You will soon find a kid-friendly section inside OpenAI's newly opened store for custom GPTs. The company has joined forces with Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that rates media and technology based on their suitability for children, to minimize the risks of AI use by teenagers. Together, they intend to create AI guidelines and educational materials for young people, their parents and their educators. The two organizations will also curate a collection of family-friendly GPTs in OpenAI's GPT store based on Common Sense's ratings, making it easy to see which ones are suitable for younger users. 

"Together, Common Sense and OpenAI will work to make sure that AI has a positive impact on all teens and families," James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, said in a statement. "Our guides and curation will be designed to educate families and educators about safe, responsible use of ChatGPT, so that we can collectively avoid any unintended consequences of this emerging technology."

According to Axios, the partnership was announced at Common Sense's kids and family summit in San Francisco, where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shot down the idea that AI is bad for kids and should be kept out of schools. "Humans are tool users and we better teach people to use the tools that are going to be out in the world," he reportedly said. "To not teach people to use those would be a mistake." The CEO also said that future high school seniors would be able to operate at a higher level of abstraction and could achieve more that their predecessors with the help of artificial intelligence. 

The first human patient has received a Neuralink brain implant, according to Elon Musk. The procedure was apparently successful, with Musk saying the individual “is recovering well” one day after the surgery.

Neuralink, which aims to create brain-computer interfaces (BCI), began recruiting human patients for its first clinical trial last fall after getting the green light from the FDA. At the time, Neuralink said that people “who have quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)” may qualify for the study. “The initial goal of our BCI is to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,” the company wrote in a statement.

Musk didn’t share any other details about the procedure or the status of the trial. He said that “initial results show promising neuron spike detection.” Successfully implanting its device into a human patient would be a major milestone for the company, which Musk has claimed could one day enable people to experience alternate realities. The company is also facing a federal investigation for allegedly violating animal welfare laws.

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 Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. The proposed legislation follows a CA child safety bill that was set to go into effect this year but is now on hold.

SB 976 could give parents the power to remove addictive algorithmic feeds from their children’s social channels. If passed, it would allow parents of children under 18 to choose between the default algorithmic feed — typically designed to create profitable addictions — and a less habit-forming chronological one. It would also let parents block all social media notifications and prevent their kids from accessing social platforms during nighttime and school hours.

 “Social media companies have designed their platforms to addict users, especially our kids. Countless studies show that once a young person has a social media addiction, they experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem,” California Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) wrote in a press release. “We’ve waited long enough for social media companies to act. SB 976 is needed now to establish sensible guardrails so parents can protect their kids from these preventable harms.”

The Office of Nancy Skinner

Meanwhile, AB 1949 would attempt to strengthen data privacy for CA children under 18. The bill’s language gives the state’s consumers the right to know what personal information social companies collect and sell and allows them to prevent the sale of their children’s data to third parties. Any exceptions would require “informed consent,” which must be from a parent for children under 13.

In addition, AB 1949 would close loopholes in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that fail to protect the data of 17-year-olds effectively. The CCPA reserves its most robust protections for those under 16.

“This bill is a crucial step in our work to close the gaps in our privacy laws that have allowed tech giants to exploit and monetize our kids’ sensitive data with impunity,” wrote Wicks (D-Oakland).

The bills may be timed to coincide with a US Senate hearing (with five Big Tech CEOs in tow) on Wednesday covering children’s online safety. In addition, California is part of a 41-state coalition that sued Meta in October for harming children’s mental health. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that internal Meta (Facebook at the time) documents described “tweens” as “a valuable but untapped audience.”

Japan is an innovative country that leads the way on many technological fronts. But the wheels of bureaucracy often turn incredibly slowly there. So much so, that the government still requires businesses to provide information on floppy disks and CD-ROMs when they submit certain official documents.

That's starting to change. Back in 2022, Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono urged various branches of the government to stop requiring businesses to submit information on outdated forms of physical media. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is one of the first to make the switch. "Under the current law, there are many provisions stipulating the use of specific recording media such as floppy disks regarding application and notification methods," METI said last week, according to The Register.

After this calendar year, METI will no longer require businesses to submit data on floppy disks under 34 ordinances. The same goes for CD-ROMs when it comes to an unspecified number of procedures. There's still quite some way to go before businesses can stop using either format entirely, however.

Kono's staff identified some 1,900 protocols across several government departments that still require the likes of floppy disks, CD-ROMs and even MiniDiscs. The physical media requirements even applied to key industries such as utility suppliers, mining operations and aircraft and weapons manufacturers.

There are a couple of main reasons why there's a push to stop using floppy disks, as SoraNews24 points out. One major factor is that floppy disks can be hard to come by. Sony, the last major manufacturer, stopped selling them in 2011. Another is that some data types just won't fit on a floppy disk. A single photo can easily be larger than the format's 1.4MB storage capacity.

There are some other industries that still rely on floppy disks. Some older planes need them for avionics, as do and some aging medical devices. It also took the US government until 2019 to stop using floppy disks to coordinate nuclear weapon launches.

Embracer Group, the Swedish holding company undergoing restructuring, has reportedly canceled a Deus Ex game. Bloomberg says developers had been working on the unannounced title for two years. Neither Embracer nor developer Eidos addressed the reported cancellation specifically, but they confirmed they were laying off 97 employees at Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal.

Eidos will reportedly focus instead on “an original franchise.” Bloomberg’s sources say the Deus Ex game was scheduled to start production later this year. The franchise’s most recent mainline installment was 2016’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

After aggressively growing through acquisitions during the pandemic, Embracer Group entered a turbulent period last year. The company announced a restructuring plan in June 2023 after an unnamed partner pulled out of a planned deal that would have brought in $2 billion over six years. Axios later reported the mysterious investor was Savvy Games Group, which the Saudi government funds.

In August, Embracer announced the closure of Volition, the studio behind the Saints Row series. The parent company laid off about 900 employees in September and another 50 workers at Chorus developer Fishlabs. Earlier this month, Embracer shuttered Lost Boys Interactive, makers of Tiny Tina’s Wonderland — pinning the blame on “headwinds facing the industry right now.”

Embracer says the restructuring phase will run until the end of March. The company claims it will provide regular updates on the process, including when it publishes its next quarterly report on February 15.

Alongside the alleged Deus Ex cancellation, Eidos confirmed it let go of 97 employees from development teams, administration and support services. “The global economic context, the challenges of our industry and the comprehensive restructuring announced by Embracer have finally impacted our studio,” Eidos wrote in a statement.

Microsoft didn't have to look too far to find the new president of Blizzard. Former Call of Duty general manager Johanna Faries is replacing Mike Ybarra, who stood down from the role amid last week's sweeping layoffs in Microsoft's gaming division. Blizzard was said to be particularly hard hit as Microsoft fired around 1,900 people.

Faries, a former National Football League executive, joined Activision as the head of Call of Duty esports in 2018. She started overseeing all things Call of Duty in 2021 and officially starts her new role on February 5. 

Blizzard has largely operated independently since it merged with Activision in 2008. As such, Blizzard workers may be forgiven for being concerned at someone from the Activision side taking control. Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick often meddled in Blizzard's affairs, reportedly resulting in Overwatch 2 delays, among other things.

In an attempt to soothe any worries, Faries wrote in an email to staff that "Activision, Blizzard, and King are decidedly different companies with distinct games, cultures and communities. It is important to note that Call of Duty’s way of waking up in the morning to deliver for players can often differ from the stunning games in Blizzard’s realm: each with different gameplay experiences, communities that surround them, and requisite models of success. I’ve discussed this with the Blizzard leadership team and I’m walking into this role with sensitivity to those dynamics, and deep respect for Blizzard, as we begin to explore taking our universes to even higher heights."

Faries added that she is "committed to doing everything I can to help Blizzard thrive, with care and consideration for you and for our games, each unique and special in their own right.” Meanwhile, on X, Faries wrote that Blizzard's Diablo 4 was part of her current rotation of games, alongside Call of Duty and Baldur's Gate 3.

Sony’s PlayStation division has cooked up its first State of Play event for 2024, which will stream this Wednesday at 5PM ET. The company promises a runtime of 40 minutes and coverage of more than 15 upcoming titles.

To that end, Sony says two of the games profiled will be Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin. Stellar Blade, formerly called Project Eve, has been on our radar for a while, and it’s been around 18 months since we got an update. The PS5-exclusive was supposed to hit store shelves in 2023, so we’re due for a release date and another trailer that shows off more footage of the forthcoming action RPG. For those keeping score, the first teaser trailer for Stellar Blade appeared way back in 2019.

As for Rise of the Ronin, it’s a historical action RPG from Team Ninja, the developer behind Nioh. The game’s set in 1863, during Japan’s Bakumatsu era, and you play as a wandering Ronin. Expect plenty of third-person melee combat and gorgeous visuals. You'll be able to get your hands on it on March 22, so expect some sort of final trailer. 

Those are the only two confirmed games that’ll get the spotlight during this week’s stream, leaving more than 13 unknowns. There have been rumors swirling around the internet throughout the weekend regarding what else will be on the docket. These leaks suggest the stream will also feature Death Stranding 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, a remaster of Sonic Generations, a remake of Silent Hill 2 and a new Metro game, among others. Like all leaks, take this information with a grain of salt. However, the original leaker did nail the date of the event, so there’s that.

You can watch via the official PlayStation site. It’ll also be available on the company’s YouTube, TikTok and Twitch channels. Sony promises information on both PS5 exclusives and upcoming PS VR 2 games.

For nearly a decade the Galaxy Note was the undisputed king of Android phones. But when the OG phablet line was retired in 2020, that title passed on to the Ultra. While the hardware inside the most expensive Galaxy S model is as dominant as ever, over the past few years, the software in Google phones has begun to outshine anything available from Samsung. But armed with a new suite of AI-powered features, the Galaxy S24 Ultra (S24U) got exactly what it needed to maintain its spot atop the Android battlefield.

Design and display: Now with titanium

There are three main areas of improvement to the S24 Ultra: design, cameras and all of Samsung’s new AI tools. The biggest change to its build is the switch to a new titanium frame, which follows what Apple did for the iPhone 15 Pro last fall. So no points for originality. But more importantly, because the previous Ultra featured an aluminum chassis, there’s not a major change in weight either, with the S24U coming in at 232 grams (just two grams lighter than the S23 Ultra).

Some other subtle changes are a new matte finish and an upgrade to Corning’s Gorilla Armor in front and back (instead of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 like on the regular S24/S24+). Another benefit of Corning’s latest hardened glass is that it has improved anti-reflective properties, so while it doesn’t totally eliminate glare, it does make it appear less harsh without impacting the display's color saturation. And despite the previous model having slim bezels, Samsung reduced the borders around the display again by 42 percent, which is most noticeable along the top and bottom.

The display itself proves, once again, that Samsung makes the best mobile screens on the market. You still get a 6.8-inch OLED panel with a variable 120Hz rate, except now it’s even brighter with a peak of 2,600 nits (up from 1,750 nits). And if that’s not enough, the phone’s improved Vision Booster adds an additional 300 nits of perceived brightness, so movies, games, and everything else always looks good no matter where you are.

Performance: Setting a new bar for speed

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Inside, the S24 Ultra features a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC from Qualcomm and it’s a powerhouse. In Geekebench 6, we saw multi-core scores that were 30 to 35 percent higher than last year’s chip. This makes everything from games to switching between apps feel super snappy. The addition of a 92 percent larger vapor chamber also meant the S24 UItra never got above lukewarm even under sustained loads. Samsung also increased the phone’s RAM to 12GB for every config, unlike the S23U which started at 8GB base. Storage remains the same with 256GB, 512GB and 1TB options.

Cameras: A more usable 5x optical zoom

Three of the S24 Ultra’s four cameras are largely unchanged from its predecessor, including its 200-MP main sensor, 10-MP ultra-wide and 12-MP telephoto shooter with a 3x optical zoom. The main upgrade is swapping out the old 10x lens for a 5x optical zoom with a higher-res 50-MP sensor, which Samsung says reflects 5x being the most widely used focal length aside from the main cam. While this move might seem like a loss in terms of reach, the sensor’s increased resolution allows the phone to crop in providing what Samsung calls a “10x optical quality zoom” that’s surprisingly sharp.

In photos of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty from across the water, the S24U produced rich, detailed pics that were just as good as what we got from a Pixel 8 Pro. And while images taken at 10X were a touch softer than similar shots taken by an S23 Ultra, they weren’t far off.

In general the S24U captured gorgeous pics in all sorts of conditions. You’ll still notice Samsung’s super-saturated colors and penchant for slightly warmer hues, but in most cases that just adds an extra sense of vibrancy. Samsung also has a habit of going a bit overboard on sharpening, though it’s not a major distraction. Even in low light the S24U’s Night Mode largely kept up with Google’s Night Sight, which is no small feat.

Software: Samsung’s big push into AI

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Aside from its new hardware, the biggest addition to the S24 Ultra is Samsung’s Galaxy AI features, which are an entire suite of tools that fall into three main categories: text and translation, photography and editing, and search.

There’s an interpreter mode for in-person conversations along with a live translation feature that you can use during calls. Both are good enough to use in a pinch while traveling, but some things like word choice and pacing may be a bit off. The experience can also feel a bit clunky, especially when you’re on the phone and have to wait so the AI can catch up.

Next, you have Chat Assist which can check spelling, grammar and adjust the tone of messages. Admittedly, the social and emojify options are a bit gimmicky, but I genuinely appreciate the polite and professional choices, as they can help prevent a text or email from sounding combative.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

In the Notes app, the S24U can also summarize, auto-format, spellcheck or translate a file, which is nice, but not exactly groundbreaking. A lot of these features are already available from other services like ChatGPT or Bard. That said, these improvements may be the biggest upgrades to the S24 Ultra’s S-Pen, which is otherwise largely unchanged.

Out of Samsung’s text-based tools, my favorite is the transcription feature in the Voice Recorder app. It makes grabbing quotes from interviews super simple, though I noticed that Samsung’s UX doesn’t feel quite as polished or streamlined as what you get from Google. For example, the Pixel Recorder lets you see the transcript in real-time, while on the Ultra, you have to record a convo and then hit the AI icon to generate a chat log when you’re done.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The AI can also suggest edits for images like automatically remastering images (which is similar to the Auto Tone feature in Photoshop) or removing distracting elements like shadows and reflections. You can see these options by hitting the Info icon in the gallery app, which makes them super easy to access and might be the fastest way to improve your photos. The S24 Ultra can also create slow-mo clips from existing footage, just by tapping and holding on a video while it’s playing. This triggers the phone’s AI to generate new frames based on the fps of the recording (i.e. from 30 fps to 120 fps) on the fly and the results are surprisingly smooth.

If you prefer a more hands-on approach, there are Generative AI edits that allow you to reframe shots, move subjects around or delete them entirely, while the phone fills in the blanks. It’s a simple but effective process that sidesteps the need for Photoshop in a lot of cases. That said, if you look close you may notice areas where Samsung’s AI misses more details than the Pixel 8’s Magic Editor, which is a trend I noticed across a lot of Samsung’s AI features.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

All of the new tools generally function as expected, but things don’t feel quite as streamlined or polished as a lot of Google’s alternatives. In the Notes app, there’s a word limit for auto-formatting, summarizing and more, which limits you to about three or four paragraphs at a time. That means if you have a medium-sized doc, you’re gonna have to tackle it in chunks, which gets tedious pretty quickly. And sometimes if you try to highlight areas of a photo to remove reflections, the phone will smooth over the entire area and paint over the details.

In other situations, the AI will suggest edits that don’t make sense, like trying to turn a short motion photo into a timelapse. It’s possible this was my fault for importing a photo taken by another device, but I feel like the phone ought to know better. The AI is meant to work on any photo, regardless of where it came from. Even moving subjects around in a pic can get wonky depending on the shot and what you’re trying to do. And every now and then, the phone will suggest you remaster a photo, only for it to tell you that there’s nothing to fix. As a photographer, that’s a great feeling. But at the same time, why am I being told there are things to fix if that’s not actually the case? But, this is Samsung’s first big push into AI-assisted features, so it shouldn't be a shock to see a handful of hiccups.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Rounding out the S24’s kit is Circle to Search, which is the one new AI feature that relies on help from the cloud instead of taking place on-device. It’s essentially a combination of traditional text-based queries and visual search tools like Google Lens but without the need for a standalone app. The neat thing is that it can analyze images from the web or objects in photos you’ve taken yourself, which makes it pretty versatile. But Google recently announced that Circle to Search is coming to Pixel phones too, so it’s not like this is an exclusive feather in Samsung’s cap.

Battery Life: Nearing two days of juice

Between the power efficiency gains from its new processor and a large 5,000 mAh battery, the S24 Ultra delivered truly impressive longevity. On our local video rundown test, it lasted 24 hours and 19 minutes, which is up more than four hours compared to last year. And in the real world, its battery life was even more impressive. The S24U often had more than 50 percent left after 24 hours. So depending on your usage, it’s possible for this phone to last two days without recharging.

Wrap-up

At this point, you'd be forgiven for being fed up with companies trying to push AI into everything. But if you just think about these as software upgrades meant to make your phone more useful, Samsung’s push into machine learning makes a lot more sense. The S23U was already a great phone and on the S24 Ultra, we’re getting the same (though somewhat plain) design, but with a tougher titanium frame, a much faster chip, a brighter display and even longer battery life. Samsung also tweaked its main telephoto lens to provide a more useful focal length but without a major decrease in reach or quality.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

But the big thing is that, with its Galaxy AI suite, Samsung finally has an answer to the sophisticated features that were previously only available from the Pixel family. Sure, the S24’s tools aren’t quite as polished as Google’s offerings, but they get you 80 to 90 percent of the way there. And as a complement to what is more or less a top-to-bottom list of best-in-class smartphone hardware, it feels like Samsung is using AI to shore up one of the few remaining weaknesses of its flagship handset. Particularly now that the company is following in Google’s footsteps and increasing software support from six to seven years of OS and security updates.

However, the Ultra’s biggest sticking point — its price — remains an issue. With the S24U starting at $1,300, it costs $100 more than the outgoing model. I’m also disappointed that Samsung didn’t adopt Qi 2. It’s frustrating to see all the major OEMs, including Apple, agree on a wireless charging standard only to have the biggest phone maker in the world drag its feet. Qi 2 got approved last year and we may not see it on a high-end Samsung handset until 2025.

While harnessing AI might not be a super exciting development now that everyone and their grandmother is trying to shoehorn it into everything, it does make the S24 Ultra a more powerful and well-rounded handset. And when you tack that onto a phone that already had a lead in hardware, you end with a pretty commanding device.

The Apple Vision Pro will be missing some major native apps at the outset, including Netflix, Spotify and YouTube. One notable app to which users of the mixed-reality headset will have access when it debuts later this week is Zoom, which will support the Vision Pro's Persona feature.

Vision Pro users will be able to create digital versions of themselves. If you have said Persona, others on a Zoom or FaceTime call will be able to see your facial expressions and hand movements via your avatar. So while you may not be using a traditional webcam, other folks might notice your persona cringing at one of your boss' bad jokes.

According to Zoom, the app's spatial experience can be "scaled to the perfect size," so it shouldn't seem like you're miles away from someone's Persona. Although Vision Pro users will be represented as a Persona (if they choose to be), those joining the call from other devices will be represented as a floating tile. 

Zoom will be one of the first major third-party apps to use this tech. Apple said Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex are getting in on the party too. The company claims that it only takes a few minutes to set up a Persona with a Vision Pro.

There are more features coming to Zoom's app this spring. You'll be able to share 3D object files and view these in a virtual space through Vision Pro. Team Chat is also coming to the app, as is a tool called real-world pinning. Zoom says you'll be able to use this to pin five meeting participants anywhere in the virtual space and have the option of removing their background. The company suggests this will help Vision Pro users "feel more connected to the people in the meeting."

While Zoom might not be the most exciting app for those who are picking up a Vision Pro primarily for entertainment purposes, it's interesting to see what third-party companies are starting to do with the tech. A Zoom call might not be too much different from a FaceTime chat out of the gate, but the addition of features like 3D object sharing could make it a more intriguing prospect for mixed-reality use.

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 Meta for the study. The agency says the study should help people understand “how different factors may or may not impact well-being and inform productive conversations about how to help people thrive.”

The specifics of the study remain opaque, but COS says it’ll use “new types of research processes” like pre-registration and early peer review. That last one is important, as it sends proposed research questions to peer review before being issued to study participants. This should help stave off bias and ensure the questions are actually useful. The agency also says that all results will be published and “not just those that confirm one’s hypothesis or support a prevailing theory.”

As for a totally non-scientific study on the effects of social media, using it for even ten minutes transforms any dopamine in my brain to the swamps of sadness from The Neverending Story. You could be the same. It’s no secret that social media is basically a factory that creates mental unease, and this is particularly true for kids and teens.

So, why announce this partnership today of all days? It could be a coincidence, but the timing sure is funny. Meta is set to testify this week in front of the US Senate Judiciary Committee about its failures to protect kids online, along with other social media bigwigs like TikTok, Snap and X. It is worth noting, however, that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew are willing participants in this testimony. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron and X CEO Linda Yaccarino had to be formally subpoenaed.

However, Meta has a particularly bad track record when it comes to this stuff. After all, the company’s being sued by 41 states for allegedly harming the mental health of its youngest users. The suit claims Meta knew its “addictive” features were bad for kids and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platforms.

Unsealed documents from the suit claim that Meta actually “coveted and pursued” children under 13 and lied about how it handled underage accounts once discovered, often failing to disable these accounts while continuing to harvest data. This would be a brazen violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.

Another lawsuit alleges that Facebook and Instagram's algorithms facilitated child sexual harassment, with the complaint stating that Meta's own internal documents said over 100,000 kids were harassed daily. Facebook's "People You May Know" algorithm was singled out as a primary conduit to connect children to predators. The complaint alleges that Meta did nothing to stop this issue when approached by concerned employees.

With all of this in mind, it doesn’t really take a study to recognize that the “well-being” of users isn’t exactly the most important thing on the minds of social media CEOs. Still, if the program helps these companies move in the right direction, that’s certainly cool. COS says the study will take two years and that it’s still in the early planning stages. We’ll know more in the coming months. In the meantime, you can watch CEO Zuckerberg and all the rest testify before congress on Wednesday at 10 AM ET.