Walmart just announced a major expansion of its drone delivery service to five new cities. These areas include Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Charlotte and Houston. This makes it the first retailer to offer drone-based deliveries across five states, as the service has already been operating in Arkansas.

This isn't a small beta test, like some of Amazon's pilot programs. Walmart says the service is launching at 100 stores. This is thanks to a partnership with Wing, which operates its drones within FAA guidelines.

“This is real drone delivery at scale,” said Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing. “People all around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex have made drone delivery part of their normal shopping habits over the past year. Now we’re excited to share this ultra-fast delivery experience with millions more people across many more US cities.”

Walmart

These drones can deliver up to six miles from the retail location. Walmart says it's building out the service right now, but it could take up to a year to reach every store. Customers are encouraged to sign up for notifications as to when drone deliveries open up in their area. The company notes that it has made over 150,000 drone deliveries so far, with an average fulfillment time of 19 minutes. There is a weight limit, however, and Wing drones will only deliver certain items. 

Rival Amazon recently experienced a hiccup with its in-house drone delivery program. There were two crashes, which forced the company to put the project on hold for a bit. It's back now, and can now deliver new items like smartphones and video doorbells.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/walmart-expands-drone-deliveries-to-five-new-cities-including-atlanta-200030301.html?src=rss

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Chinese propaganda and social engineering operations have been using ChatGPT to create posts, comments and drive engagement at home and abroad. OpenAI said it has recently disrupted four Chinese covert influence operations that were using its tool to generate social media posts and replies on platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Reddit and X.

The comments generated revolved around several topics from US politics to a Taiwanese video game where players fight the Chinese Communist Party. ChatGPT was used to create social media posts that both supported and decried different hot button issues to stir up misleading political discourse.

Ben Nimmo, principal investigator at OpenAI told NPR, "what we're seeing from China is a growing range of covert operations using a growing range of tactics." While OpenAI claimed it also disrupted a handful of operations it believes originated in Russia, Iran and North Korea, Nimmo elaborated on the Chinese operations saying they "targeted many different countries and topics [...] some of them combined elements of influence operations, social engineering, surveillance."

This is far from the first time this has occurred. In 2023, researchers from cybersecurity firm Mandiant found that AI-generated content has been used in politically motivated online influence campaigns in numerous instances since 2019.

In 2024, OpenAI published a blog post outlining its efforts to disrupt five state-affiliated operations across China, Iran and North Korea that were using OpenAI models for malicious intent. These applications included debugging code, generating scripts and creating content for use in phishing campaigns.

That same year, OpenAI said it disrupted an Iranian operation that was using ChatGPT to create longform political articles about US elections that were then posted on fake news sites posing as both conservative and progressive outlets. The operation was also creating comments to post on X and Instagram through fake accounts, again espousing opposing points of view.

"We didn't generally see these operations getting more engagement because of their use of AI," Nimmo told NPR. "For these operations, better tools don't necessarily mean better outcomes."

This offers little comfort. As generative AI gets cheaper and smarter, it stands to reason that its ability to generate content en masse will make influence campaigns like these easier and more affordable to build, even if their efficacy remains unchanged.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/foreign-propagandists-continue-using-chatgpt-in-influence-campaigns-161509862.html?src=rss

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The complex and consequential antitrust trial against Google and its search engine practices recently heard its closing arguments, and the tech giant is already planning to appeal. In a post made on X, Google confirmed it would file an appeal, explaining that the proposed solutions went too far and "would harm consumers."

“We will wait for the Court’s opinion,” Google wrote. “And we still strongly believe the Court’s original decision was wrong, and look forward to our eventual appeal.”

To challenge Google's dominance of the search engine market, the Department of Justice took on the tech giant by filing a lawsuit back in 2020. The monumental antitrust case has steadily evolved over the years, with the DOJ proposing remedies like Google opening up its search engine tech to licensing, prohibiting agreements with device makers like Apple and Samsung to ensure Google was the default search engine and forcing the sale of the Chrome browser and the open-source Chromium project. 

According to Google, the Department of Justice's proposed actions would open consumers up to "very real privacy issues," leave the government in charge of user data and help "well-funded competitors." Instead, Google offered to loosen its agreements to allow other search engines on devices and create an oversight committee to monitor the company's activities.

Since then, the federal judge presiding over the case, Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled in August 2024 that Google had an illegal monopoly of the search engine market. The judge agreed with the DOJ that Google owning the Chrome browser gives it an unfair advantage since it could use its search engine advantage to drive more traffic and generate more revenue for the company. 

The end result of this antitrust trial could have serious implications for the future of AI, which is closely tied to the search engine market. According to Google, this ruling could allow other companies with AI chatbots to step in and dominate the search engine market instead. During the trial, Nick Turley, an OpenAI executive, testified that the company would be interested in buying Chrome if Google was forced to sell it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-plans-to-appeal-the-antitrust-ruling-against-its-search-engine-dominance-171748836.html?src=rss

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According to a report from NPR, Meta plans to shift the task of assessing its products' potential harms away from human reviewers, instead leaning more heavily on AI to speed up the process. Internal documents seen by the publication note that Meta is aiming to have up to 90 percent of risk assessments fall on AI, NPR reports, and is considering using AI reviews even in areas such as youth risk and "integrity," which covers violent content, misinformation and more. Unnamed current and former Meta employees who spoke with NPR warned AI may overlook serious risks that a human team would have been able to identify.

Updates and new features for Meta's platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp, have long been subjected to human reviews before they hit the public, but Meta has reportedly doubled down on the use of AI over the last two months. Now, according to NPR, product teams have to fill out a questionnaire about their product and submit this for review by the AI system, which generally provides an "instant decision" that includes the risk areas it's identified. They'll then have to address whatever requirements it laid out to resolve the issues before the product can be released.

A former Meta executive told NPR that reducing scrutiny "means you're creating higher risks. Negative externalities of product changes are less likely to be prevented before they start causing problems in the world." In a statement to NPR, Meta said it would still tap "human expertise" to evaluate "novel and complex issues," and leave the "low-risk decisions" to AI. Read the full report over at NPR.

It comes a few days after Meta released its latest quarterly integrity reports — the first since changing its policies on content moderation and fact-checking earlier this year. The amount of content taken down has unsurprisingly decreased in the wake of the changes, per the report. But there was a small rise in bullying and harassment, as well as violent and graphic content.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-reportedly-soon-use-ai-for-most-product-risk-assessments-instead-of-human-reviewers-205416849.html?src=rss

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Mozilla's Firefox has joined Chrome, Edge and other browsers in offering AI-powered overviews, but this time with a twist. The latest version lets you use a keyboard shortcut to open a pop-up that previews a link's contents when you hover over it from any web page. It's a new way that AI is being integrated into browsers that may help users but hurt publishers. 

To try the new feature you need the latest Firefox release channel version 139.0. Within the settings under "Firefox Labs," simply turn on Link Previews. "After enabling, use the Alt+Shift keyboard shortcut when hovering over a link to see the previews in action," Mozilla writes. 

Once turned on, you can hover your mouse over a link on any webpage and a vertical window will pop up showing an image on top, the publisher's link and a quick summary. Below that are AI-generated "key points" that provide further information. Mozilla previously said that it uses the SmolLM2-360M language model from Hugging Face, on-device with Reader's View content to ensure privacy. 

Link Previews first came along last month in beta but is now widely available in some regions. Like Google's AI previews, it could risk harming publishers by reducing traffic (which is likely why neither of those features are available in France where I live). It's also not clear if Firefox is paying publishers to use their information in AI-powered summaries. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-war-on-links-escalates-with-firefoxs-experimental-ai-previews-123059735.html?src=rss

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Bluesky is ramping up its verification program, even though it's still not exactly clear how it plans to determine which accounts are "authentic and notable" enough for a blue checkmark. One month after the company said it would start giving checkmarks to select accounts, the company is now allowing people to apply for verification.

Currently, the application consists of a multi-page Google Form that asks users to share details about their account and why they want to be verified. However, it's not exactly clear what criteria Bluesky will be taking into account or how it will be reviewing what will almost certainly be a flood of applications.

The company notes that it will only verify accounts that are "active and secure, authentic, and notable." Bluesky also recommends some obvious steps, like having a complete bio and using two-factor authentication. The linked form also asks users about what "category" they may fall into, such as an elected official, brand, athlete, journalist, academic or "other."

But it sounds like Blueksy is very much still figuring out verification as it goes. "Our criteria for verification is evolving based on user feedback," the form states. "We will continue to expand the scope of accounts that are eligible for verification over time. This is an initial version of the form that will change as we finalize the requirements for verification." It also notes that "meeting the basic criteria does not guarantee verification."

That could complicate things for Bluesky, which resisted the idea of having an in-house verification system until recently, despite repeated issues with impersonation. The service has more than 36 million sign-ups, and if even a small percentage of them request a badge, it could quickly overwhelm the company's small team.

Notably, the platform is also expanding its "trusted verifiers," which are third-party entities that can verify users (who get a slightly different-shaped checkmark) and vouch for their legitimacy. Organizations that want to verify on behalf of others can also sign up via the same form.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/you-can-now-apply-for-verification-on-bluesky-222802057.html?src=rss

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Today's report by security expert Jeremiah Fowler of a massive unsecured database full of usernames and passwords shouldn't necessarily frighten you, but it should spur you to action. If you have any weak passwords protecting accounts with sensitive information, or if you've reused the same password — however strong — on multiple accounts, now would be an excellent time to change them and set up two-factor authentication.

Fowler reported on Website Planet that the database, which he found unlocked and without any encryption on an anonymously registered server, contained a little over 184 million records. These included usernames, emails, passwords, and direct links to the URLs for logging into the relevant accounts. While Fowler was able to get the hosting provider to lock the server, he couldn't find any hard evidence about who compiled the database, nor whether they had used or shared the information.

There are a couple of reasons not to panic here. 184 million records exposed doesn't mean 184 million people exposed — it's just the number of rows in the database. If the info was gathered through malware, as Fowler believes, it's likely to have gathered multiple records from every infected device. That's obviously still bad, but fewer people have been affected than it may seem from the number alone.

The database also contained no information that could be used for two-factor authentication, so anyone with a second factor set up has much less reason to worry. Don't forget, though, that one weakly secured account is a liability to the others. For example, a hacker could gain access to your email, then use that access to break through 2FA on your bank account.

The potential consequences of having your password stolen are severe enough that it's worth taking common-sense steps. Since the database wasn't leaked on any of the usual dark web sources, its data likely won't show up on breach checkers like HaveIBeenPwned. However, Fowler did share with Wired reporters that he tested a sample of 10,000 fields in the database, and found passwords to the following platforms:

• Facebook

• Google

• Instagram

• Roblox

• Discord

• Microsoft

• Netflix

• PayPal

• Amazon

• Apple

• Nintendo

• Snapchat

• Spotify

• Twitter

• WordPress

• Yahoo

• Online banks

• Online wallets

• Healthcare web apps

• Government employee accounts

If you have an account on any of those platforms without two-factor authentication, we recommend changing your password and setting up 2FA as soon as possible. Pay special attention to platforms like Roblox and Nintendo where your kids might have set up their own accounts and not bothered with 2FA. As Fowler points out in his blog post, even seemingly innocuous accounts might have personal information lying around.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/a-huge-unsecured-credential-database-discovery-is-a-great-reminder-to-change-your-passwords-210537400.html?src=rss

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The News/Media Alliance took aim at Google today after the tech company's announcement at its I/O showcase that AI Mode will be rolling out to all US search users. This feature more closely integrates an AI chatbot into Google search. Ostensibly, AI Mode can help people get better answers to their queries, but it also serves to keep users on a Google property rather than clicking through to get information from other publications.

"Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue. Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return, the definition of theft," said News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey. "The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued domination of the internet by one company."

This isn't the first time the organization has fired shots at Google; it filed an amicus brief earlier this month looking for remedy in the antitrust case about Google's monopoly control over search. The group argued that publishers should be able to opt out of letting search engines use their content for retrieval augmented generation.

Google has also taken an aggressive stance toward publishers as it develops more AI-driven services. The company's recent attitude can be seen in Bloomberg's discovery of an internal document showing that the company decided not to give publishers a choice to opt out of AI training if they wanted their material to appear in search results.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/newsmedia-alliance-calls-googles-ai-mode-theft-223128521.html?src=rss

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The FCC has announced its approval of the merger between communications giants Verizon and Frontier, after a deal was made last year. Verizon will acquire Frontier Communications for $9.6 billion in cash, in addition to absorbing $10 billion of debt.

Key to earning approval from the FCC was Verizon's commitment to ending all DEI-related practices, in line with the Trump administration’s aim to dismantle all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from both public organizations and private companies.

The statement from the FCC said the approval "ensures that discriminatory DEI policies end," and that Verizon "has reaffirmed the merged entity’s commitment to equal opportunity and nondiscrimination."

"By approving this deal, the FCC ensures that Americans will benefit from a series of good and commonsense wins. The transaction will unleash billions of dollars in new infrastructure builds in communities across the country—including rural America. This investment will accelerate the transition away from old, copper line networks to modern, high-speed ones. And it delivers for America’s tower and telecom crews who do the hard, often gritty work needed to build high-speed networks," said Brendan Carr, FCC chairman.

Verizon plans to upgrade and expand Frontier's existing network across 25 states and expects to deploy fiber to more than one million American homes annually.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/fcc-approves-verizons-20-billion-merger-with-frontier-181434890.html?src=rss

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The European Commission (EC) has been firing on all cylinders in holding big tech to account through various fines and enforcement actions, attempting to create a more competitive landscape in a space that has become increasingly monopolized.

Microsoft has been in a years-long dispute with the EC, which opened an antitrust probe in 2023 after Slack filed a complaint in 2020 alleging that Microsoft’s bundling of Teams and Microsoft 365 was anticompetitive.

The company unbundled the two products in the EU shortly thereafter in a bid to avoid antitrust fines, but it wasn’t enough to appease the EC. In 2024, the Commission found that Microsoft did not go far enough and was still in violation of antitrust laws, risking massive fines.

This week, Microsoft responded with a more robust set of commitments. Its productivity software suites will continue to be offered without Teams in the European Economic Area (EEA) for at least seven years. Minimum price deltas will be set between versions of the suites that include Teams and those which do not.

Microsoft has also offered to align these options and pricing structures for its suites and Teams globally should the EC accept its proposal. Interoperability enhancements that make it easier to use third-party competitors to Teams were also included in the proposal.

"The proposed commitments are the result of constructive, good-faith discussions with the European Commission over several months. We believe that they represent a clear and complete resolution to the concerns raised by our competitors and will provide European customers with more choices," said Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft's VP of European Government Affairs.

The EC has begun an open feedback period, seeking comments from competitors and citizens on whether the proposed commitments by Microsoft are adequate and place the company back within the bounds of the EU's antitrust regulations.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-attemps-to-avoid-eu-fines-by-further-decoupling-teams-and-office-170519085.html?src=rss

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The Belgian Court of Appeal ruled today that the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) currently used as the foundation for most online advertising is illegal in the EU. This decision upholds the findings of the Belgian Data Protection Authority from 2022 that the technology underpinning online ads violates several principles of the General Data Protection Regulations, an EU digital privacy law that took effect in 2018.

Engadget's Daniel Cooper wrote a thorough explainer of the different systems that support the current online advertising ecosystem, which is valuable reading for anybody spending time online. The very simplified version is that advertisers participate in real-time bidding (RTB) to show their content online. Currently, those bids are based on information gathered from tracking individuals' activities online with cookies. The TCF was created by the Interactive Advertising Bureau as a way to standardize how websites ask users for permission to be tracked. The original 2022 decision determined that both the consent collected by the TCF and the data collected in the RTB process were illegal under the GDPR.

"Today's court's decision shows that the consent system used by Google, Amazon, X, Microsoft, deceives hundreds of millions of Europeans," said Dr Johnny Ryan, director of Enforce at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, who has been leading the legal charge against the current approach to ad tech. "The tech industry has sought to hide its vast data breach behind sham consent popups. Tech companies turned the GDPR into a daily nuisance rather than a shield for people."

The reaction from IAB Europe, which filed the appeal, seems to mostly be relief that it hasn't been found responsible for the data collected by TCF. "The Market Court has rejected the APD’s view that IAB Europe is a joint controller together with TCF participants for their own respective processing of personal data, for instance for the purpose of digital advertising," the organization's statement says. IAB Europe notes that it has already suggested changes to the TCF that better reflect the "limited controllership" and submitted them to the Belgian Data Protection Authority. The group faced fines and was ordered to rebuild its current ad-tech framework as a result of the original decision.

We've also reached out to some of the major advertisers that use the RTB technology for comment on the ruling.

While this does seem like a big win for privacy advocates and internet users in the EU, it's unclear exactly what the next steps will be for advertisers and for ad tech systems. Most likely, regulators will oversee changes the IAB Europe makes to the TCF, so consent pop-ups may not yet be a thing of the past.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/appeals-court-confirms-that-tracking-based-online-advertising-is-illegal-in-europe-223714124.html?src=rss

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Those keen on trying out a VPN to protect their online activity can get a great deal on ProtonVPN thanks to an Engadget-exclusive offer. Two-year plans are on sale for $81 right now, which represents a whopping $158.40 discount and comes out to $3.39 per month. If you'd prefer to try out ProtonVPN for a shorter amount of time first, you can get a one-year plan for just $48, or about $4 per month.

Proton topped our list of the best VPN services, and with good reason. It's incredibly powerful and easy to use, which is a boon for those new to the space. The end-to-end encryption is solid and everything's based on an open-source framework. This lets the company offer an official vulnerability disclosure program.

A subscription includes an IP-masker, so websites can't track you online, and a built-in ad blocker. We found in our tests that browsing the web and watching streaming content were both speedy while using this VPN, which isn't always the case with this type of service.

The only caveat? The company will automatically bill you at the normal price when the discounted subscription runs out. Be sure to cancel before that if you aren't vibing with the platform.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/protonvpn-deal-get-66-percent-off-two-year-subscriptions-191045133.html?src=rss

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OpenAI has launched a new web page called the safety evaluations hub to publicly share information related to things like the hallucination rates of its models. The hub will also highlight if a model produces harmful content, how well it behaves as instructed and attempted jailbreaks. 

The tech company claims this new page will provide additional transparency on OpenAI, a company that, for context, has faced multiple lawsuits alleging it illegally used copyrighted material to train its AI models. Oh, yeah, and it's worth mentioning that The New York Times claims the tech company accidentally deleted evidence in the newspaper's plagiarism case against it.

The safety evaluations hub is meant to expand on OpenAI's system cards. They only outline a development's safety measures at launch, whereas the hub should provide ongoing updates. 

"As the science of AI evaluation evolves, we aim to share our progress on developing more scalable ways to measure model capability and safety," OpenAI states in its announcement. "By sharing a subset of our safety evaluation results here, we hope this will not only make it easier to understand the safety performance of OpenAI systems over time, but also support community efforts⁠ to increase transparency across the field." OpenAI adds that its working to have more proactive communication in this area throughout the company. 

Interested parties can look at each of the hub's sections and see information on relevant models, such as GPT-4.1 through 4.5. OpenAI notes that the information provided in this hub is only a "snapshot" and that interested parties should look at its system cards. assessments and other releases for further details. 

One of the big buts to the entire safety evaluation hub is that OpenAI is the entity doing these tests and choosing what information to share publicly. As a result, there isn't any way to guarantee that the company will share all its issues or concerns with the public.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-promises-greater-transparency-on-model-hallucinations-and-harmful-content-184545691.html?src=rss

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The Wikimedia Foundation, hosts of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is challenging an aspect of the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act (OSA). The law aims to protect users from harmful online content by imposing restrictions and fines on large internet platforms such as social media companies. While the law was originally passed in 2023, enforcement and categorization of companies subject to the law are only taking shape now.

The law sorts online platforms into categories that are then met with varying levels of restrictions and enforcement. Wikimedia is specifically challenging the “categorisation regulations” under the law, arguing that Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, is using a flawed and vague system of metrics to judge what category a platform falls into.

Under the current definition, metrics like number of UK users and the ability to forward or share content make it more likely that Wikipedia would be considered a higher-risk “Category 1” platform. This would put Wikipedia in the same bucket as Facebook, X, YouTube and other enormous social platforms. 

The Wikimedia Foundation’s lead counsel Phil Bradley-Schmieg shared in a blog post that the foundation had been working with UK regulators for years in an attempt to clarify the rules in a manner the foundation felt would be more fair.

Platforms that are recognized as Category 1 are held to more stringent requirements governing how quickly they remove harmful content, ensuring proper age verification, preventing cyberbullying and more. The Wikimedia Foundation is arguing that Wikipedia should not be lumped into Category 1, as it is a nonprofit, ad-free and mostly volunteer-operated service.

In another blog post, the Wikimedia Foundation lays out its concerns, saying that these restrictions “would be a substantial challenge to our resources to meet the strict reporting and compliance obligations,” and that the fines threatened by Category 1 classification could lead to “disempowering users who wish to keep their identity private.”

The foundation made clear that they ultimately support regulations that could improve online safety. “Given that the OSA intends to make the UK a safer place to be online,"Bradley-Schmieg wrote "it is particularly unfortunate that we must now defend the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer editors from flawed legislation.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/wikipedias-owner-challenges-categorization-rules-under-uks-online-safety-act-175128560.html?src=rss

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In a development that can only be seen as positive, non-consensual deepfake porn site Mr. Deepfakes has shut down for good, reports 404 Media. This news comes due to the site losing one of its service providers. 

"A critical service provider has terminated service permanently. Data loss has made it impossible to continue operation," a notice on the site reads. "We will not be relaunching. Any website claiming this is fake. This domain will eventually expire and we are not responsible for future use. This message will be removed around one week." 

As sites continued to crack down on non-consenual deepfake porn, Mr. Deepfakes became an open space for it. Users could upload videos and connect with creators to commission videos. People also used it as a way to collaborate on new techniques, share their methods and provide datasets. All of it was with the goal of creating this non-consensual media, sometimes with a strong likeness to real people. 

The creator of Mr. Deepfakes is still technically anonymous. However, German newspaper Der Spiegel reportedly tracked down one of the individuals behind it, a 36-year-old in Toronto. 

Governments across the world have been taking steps to make sexually explicit deepfakes illegal. Last week, the US Congress passed a bill criminalizing the "publication of non-consensual, sexually exploitative images," including deepfakes. The UK has made multiple attempts in recent years to make it illegal to create sexually explicit deepfakes. Currently, it's illegal to share this content, but not to produce it. In early 2024, the European Commission proposed new rules to criminalize sharing non-consensual intimate images, including deepfakes. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/leading-deepfake-porn-site-is-shut-down-for-good-120018413.html?src=rss

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© Anna Barclay via Getty Images

Nintendo is going after the company that showed off unauthorized mockups of the not-yet-announced Switch 2 at CES 2025. In a lawsuit filed on Friday, Nintendo accuses accessory maker Genki of trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising, arguing that Genki “embarked upon a strategic campaign intended to capitalize on the public interest surrounding Nintendo’s next-generation console.” According to Nintendo, Genki promoted accessories it claimed are compatible with the Switch 2 despite not having official access to the console, and used the Switch logo to do so.

Following the initial reports in January that Genki brought Switch 2 mockups to CES and published a video said to show a 3D render of the console, Nintendo released a statement to say that neither the hardware nor imagery were official, per IGN. While Genki reportedly claimed it had access to a Switch 2 at first, the company later wrote on X that it does “not own or possess a black market console,” and told Game*Spark (translated by Automaton) that its mockups were based solely on leaked information. In the lawsuit, Nintendo says Genki’s “statements were contradictory and inconsistent,” yet the company “maintained its representation to consumers that its accessories will be compatible with the Nintendo Switch 2 upon the console’s release.”

Nintendo officially announced the Switch 2 on January 16, a little over a week after the mockups made their CES appearance. Even in the months since, Nintendo alleges, Genki “continues to exploit the attention of the media and fan base and usurp and threaten sales of Nintendo’s own accessories,” through means including piggybacking on Nintendo Direct with its own “Genki Direct” event immediately after. In a statement shared on X following the filing, Genki said it is “taking [the lawsuit] seriously and working with legal counsel to respond thoughtfully.”

“What we can say is this: Genki has always been an independent company focused on building innovative gaming accessories for the community we love,” Genki’s post continued. “We’re proud of the work we’ve done, and we stand by the quality and originality of our products. While we can’t comment in detail, we’re continuing preparations to fulfill orders and showcase our newest products at PAX East this week.”

The Nintendo Switch 2 arrives after years of rumors and speculation. In the lawsuit, Nintendo notes that it began planning the next-gen console shortly after the release of the first. Pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 opened in April, and the console will be available on June 5.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-is-suing-the-accessory-brand-that-flaunted-switch-2-mockups-ahead-of-its-reveal-210341646.html?src=rss

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There are plenty of good reasons to delete your X account, whether it's because of a general desire to not do anything to help Elon Musk, a distaste for the curdled culture of the platform or the allure of greener social pastures like Bluesky or Threads. Whatever your reason, the process of deleting your account is simple, and by design, pretty hands-off. In order to get rid of your X account, you'll first have to deactivate it. Once you go 30 days without logging in, it will be permanently deleted.

How to deactivate your X account

Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget

Deactivating your X account makes your profile page, posts and associated username disappear, though posts you were tagged in before you shutdown in your account will still be viewable. Deactivating also makes it impossible for you to post or view your timeline, unless you reactivate. It's one of the strongest ways to "take a break" from X, but also the only way you can get your account permanently deleted.

If you need any of your data before you deactivate and delete, you'll want to make sure you initiate that process and receive your archive before you deactivate. X says it can't send an archive from an account that's been deactivated.  

1. Open X.

2. Click on the More section in the sidebar menu.

3. Click on Settings and Privacy.

4. In the Your account section of Settings, click on Deactivate your account.

5. Read through X's warnings and then click on Deactivate.

6. Enter your account password to confirm you want to deactivate, then click Deactivate.

Now just make sure that you don't log in for 30 days, and your account will be permanently deleted. This won't necessarily delete web search results that mention your X account or your posts, but it will eliminate records of you on X itself.

FAQs

How do you reactivate your account?

If you have a change of heart before your 30 days are up, it is possible to reactivate your account so you can use it again. To reactivate your account, head to X.com or the X app and login with your credentials. You'll be asked if you want to reactive your account. Once you confirm that you do, you'll be logged in and be able to post and view your timeline. X notes that some of your account features like followers and likes may take a while to fully restore.

Is all of your information actually deleted when your X account is deleted?

While deactivating your X account and letting it be deleted does remove all of the public-facing parts of your social media presence, X does keep some of your information to "ensure the safety and security of its platform and people using X." The full list of data X collects and how it uses it is available in X's data processing explainer, as far as you should be concerned, though, a deleted account is gone.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/how-to-delete-your-twitter-or-x-account-185813976.html?src=rss

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Google will not make any to changes to how third-party cookies work on the Chrome browser at all. Anthony Chavez, Google VP for Privacy Sandbox, has announced that the company has "made the decision to maintain [its] current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome." It will also "not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies" that would have allowed users to opt out of being tracked by advertisers. Google has made the announced a few days after a federal judge ruled that it has an illegal monopoly on online advertising. 

The company originally announced that it was going to phase out third-party tracking cookies in 2022 as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative, which aims to make the web more secure and private to use. But due to a series of delays and regulatory hurdles — the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the US Department of Justice both looked into Google's initiative out of concerns that it could harm smaller advertisers — the planned deprecation got delayed to 2024 and then again to 2025. 

Last year, Google ultimately decided that it wasn't going to kill third-party cookies and will instead introduce "a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing." That new experience isn't coming. In his new announcement, Chavez said that a lot has changed since the Privacy Sandbox initiative debuted, and Google has taken new developments in privacy-enhancing technologies that secure people's browsing into consideration when it made its decision.

Despite killing all its plans to remove third-party cookies from Chrome, Google will keep the Privacy Sandbox initiative alive. Chavez said it will continue enhancing tracking protections in Chrome's incognito mode, such as launching IP Protection later this year, and will continue working on features like Safe Browsing, Safety Check and built-in password protections.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-will-keep-third-party-tracking-cookies-on-chrome-as-they-are-130026362.html?src=rss

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The Washington Post is partnering with OpenAI to bring its reporting to ChatGPT. The two organizations did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement, but the deal will see ChatGPT display summaries, quotes and links to articles from The Post when users prompt the chatbot to search the web.

"We're all in on meeting our audiences where they are," said Peter Elkins-Williams, head of global partnerships at The Post. "Ensuring ChatGPT users have our impactful reporting at their fingertips builds on our commitment to provide access where, how and when our audiences want it."

The Post is no stranger to generative AI. In November, the publisher began using the technology to offer article summaries. Since the start of February, ChatGPT Search has been available to everyone, with no account or sign-in necessary. 

Later that same month, Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, announced a "significant shift" in the publisher's editorial strategy. As part of the overhaul, the paper has been publishing daily opinion stories "in defense of two pillars," personal liberties and free markets. Given that focus and Amazon's own investments in artificial intelligence, it's not surprising to see The Washington Post and OpenAI sign a strategic partnership.

More broadly, today's announcement sees yet another publisher partnering with OpenAI, following an early but brief period of resistance from some players in the news media industry — most notably The New York Times. According to OpenAI, it has signed similar agreements with more than 20 news publishers globally.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-washington-post-partners-with-openai-to-bring-its-content-to-chatgpt-141215314.html?src=rss

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Google announced today that it will no longer be using country code top level domains for searches. Instead, all search services will happen on the google.com URL and local results will be delivered automatically. For example, that means users in the UK will no longer see google.co.uk in their browser's address bar. Google URLs with those country-specific domain endings will now redirect to the main google.com address.

Google started using location information to automatically provide search results based on geography in 2017. With that change, it didn't matter whether you entered a query into a local country code URL or into google.com; you'd always see the results version for the place you were physically located. Today's announcement seems to take that initial action to its conclusion by sunsetting those ccTLDs.

"It’s important to note that while this update will change what people see in their browser address bar, it won’t affect the way Search works, nor will it change how we handle obligations under national laws," Google noted in its announcement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-is-retiring-country-specific-domains-for-search-212157490.html?src=rss

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© REUTERS / Reuters