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When I first saw the Rabbit R1, it was more appealing than the Humane AI Pin. The R1 had an actual screen, not a dim projector, and it had a twee scrolling wheel, all wrapped up in a glossy, fiery orange-red shell.

Alas, as our review explains, it doesn’t work as well as promised. It doesn’t do much and is, at launch, riddled with bugs and issues. Devindra Hardawar, who reviewed it, even took issue with the scrolling wheel. Nooooo.

Engadget

The main takeaway might be: If your phone can do all these tasks just as well (or better, in most cases), what’s the point, Rabbit?

The truth might be I just wasn’t into the Rabbit R1. Even if I am into pretty much anything Teenage Engineering designs.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Parrots love video-chat

X is using Grok to publish AI-generated news summaries

The best gifts to upgrade your grad’s tech setup

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Carbon dioxide removal plans may not be enough to meet Paris treaty goals

There’s a gap between plans and what’s needed.

New research conducted by the University of East Anglia (UEA) suggests current carbon removal plans will not be enough to comply with Paris treaty goals to limit global warming to 1.5C. There’s a gap of up to 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) between current global plans to remove carbon from the atmosphere and what’s needed to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. The study says a rapid reduction in emissions is far more important than where to stuff the CO2 already around.

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Google bans ads for deepfake porn apps and services

Or it will on May 30.

Google has updated its Inappropriate Content Policy to expressly prohibit advertisers from promoting websites and services that generate deepfake pornography. There are already restrictions in place for ads that feature some types of sexual content, but this aims squarely at “synthetic content that has been altered or generated to be sexually explicit or contain nudityThe company will start implementing the rule on May 30, giving advertisers the chance to remove any ad in violation of the new policy.

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Nintendo blitzes GitHub with over 8,000 takedown requests

They’re aimed at emulators.

Engadget

Nintendo sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice for over 8,000 GitHub repositories hosting code from the Yuzu Switch emulator. You might recall the games maker said Yuzu was enabling “piracy at a colossal scale.” Redacted entities representing Nintendo assert the Yuzu source code “illegally circumvents Nintendo’s technological protection measures and runs illegal copies of Switch games.” This is all happening as game emulators enjoy a resurgence. Last month, Apple loosened its restrictions on retro game players in the App Store. However, the more earnest reasons for emulation (archiving a history of gaming that could otherwise be lost; playing games no longer in circulation) evaporate when you’re doing it for a free copy of Tears of the Kingdom.

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Jack Dorsey has apparently exited the Bluesky board. As spotted by TechCrunch, the former Twitter CEO who was previously Bluesky’s highest-profile proponent shared the life update this weekend on X, where he’s been posting a lot lately. In response to a user who asked “are you still on the bsky board,” Dorsey said only, “no.” That’s it, nothing more. Engadget has reached out to the company for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

The decentralized social network started as a project by a team at then-Twitter back in 2019, but it eventually split off on its own. It only opened to the public this March after being invite-only for almost a year. While Jack Dorsey sat on its board, Bluesky is led by Jay Graber, its CEO since 2021. Dorsey has said mixed things about X since Elon Musk’s takeover, but it seems he’s now swung back around. On Saturday, he posted on X, “don’t depend on corporations to grant you rights. defend them yourself using freedom technology. (you’re on one).”

The company has made no mention yet of Dorsey’s departure, and he’s still named as a board member on its website. Dorsey seemingly deleted his own Bluesky account months ago, TechCrunch notes. 

Threads is giving users more control over who can quote their posts (as in, reposting with commentary). If you don’t want just anyone to be able to quote your posts, you now have the option to allow only people you follow to do so. Or, you can make it so no one can quote your posts at all. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced the update this weekend, saying he hopes it will “help keep Threads a more positive place.” The platform tested the feature among a group of Threads users last month, but it’s now rolling out to everyone.

Threads, which now has over 150 million monthly users, has been slowly adding more features to improve safety and the overall user experience, borrowing some tools from Instagram. Last month, it introduced the Hidden Words feature, so users can designate certain terms that they want to be filtered out of their feeds. Threads also recently started testing options for archiving posts, either manually or automatically after a chosen expiration date.

Parrots are innately social creatures. In captivity, where they typically don’t have a flock to interact with, that can present some real challenges for keeping them happy and healthy. But recent research suggests technology may be able to help them meet more of their social needs. A new (very small) study led by researchers at the University of Glasgow and Northeastern University compared parrots’ responses when given the option to video chat with other birds via Meta's Messenger versus watching pre-recorded videos. And it seems they’ve got a preference for real-time conversations.

The research builds on findings from a series of small studies over the last few years, including one in which the team trained pet parrots to make video calls to each other (with human assistance) and another where they were taught to play tablet games. In the latest, nine parrot owners were given tablets to set up for their pets, who were then observed over a period of six months. During that time, the parrots — who’d been introduced to each other at the beginning over video chat — were able to engage in calls amongst themselves of up to three hours long over a total of 12 sessions. Half of these sessions featured pre-recorded videos, while the other half were live Messenger video chats.

Their caregivers, who recorded the sessions, reported that the birds seemed more engaged during the live interactions. They initiated more calls in those scenarios, and spent more time on average engaging with the birds on the other end. 

In each session, the parrots were allowed to make up to two calls, and the researchers found that those chatting over Messenger hit this limit 46 percent of the time, compared to almost half that when they were watching pre-recorded videos. Overall, they spent a combined 561 minutes video-chatting on Messenger compared to just 142 minutes watching the pre-recorded videos.

“The appearance of ‘liveness’ really did seem to make a difference to the parrots’ engagement with their screens,” said Dr. Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, though noting that further study would be needed before definite conclusions can be drawn. “Their behavior while interacting with another live bird often reflected behaviors they would engage in with other parrots in real life, which wasn’t the case in the pre-recorded sessions.” Still, the caregivers mostly reported that the live and pre-recorded calls both seemed to have a positive impact on the birds.

“The internet holds a great deal of potential for giving animals agency to interact with each other in new ways, but the systems we build to help them do that need to be designed around their specific needs and physical and mental abilities,” said Dr. Hirskyj-Douglas. “Studies like this could help to lay the foundations of a truly animal-centered internet.”

Google has updated its Inappropriate Content Policy to include language that expressly prohibits advertisers from promoting websites and services that generate deepfake pornography. While the company already has strong restrictions in place for ads that feature certain types of sexual content, this update leaves no doubt that promoting "synthetic content that has been altered or generated to be sexually explicit or contain nudity" is in violation of its rules. 

Any advertiser promoting sites or apps that generate deepfake porn, that show instructions on how to create deepfake porn and that endorse or compare various deepfake porn services will be suspended without warning. They will no longer be able to publish their ads on Google, as well. The company will start implementing this rule on May 30 and is giving advertisers the chance to remove any ad in violation of the new policy. As 404 Media notes, the rise of deepfake technologies has led to an increasing number of ads promoting tools that specifically target users wanting to create sexually explicit materials. Some of those tools reportedly even pretend to be wholesome services to be able to get listed on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, but it's masks off on social media where they promote their ability to generate manipulated porn. 

Google has, however, already started prohibiting services that create sexually explicit deepfakes in Shopping ads. Similar to its upcoming wider policy, the company has banned Shopping ads for services that "generate, distribute, or store synthetic sexually explicit content or synthetic content containing nudity. " Those include deepfake porn tutorials and pages that advertise deepfake porn generators. 

X is using Grok to publish AI-generated summaries of news and other topics that trend on the platform. The feature, which is currently only available to premium subscribers, is called “Stories on X,” according to a post from the company’s engineering account.

According to X, Grok relies on users’ posts to generate the text snippets. Some seem to be more news-focused, while others are summaries of conversations happening on the platform itself. One user posted a screenshot that showed stories about Apple’s earnings report and aid to Ukraine, as well as one for “Musk, Experts Debate National Debt,” which was a summary of a “candid online discussion” between Musk and other “prominent figures” on X.

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s also remarkably similar to Moments, the longtime Twitter feature that curated authoritative tweets about important news and cultural moments on the platform. The feature, which was overseen by a team of human staffers, was killed in 2022.

Like other generative AI tools, Grok’s summaries come with a disclaimer. “This story is a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time,” it says. “Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.” Grok, of course, doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to accurately interpreting current events. It previously generated a bizarre story suggesting that NBA player Klay Thompson went on a “vandalism spree” because it couldn’t understand what “throwing bricks” meant in the context of a basketball game.

Nintendo sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice for over 8,000 GitHub repositories hosting code from the Yuzu Switch emulator, which the Zelda maker previously described as enabling “piracy at a colossal scale.” The sweeping takedown comes two months after Yuzu’s creators quickly settled a lawsuit with Nintendo and its notoriously trigger-happy legal team for $2.4 million.

GamesIndustry.biz first reported on the DMCA notice, affecting 8,535 GitHub repos. Redacted entities representing Nintendo assert that the Yuzu source code contained in the repos “illegally circumvents Nintendo’s technological protection measures and runs illegal copies of Switch games.”

GitHub wrote on the notice that developers will have time to change their content before it’s disabled. In keeping with its developer-friendly approach and branding, the Microsoft-owned platform also offered legal resources and guidance on submitting DMCA counter-notices.

Nintendo’s legal blitz, perhaps not coincidentally, comes as game emulators are enjoying a resurgence. Last month, Apple loosened its restrictions on retro game players in the App Store (likely in response to regulatory threats), leading to the Delta emulator establishing itself as the de facto choice and reaching the App Store’s top spot. Nintendo may have calculated that emulators’ moment in the sun threatened its bottom line and began by squashing those that most immediately imperiled its income stream.

Sadly, Nintendo’s largely undefended legal assault against emulators ignores a crucial use for them that isn’t about piracy. Game historians see the software as a linchpin of game preservation. Without emulators, Nintendo and other copyright holders could make a part of history obsolete for future generations, as their corresponding hardware will eventually be harder to come by.

Linking to a random third-party account when you just want to play a video game you paid for is truly annoying and, honestly, keeps me from even launching certain games by certain publishers who shall remain nameless. Helldivers 2 players are experiencing this frustration right now, as the PC version of the massively popular third-person shooter will soon require a link to a PlayStation account.

New players will be required to link both accounts on May 6, but pre-existing players have until June 4 before the requirement kicks in. Sony says that forcing people to link to a PSN account helps “protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behavior.” Ah, the popular “few bad apples” excuse.

This was always the plan, according to publisher Sony, but “technical issues” upon launch forced a delay in the linking mandate. In other words, when the PC version came out on February 8, you could just play it like any other game as nature intended, but now you gotta do the whole “insert credentials” rigamarole. This can be time-consuming, particularly if you don’t already have a PSN account or if you’re playing on something like a Steam Deck. Also, some regions where Helldivers 2 is available on PC don’t even support PSN accounts.

This has royally pissed off PC players, though it’s worth noting that it's free to make a PSN account. This has led to review bombing on Steam and many promises to abandon the game when the linking becomes a requirement, according to a report by Kotaku. The complaints range from frustration over adding yet another barrier to entry after downloading an 80GB game to fears that the PSN account would likely be hacked. While it is true that Sony was the target of a huge hack that impacted 77 million PSN accounts, that was back in 2011. Obama was still in his first term. Also worth noting? Steam was hacked in 2011, impacting 35 million accounts.

So maybe gamers are taking things a bit too far here and many are likely to not follow through with promises to stop playing Helldivers 2. That doesn’t change the fact that account linking is annoying. On the plus side, Sony recently promised to bring its titles to PCs as soon as possible, and Helldivers 2 was a day-one release on both Steam and PlayStation consoles. That’s a neat little promise to keep, now where’s Spider-Man 2?

As Microsoft tries to beef up its in-house Xbox studios, it may want to be more careful about leaving a trail of broken promises when things don’t go as planned. A year after the hyped vampire shooter Redfall landed with a thud, a Kotaku report highlights how players are still waiting for the advertised post-launch DLC they already paid for.

Redfall’s Bite Back Edition is a $100 collector’s variant (or $30 add-on) that includes, among other content, a pass for “two future heroes” to complement the game’s original four. As you may have guessed, the new playable characters still haven’t materialized.

In addition, Microsoft-owned Bethesda has gone silent on the new protagonists’ absence since November. “We’re continuing development of The Hero Pass and we’re excited to share more about Redfall’s new heroes and other updates later next year,” developer Arkane Austin wrote late last year.

At the very least, it seems customers are owed clear communication — or refunds if Bethesda has noped out of further development. Engadget has reached out for comment, and we’ll update this story if we hear back. In the meantime, Kotaku’s reporting on the maddening saga is worth a read.