Month: June 2024
Character.ai lets you talk to your favorite (synthetic) people on the phone – which isn’t weird at all
Character.AI’s collection of virtual personalities based on real and fictional sources will speak up thanks to the new Character Calls audio feature. The artificial intelligence-fueled chatbots can now engage in two-way voice conversations for free on the startup’s app. Augmenting the synthetic people hosted on Character.AI’s hub with voices is…
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Sunday Ticket jury orders NFL to pay fans $4.7 billion in damages
The NFL has been hit with a $4.7 billion verdict in a class action antitrust lawsuit filed on behalf of residential and commercial customers who paid for its Sunday Ticket package on DirecTV from 2011 through 2022. Originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar, the lawsuit claimed…
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The New York Times’ excellent word search game is now in its Games app
Strands, The New York Times’ very good word search game, has been officially added to the NYT’s Games app on iOS and Android. For me personally, this is huge. Strands has become my favorite of the NYT’s games since it launched in beta in March, but I was annoyed that…
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A meeting to consider a bipartisan privacy bill just crumbled
The House Energy and Commerce Committee suddenly canceled a markup to discuss and vote on 11 bills, including the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). The committee did not provide a reason for the cancellation in its online notice, and committee members appeared surprised…
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The FCC wants to make it easier to unlock cellphones
The chair of the Federal Communications Commission proposed a new rule that could make it easier for consumers to unlock their cellphones. The proposed regulation, which the agency announced on Thursday, would require mobile providers to unlock consumers’ phones within 60 days of activation. Under current regulations, consumers who want…
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Perplexity’s grand theft AI
In every hype cycle, certain patterns of deceit emerge. In the last crypto boom, it was “ponzinomics” and “rug pulls.” In self-driving cars, it was “just five years away!” In AI, it’s seeing just how much unethical shit you can get away with. Perplexity is basically a rent-seeking middleman on…
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