After threatening to do so, X Corp (aka Twitter) has filed a lawsuit against The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), Bloomberg has reported. It claimed that the anti-hate group is illegally "scraping" its servers and cherry picking hateful posts as part of "a scare campaign to drive away advertisers," according to documents filed in San Francisco federal court. X Corp. is asking for unspecified monetary damages and an injunction barring the CCDH from accessing its data.

The Center published a research article in June asserting that X allowed explicitly racist and homophobic posts despite policies to the contrary, even after they'd been reported. However, X responded that the CCDH used poor methodology, and failed to study all 500 million posts on the service each day. It also maintained that the Center was taking funding from competitors or foreign governments as part of an "ulterior agenda," according to The New York Times. 

In a new blog post called "Protecting the public’s right to free expression," Twitter/X explained its reasoning for filing a legal claim against CCDH. "X is a free public service funded largely by advertisers. Through the CCDH's scare campaign and its ongoing pressure on brands to prevent the public’s access to free expression, the CCDH is actively working to prevent public dialogue," the post states.

It went on to note that the CCDH scraped its data, accessing it without authorization from Brandwatch, a Twitter partner that provides "consumer & market insights," "brand monitoring" and more. It added that CCDH's "'research' cited in aBloomberg article 'contained metrics used out of context to make unsubstantiated assertions about X (formerly Twitter).'"

"That’s why X has filed a legal claim against the CCDH and its backers," it stated. It also accused the CCDH of "targeting people on all platforms who speak about issues the CCDH doesn’t agree with," "attempting to coerce the deplatforming of users whose views do not conform to the CCDH's ideological agenda" and more. 

In a letter published earlier today, the CCDH countered Twitter's earlier allegations. It noted that it never claimed to be conducting a comprehensive study, and documented the methodology it did use. It wrote that X didn't provide any specific examples, and said it doesn't accept funding from companies or governments. It further stated that it "will not be bullied," will continue publishing its research and that a lawsuit with "frivolous" claims could prove risky.

"The public has the right to know if and how @ElonMusk’s leadership has led to more hate speech on Twitter,” the nonprofit tweeted earlier. "By threatening us, Musk is trying to hide the truth about his own failures. Platforms must be held accountable for spreading hate & lies."

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, the upcoming game from Team Reptile with major Jet Set Radio vibes, is also heading to PlayStation and Xbox. It was initially announced for Switch and PC with a release date of August 18th. Now, the developer has revealed that PlayStation and Xbox gamers only have to wait a couple of weeks more, because the title will be released for their consoles two weeks later, on September 1st. 

Team Reptile describes Bomb Rush Cyberfunk as a world wherein "self-styled graffiti crews equipped with personal boostpacks are battling each other for control of the streets." Its theme, gameplay and art style are all reminiscent of the Dreamcast classic Jet Set Radio, which was released back in 2000. In the upcoming funkstyle game, players can explore the five main boroughs of New Amsterdam to spray graffiti, do dance battles and face off rival crews.

They can also expand their crew by finding new members around the city as they go around on inline skates, skateboards or bikes. (And yes, they can use the environment to do tricks.) Another layer of gameplay is that players have to evade militarized police as they move, which gets harder to do the longer they play because law enforcement scales up the more they vandalize the streets. 

The Uber safety driver at the wheel during the first known fatal self-driving car crash involving a pedestrian has pleaded guilty to and been sentenced for an endangerment charge. Rafaela Vasquez will serve three years of probation for her role in the 2018 Tempe, Arizona collision that killed Elaine Herzberg while she was jaywalking at night. The sentence honors the prosecutors' demands and is stiffer than the six months the defense team requested.

The prosecution maintained that Vasquez was ultimately responsible. While an autonomous car was involved, Vasquez was supposed to concentrate on the road and take over if necessary. The modified Volvo XC90 in the crash was operating at Level 3 autonomy and could be hands-free in limited conditions, but required the driver to take over at a moment's notice. It noticed Herzberg but didn't respond to her presence.

The defense case hinged on partly blaming Uber. Executives at the company thought it was just a matter of time before a crash occurred, according to supposedly leaked conversations. The National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) collision findings also noted that Uber had disabled the emergency braking system on the XC90, so the vehicle couldn't come to an abrupt stop.

Tempe police maintained that Vasquez had been watching a show on Hulu and wasn't paying attention during the crash. Defense attorneys have insisted that Vasquez was paying attention and had only been momentarily distracted.

The plea and sentencing could influence how other courts handle similar cases. There's long been a question of liability surrounding mostly driverless cars — is the human responsible for a crash, or is the manufacturer at fault? This suggests humans will still face penalties if they can take control, even if the punishment isn't as stiff for conventional situations.

Fatal crashes with autonomy involved aren't new. Tesla has been at least partly blamed for collisions while Full Self Driving was active. The pedestrian case is unique, though, and looms in the background of more recent Level 4 (fully driverless in limited situations) offerings and tests from Waymo and GM's Cruise.While the technology has evolved since 2018, there are still calls to freeze robotaxi rollouts over fears the machines could pose safety risks.

German semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies AG announced that it’s producing a printed circuit board (PCB) that dissolves in water. Sourced from UK startup Jiva Materials, the plant-based Soluboard could provide a new avenue for the tech industry to reduce e-waste as companies scramble to meet climate goals by 2030.

Jiva’s biodegradable PCB is made from natural fibers and a halogen-free polymer with a much lower carbon footprint than traditional boards made with fiberglass composites. A 2022 study by the University of Washington College of Engineering and Microsoft Research saw the team create an Earth-friendly mouse using a Soluboard PCB as its core. The researchers found that the Soluboard dissolved in hot water in under six minutes. However, it can take several hours to break down at room temperature.

In addition to dissolving the PCB fibers, the process makes it easier to retrieve the valuable metals attached to it. “After [it dissolves], we’re left with the chips and circuit traces which we can filter out,” said UW assistant professor Vikram Iyer, who worked on the mouse project.

The video below shows the Soluboard dissolving in a frying pan with boiling water:

“Adopting a water-based recycling process could lead to higher yields in the recovery of valuable metals,” said Jonathan Swanston, CEO and co-founder of Jiva Materials. Jiva says the board has a 60 percent smaller carbon footprint than traditional PCBs — specifically, it can save 10.5 kg of carbon and 620 g of plastic per square meter of PCB.

Infineon has produced three different circuit board prototypes using the Soluboard framework. The company is currently only using the dissolvable PCB for demo and evaluation boards, and it says around 500 units are now in use. However, it’s “exploring the possibility of using the material for all boards” with an eye on expanding adoption over the next few years. Based on the results of stress tests, it also plans to “provide guidance on the reuse and recycling of power semiconductors removed from Soluboards” to lessen the chances of the salvageable parts from future production models going to waste.

Last spring, Amazon launched its long-rumored live audio-streaming platform, Amp. The pitch was to reinvent radio with “an infinite dial of shows.” Amp offers users access to a vast, built-in music library to create their own DJ sets with. No need to buy songs or flirt with the DMCA, just make a playlist, go live, talk in between tracks, follow the chat and even invite callers. When I wrote about it a year ago, it showed promise, but it was iOS only, light on users and had a limited feature set.

A little over a year later and Amp is reaching an important milestone: It’s finally available on Android. Amp is Amazon’s first home-grown streaming platform and the year-plus stint as an Apple exclusive meant it enjoyed a level of technical predictability and a self-imposed restriction on growth and user numbers. But as the doors open to the other half of the mobile universe, it’s about to be exposed to the full reality of competing in an already busy social-creator landscape.

Growing beyond iOS is an important move for Amp, even if the platform technically remains in beta (and US-only). But the wider reach of Google’s operating system — from TVs to Chromebooks and beyond — will be a decisive step in the process of Amazon proving it can build a viable streaming platform from the ground up (rather than acquire an already successful one).

You can, of course, find DJ sessions and internet radio in myriad places online. Whether it’s big platforms like YouTube and TikTok or more direct rivals like Stationhead or Tidal (via its Live Sessions feature) and even Amazon Music’s own DJ Mode, there are several destinations for live curated music streams. Of course, let’s not forget Amazon-owned Twitch, which is teeming with tune spinners. Oh, and there’s obviously FM radio, too. This obviously begs the question: What makes Amp unique?

Amazon

“It's very much like Sirius meets YouTube,” Zach Sang, one of Amp’s contracted creators, and former broadcast DJ told Engadget. “It's real life, legacy career broadcasters mixed with the future of those broadcasters. It's everybody coming together, it's radio democratized. It's a way that radio genuinely should be programmed: for people and not for profit,” he added. From a user’s point of view, Amp’s main differentiator appears to be its focus on radio and radio-style shows specifically. Plus that built-in music library (Stationhead, for example, requires you to have either Apple Music or Spotify at your own cost).

I asked user Christina “Criti” Gonzalez, who hosts her own daily show, how she’d describe Amp. “[It’s] a very unique, weird place where you're able to listen to all the music you've forgotten about, didn't know about and crave to hear, again with personalities and so many people of all different walks of life that have one common interest - music.”

Amp Co-Founder, Matt Sandler - who used to work at LA’s KROQ FM – explained that he felt all of the existing options weren’t quite giving listeners or creators what they wanted. “If you posted a job for KROQ and an on air position, you'd get hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of submissions and people who wanted to curate music and talk to the community on air,” he told Engadget. “There have been lots of services built around live connection or music or community. One of the things that I think will drive the success of a business like this is really that balance between scale and connection.”

Amp signed deals with celebrities and established presenters such as Nicki Minaj, Joe Budden, Nick Cannon and the aforementioned Sang to give the platform some known-name appeal, and it’s done so without creating much of a barrier around them compared to regular creators. Your show can sit right next to Nicki Minaj’s in the listings. Although the roster covers large genres like hip-hop, sports, country and pop there’s not much in the way of alt/indie or electronic in that lineup right now.

Unlike Clubhouse, which enjoyed an early surge of popularity, Amp has largely gone under the radar since launch. “The thing we're maniacally focused on every day is making sure that the product is right before stepping out and bigger and bigger fashion,” Sandler said. But many people I’ve mentioned it to aren’t aware of it – and Amp’s not even included on the list of Amazon products/services Wikipedia page.

Amazon

The app is clearly a lot busier than when I wrote about it just after launch, but the average number of listeners for most shows remains frustratingly low for most shows (based on multiple user reports and other publicly visible data). But several users explained they weren’t discouraged. “The community that it has right now, it's a small enough space for people to feel like they're connected, even if they don't know each other.” Gonzalez said.

At the beginning, according to Sandler, even Amp's leadership was unsure in which direction the platform would unfold. There was the possibility that the big-name artists would dominate while regular users gravitated to being listeners. In reality, it’s the smaller, home-grown shows and the aforementioned community that has made Amp a nice place to hang out.

“The culture there is so inviting.” Gonzalez said. “I feel like other social media sites can turn negative quickly. I haven't had much experience with that on Amp and I appreciate that.” Adding, ”It's crazy what the experience on Amp has done, because I truly honestly say to anyone that's not an Amp to join it, because it really will change your perspective.”

One of the main complaints I had with Amp right after launch was that hosts needed at least one listener to be able to play a song and often that meant… waiting. There was also no way to communicate with any listeners you did have. Today the awkward waits are (mostly) gone and each stream has its own chat room which has switched it from a one-directional platform to the collection of friendly gatherings that it has become today.

Several creators and listeners have told me they’ve created genuine connections and friendships that have spilled over into real life. The chat rooms in shows are a rare mix of positivity, musical discourse and humor. Trolling and negativity is unusually rare and it’s obvious there’s a real sense of commitment to the app. But at some point it needs to expand to stop it becoming a circular economy where everyone is both a host and a listener.

Amp doesn’t share information about user numbers or demographics, but the typical host and listener right now, perhaps unsurprisingly, appears to mirror the generations that were brought up on mix tapes and burning albums to CD. Where sharing music was more tactile and a little bit slower. In the nicest possible way, the community energy often feels like the best bits of early internet chat rooms. Like many music-first spaces online, there’s little in the way of negativity, and while many creators may fall into a similar age group, a variety of backgrounds has been a defining factor since day one.

Amazon

The positive community is Amp’s to lose though. As it opens up to Android, the door to even more users opens, and with that the challenge of scaling up the platform while maintaining what keeps it special. And there’s also the matter of money. Right now, Amp pays out many of its hosts via an opaque creator fund. “One of the things that we're focused on is making sure that creators can earn through the service over time, not just through the fund, but through other mechanisms as well.” Sandler said. When I asked about subs, tipping and other Twitch-esque ways to earn money he added “Those are all things you could easily imagine in the service.”

For now, the creator fund is helping keep hosts motivated, but Amp will need to provide realistic alternative revenue streams to keep creators around (and, of course, lure in more). But perhaps the bigger investment Amp needs is in itself. It’s hard to find much in the way of outward promotion of the app and the best tool for promoting its best creators are its own social channels. If Amp can make itself more visible, it can grow the user base which in turn makes that creator economy, be it tipping, subs and beyond, more viable.

There are also occasional technical issues that remind you the app is still in beta, which an injection of new users, on a new operating system no less, might exacerbate. Mostly, it’s small annoyances like the chat swallowing your last message. Occasionally, it’s more dramatic like a stream crashing or a host being booted out of their own show.

“The glitchiness causes some frustration. And, sometimes that can change your experience doing the show and with others listening. So once those kinks get ironed out, I feel like the creators will feel more comfortable and less anxious while they're doing sets” Gonzalez said. Users have even coined the phrase “Amp be Ampin’” as a refrain to the inevitable quirkiness that happens every couple of weeks or after an update.

Where does the app go from here? “I think there's a big opportunity for amp specifically to move charts and culture around the world. And that means personalities, spinning music, having conversations and developing communities that exist in the app but that have social currency outside of the app as well.” Sandler said. Sang on the other hand thinks it’s a way to keep the spirit of radio going. “It's not like there's any major radio stars on the come up. So it's like, where are they going to come from? Let them come from Amp.”

Or, as Gonzalez was quick to point out, sometimes, it’s just about the music. “There are certain creators that talk through their experience or a memory or something like that. And it completely changes how I looked at the song to begin with” she said. “I love the community so much, but it's also just the variety, being exposed to certain genres. So I love that and ever since I've been really addicted.”

Mazda's MX-30 is a strange EV, and it appears the company knows this. The automaker is pulling the small crossover from the US market after the 2023 model year. The company says it's currently focused on "large platform" plug-in hybrids like the CX-70 and CX-90, and also offers conventional hybrids like the CX-50.

The MX-30 is Mazda's first and only mass-produced EV to date, and it came to the country in fall 2021 as a California-only model. From the start, its prospects were limited by a number of unusual business decisions. On top of its small size, it had just a 35.5kWh battery with an estimated 100-mile range. This was supposed to make it feel more like a gas car and limit the car's CO2 footprint, but the net result was a car that was both less exciting to drive and less practical than competing EVs costing significantly less than Mazda's $35,385 sticker. The outgoing current-gen Chevy Bolt costs $9,000 less while delivering more performance and over twice the range.

Sales were accordingly poor. Mazda has sold just 571 MX-30 units in the US over three years. In some countries, the company has reworked the machine as a plug-in hybrid with a rotary gas engine and an estimated 53 miles of electric-only driving.

Mazda is rethinking its EV strategy. It plans to introduce cars based on both an existing platform as well as a new framework. There are claims the company might use a future Toyota platform expected to deliver over 600 miles on a charge. The MX-30 discontinuation isn't the end, in other words — rather, it's an acknowledgment that the company needs to be more competitive.

The move is also a reflection of Japanese brands' general trouble entering the EV market. Honda might not replace its E compact car, and is refocusing on SUVs like next year's Prologue as well as its collaboration with Sony. Toyota and Subaru, meanwhile, had problems launching the bZ4x SUV crossover and its Solterra equivalent. For now, they largely have to rely on hybrids to attract buyers.

Sony announced pricing and availability today for its high-end 2023 QD-OLED television that the electronics giant says offers its “best color ever.” The Google TV-powered Bravia XR A95L will ship in 55-inch, 65-inch and 77-inch models, starting at $2,800.

The Sony Bravia XR A95L has a QD-OLED panel that takes the best of OLED screens (deep blacks, rich contrast) while adding the superior brightness and colors you’d expect from QLED TVs. Earlier this year, Engadget’s Sam Rutherford found that the new TV “definitely did a better job at preserving details in shadows” than the rival LG C2. “The A95L was particularly impressive thanks to its QD-OLED panel and Cognitive Processor, with Sony claiming brightness that’s now two times higher than last year’s model.” The company also says the new set provides up to 200 percent color brightness compared to typical OLED TVs.

The Cognitive Processor XR powers the set’s color range and hues, essentially acting as a brain that manages details like color, contrast, clarity, adaptive noise reduction and auto HDR tone mapping. In addition, the TV includes a Bravia Cam in the box: The sensor acts as a webcam for video calls (including Zoom support) while optimizing the television’s picture and sound based on your location in the room.

Sony

The A95L runs Google TV software but includes a few new extras this generation. That consists of a Game Menu for managing gaming picture and assistance settings. (It even lets you add a persistent crosshair for first-person shooters.) It also has exclusive PS5-friendly features: Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode to optimize the premium display for your favorite PlayStation games. The TV also includes a new Eco Dashboard to help you manage all its energy-saving settings in one place.

Sony’s new TV also has Acoustic Surface Audio+: actuators behind the TV that can “vibrate to produce audio from the entire screen,” helping make dialog clearer. The feature works with Sony Soundbars, as select models will sync with the television’s built-in vibrations to produce “fuller vocals” on the center audio channel. The company also synced its Soundbars to show their volume, sound field and other toggles directly in the TV’s Quick Settings menu.

The Sony Bravia XR A95L starts at $2,800 for the 55-inch model. The 65-inch variant will cost $3,500, while the 77-inch model will total $4,500. All three models will be available for pre-order from Sony authorized dealers starting on August 21st.

Meta’s consumer-facing generative AI tools based on its new Llama 2 model may not be far off. The company appears to be working on several new generative AI features for Instagram, including labels that allow creators to identify images “generated by Meta AI.”

That’s according to screenshots shared by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi who often teases unreleased features from Meta’s apps. Paluzzi recently posted a screenshot that shows an in-app message detailing how posts created with generative AI tools may soon be labeled within Instagram. “The creator or Meta said that this content was created or edited with AI,” the message explains. Additional labels indicate it was “generated by Meta AI” and that “content created with AI is typically labeled so that it can be easily detected.”

Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but the screenshot suggests that the company, like Google and others in the AI space, is interested in helping users discern when AI was used to create content. As generative AI tools have become more widely used, researchers and policymakers have raised concerns about how the technology could be used to aid the spread of misinformation or otherwise mislead people. Earlier this month, seven AI companies — including Meta — pledged to adopt a series of AI safety measures, like watermarks for AI-generated content.

While Meta so far hasn’t disclosed many details about its consumer-facing generative AI plans, Mark Zuckerberg has dropped several hints. “We're also building a number of new products ourselves using Llama that will work across our services,” the CEO said in a quarterly earnings call last week. “You can imagine lots of ways AI could help people connect and express themselves in our apps: creative tools that make it easier and more fun to share content, agents that act as assistants, coaches, or that can help you interact with businesses and creators, and more.”

Elsewhere, Paluzzi has spotted signs of other generative AI-powered tools for Instagram, including a “message summary” feature for summarizing long DMs, and new artistic tools for editing Stories.

The devs behind AI-based sample editing software Samplab are back with a free VST3 plugin that generates samples from text prompts. The appropriately-named TextToSample is a plugin that opens inside your DAW or as a standalone tool, allowing you to type, say, “bubbly synth melody” to create a, well, bubbly synth melody to do with as you see fit.

TextToSample utilizes Meta’s open-source AI-based sound generation toolset, MusicGen, and was trained using data provided by the algorithm. You can also drag and drop pre-existing sounds into the plugin and have it generate related samples, in addition to typing out commands.

The UI is extremely minimal and sparse, which makes it easy to use, but does present some inherent limitations. For instance, it doesn’t take pre-existing music on your track into account, so your first, second, and even third attempts will likely not match the tone you are going for. It also has trouble recognizing basic music concepts like keys, scales and BPM. Just like most AI-creation platforms, you aren’t going to get a perfect match right away. You’ll have to tweak, augment and provide further instructions, bit by bit, until satisfied.

However, when you get there, it’s pretty darn fun, creating the kinds of happy accidents you’d never stumble into on your own. Check out the demo video and that little flourish of guitar at the tail end of the sample as an example.

This is an AI tool in the year 2023, so there are some bugs. During experiments, we ran into issues like the plugin adding drums when we clearly stated that we didn’t want percussion. To that end, Samplab says the tool is not intended to “replace human musicians, which it’s not capable of doing anyway.” It’s free, though, so there's no harm in checking it out, and the technology should improve as more people use it.

A New York Times investigation uncovered earlier this year that the US government used spyware made by Israeli hacking firm NSO. Now, after an FBI investigation into who was using the tech, the department uncovered a confusing answer: itself, according to the New York Times on Monday. 

Since 2021, the Biden administration has taken steps toward parting ways with NSO, given the firm's reputation for shady tools like Pegasus that lets governments discreetly download personal information from hacked phones without the user's knowledge. But even after the president signed an executive order banning commercial spyware in March, an FBI contractor used NSO's geolocation product Landmark to track the locations of targets in Mexico. 

The FBI had inked a deal with telecommunications firm Riva Networks to track drug smugglers in Mexico, according to TheTimes. The spyware let US officials track mobile phones because of existing security gaps in the country's cellphone networks. While the FBI says it was misled by Riva Networks into using the tech, and has since terminated the contract, people with direct knowledge of the situation said the FBI used the spyware as recently this year. 

This isn't the FBI's first run in with NSO and its spyware tools. Prior to the executive order banning the products for government use, the agency considered using Pegasus to aid in its criminal investigations. Spyware generally gained a bad reputation for its use to surveil citizens and suppress political dissent, with NSO considered one of the largest in the business.