Proposed California bill would let parents block algorithmic social feeds for children
California will float a pair of bills designed to protect children from social media addiction and preserve their private data. The Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) and California Children’s Data Privacy Act (AB 1949) were introduced Monday by the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Senator…
Meta will offer some of its data to third-party researchers through Center for Open Science partnership
Meta is teaming up with the Center for Open Science (COS) to start a pilot program that studies “topics related to well-being.” It looks like the program will dive into our social media data, but on a voluntary basis, as COS says it will use a “privacy-preserving” dataset provided by…
The Morning After: That AI-generated George Carlin comedy special was written by humans
As generative AI (and access to AI tools) continues to grow, expect to see more things like the tumult over “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.” Released on (then pulled from) YouTube, it’s framed as an hour of new “material” by the comedian, who died in 2008. Of course, it’s…
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 ANC headphones fall back to $328
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones are some of the most popular on the market, thanks to the improved sound quality, comfortable fit and highly effective active noise cancellation (ANC). If you’ve been looking at buying a pair, now is a good time to act. They’re currently on sale at Amazon in black,…
The UwU Virtual Pet Buffer is a Tamagotchi in a guitar pedal
I’m not gonna pretend I’ve figured you, the Engadget reader, out. Trying to predict what is gonna get your little nerd hearts all a flutter is kind of a crapshoot. But, I’m pretty confident that a Tamagotchi in a guitar pedal is right up your alley. Ground Control Audio showed…
X plans to hire 100 content moderators to fill new Trust and Safety center in Austin
X’s head of business operations Joe Benarroch said the company plans to open a new office in Austin, Texas for a team that will be dedicated to content moderation, Bloomberg reports. The “Trust and Safety center of excellence,” for which the company is planning to hire 100 full-time employees, will…
X confirms it blocked Taylor Swift searches to ‘prioritize safety’
X has confirmed it’s preventing users from searching Taylor Swift’s name after pornographic deepfakes of the artist began circulating on the platform this week. Visitors to the site started noticing on Saturday that some searches containing Swift’s name would only return an error message. In a statement to the Wall…
Narrative game Open Roads has been delayed by a month
Annapurna is delaying the release of its upcoming narrative adventure game, Open Roads, by a few weeks so the team can do a little more refining. It’s now scheduled for release on March 28 instead of the originally planned date of February 22. The decision was made to “ensure the…
Embodme Erae II hands-on: A customizable MPE MIDI controller for your soft synths and analog gear
The original Erae Touch was one of the more interesting MPE controllers to come out in the last few years. But it’s been on the market for less than three years. So it was something of a surprise when Embodme showed up to NAMM 2024 with Erae II, the next…
Fan-made Bloodborne Kart catches heat from Sony, forcing developers to shift gears
We were so close to finally drifting on the cobblestone streets of Yharnam, but it looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer for Bloodborne Kart. And, it’ll be called something else when it does arrive. Lilith Walther, the developer behind the project, said the team has to “scrub…