thing. Vanity is a risk. Should one put a disproportionate effort into how a thing looks, then said work may […]

Meta is running get-rich-quick ads for its AI tools
Meta is running get-rich-quick ads for its AI tools

Manus, an AI company Meta acquired for $2 billion last year is running ads promising quick, easy money with AI: Find local businesses without websites or with bad websites, have AI build them one, then call them up and sell it to them. As part of the campaign, Manus was paying content creators to build […]

How Adam Scott became an accidental horror movie star
How Adam Scott became an accidental horror movie star

Adam Scott grew up watching horror movies at, as he describes it, “probably too young” an age. But he never set out to work specifically in the genre. Even still, horror seemed to follow him around from the very beginning. His first major film role was in Hellraiser IV in 1996. “It wasn’t because I […]

Elon Musk’s worst enemy in court is Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s worst enemy in court is Elon Musk

About five hours into Elon Musk’s testimony, I typed the following sentence into my notes: “I have never been more sympathetic to Sam Altman in my life.” Musk’s direct testimony was an improvement over yesterday – even if his lawyer kept asking leading questions to cue him in how to answer. But that memory was […]

All the evidence revealed so far in Musk v. Altman
All the evidence revealed so far in Musk v. Altman

The Musk v. Altman trial is underway, and that means exhibits, or the evidence to be presented in court, are being revealed piece by piece. So far, email exchanges, photos, and corporate documents are circulating from the earliest days of OpenAI – and from before the AI lab even had a name. Some high-level takeaways: […]

Microsoft is giving its Xbox employees an Xbox email address
Microsoft is giving its Xbox employees an Xbox email address

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wants everyone to know: “We are Xbox.” Just last week, she scrapped Microsoft Gaming as the name of Microsoft’s gaming division in favor of simply Xbox. Now, to reinforce that message, sources at Xbox tell me that all Xbox employees are getting an @xbox.com email address next month. The new Xbox […]

Larry’s risky business
Larry’s risky business

If you want to know whether the AI bubble is bursting, there’s only one publicly traded company that will tell you: Oracle. That’s right, the database company. Oracle has burned its boats and pivoted to AI, but not in any kind of usual way. It is not a foundation model builder like OpenAI or Anthropic, […]

Saros reminded me how great the DualSense can be
Saros reminded me how great the DualSense can be

The DualSense controller was one of Sony’s main selling points for the PS5. Beyond things like a striking new design and adaptive triggers, the controller’s haptic feedback offered genuinely cool new experiences for games. Rumble effects had been around for decades at that point, but the DualSense offered something very different: I’m still blown away […]

Taylor Swift is stepping up the legal war on AI copycats
Taylor Swift is stepping up the legal war on AI copycats

Taylor Swift has been at the center of AI imitation controversies for years, and now, she’s become the latest celebrity who’s escalating attempts to protect herself from AI copycats. As usual, however, the legal system intersects with technology in complicated ways – and Swift’s efforts may be a long shot. In trademark applications filed last […]