EV startup Lordstown Motors is still in trouble after pausing production earlier this year. The Endurance electronic pickup truck maker said today that it expects to stop producing the vehicle “in the near future” if it can’t find a partner to keep it afloat. The warning follows a separate filing from earlier this week saying it could file for bankruptcy if its deal with Foxconn can’t be resurrected.

“Due to the production delays from early January to mid-April 2023, the failure to identify a strategic partner for the Endurance, and extremely limited ability to raise capital in the current market environment, we anticipate production of the Endurance will cease in the near future,” the company wrote in today’s filing. “To date, we have not identified a strategic partner for the Endurance.”

According to the SEC filing, Foxconn sent a letter to Lordstown on April 21st, threatening to terminate the two companies’ investment deal, which saw the Taiwanese manufacturer investing up to $170 million in the startup. (That followed a previous deal where Foxconn bought its Ohio factory.) In the letter, Foxconn told Lordstown it breached the agreement because the startup’s stock price fell below $1 per share for 30 straight trading days, leading to a NASDAQ delisting notice. Lordstown said it believes Foxconn’s claims are without merit and considers their investment agreement to remain in effect while talks continue. However, it concedes that bankruptcy is on the table if it can’t resolve the dispute “in a timely manner on terms that allow us to continue operating as planned” or find other strategic partners.

Lordstown reported a net loss of $171.1 million in the first quarter of this year, following a loss of $89.6 million in the same quarter a year ago. The EV maker had just $108.1 million in cash (and cash equivalents) on March 31st. Its stock price is currently hovering at 39 cents after peaking at $31.57 in early 2021.

It’s been a short but bumpy ride for Lordstown, which was only founded in 2018. Two years ago, its CEO resigned after an investigation revealed that executives lied about demand, the viability of Endurance’s technology and its ability to start production on schedule by September 2021. The same year, it became the subject of DOJ and SEC investigations. GM sold its stake in the company last March, although Lordstown did finally begin delivering the first trucks from its initial 500-unit order in November. However, it then froze production in February to address “performance and quality issues” and partnered with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on a voluntary recall to remedy a connection problem that could cut off motor output while driving.

Microsoft fine-tuned its discovery features in the Xbox app for PC this week. In addition, the desktop app’s April update adds the ability to sort by accessibility features and view collections based on how long it takes to finish them.

Microsoft first let developers add accessibility feature tags to their games in late 2021. Now, you can filter the All PC Games list in the Windows app to show results with specific accessibility features like a steady camera, narrated game menus or custom volume controls (among others). The update brings the desktop app up to speed with Xbox consoles, which already included accessibility filtering.

A byproduct of Microsoft’s HowLongToBeat integration last year, new collections make it easier to find games based on their approximate completion times. The new “Quick Games to Play” and “Longest Games” collections are on the PC app’s Home Screen. For example, HowLongToBeat’s estimates for Mass Effect 3 include 24 1 / 2 hours for the main story, an extra 11 hours to complete side quests and 50 total hours for completionists to wrap it all up. So if you’re hoping to avoid games requiring too much or too little investment, browsing these groups could be a handy way to find a starting point for your next adventure.

Researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (along with collaborators in Sweden, Germany and the UK) have shed new light on the final step of photosynthesis. They observed in atomic detail how Photosystem II, a protein complex found in plants, undergoes a transformation that leads to the loss of an extra oxygen atom. Scientists believe the discoveries will help provide a roadmap for optimizing clean energy sources. “It’s really going to change the way we think about Photosystem II,” said Uwe Bergmann, scientist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who co-authored the paper.

Researchers took “extremely high-resolution images” of different stages of the process (at room temperature), giving them new insight into specifically how and where the oxygen is produced. Baseball can provide a simple (if somewhat forced) metaphor to illustrate the process. “The center cycles through four stable oxidation states, known as S0 through S3, when exposed to sunlight,” SLAC explains. “On a baseball field, S0 would be the start of the game when a player on home base is ready to go to bat. S1-S3 would be players on first, second, and third.” Based on this metaphor, a batter making contact to advance the runners signifies the complex absorbing a sunlight photon. “When the fourth ball is hit, the player slides into home, scoring a run or, in the case of Photosystem II, releasing one molecule of breathable oxygen.” It’s that final stage (S4, between third base and sliding home in our metaphor) that they imaged for the first time, where two oxygen atoms bond to release an oxygen molecule, revealing additional steps previously unseen.

The video below illustrates the team’s process and discoveries.

“Most of the process that produces breathable oxygen happens in this last step,” said Vittal Yachandra, a scientist at Berkeley Lab and co-author of the paper, published inNature. “But there are several things happening at different parts of Photosystem II and they all have to come together in the end for the reaction to succeed. Just like how in baseball, factors like the location of the ball and the position of the basemen and fielders affect the moves a player takes to get to home base, the protein environment around the catalytic center influences how this reaction plays out.”

The researchers expect an X-ray upgrade later this year to shed more light on the process. It will use a repetition rate of up to a million pulses per second, up from the 120 per second used in this experiment. “With these upgrades, we will be able to collect several days’ worth of data in just a few hours,” Bergmann said. “We will also be able to use soft X-rays to further understand the chemical changes happening in the system. These new capabilities will continue to drive this research forward and shed new light on photosynthesis.”

The team believes the results will help them “develop artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic photosynthesis to harvest natural sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into hydrogen and carbon-based fuels.” Jan Kern, another co-author and scientist at Berkley Lab, said, “The more we learn about how nature does it, the closer we get to using those same principles in human-made processes, including ideas for artificial photosynthesis as a clean and sustainable energy source.”

A Finnish newspaper is celebrating World Press Freedom Day today by walking the walk. Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily paper, created a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map containing a secret room. Inside the hidden blood-red chamber, players find real-world multimedia storytelling about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — sneaking some much-needed journalism into a country inundated with propaganda.

The developers that the newspaper worked with on the map left some clues for Russian players to find it. First, it takes place in an unnamed battleground location imitating “a Slavic city.” Additionally, the map’s name, de_voyna, is a reference to the Russian word “voyna,” which translates to “war.” (That description is prohibited in Russia when describing the invasion; Putin's government insists on calling it a “special military operation”).

Helsingin Sanomat / Valve

The obscured room also has several hints to help Russian players find it: It’s located near an eternal flame monument (a burning car), a traditional practice commemorating WWII (or “the Great Patriotic War” as it’s known in Russia) that will be familiar to Russians. A light also hangs above the entrance, another breadcrumb indicating the dark passageway may differ from others nearby. Finally, players can spot the room by moving the camera around after an in-game death.

After walking down the stairway entrance, players see a darkly lit room with red lights hanging from the ceiling, casting a foreboding crimson tone over the space. Next, players see a headline on the wall opposite the entrance, reading: “Counterstrike of the Free Press.” Nearby, a map reveals civilian targets hit by Russian armies. Additionally, three walls are covered with images from real-life news stories showing some of Russia’s atrocities: the Bucha massacre (where the Russian military executed Ukrainian civilians in the street and buried them in a mass grave), a story of a man whose family was killed by a Russian cruise missile and a count of the estimated 70,000 Russian soldiers killed in the war. Finally, a Russian-language radio voice-over tells each story when moving closer to a news item.

Helsingin Sanomat / Valve

The unnamed (to avoid harassment or worse) game designers that Helsingin Sanomat worked with had experience designing hundreds of CS: GO maps. They pitched in “to be able to be involved in making such a map with a humanitarian purpose connected to the real world,” they told the publication. “Russia’s senseless aggression on Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of civilians, including children. The least we can do is to bring Putin’s war crimes and Russian propaganda to light.”

Helsingin Sanomat editor-in-chief Antero Mukka toldReuters that his paper didn’t ask for publisher Valve’s permission to include the map since the game encourages user-created content. “If some young men in Russia, just because of this game, happen to think for a couple of seconds what is going on in Ukraine then it's worth it,” he said.

If you want to assist with the cause, Helsingin Sanomat recommends playing the de_voyna map, which should help increase its in-game visibility. Although it’s hard to imagine the locale remaining playable for long after Putin’s government learns about it, it’s an inspiring — and highly creative — way of defying the authoritarian regime’s free-press restrictions.

TikTok announced today that its revised content monetization program is now available for all eligible creators. Designed to pay more and “unlock more exciting, real-world opportunities,” the Creativity Program Beta launched in February as an invite-only program. Starting today, it’s open to US creators 18 or older with at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the last 30 days.

TikTok says anyone entering the Creativity Program Beta can’t return to the Creator Fund, the previous monetization system launched in 2020 with an initial $200 million commitment (and a later promise to grow it to $1 billion over three years). However, some influencers have claimed that the Creator Fund only paid a few dollars for videos with millions of views. TikTok didn’t specify how much more the new system pays, but it says it’s based on feedback from the Creator Fund and is designed to “generate higher revenue potential.”

Apart from the follower and recent-view count requirements, the Creativity Program Beta also says participants must “create and publish high-quality, original content longer than one minute.” In addition, the company says eligible creators can track video eligibility in an updated dashboard, where they can also see their estimated revenue and performance metrics.

US Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced a bill today that would put the onus on social media companies to add online safeguards for children. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was first introduced last February (sponsored by the same pair) but never made it to the Senate floor after backlash from advocacy groups. The revamped legislation “provides specific tools to stop Big Tech companies from driving toxic content at kids and to hold them accountable for putting profits over safety,” said Blumenthal. It follows a separate bill introduced last month with a similar aim.

Like the original KOSA, the updated bill would require annual independent audits by “experts and academic researchers” to force regulation-averse social media companies to address the online dangers posed to children. However, the updated legislation attempts to address the concerns that led to its previous iteration’s downfall, namely that its overly broad nature could do more harm than good by requiring surveillance and censorship of young users. The EFF described the February 2022 bill as “a heavy-handed plan to force platforms to spy on young people” that “fails to properly distinguish between harmful and non-harmful content, leaving politically motivated state attorneys general with the power to define what harms children. One of the primary fears is that states could use the flimsy definitions to ban content for political gain.”

The rewritten bill adds new protections for services like the National Suicide Hotline, LGBTQ+ youth centers and substance-abuse organizations to avoid being unnecessarily harmed. In addition, it would make social platforms give minors options to safeguard their information, turn off addictive features and opt out of algorithmic recommendations. (Social platforms would have to enable the strongest settings by default.) It would also give parents “new controls to help support their children and identify harmful behaviors” while offering children “a dedicated channel to report harms” on the platform. Additionally, it would specifically ban the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation and the use of “unlawful products for minors” like gambling, drugs and alcohol. Finally, it would require social companies to provide “academic and public interest organizations” with data to help them research social media’s effects on the safety and well-being of minors.

The American Psychological Association, Common Sense Media and other advocacy groups support the updated bill. It has 26 cosponsors from both parties, including lawmakers ranging from Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Blackburn told CNBC today that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is “a hundred percent behind this bill and efforts to protect kids online.”

Despite the Senators’ renewed optimism about passing the bill, some organizations believe it’s still too broad to avoid a negative net impact. “The changes made to the bill do not at all address our concerns,” Evan Greer, director of digital rights advocacy group Fight For the Future, said in an emailed statement to Engadget. “If Senator Blumenthal’s office had been willing to meet with us, we could have explained why. I can see where changes were made that attempt to address the concerns, but they fail to do so. Even with the new changes, this bill will allow extreme right-wing attorneys general to dictate what content platforms can recommend to younger users.”

The ACLU also opposes the resurrected bill. “KOSA’s core approach still threatens the privacy, security and free expression of both minors and adults by deputizing platforms of all stripes to police their users and censor their content under the guise of a ‘duty of care,’” ACLU Senior Policy Counsel Cody Venzke toldCNBC. “To accomplish this, the bill would legitimize platforms’ already pervasive data collection to identify which users are minors when it should be seeking to curb those data abuses. Moreover, parental guidance in minors’ online lives is critical, but KOSA would mandate surveillance tools without regard to minors’ home situations or safety. KOSA would be a step backward in making the internet a safer place for children and minors.”

Blumenthal argues that the bill was “very purposely narrowed” to prevent harm. “I think we’ve met that kind of suggestion very directly and effectively,” he said at a press conference. “Obviously, our door remains open. We’re willing to hear and talk to other kinds of suggestions that are made. And we have talked to many of the groups that had great criticism and a number have actually dropped their opposition, as I think you’ll hear in response to today’s session. So I think our bill is clarified and improved in a way that meets some of the criticism. We’re not going to solve all of the problems of the world with a single bill. But we are making a measurable, very significant start.”

Reason Studios (formerly Propellerhead) announced today that Reason, its popular digital audio workstation and plugin suite, now natively runs on Apple M1 / M2 chips. After installing the new Reason 12.6 update, users can skip the slower speeds from Apple’s Rosetta 2 emulator and run the DAW natively on non-Intel Macs for “50 percent better performance.”

The update also applies to Reason’s Rack Extension tech. The company says all 750+ extensions will also run natively on Apple Silicon, including older extensions abandoned by third-party developers.

Although the update is a bit late to the party, the (relatively small) Sweden-based studio likely had its hands full optimizing the music-creation suite for Apple Silicon, which Apple introduced in late 2020. Competitor Ableton Live didn’t launch M1 support until February 2022, and even Apple’s Logic Pro didn’t run natively on the company’s chipset until a year after the first M1 Macs’ arrival.

Reason 12.6 also includes a new offline mode, which should be welcome news for frequent fliers, off-grid adventurers or anyone with sketchy internet service. After logging in with an online connection to authenticate, the software will continue working offline without requiring extra third-party software.

The 12.6 update is free for owners of Reason 12 and subscribers of Reason+ (a $20 / mo. service that includes Reason, an up-to-date sound bank and the Reason rack). Finally, the company offers users running old versions an extra incentive to update by offering 40 percent off Reason 12 upgrades through May 8th when purchasing from the developer’s website.

Republicans’ and Democrats’ views of Twitter have moved in opposite directions since Elon Musk’s takeover last fall. A Pew Research poll published today found that Republicans are more likely to see the social platform in a positive light than two years ago, while Democrats’ views have moved on a divergent path. Although the results reflect what already appeared to be common sense — Republicans like it when the platform’s new leader amplifies far-right views while Democrats don’t — this is some of the first hard data we’ve seen to confirm that.

The portion of Republican and Republican-leaning Twitter users who believe the platform is “mostly bad” for US democracy dropped significantly to 21 percent from 60 percent two years ago. Similarly, Republicans who say the platform is “mostly good” for democracy rose from 17 percent to 43 percent in those two years. Meanwhile, Democrats’ views of Twitter as being good for democracy dropped from 47 percent in 2021 to 24 percent today; their view of the site being bad for democracy also increased from 28 percent to 35 percent.

However, both parties surveyed increasingly believe Twitter doesn’t affect American democracy. In 2021, 22 percent of Republicans answered that the social media platform had no impact, while 23 percent of Democrats agreed. Today, 36 percent of Republicans said it has no effect, and Democrats’ views on Twitter’s democratic irrelevance grew to 40 percent.

Meanwhile, the gap in the US political parties’ views on misinformation and abuse on the platform is also widening. For example, 68 percent of Democrats surveyed say “inaccurate or misleading information” is a problem on the platform (up from 54 percent in 2021), compared to 37 percent of Republicans who believe it’s a problem (compared to 52 percent two years ago). Similarly, 65 percent of Democrats say harassment and abuse are concerns (a rise from 50 percent in 2021), while 29 percent of Republicans agree (down from 41 percent in 2021).

Researchers (and anyone paying attention) have noted Musk’s increasingly conspiratorial posts and amplification of hate-mongering on the far right since the self-proclaimed centrist and free-speech absolutist took over. After he bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, researchers noted a quick rise in hate speech and misinformation. For example, in the week before the takeover, Montclair State University researchers found 84 tweets per hour using “homophobic, antisemitic and racial hate terms;” they found over 4,778 tweets fitting those criteria in the first 12 hours of Musk’s reign on October 28th.

“The way that Twitter’s content moderation has changed since [Musk has] taken over has definitely skewed towards favoring the far-right,” JM Berger, a researcher on extremism in social media, toldInsider in December. “I think he’s intentionally empowering right-wing extremists. Any argument that he’s trying to empower the center is patently bullshit and should be treated as such.”

Musk tweeted the transphobic and conspiratorial double whammy in December: “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.” Additionally, in a since-deleted tweet posted in October, he shared a link to a site spreading conspiracy theories about the assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, insisting there may be “more to the story.” Then, in early December, he reinstated the account of the creator of a Neo-Nazi website. And, of course, he also invited Donald Trump back to the platform in November after the former President was banned for inciting an insurrection in January 2021.

“The danger here is that in the name of ‘free speech,’ Musk will turn back the clock and make Twitter into a more potent engine of hatred, divisiveness, and misinformation about elections, public health policy, and international affairs,” said Paul Barrett, deputy director of NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, in October. “This is not going to be pretty.”

Bipartisan US lawmakers from both chambers of Congress introduced legislation this week that would formally prohibit AI from launching nuclear weapons. Although Department of Defense policy already states that a human must be “in the loop” for such critical decisions, the new bill — the Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act — would codify that policy, preventing the use of federal funds for an automated nuclear launch without “meaningful human control.”

Aiming to protect “future generations from potentially devastating consequences,” the bill was introduced by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Representatives Ted Lieu (D-MA), Don Beyer (D-VA) and Ken Buck (R-CO). Senate co-sponsors include Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “As we live in an increasingly digital age, we need to ensure that humans hold the power alone to command, control, and launch nuclear weapons – not robots,” said Markey. “That is why I am proud to introduce the Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act. We need to keep humans in the loop on making life or death decisions to use deadly force, especially for our most dangerous weapons.”

Artificial intelligence chatbots (like the ever-popular ChatGPT, the more advanced GPT-4 and Google Bard), image generators and voice cloners have taken the world by storm in recent months. (Republicans are already using AI-generated images in political attack ads.) Various experts have voiced concerns that, if left unregulated, humanity could face grave consequences. “Lawmakers are often too slow to adapt to the rapidly changing technological environment,” Cason Schmit, Assistant Professor of Public Health at Texas A&M University, toldThe Conversation earlier this month. Although the federal government hasn’t passed any AI-based legislation since the proliferation of AI chatbots, a group of tech leaders and AI experts signed a letter in March requesting an “immediate” six-month pause on developing AI systems beyond GPT-4. Additionally, the Biden administration recently opened comments seeking public feedback about possible AI regulations.

“While we all try to grapple with the pace at which AI is accelerating, the future of AI and its role in society remains unclear,” said Rep. Lieu. “It is our job as Members of Congress to have responsible foresight when it comes to protecting future generations from potentially devastating consequences. That’s why I’m pleased to introduce the bipartisan, bicameral Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous AI Act, which will ensure that no matter what happens in the future, a human being has control over the employment of a nuclear weapon – not a robot. AI can never be a substitute for human judgment when it comes to launching nuclear weapons.”

Given the current political climate in Washington, passing even the most common-sense of bills isn’t guaranteed. Nevertheless, perhaps a proposal as fundamental as “don’t let computers decide to obliterate humanity” will serve as a litmus test for how prepared the US government is to deal with this quickly evolving technology.

Vampire Survivors, the addictively casual indie game, is getting an animated television series. Known for its rich and cinematic backstory to the same degree as narrative-driven classics Space Invaders, BurgerTime and Dig Dug, Vampire Survivors is a pick-up-and-play casual game with simple 2D character sprites. Media company Story Kitchen will partner with the game’s creator, Luca Galante (founder of developer poncle), to make the series.

Galante said in a (hopefully) cheeky tone, “The most important thing in Vampire Survivors is the story, so it’s a dream come true to see what started as a little indie game I made on my weekends come to life as an animated TV show! It’s also great to be partnering up with such experienced and talented people to make the show. I do wonder if they’ve realized that there isn’t a single vampire in Vampire Survivors, though.” If the announcement sets the stage for the series, we may be in store for a show brimming with self-aware and tongue-in-cheek humor.

The game’s backstory is no more complex than the blurb, “The year 2021, Rural Italy, there lived an evil person named Bisconte Draculó, whose many evil magics created a bad world filled with famine and suffering. It’s now up to the members of the Belpaese family to end his reign of terror and return good food to the table.” Vampire Survivor’s gameplay revolves around controlling an auto-firing character’s movement and loadout as they blast away increasingly daunting hordes of enemies. It borrows elements from roguelike games and tower defense (with Castlevania-esque characters). Once you settle into the action, it can almost become a meditative experience. The title has consistently been one of the most-played Steam Deck games since its launch and is available on PC, Mac, Xbox, Android and iOS.

Story Kitchen is headed by Dmitri Johnson, who co-produced the Sonic the Hedgehog movie series. It also includes John Wick creator and writer Derek Kolstad, former Agency of the Performing Arts (APA) agent, and partner Mike Goldberg. Deadlinereports that the series creators are currently searching for a writer. Hopefully, the eventual scribe won’t find their ideas too constrained by the game’s sprawling and complex lore.