Black Friday is usually the best time of the year to save on big-ticket items like smartphones, robot vacuums and even kitchen gear. To that end, one of our favorite air fryer toaster ovens has a steep discount right now. The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer has dropped to $280 in most colorways, which represents a savings of $70. The "Pro" model made it into our best air fryers guide, but this one is quite similar: it has 11 cooking functions and takes up a bit less counter space than the Pro version.
Breville’s Smart Oven Air Fryer has a long list of cooking functions: toast, bagel, broil, bake, roast, warm, pizza, air fry, reheat, cookies and slow cook. The oven uses five quartz heating elements known for quick and consistent heating. It uses algorithms to direct heat to where it’s needed most for each mode.
The oven uses “super convection” tech to reduce cooking time by up to 30 percent. It speeds up cooking by raising hotter air and sinking the cooler, less dense air. It supports a wide temperature range of 120 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
The appliance requires a decent amount of counter space: 18.9-inch wide x 15.9-inch deep x 10.9-inch high. But in return, you can squeeze in six slices of pizza or toast, a whole chicken or nine muffins. Breville’s oven has a smooth-looking brushed stainless steel texture, including snazzy-looking knobs and buttons and an interior light that automatically turns on at the cooking cycle’s end. (You can also flip it on manually.)
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-breville-smart-oven-air-fryer-is-70-off-for-black-friday-on-amazon-130032962.html?src=rss
Bluesky, which has surged in the days following the US election, said on Friday that it won’t train on its users’ posts for generative AI. The declaration stands in stark contrast to the AI training policies of X (Twitter) and Meta’s Threads. Probably not coincidentally, Bluesky’s announcement came the same day X’s new terms of service, allowing third-party partners to train on user posts, went into effect.
“A number of artists and creators have made their home on Bluesky, and we hear their concerns with other platforms training on their data,” Bluesky posted (viaThe Verge) on Friday. “We do not use any of your content to train generative AI, and have no intention of doing so.”
In a follow-up post, the decentralized social platform clarified that it does use AI to help with content moderation. “Bluesky uses AI internally to assist in content moderation, which helps us triage posts and shield human moderators from harmful content,” the company posted. Bluesky also added that it uses AI in the algorithms powering its Discover feed.
“None of these are Gen AI systems trained on user content,” Bluesky stressed.
The Verge points out that Bluesky’s robots.txt (the policy that dictates what outside parties can scrape from a website) doesn’t prevent OpenAI, Google or other leading GenAI companies from crawling its data. The company justified that potential hole by pointing to the platform’s open and public nature. “Just as robots.txt files don’t always prevent outside companies from crawling those sites, the same applies here,” spokesperson Emily Liu told The Verge. “That said, we’d like to do our part to ensure that outside orgs respect user consent and are actively discussing within the team on how to achieve this.”
Although Bluesky is still the underdog in a race with X and Threads, the platform has picked up steam after the US election. It passed the 15 million user threshold on Wednesday after adding more than a million in the past week.
A report from web analytics company SimilarWeb noted that the signup surge coincided with a spike in X deactivations. It found that “more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their [X] accounts” on November 7, “more than on any previous day of Elon Musk’s tenure.” In parallel, “web traffic and daily active users for Bluesky increased dramatically in the week before the election, and then again after election day.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-suddenly-hot-bluesky-says-it-wont-train-ai-on-your-posts-220034195.html?src=rss
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this week it’s pressing criminal charges against X (Twitter) in France related to a Kremlin disinformation campaign that used the nonprofit as a prop to spread fake news. The organization said legal means are its “last resort” in its fight against the bogus stories, designed to foster pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine sentiment, that festered on the platform. “X’s refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful — as it was duly informed by RSF — makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform,” RSF director of advocacy Antoine Bernard said in a statement.
“These legal proceedings seek to remind X, a powerful social media company, and its executives that they can be held criminally responsible if they knowingly provide a platform and tools for disseminating false information, identity theft, misrepresentation, and defamation — offences punishable under the French Penal Code,” RSF attorney Emmanuel Daoud wrote.
RSF published an investigation in September detailing how a fabricated video was planted and spread by Russia on the Elon Musk-owned social platform. The fake clip was made to look like a BBC-produced one, including the news organization’s logo. It made the erroneous case that RSF conducted a study that revealed a large number of Ukrainian soldiers sympathizing with Nazism.
False claims that Ukraine is a pro-Nazi nation have been a common propaganda tactic used by Russia since its 2022 invasion. The narrative is designed to engender support for the Kremlin-initiated war, which is estimated to have killed a million or more Ukrainian people.
RSF’s investigation revealed that an account called “Patricia,” claiming to be a translator in France, planted the seed for the disinformation. However, the report discovered that the account’s profile picture was found on a Russian website featuring photos of blond women designed “to make avatars.”
RSF says that even the account’s name seemed to have been automatically generated by X. In addition, the organization says Grok, X’s AI chatbot with access to live data about the platform, claimed the account has “very strong opinions, often in support of Russia and Vladimir Putin, while severely criticizing Ukraine and its supporters in Europe.”
The investigation found the video then took off, spreading through a chain that included a pro-Kremlin Irish entrepreneur living in Russia, a Kremlin propagandist with a large following on Telegram and even Russian officials. It was also shared by “highly influential bloggers” known for unflinching support of Vladimir Putin.
“In this story, the Russian authorities have acted a bit like they were laundering dirty information,” an RSF representative said in a video about the investigation (translated from French) in September. “They took false information, they laundered it through official channels. And then, this piece of information that wasn’t actual information was reintroduced into public discourse to make it look credible.”
Russia’s bogus video was widely shared on X and Telegram. Reporters Without Borders says the clip’s viewership reached half a million combined views by September 13. To capture its frustration with the blow to its credibility, the nonprofit cited the quote (of unknown origin but often attributed to Mark Twain): “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”
RSF says it filed 10 reports with X of illegal content through the social channel’s reporting system required by the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). “After a series of rejections from X and requests for additional information — which RSF provided — none of the reports resulted in the removal of the defamatory content targeting our organisation and its advocacy director,” RSF wrote.
In July, the US Justice Department said it uncovered and dismantled a Russian propaganda network using nearly 1,000 accounts to push pro-Kremlin posts on X. The DOJ claimed the accounts posed as Americans and were made using AI. In October, The Wall Street Journalreported that Elon Musk held multiple private calls with Vladimir Putin from 2022 into this year, describing the contacts as a “closely held secret in government.”
“X’s refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful — as it was duly informed by RSF — makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform,” RSF director Bernard wrote in a statement. “X provides those who spread falsehoods and manipulate public opinion with a powerful arsenal of tools and unparalleled visibility, while granting the perpetrators total impunity. It’s time for X to be held accountable. Pressing criminal charges is the last resort against the disinformation and war propaganda that RSF has fallen victim to, which is proliferating on this ‘Muskian’ network.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reporters-without-borders-says-its-pressing-charges-against-x-200005117.html?src=rss
On Thursday, the European Union published its first draft of a Code of Practice for general purpose AI (GPAI) models. The document, which won’t be finalized until May, lays out guidelines for managing risks — and giving companies a blueprint to comply and avoid hefty penalties. The EU’s AI Act came into force on August 1, but it left room to nail down the specifics of GPAI regulations down the road. This draft (via TechCrunch) is the first attempt to clarify what’s expected of those more advanced models, giving stakeholders time to submit feedback and refine them before they kick in.
GPAIs are those trained with a total computing power of over 10²⁵ FLOPs. Companies expected to fall under the EU’s guidelines include OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic and Mistral. But that list could grow.
The document addresses several core areas for GPAI makers: transparency, copyright compliance, risk assessment and technical / governance risk mitigation. This 36-page draft covers a lot of ground (and will likely balloon much more before it’s finalized), but several highlights stand out.
The code emphasizes transparency in AI development and requires AI companies to provide information about the web crawlers they used to train their models — a key concern for copyright holders and creators. The risk assessment section aims to prevent cyber offenses, widespread discrimination and loss of control over AI (the “it’s gone rogue” sentient moment in a million bad sci-fi movies).
AI makers are expected to adopt a Safety and Security Framework (SSF) to break down their risk management policies and mitigate them proportionately to their systemic risks. The rules also cover technical areas like protecting model data, providing failsafe access controls and continually reassessing their effectiveness. Finally, the governance section strives for accountability within the companies themselves, requiring ongoing risk assessment and bringing in outside experts where needed.
Like the EU’s other tech-related regulations, companies that run afoul of the AI Act can expect steep penalties. They can be fined up to €35 million (currently $36.8 million) or up to seven percent of their global annual profits, whichever is higher.
Stakeholders are invited to submit feedback through the dedicated Futurium platform by November 28 to help refine the next draft. The rules are expected to be finalized by May 1, 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-eu-publishes-the-first-draft-of-regulatory-guidance-for-general-purpose-ai-models-223447394.html?src=rss
When reality becomes stranger than satire, maybe the satirists can teach us something. Or, maybe the last laugh will be on them after all. The Onionsaid on Thursday that its parent company bought Infowars, the disgraced purveyor of Sandy Hook misinformation and vendor of pseudoscience supplements. The Onion posted on Bluesky that it plans to transform the rebooted Infowars into “a very funny, very stupid website.” However, the Texas judge overseeing the bankruptcy sale temporarily halted the takeover, citing concerns about the auction process. A review hearing will be scheduled for next week.
The Onion said it received the blessing of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to scoop up Infowars in a bankruptcy auction. Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded in the massacre’s aftermath, reportedly plans to advertise on the rebooted site if the sale is finalized.
Infowars founder Alex Jones was found liable in 2022 for nearly $1.5 billion in damages for spreading conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six adult staffers.
After The Onion’s triumphant announcement on Thursday, the APreported that US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez called for an evidentiary hearing to review the auction that led to the takeover. Christopher Murray, the trustee overseeing the auction, reportedly said in court that The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, didn’t offer the highest bid in cash. However, the sale price included a clause where some Sandy Hook families would forego their portion of the proceeds to pay Jones’ other creditors. Murray said Global Tetrahedron’s bid was the best despite having a lower (undisclosed) cash amount due to that agreement.
The only other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website using Jones’ name to sell his supplements. The company reportedly placed a $3.5 million bid that, based on cash alone, would have won the secret auction. First United’s attorney reportedly told the judge on Thursday that the trustee changed the auction process days before, omitting a final round on Wednesday that would have given the parties a chance to outbid each other.
The trustee only chose from the sealed bids submitted last week. However, he said his decision followed Judge Lopez’s auction rules in September, describing the final round as optional.
Lopez struck a disapproving tone in court, throwing the sale into question. “We’re all going to an evidentiary hearing, and I’m going to figure out exactly what happened,” the judge reportedly said. “No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction.”
As America’s chief satire publication (at least of those doing so consciously), The Onion’s (perhaps premature) announcement of the purchase stayed on brand. Its tone, hinting at what’s to come, resembled The Colbert Report on steroids — or maybe Jones’ “Survival Shield X-2” pills.
“Founded in 1999 on the heels of the Satanic ‘panic’ and growing steadily ever since, InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses,” The Onion wrote in a truth-meets-fiction announcement. “With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal. They are a true unicorn, capable of simultaneously inspiring public support for billionaires and stoking outrage at an inept federal state that can assassinate JFK but can’t even put a man on the Moon.”
If the sale still ends up in its hands, The Onion plans to rebrand Infowars as a parody of itself (more than it already was), poking fun at “weird internet personalities” like Jones, according to The New York Times. Ben Collins, the CEO of Global Tetrahedron, hasn’t said how much it paid to transform Infowars’ destructive self-parody into constructive satire. (Collins reported extensively on Infowars when covering misinformation at NBC News.) He plans to launch the rebooted site in January.
Update, November 15, 2024, 1:47PM ET: This story has been updated to reflect the sale’s finality being thrown into limbo at a court hearing after the announcement.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/in-an-outcome-beyond-parody-the-onion-has-bought-infowars-171701601.html?src=rss
Google is conducting a “test” that will omit results from EU-based news publishers. The company says the time-limited trial will only affect a small portion of users in nine EU countries and will help “assess how results from EU news publishers impact the search experience for our users and traffic to publishers.” But given the fragile state of the news media — and the company’s history of threatening to pull its services in the face of news-related regulations — it’s tempting to view it as the equivalent of a mob boss conducting a “little test” to see how the corner laundromat fares without its protection.
Google describes the experiment (viaThe Verge) as a “small, time-limited test” to omit EU results from search, Google News and the personalized Discover feed. It will only affect one percent of users in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. Those users will still see results from other websites, including non-EU news publications.
The company says news results will reappear as usual once the test concludes. (It didn’t list a specific timeframe.) Google stresses that the experiment won’t impact the publisher payments it makes under the European Copyright Directive (EUCD), under which the company has inked deals with over 4,000 EU publishers.
Google does have a history of using the potential withdrawal of its visibility as a negotiating stick in similar situations. In some cases, the tactic has helped it draw concessions.
Last year, Google pulled its news links from Canada in response to Bill C-18 (the Online News Act), which required tech companies to negotiate compensation with online publishers for linked content. After months of negotiations, Google said Canada had addressed its concerns and given it a path to an exemption. Canada said it granted one to Google last month, with the company agreeing to pay $100 million annually to news organizations.
In April of this year, Google briefly removed links to California news outlets in response to the proposed California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require Google to pay news publishers in exchange for continuing to link to their websites. Although the bill’s fate is still up in the air, Google struck a deal with state lawmakers this summer, committing tens of millions of dollars to a fund supporting local news.
In 2021, the company threatened to remove its entire search engine from Australia in response to a then-proposed law requiring tech companies to share royalties with news publishers. The nation’s then-Prime Minister stood firm. “Let me be clear. Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia,” Scott Morrison said. After the bill was passed and enacted, Google struck deals with Australian media companies to license content.
Google says it hopes the data analysis tools it provides publishers will help them use the EU test to “understand traffic patterns.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/a-google-test-will-omit-eu-publishers-from-news-links-184536615.html?src=rss
Is Fortnite old enough to elicit nostalgia? Last year’s trial run of bringing back the battle royale game’s original map, weapons and early seasons would suggest so — at least for folks of a certain age. That test led to record-breaking player counts, topping 44.7 million in October 2023. Epic Games said on Tuesday that the OG Fortnite rewind is coming back again, and this time, it’s for good.
OG Fortnite will let you play the original map, along with the loot and seasons as they were in 2017. In addition to the nostalgia factor, many players appreciate that era’s simpler gameplay mechanics, map designs, weapons and items. It was also before expansion updates that added new game modes (it was Battle Royale only) and vehicles like cars, boats and helicopters.
Old-school Fortnite fans have less than a month to wait. The OG version returns to the game on December 6.
Blizzard must have seen something it liked in the 2023 trial. It borrowed a page from Epic and brought back Overwatch in its original form for a three-week event starting today.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fortnite-will-turn-back-the-clock-again-on-december-6-185956191.html?src=rss
If you use Chrome on your iPhone, you’re about to see some features sliding over from the Android version. Google Lens will let you add text to your image searches, and you can save files and pictures directly to Google Drive and Photos. You can get “Shopping Insights” for products you’re browsing.
Chrome for iOS now lets you add words to your Google Lens visual searches, allowing you to add nuance to your query or “perform more complex and specific searches,” as Chrome Product Manager Katia Muradyan wrote in a blog post. After activating Lens by tapping the camera icon in the Chrome search bar, you can ask questions about the object you’re snapping a pic of, and it will produce corresponding results. Google says AI Overviews will also appear for some of these search results.
The feature shares some common ground with an Apple Intelligence feature for iPhone 16 owners in iOS 18.2, which is currently in beta. Visual Intelligence lets you point your camera at something and get info about it, including asking ChatGPT questions about it or searching for it on Google.
Chrome for iPhone now has a feature that lets you save a file directly to Google Drive or Google Photos, sparing you from using your phone’s internal storage. When saving files from Chrome, you’ll see a new option to save the file to Drive. Similarly, when browsing a photo you want to save, long-press on it, and you’ll see a new “Save in Google Photos” option in the context menu. Of course, the feature requires you to be signed into a Google account.
Chrome for iOS also adds a feature that pops up a mini-map when you click on an address. Look for an underlined link to specific addresses; clicking on it will take you to the mini-map without leaving the browser.
Finally, Google is adding Shopping Insights for US users. The company frames it as a way to help you find great prices on items you’re shopping for, but it’s hard to imagine this feature exists strictly from the kindness of Google's heart. Regardless, you’ll soon see a “Good Deal Now” alert in Chrome’s address bar when browsing for products for which it’s available. You’ll see details like price history / tracking and buying options if you tap it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/chrome-for-ios-now-lets-you-add-text-to-google-lens-visual-searches-170920556.html?src=rss
If you’re at least in your mid-30s (give or take), you know the voice of Elwood Edwards, realize it or not. He recorded the phrase, “You’ve got mail!” and three other lines for Quantum Computer Services in 1989. That company later rebranded to America Online, and the rest is early internet history. Edwards died on Tuesday.
WKYC first reported (viaVariety) that Edwards passed away one day before what would have been his 75th birthday. He was a longtime off-camera presence at the Cleveland TV station, working as a graphic designer, camera operator and jack-of-all-trades employee.
His wife, Karen Edwards, worked at Quantum when she heard the company’s then-CEO talking about needing a voice for the software that would soon bombard mailboxes across the US. “So, she volunteered my voice,” Edwards said in a 2012 video. “And on a cassette deck in my living room, I recorded the phrases that you’ve come to know.”
He was paid a grand total of $200 for his voiceover work.
The new-message catchphrase, recorded in Edwards’ calm and welcoming voice, became a cultural phenomenon in AOL’s ‘90s and early 2000s heyday. Of course, that included inspiring the 1998 Nora Ephron rom-com’s title.
Edwards also contributed three (lesser known but still remembered by many) AOL sayings: “Welcome,” “File’s done” and “Goodbye.” In the 2012 video, he’s depicted getting hounded by various employees, prompting him to say the thing. (AOL is currently owned by Yahoo, Engadget’s parent company.)
“So, that’s the story behind the catchphrase,” he said in the clip, “which, well, I have a certain amount of trouble trying to escape.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-voice-of-aols-youve-got-mail-has-died-at-74-214247947.html?src=rss
If you’re at least in your mid-30s (give or take), you know the voice of Elwood Edwards, realize it or not. He recorded the phrase, “You’ve got mail!” and three other lines for Quantum Computer Services in 1989. That company later rebranded to America Online, and the rest is early internet history. Edwards died on Tuesday.
WKYC first reported (viaVariety) that Edwards passed away one day before what would have been his 75th birthday. He was a longtime off-camera presence at the Cleveland TV station, working as a graphic designer, camera operator and jack-of-all-trades employee.
His wife, Karen Edwards, worked at Quantum when she heard the company’s then-CEO talking about needing a voice for the software that would soon bombard mailboxes across the US. “So, she volunteered my voice,” Edwards said in a 2012 video. “And on a cassette deck in my living room, I recorded the phrases that you’ve come to know.”
He was paid a grand total of $200 for his voiceover work.
The new-message catchphrase, recorded in Edwards’ calm and welcoming voice, became a cultural phenomenon in AOL’s ‘90s and early 2000s heyday. Of course, that included inspiring the 1998 Nora Ephron rom-com’s title.
Edwards also contributed three (lesser known but still remembered by many) AOL sayings: “Welcome,” “File’s done” and “Goodbye.” In the 2012 video, he’s depicted getting hounded by various employees, prompting him to say the thing. (AOL is currently owned by Yahoo, Engadget’s parent company.)
“So, that’s the story behind the catchphrase,” he said in the clip, “which, well, I have a certain amount of trouble trying to escape.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-voice-of-aols-youve-got-mail-has-died-at-74-214247947.html?src=rss