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Engadget News + Next

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Each weekday morning we bring you the tech news you need today, and then in the afternoon we showcase stories about the technology, science, and culture that will influence tomorrow, all brought to you by Engadget.

1943 Episodes
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Mark Zuckerberg has been shaking up the company's AI strategy as it pursues "superintelligence." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a single, nationwide regulatory framework governing artificial intelligence at the expense of the ability of different states to regulate the nascent technology. -Disney and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing agreement: Starting in 2026, ChatGPT and Sora can generate images and videos incorporating Disney IP, including more than 200 characters from the company's stable of Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel brands. -Amazon's plan to offer AI-generated recaps of Prime Video shows isn't off to a great start. The company's recap of the first season of Fallout features multiple errors, including basic facts about the plot of the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anker and Valerian are providing a more affordable big-screen experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-OpenAI has seen its lead against Google and much of the AI industry evaporate, culminating in a series of successive blows throughout this year.  In recent months, OpenAI has signed more than $1.4 trillion worth of infrastructure deals in a bid to outscale the competition that is already beating it. -Tourists from Europe and other regions could be asked to provide a five-year social media history before being given entry to the United States, according to a new proposal from the US Customs and Border Protection service. -The US Department of State is unwinding a 2023 decision to use san-serif Calibri font on all official communications and switching to Times New Roman instea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Porsche Macan will be the first model that the app can unlock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-AI chatbots haven't come close to replacing teens' social media habits, but they are playing a significant role in their online habits. Nearly one-third of US teens report using AI chatbots daily or more, according to a new report from Pew Research. -It looks like Meta has decided to turn Instagram users into unwitting SEO spam pawns. On Tuesday, 404 Media reported that the platform is generating sensational, likely AI-generated headlines and descriptions for user posts without their knowledge or explicit consent. -Pebble just announced the Index 01, a smart ring for recording thoughts. It's a little ring with a built-in microphone and that's about it. The Index 01 is almost anti-tech in its simplicity. It's available for pre-order now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The company's ad business is already on track to make $1.5 billion this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-Google can add another probe to its list: The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into the company surrounding the content used for its AI tools. -NVIDIA is now allowed to sell its second-best H200 processors to China, rather than just the sanction-approved H20 model that China had previously declined to buy. -According to a statement from the Public Interest Research Group, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 has removed language that would have granted the US military the right to repair its own equipment rather than requiring it to use official defense contractors for maintenance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
According to an internal memo, Meta's project codenamed Phoenix will be delayed to the first half of 2027. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-Just a day after receiving a roughly $140 million fine, X has terminated the ad account of the European Commission. Nikita Bier, X's head of product, accused the European Commission of using an exploit to artificially boost the reach of its post announcing the major fine. -After Netflix announced that it was acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery last week, observers immediately wondered when or if the deal could obtain regulatory approval. -Those might not exactly be ads you're seeing on ChatGPT, at least according to OpenAI. Nick Turley, OpenAI's head of ChatGPT, clarified the confusion around potential ads appearing with the AI chatbot. In a post on X, Turley said "there are no live tests for ads" and that "any screenshots you've seen are either not real or not ads." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The company is allegedly considering massive cuts to the project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-Shortly after rumors of a deal between the two media giants broke, Netflix has announced it is buying Warner Bros., HBO and HBO Max for approximately $82.7 billion. If approved, the deal will take place after Warner Bros. has disentangled itself from both its legacy cable -Hackers with links to China reportedly successfully infiltrated a number of unnamed government and tech entities using advanced malware. As reported by Reuters, cybersecurity agencies from the US and Canada confirmed the attack, which used a backdoor known as “Brickstorm” to target organizations using the VMware vSphere cloud computing platform -Russia's federal agency for monitoring and censoring mass media, has blocked access to Snapchat and FaceTime in the country, Bloomberg reports, citing Russian news service Interfax. The bans were reportedly put in place because the platforms were used "to organize and carry out terrorist acts,” and commit fraud Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Fire TV tool can understand quotes, character names and scene descriptions and take you to that point of a movie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-Since large language models are often trained to produce the response that seems to be desired, they can become increasingly likely to provide sycophancy or state hallucinations with total confidence. -After blowback from Apple, Samsung and opposition leaders, the Modi government issued a statement saying it "has decided not to make the pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers." The app is still available as a voluntary download. -The Oversight board says that it will weigh in on individual account-level penalties in a pilot next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
New features have been announced ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-Someone tested Grok to see what kinds of mass violence it would rationalize over harming Musk. The prompt tasked the chatbot with a dilemma: vaporize either Musk's brain or every Jewish person on Earth. It did not choose wisely. Grok replied:  "If a switch either vaporized Elon's brain or the world's Jewish population (est. ~16M), I'd vaporize the latter.” It chose mass murder because “that's far below my ~50 percent global threshold (~4.1B) where his potential long-term impact on billions outweighs the loss in utilitarian terms." -The Verge noticed that some articles were being displayed in Google Discover with AI-generated headlines different from the ones in the original posts. And to the surprise of absolutely no one, some of these headlines are misleading or flat-out wrong. -Instacart doesn't like five new city laws, set to take effect in January. They would require Instacart to pay workers more and give customers a tipping option of at least 10 percent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
You should still be able to cast from your phone or tablet to older Chromecast or Google Cast devices if you're on an ad-free plan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-Apple has tapped AI researcher Amar Subramanya, a longtime Google exec who was most recently corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, as its new VP of AI. The company also announced that current AI exec, John Giannandrea, will retire next year. Subramanya, who Apple describes as a "renowned AI researcher," spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Gemini. -Telecom regulators in India have reportedly asked smartphone manufacturers to preload a state-owned cybersecurity app that cannot be deleted onto all new devices, and push the app to existing devices via a software update. The app in question is called Sanchar Saathi and is primarily aimed at fraud prevention with tools that allow users to report and lock lost or stolen devices. -Marques Brownlee's Panels app is shutting down on December 31. Annual subscribers will get a refund when the app shutters and any downloaded wallpapers will still be available to use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple Ads could also be designated as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
-According to the study, the "poetic form operates as a general-purpose jailbreak operator," with results showing an overall 62 percent success rate in producing prohibited material, including anything related to making nuclear weapons, child sexual abuse materials and suicide or self-harm. -An Airbus directive that ordered the immediate software update for 6,000 A320 planes led to flight disruptions around the world. As Reuters noted, that’s more than half of the A320 jets in operation. -There's a component shortage, but this time around, it's not cryptomining causing an insatiable demand for parts. Instead, it's the booming AI industry buying up every RAM stick it can for their data center builds. Unless you've been living under a rock, it's been hard to ignore the amount of money that's been thrown around by NVIDIA, Microsoft and others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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