Google's Gemini chatbot, which was formerly called Bard, has the capability to whip up AI-generated illustrations based on a user's text description. You can ask it to create pictures of happy couples, for instance, or people in period clothing walking modern streets. As the BBC notes, however, some users are criticizing Google for depicting specific white figures or historically white groups of people as racially diverse individuals. Now, Google has issued a statement, saying that it's aware Gemini "is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions" and that it's going to fix things immediately. 

According to Daily Dot, a former Google employee kicked off the complaints when he tweeted images of women of color with a caption that reads: "It's embarrassingly hard to get Google Gemini to acknowledge that white people exist." To get those results, he asked Gemini to generate pictures of American, British and Australian women. Other users, mostly those known for being right-wing figures, chimed in with their own results, showing AI-generated images that depict America's founding fathers and the Catholic Church's popes as people of color. 

In our tests, asking Gemini to create illustrations of the founding fathers resulted in images of white men with a single person of color or woman in them. When we asked the chatbot to generate images of the pope throughout the ages, we got photos depicting black women and Native Americans as the leader of the Catholic Church. Asking Gemini to generate images of American women gave us photos with a white, an East Asian, a Native American and a South Asian woman. The Verge says the chatbot also depicted Nazis as people of color, but we couldn't get Gemini to generate Nazi images. "I am unable to fulfill your request due to the harmful symbolism and impact associated with the Nazi Party," the chatbot responded. 

Gemini's behavior could be a result of overcorrection, since chatbots and robots trained on AI over the past years tended to exhibit racist and sexist behavior. In one experiment from 2022, for instance, a robot repeatedly chose a Black man when asked which among the faces it scanned was a criminal. In a statement posted on X, Gemini Product Lead Jack Krawczyk said Google designed its "image generation capabilities to reflect [its] global user base, and [it takes] representation and bias seriously." He said Gemini will continue to generate racially diverse illustrations for open-ended prompts, such as images of people walking their dog. However, he admitted that "[h]istorical contexts have more nuance to them and [his team] will further tune to accommodate that."

Google has released an open AI model called Gemma, which it says is created using the same research and technology that was used to build its Gemini AI models. The company says Gemma is its contribution to the open community and is meant to help developers "in building AI responsibly." As such, it also introduced the Responsible Generative AI Toolkit alongside Gemma. It contains a debugging tool, as well as a guide with best practices for AI development based on Google's experience.

The company has made Gemma available in two different sizes — Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B — which both come with pre-trained and instruction-tuned variants and are both lightweight enough to run directly on a developer's laptop or desktop computer. Google says Gemma surpasses much larger models when it comes to key benchmarks and that both model sizes outperform other open models out there. 

In addition to being powerful, the Gemma models were trained to be safe. Google used automated techniques to strip personal information from the data it used to train the models, and it used reinforcement learning based on human feedback to ensure Gemma's instruction-tuned variants show responsible behaviors. Companies and independent developers could use Gemma to create AI-powered applications, especially if none of the currently available open models are powerful enough for what they want to build. 

Google has plans to introduce even more Gemma variants in the future for an even more diverse range of applications. That said, those who want to start working with the models right now can access them through data science platform Kaggle, the company's Colab notebooks or through Google Cloud. 

FuboTV, a streaming platform dedicated to live sports, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, accusing the companies of staging "a years-long campaign" to hamper its business. The company's lawsuit comes shortly Disney-owned ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they're launching a sports streaming service in the fall of 2024, which will give subscribers access to sporting events from the networks they own. FuboTV's complaint argued that the companies are stealing its playbook and that the launch of their joint venture will destroy competition and lead to price inflation for consumers. 

Further, FuboTV alleged that the launch of the defendants' streaming service is but "the latest coordinated step" in their "campaign to eliminate competition in the sports-first streaming market" and in their effort to block its business. The streaming service said the defendants charge it content licensing rates that are 30 to 50 percent higher than the rates they charge other distributors. They also allegedly force FuboTV to bundle "dozens of expensive non-sports channels" that "customers do not want" with their sports offerings as a condition of licensing their content. All these increase the costs FuboTV must pass onto its customers, the company explained. 

FuboTV also claimed that the companies in question have prevented it from being able to offer streaming products subscribers would like, including content available on Hulu. Plus, the defendants allegedly impose a limitation on how many subscribers can buy their content package, ensuring that FuboTV can't make a dent in the market. 

"Each of these companies has consistently engaged in anticompetitive practices that aim to monopolize the market, stifle any form of competition, create higher pricing for subscribers and cheat consumers from deserved choice," FuboTV CEO David Gandler said in a statement. "By joining together to exclusively reserve the rights to distribute a specialized live sports package, we believe these corporations are erecting insurmountable barriers that will effectively block any new competitors from entering the market. This strategy ensures that consumers desiring a dedicated sports channel lineup are left with no alternative but to subscribe to the Defendants' joint venture."

Engadget has reached out to all three defendants: ESPN has declined to comment, while Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have yet to get back to us. FuboTV is asking the court to prohibit the joint venture's launch or to impose restrictions, such as economic parity of licensing terms, on the defendants.

Samsung has announced a variety of updates designed to give its devices' audio capabilities a boost, starting with a Galaxy Buds' capability that could make it easier to communicate in another language. The company launched a new feature called Live Translate with its Galaxy S24 series, which people can use as an interpreter for phone calls to, say, a restaurant in a foreign country they're visiting. Soon, Galaxy S24 owners will be able use their phones as a real-time translation tool for in-person conversations if they pair their devices with their updated Galaxy Buds. 

When users listen to the other person through their earbuds, they'll hear the words translated into their own language. Meanwhile, the other person can hear them in their language through the phone speaker. The user can also swap the order of speech during the conversation by tapping on their Galaxy Buds. Samsung says this eliminates the need to pass a phone back and forth when trying to converse in two different languages. When we tested out Live Translate on the Galaxy S24 with a phone call, though, we experienced a noticeable lag before Samsung's computerized system interpreted our words. Still, this could be a valuable tool for travelers visiting foreign countries. 

The company has also revealed that it's expanding Auracast support to its phones and tables, including the Galaxy S24 series. Auracast is a Bluetooth technology that allows users to broadcast audio from devices, such as phones and TVs, to an unlimited number of nearby headphones, speakers and earbuds. Samsung initially made the technology available for its smart TVs only. With this Galaxy Buds update, owners will be able to use Auracast to transmit audio from their mobile devices to multiple earbuds. 

In addition, Galaxy Buds2 Pro and Buds2 users will be able to enjoy 360 Audio if they pair their earbuds with certain Samsung Neo QLED, QLED and OLED TV models. By doing so, their earbuds will be able to track their head movements for an immersive watching or listening experience. Finally, Galaxy Buds2 Pro users will be able to use Samsung's Auto Switch feature to automatically switch their connection between the company's tablets, Galaxy Books and TVs and its phones if they need to take a phone call. These features are making their way to Galaxy Buds2 Pro, Buds2 and Buds FE users starting in late February. 

Anker has an ongoing sale for Presidents' Day at Amazon, and you can grab a bunch of charging accessories you may need at a discount. If you want a 20,000mAh portable charger that's noticeably smaller, slimmer and easier to carry than its peers with the same capacity, there's the Anker Power Bank Battery Pack with a built-in USB-C cord that doubles as a carrying strap. The power bank measures 4.5 x 2.8 x 1.2 inches and isn't only available in black and white, but also in green, pink and purple. It has a 22.5W output, can charge a phone three to four times — or charge up to three devices at once — and even has an integrated phone stand for when you want to watch videos while charging. The model originally sells for $45, but you can get it for $33.74 from this sale. 

Need a wall charger that's fast and compact? You can get the Anker Prime 100W GaN Wall Charger for only $68 instead of $87. It has two USB-C ports and one USB-A port, and you can use up to two of them with a max output of 100 watts. The model is less than half the size of a MacBook charger, making it easier to pack and carry for your laptop, though you can also use it to charge your phones and tablets. If you don't need a GaN charger with a 100W output, you can get the Anker Nano 65W GaN II Charger instead. It has a smaller output and only one USB-port, but it's also much cheaper: You can get it from the sale for $28, down 44 percent from its $50 retail price. Like the Prime 100W, you can use the Nano 65W for your laptops, tablets and phones. 

Anker also has a 100W MacBook charger on sale. It works even with a 16-inch MacBook Pro, but you can also use it to power various devices. While it's built like a typical MacBook charger, it's smaller, has a foldable plug and comes with a 5-foot USB-C-to-USB-C cable. This model typically sells for $38, but you can grab one from the sale for only $25.49. 

If what you need is a charger with multiple ports, though, you may want to take a look at Anker's 240W 4-Port GaN Charger. It has three USB-C ports and one USB-A port, so you can plug in multiple devices at once. One of those USB-C ports can provide an output of 140W, while the other three ports share a 100W output. While Anker's 4-Port GaN charger typically costs $200, you can get it right now for only $130. And in case all you need is a new iPhone charging cable, you can take this chance to grab a two-pack at a discount. Anker is selling its two-pack six-foot USB-A-to-Lightning cables that use premium nylon material for only $17.09 instead of $20. 

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Some Wyze camera owners have reported that they were suddenly given access to cameras that weren't theirs and even got notifications for events inside other people's homes. Wyze cofounder David Crosby has confirmed the issue to The Verge, telling the publications that "some users were able to see thumbnails of cameras that were not their own in the Events tab." Users started seeing strangers' camera feeds in their accounts after an outage that Wyze said was caused by an Amazon Web Services problem. 

Crosby wrote in a post on the Wyze forum that the company's servers got overloaded, which corrupted some user data, after the outage. The security issue that resulted from that event then allowed users to "see thumbnails of cameras that were not their own in the Events tab." Users couldn't view those videos and could only see their thumbnails, he clarified, and they were not able to view live streams from other people's cameras. Wyze was able to identify 14 incidents before taking down the Events tab altogether. 

The company said it's going to notify all affected users and that it has forcibly logged out everyone who've recently used the Wyze app in order to reset tokens. "We will explain in more detail once we finish investigating exactly how this happened and further steps we will take to make sure it doesn’t happen again," Crosby added. 

While the company doesn't have a detailed explanation for what happened yet, its swift confirmation of the incident is a huge departure from how it previously dealt with a security flaw. Back in 2022, cybersecurity firm Bitdefender revealed that in March 2019, it informed Wyze of a major security vulnerability in the Wyze Cam v1 model. The company didn't inform customers about the flaw, however, and didn't even issue a fix until three years later.

Some Wyze camera owners have reported that they were suddenly given access to cameras that weren't theirs and even got notifications for events inside other people's homes. Wyze cofounder David Crosby has confirmed the issue to The Verge, telling the publications that "some users were able to see thumbnails of cameras that were not their own in the Events tab." Users started seeing strangers' camera feeds in their accounts after an outage that Wyze said was caused by an Amazon Web Services problem. 

Crosby wrote in a post on the Wyze forum that the company's servers got overloaded, which corrupted some user data, after the outage. The security issue that resulted from that event then allowed users to "see thumbnails of cameras that were not their own in the Events tab." Users couldn't view those videos and could only see their thumbnails, he clarified, and they were not able to view live streams from other people's cameras. Wyze was able to identify 14 incidents before taking down the Events tab altogether. 

The company said it's going to notify all affected users and that it has forcibly logged out everyone who've recently used the Wyze app in order to reset tokens. "We will explain in more detail once we finish investigating exactly how this happened and further steps we will take to make sure it doesn’t happen again," Crosby added. 

While the company doesn't have a detailed explanation for what happened yet, its swift confirmation of the incident is a huge departure from how it previously dealt with a security flaw. Back in 2022, cybersecurity firm Bitdefender revealed that in March 2019, it informed Wyze of a major security vulnerability in the Wyze Cam v1 model. The company didn't inform customers about the flaw, however, and didn't even issue a fix until three years later.

Update, February 20 2024, 9:08PM ET: In an email received by Engadget, Wyze admits to affected users that "about 13,000 Wyze users received thumbnails from cameras that were not their own and 1,504 users tapped on them. Most taps enlarged the thumbnail, but in some cases an Event Video was able to be viewed." 

The company went on to explain that this glitch was caused by a mix-up of device ID and user ID mapping, due to a new third-party caching client library struggling to cope with the "unprecedented" data load from client devices rebooting all at once. Wyze promises to prevent this from happening again by adding "a new layer of verification" for connections, and that it'll look for more reliable client libraries to cope with such incidents.

Ever posted or left a comment on Reddit? Your words will soon be used to train an artificial intelligence companies' models, according to Bloomberg. The website signed a deal that's "worth about $60 million on an annualized basis" earlier this year, it reportedly told potential investors ahead of its expected initial public offering (IPO). Bloomberg didn't name the "large AI company" that's paying Reddit millions for access to its content, but their agreement could apparently serve as a model for future contracts, which could mean more multi-million deals for the firm. 

Reddit first announced that it was going to start charging companies for API access in April last year. It said at the time that pricing will be split in tiers so that even smaller clientele could afford to pay. Companies need that API access to be able to train their chatbots on posts and comments — a lot of which had been written by real people over the past 18 years — from subreddits on a wide variety of topics. However, that API is also used by other developers, including those providing users with third-party clients that are arguably better than Reddit's official app. Thousands of communities shut down last year in protest and even caused stability issues that affected the whole website. 

Reddit could go public as soon as next month with a $5 billion valuation. As Bloomberg notes, the website could convince investors still on fence to take the leap by showing them that it can make big money and grow its revenue through deals with AI companies. The firms behind generative AI technologies are working to update their large language models or LLMs through various partnerships, after all. OpenAI, for instance, already inked an agreement that would give it the right to use Business Insider and Politico articles to train its AI models. It's also in talks with several publishers, including CNN, Fox Corp and Time, Bloomberg says.  

OpenAI is facing several lawsuits that accuse it of using content without the express permission of copyright holders, though, including one filed by The New York Times in December. The AI company previously told Engadget that the lawsuit was unexpected, because it had ongoing "productive conversations" with the publication for a "high-value partnership."

Disney+ has released the first trailer for its upcoming animated series X-Men '97, and it feels like a blast from the past for fans of the animated series that aired in the 90s. Its story picks up from where the old series left off, with the trailer showing how the team makes an effort to work together after the death of Professor X who was seriously injured by the end of the Saturday morning cartoon. That means viewers can expect the same roster of mutants from the original show, including Cyclops as team leader, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Beast, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee and Bishop. By the end of trailer, we also get a glimpse of Magneto, who apparently inherited everything Professor X had left behind. 

X-Men: The Animated Series was arguably the best adaptation of the comic books. The new show has a similar look and feel to it, but its animation quality thankfully looks a lot better. It features voice actors already known for the role, including Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm and Cal Dodd as Wolverine, but it also features new ones like Ray Chase as Cyclops. According to Entertainment Weekly, Divergent star Theo James is also part of the cast, but showrunner Beau DeMayo refused to reveal who he's voicing other than saying that it's a "fan-favorite character." Marvel Animation's X-Men '97 starts streaming on Disney+ on March 20 and will have 10 episodes in all. The streaming service has yet to reveal its release schedule, but it typically adds an episode a week for its shows — whether it'll also release an episode every Saturday morning remains to be seen. 

Intuitive Machines' Odysseus has started making its way to the moon and could make history as the first privately built lander to touch down on the lunar surface. The lander was ferried to space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket using a booster that already had 17 flights under its belt before this one and could even fly again in the future, seeing as it had safely returned to Earth on the company's Landing Zone 1. Both SpaceX and Intuitive Machines have confirmed that Odysseus has successfully been deployed and has started its multi-day journey to the moon. 

To be exact, Intuitive Machines has set its sights on the Malapert A crater near the moon's south pole as Odysseus' landing site. The spacecraft can operate for around 14 Earth days when powered by sunlight, but the company is hoping for touchdown to take place by February 22. Odysseus, the first of the Nova-C type landers Intuitive Machines is planning to launch this year, is carrying five NASA payloads in addition to commercial cargo. 

The mission's objectives include demonstrating precision landing and testing certain communication and navigation node capabilities. It will also observe how rocket plumes and space weather interact with the lunar surface. IM-1 was one of the missions NASA had chosen to take its scientific instruments to the moon over the next few years as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The first of the CLPS missions to take off was Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission 1, which unfortunately experienced an anomaly that prevented the lander from pointing its solar panels at the sun and caused it to leak propellant. Peregrine never made it to the moon and ended its journey by burning up in the Earth's atmosphere upon reentry.