Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’
Does Anthropic think Claude is alive? Define ‘alive’

Over the past several weeks, as more and more Anthropic executives do interviews on a publicity blitz for Claude, one thing has gotten increasingly clear: Anthropic sure seems to think Claude is alive in some way, shape, or form. “Alive” is obviously a loaded term; the more frequently used word is “conscious.” If you ask […]

Seedance 2.0 might be gen AI video’s next big hope, but it’s still slop
Seedance 2.0 might be gen AI video’s next big hope, but it’s still slop

When Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson began uploading a series of short clips created with Seedance 2.0 – TikTok developer ByteDance’s newest video generation model – it was hard to deny that the footage was much more impressive than what we’ve seen from other gen AI outfits. The clips’ star (a digital duplicate of Tom Cruise) […]

Billions of dollars later and still nobody knows what an Xbox is
Billions of dollars later and still nobody knows what an Xbox is

The last few years of Xbox have been expensive. Under Phil Spencer’s leadership, Microsoft has spent billions of dollars in an attempt to build an ambitious future for gaming that looks a lot like Netflix. And while its subscription service Game Pass started out as a good deal for gamers (although now not so much), […]

Prop bet
Prop bet

Substack has updated its partnership with betting platform Polymarket, “introducing native tools that make it easier to share, discuss, and debate prediction market data directly on Substack.” Additionally, Polymarket will effectively pay “a cohort of creators,” including Matt Yglesias, to use its data though the newsletter platform’s pilot sponsorships program. This is just the latest […]

Nintendo turned its biggest flop into an expensive, uncomfortable novelty
Nintendo turned its biggest flop into an expensive, uncomfortable novelty

I’ve written about a lot of different video game hardware over the years, from new consoles to retro gadgets to whatever you want to call the Playdate. But I can’t remember ever being perpetually sore from testing a device; such are the joys of the Virtual Boy. Nintendo has turned its biggest flop into an […]

A powerful tool of resistance is already in your hands
A powerful tool of resistance is already in your hands

In an eyewitness video analyzed frame by frame by The New York Times, Alex Pretti raises one hand and holds a phone in the other. Federal agents tackle him, and one appears to find and remove a gun holstered on his hip. Then, an agent shoots – and a second follows. They appear to fire […]

Ring’s Flock breakup doesn’t fix its real problem
Ring’s Flock breakup doesn’t fix its real problem

The most striking thing about Ring’s statement that it had parted ways with Flock Safety is what the home security company didn’t say. There was no mention of the public backlash around ties to ICE, or any promise to address users’ concerns about the company’s relationships with law enforcement. In an increasingly authoritarian political climate, […]

HP’s laptop subscriptions are a great deal — for HP
HP’s laptop subscriptions are a great deal — for HP

There’s been some hullabaloo over HP’s laptop subscription service, recently brought to light by a Linus Tech Tips video. And for good reason: it feels like everything is a subscription these days. But it’s not just the dystopian feeling that companies are happy to sell you access to movies, music, games, phones, printers, and now […]

Why ‘deleted’ doesn’t mean gone: How police recovered Nancy Guthrie’s Nest Doorbell footage
Why ‘deleted’ doesn’t mean gone: How police recovered Nancy Guthrie’s Nest Doorbell footage

FBI Director Kash Patel said yesterday that investigators recovered footage from Savannah Guthrie’s mother’s doorbell camera using “residual data located in backend systems.” This claim has many home security camera users asking an uncomfortable question: Is your data really gone when you hit delete? When Nancy Guthrie went missing, officials said she had a doorbell […]

The Switch 2’s GameShare multiplayer turns this horror game into an unexpected comedy
The Switch 2’s GameShare multiplayer turns this horror game into an unexpected comedy

GameShare, a multiplayer feature that’s exclusive to the Switch 2, is a neat concept that so far has mostly been used in pretty standard ways. It lets you use one copy of a game and beam it to multiple Switches, making it a great way to experience local co-op titles like Survival Kids or Split […]