Bluesky, one of the most notable alternatives to the platform formerly known as Twitter, has just hit a million users. That's admittedly tiny compared to the number of users on major social networks, but it's a big deal for a service that remains inaccessible to most people until today. Bluesky team member Rose Wang, who has announced the milestone on X, told TechCrunch that the service's app reached a million downloads in July. However, those interested in getting in on the action at Bluesky will have to secure invite codes to log in, and it's only now that enough people were able to create accounts for the social network to be able to announce that it has reached 1 million users. 

Bluesky first burst into the scene as a decentralized social network (previously) funded by Twitter and backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Shortly after it launched in closed beta, it rolled out the ability for users to choose their own algorithms so that they can customize their timelines. And in its bid to remain ad-free, it started offering a paid domain service as a way for users to verify their identity. It's unclear when the app will open to the public, and, upon checking, some codes are still being sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. 

Meta, on the other hand, chose to make Threads available to everyone from the get-go, even though it was still lacking a number of critical features. Threads reached 100 million users merely a week after it became available in July, but keyword search only started rolling out earlier this month. 

According to Semafor, data from NewsWhip showed that engagement on public posts linked to the New York Times website has dropped dramatically since late July. This is seemingly a unique issue to the NYT as other news organizations like CNN, the Washington Post, and the BBC have not seen similar dips in engagement.

According to the report, the New York Times' reach hasn't changed on Facebook and other social media platforms. Additionally, recent tweets by former President Barack Obama that include NYT links saw less engagement when compared to his other tweets. For example, when Obama shared articles about healthcare costs, his posts reached fewer than 800,000 users. Most of his posts reach a minimum of 10 million users.

While it's unclear what exactly is causing the drop in user reach, this wouldn't be the first time Elon Musk's X appeared to be affecting user engagement. In August, X was reported to be interfering with links to Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Substack and of course—the New York Times, to make them load noticeably slower. At the time, it appeared that the high-profile websites affected were only big names that Musk publicly attacked in the past.

X and The New York Times could not be immediately reached for comment.

X, the company formerly known as Twitter, may not be labeling its ads properly, putting it at risk of — once again — running afoul of the FTC. There have been numerous reports over the last several days of ads appearing in users’ timelines without being labeled as such, according toTechCrunch, which was first to report on the stealth ads.

According to their reporting, as well as reports from industry groups, users have identified numerous ads that leave off the typical “Ad” label that identifies the post as paid advertising rather than a native post. It’s apparent that the posts are, in fact, ads when clicking into the “...” menu in the tweet, which indicates the tweet is a paid promotion.

While the unlabeled ads have irked users, who may mistakenly believe the platform is showing posts from accounts they don’t follow in their following timeline, the issue also risks stirring up more regulatory trouble with the FTC. Nandini Jammi, co-founder of watchdog group Check My Ads, has been sharingexamples on her Twitter account over the past couple days. The nonprofit group is tracking the issue and encouraging X users to report any examples they find.

It’s unclear if the unlabeled ads are the result of a bug or an intentional change by the company. X, which no longer has a functioning communications department, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

But it’s no secret the company’s advertising business has collapsed over the last year since Elon Musk took over the company. Musk recently said ad revenue is down 60 percent, a drop he has blamed on activists. The company also recently losttwo top executives overseeing brand safety, an issue advertisers have cited as a major concern and reason for pulling back from the platform.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. is setting the record straight. After Variety reported earlier this week that an AI-generated track echoing the voices of Drake and The Weeknd would be considered for a Grammy Award, Mason is insisting that’s not the case. The track, Heart on My Sleeve, was created and submitted for consideration by someone using the pseudonym “Ghostwriter.” The song features lyrics written by Ghostwriter but imitates the voices of the rappers without consent.

Despite that, in an interview with The New York Times, Mason suggested the track would technically be eligible in songwriter categories because of the lyrics. “As far as the creative side, it’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human,” he said.

However, it seems things have changed. In a recent Instagram post, first spotted by Deadline, Mason offered some clarity. The CEO made it clear the song “is not eligible for Grammy consideration.”

“Let me be extra, extra clear: Even though it was written by a human creator, the vocals were not legally obtained, the vocals were not cleared by the label or the artists and the song is not commercially available and because of that, it’s not eligible,” he said.

Based on Mason's statement, it appears the problem isn't with the fact that the track was generated using AI, but thorny issues around consent. This could possibly mean that The Grammys would consider tracks that were created by AI as long as the necessary permissions were granted and it was distributed through the proper channels. But while Mason believes the industry will have to evolve and adjust to AI, copyright issues remain complicated. And Heart on My Sleeve was recently pulled from streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and YouTube, after a complaint from Universal Music Group — which represents both Drake and The Weeknd.

“I take this stuff very seriously,” Mason said. “It’s all complicated, and it’s moving, really, really quickly. I’m sure things are going to continue to have to evolve and change."

As for Ghostwriter, the creator has already released a new song using AI to imitate rappers Travis Scott and 21 Savage. The new song, Whiplash, was posted to social media platforms, including TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, instead of Spotify and other streaming services. Ghostwriter also tagged the rappers requesting an official collaboration. While the song seems to be resonating with some fans on the platforms, neither Scott nor 21 Savage have responded.

The developer of Only Up!, a viral indie climbing game that blew up in popularity on Twitch streams, has delisted the title from Steam. After receiving accusations of using infringing assets and promoting NFTs, the game’s creator said they plan to “put the game behind” them due to stress. “What I need now is peace of mind and healing,” wrote developer SCKR Games.

The developer posted an update on the title’s Steam page explaining the decision, as first spotted byPCGamesN. “I’m a solo developer and this game is my first experience in Gamedev, a game I did for creativity, to test myself, and where I made a lot of mistakes,” SCKR Games wrote on Steam. “The game has kept me under a lot of stress all these months. Now I want to put the game behind me. And yes. The game won’t be available in the [Steam] store soon, that’s what I decided myself.” The title was delisted at the time of this article’s publication, with its name changed to “not available.” You can view a cached version of the game’s listing on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

The title’s absurd difficulty became its calling card — likely a big reason it was a hot destination on Twitch. Players stepped into the shoes of Jackie, a teenager from the projects with dreams of rising out of poverty. Inspired by “Jack and the Beanstalk,” the developer tasked gamers with climbing and parkouring through elaborate mazes of pipes and other objects stretching into the sky. Lacking a save feature, it put you back at square one after falling. “The point is that each successive level raised the stakes in the game, the higher you climb the more painful to fall,” the developer wrote on the Only Up! Steam store page. However, the title did include a time-slowing feature to help fine-tune the more difficult leaps.

SCKR Games / Steam

According to data viewed by PCGamesN, Only Up! attracted up to 280,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch at its peak. A YouTube walkthrough from ‘iShowSpeed’ (Darren Jason Watkins ) has garnered 5.6 million views in two months.

This isn’t the first time Only Up! has been removed. SCKR Games delisted it in late June following the games’ alleged copyright violations. A 3D artist accused SCKR Games of using a Sketchfab asset, a giant statue of a girl that wasn’t licensed for commercial use. (The game cost $10.) Only Up! returned in early July with a statue of Atlas replacing the infringing one.

The one-person SCKR Games says it will return with a new project. “I plan to take a pause, and continue my education in game design and further with new experience and knowledge to direct my energies to my next game with the working title Kith — it will be a new experience and a new concept with realism, a completely different genre and setting, and the emphasis is on cinematography,” the developer wrote. “This time I hope the project will be created by a small team. This is a challenging project on which I want to significantly improve my skills in game design. Thank you for your understanding.”

Apple has its fingers in many pies and now it's getting into the monster business with an upcoming TV show. The company has released the first trailer for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and while the title might not make it super clear, this is very much a Godzilla series.

The show is based on Legendary's Monsterverse and it ties into the studio's recent Godzilla movies. It's partially set in the wake of a battle between Godzilla and the Titans that destroyed much of San Francisco, but it takes place across several three generations. Real-life father and son Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell play the same character, Army officer Lee Shaw, in different eras. Shaw encounters a pair of siblings who are exploring their family's connection to the shadowy organization Monarch, which tracks Godzilla, King Kong and other giant beasts.

The trailer doesn't give a ton away about the show other than to provide looks at the iconic monster (including a shot that invokes the first T. rex encounter from Jurassic Park), some of the cast in action and a ruined San Francisco. But it does seem that Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will include much of the spectacle fans have enjoyed from the movies. You'll be able to watch the first two installments of the 10-episode season on November 17, and a new one will arrive on Apple TV+ each week until January 12.

Thank the social media makers. Meta’s Threads is officially rolling out a keyword search feature in the United States, alongside many other countries including India, Canada, Mexico and the UK. This has been one of the most asked-for tools since the platform launched in July. Keyword search appeared last week as a beta in New Zealand and Australia, and it looks that beta was a success given today’s announcement.

Keyword search, known as hashtags or text search in some circles, is vital for connecting with communities and for following real-time events. Oddly, Threads is the first major Twitter/X competitor to integrate the feature, which could spell even more trouble for Elon Musk’s beleaguered social media site.

A Meta representative told Engadget that keyword search is being integrated into both mobile apps and the recently-launched web app, so you’ll have your pick of where to search for Star Trek fans or whatever it is you’re into. The company said it’s working on bringing the search function to other languages and countries in the near future. Before this update, you could only use search to look for active Threads accounts.

Meta has been aggressive about adding features to Threads, which is good because the app had an extremely strong start but has fizzled since the initial launch. Maybe this latest update will entice users to return to the service.

A couple weeks ago, Sega did something it doesn’t normally do: it gathered up a bunch of its studios (Atlus, Amplitude, Sega of Europe and others) and put together a showcase highlighting a number of titles coming out over the next few months.

Sonic Superstars (Release date: October 17)

Like a lot of people, I have a love-hate relationship with Sonic. While the original games on the Genesis produced iconic levels like the Green Hill Zone and unforgettable characters like Tails, Knuckles and the lovable blue hedgehog himself, more recent titles often miss the mark (to put it politely). Sonic the Hedgehog ‘06nearly broke me and the Sonic Boom series was a particularly dark period for fans of speedy protagonists.

But Sonic Superstars feels like a return to form, expanding on the breakneck 2D gameplay the franchise was best at, while adding a super crisp art style that doesn’t rely on 16-bit nostalgia. Stages like Cyber Station Zone offer fun twists on the formula by letting you transform into voxelized squids or rockets as you traverse the level. In a lot of ways, it feels like Sega is finally giving side-scrolling Sonic games the overhaul they’ve needed for more than a decade, similar to what Nintendo is doing with Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Furthermore, Sega has added multiplayer co-op to a 2D Sonic game for the first time, and not coincidentally, it plays a lot like a modern Mario title. Health, or in this case rings are shared between all the players, so as long as your party possesses a single shiny loop, you can revive your friends (except for during boss fights). The one small issue is that due to the pace of the game, if you die you might get stuck in a floating bubble for a bit until things slow down and your friends get a chance to break you out.

Persona 5 Tactica (Release date: November 17)

This is probably the game I was most excited to try out, and even with high expectations I did not come away wanting. Not only is it a treat to hear more riffs on one of the greatest video game soundtracks in recent memory, there are so many mechanics from the JRPG franchise that transition seamlessly to the tactics genre, I’m kind of surprised it took Atlus this long to make a Persona spin-off like this.

Right away the game introduces concepts like team attacks and knockdowns that had me thinking about how to take down enemies in the fewest moves. And instead of Persona’s traditional elemental affinities, Tactica introduces new cover mechanics that make the game feel like a mix between XCOM and the Mario + Rabbids series. The chibi-style art is also fun and expressive without being too kawaii.

Also, while it’s always nice to have played Persona 5 for the added context, the title is a self-contained story featuring new characters, so you don’t need to spend 50+ hours playing P5 before diving into this.

Persona 3 Reload (Release date: February 2, 2024)

I don’t have much to say about Persona 3 Reload aside from I’m thankful that this game is finally getting the remake it deserves. The original basically paved the way for the last 15+ years of Persona RPGs. It’s kind of a shame Atlus isn’t including some of the extra content from Persona 3 FES and the PSP port (notably the female protagonist), but with discs for the original PS2 game becoming harder and harder to find, it’s nice to have a great looking and more widely available version coming in early 2024.

Endless Dungeon (Release date: October 19)

While I’m familiar with some of Amplitude Studio’s previous titles, the latest entry in the Endless series might be the most pleasant surprise I encountered at the showcase. It’s a twin-stick shooter with squad-based gameplay that’s layered on top of rogue-lite mechanics that allow you to unlock things like new weapons, characters and abilities. You can choose to go it alone and control up to three heroes at the same time (with some automated assistance) or play co-op (both local and online) with friends. Either way, the game is refreshingly challenging.

As you explore and open doors, you’ll unleash waves of enemies, collect items and upgrade skills. When you reach the final room, you’ll face a huge horde and even with one of the devs giving me pointers, we didn’t survive. But that merely highlighted the depth of the game’s strategic elements. From what I played, Endless Dungeon has exactly what I look for in a rogue-lite: deep mechanics and solid replayability (with engaging co-op as a bonus).

But my favorite thing is that, despite Sega’s long history on consoles, all of the games above will also be available on PC. This is a move the publisher said it wanted to embrace after seeing strong sales on Steam during the pandemic. Regardless, whether you’re an old-school 2D platformer junkie or someone who just wants more tactics games, there’s a lot to like from Sega’s growing family of studios. And that’s even with me running out of time to check out some of Sega’s other upcoming releases like Total War: Pharoah or Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

The person behind an AI-generated song that went viral earlier this year has submitted the track for Grammy Awards consideration. The Recording Academy has stated that such works aren't eligible for certain gongs. However, Ghostwriter, the pseudonymous person behind "Heart on My Sleeve," has submitted the track in the best rap song and song of the year categories, according to Variety. Both of those are songwriting honors. The Academy has suggested it's open to rewarding tracks that are mostly written by a human, even if the actual recording is largely AI-generated.

Ghostwriter composed the song's lyrics rather than leaving them up to, say, ChatGPT. But rather than sing or rap those words, they employed a generative AI model to mimic the vocals of Drake and The Weeknd, which helped the song to pick up buzz. The artists' label Universal Music Group wasn't happy about that and it filed copyright claims to remove "Heart on My Sleeve" from streaming services. Before that, though, the track racked up hundreds of thousands of listens on Spotify and more than 15 million on TikTok.

Over the last few months, Ghostwriter and their team have been making overtures to industry bigwigs such as Academy higher ups, according to The New York Times. As it turns out, Ghostwriter may actually have a shot at picking up a Grammy. “As far as the creative side, it’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human,” Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told the Times.

It seems there's one major roadblock as things stand, though. For a song to be eligible for a Grammy, it needs to have "general distribution" across the US through the likes of brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers and streaming services. Ghostwriter is reportedly aware of this restriction, but it's unclear how they plan to address that.

In any case, this may well be a canary in the coal mine for rewarding the use of generative AI in art. Many creatives are concerned over the issue. Some have accused the operators of generative AI systems of using copyrighted work to train their language learning models, while a major sticking point in the ongoing actors' strike is whether performers will be compensated fairly for the use of their digital likenesses. Whether the output of generative AI models can be considered truly original work is a contentious topic as well.

You can enjoy Disney's subscription service for a fraction of its usual price if you haven't tried it before or if you haven't been paying for it for quite some time. Starting today until September 20, a Disney+ Basic subscription will cost only cost you $2 a month for three months if you're a new or returning subscriber in the US. The ad-supported tier would typically cost you $8 a month, so that's $18 in savings if you've been thinking of finally signing up or resubscribing for any of the service's upcoming releases. 

The company launched an ad-supported plan for its streaming service back in December 2022. It hasn't raised prices for this tier since it became available, but the ad-free options had a price hike twice over the past year. An ad-free premium tier subscription will set you back $14 starting on October 12. This promo could give you an idea whether you're ready to commit to paying that much for the service every month, or if you could endure the ads Disney+ serves and stick to the basic option.

Of course, a subscription to Disney+ means getting access to its latest show and movie releases. Star Wars: Ahsoka dropped on August 23, while the live action reimagining of The Little Mermaid and the second season of I Am Groot are now also available. In addition, Disney and Pixar's film Elemental will be available for streaming on September 13.