Data breaches and security failures happen everyday. There’s little we can do about that if we want to participate in modern society, except maybe switch out the companies we interact with for their competitors if we presume one to be more secure. There’s one service that we don’t have a choice on whether to interact with, no matter how high profile its security incidents become: the federal government.

A breach of the Office of Personnel Management announced in 2015 it had leaked background investigation records, impacting 21.5 million individuals, according to the agency. The highly publicized Solarwinds hack discovered in 2020 exposed government and business records to Russian insiders. Earlier this year, the US Marshals Service division of the Department of Justice became a target, when hackers stole personal information about investigation targets, personnel and more.

The attacks were targeted, usually seeking out some type of sensitive state information. But we all have sensitive information stored throughout federal agencies like our social security numbers or home addresses. Probably even more information is at stake if you utilize federal services like Medicare, student loans or SNAP benefits. We have no choice but to give the federal government access to our personal information in exchange for certain services, unless you’re reading this while living off grid.

“If we want to live in the information age, and we're using some of these systems, we are inherently giving up control,” Kevin Cleary, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems at University at Buffalo, told Engadget. “You have to trust that agency has put forward all the best controls and practices.”

In response, the federal government has developed agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to lead better security initiatives across departments. In part, this is intended to help you feel a little bit better about storing your data within federal servers by setting higher standards for how it safeguards your data. According to Michael Duffy, associate director of the cybersecurity division at CISA, since the agency’s establishment in 2018, it’s spearheaded the most progress he’s seen in his federal cybersecurity career.

So, things are improving, and you can probably trust the federal government to keep your data safe in the same way you trust the companies you interact with everyday. What makes the government so different, though, is that it’s a high profile target. Adversarial countries want in on state secrets while, at the same time, it’s hard to prioritize spending on security measures. Getting tax-payer funds to fill a pothole on your local highway is hard enough when the damage is tangible and obvious, while security is hard to quantify the benefits of until an attack occurs. In other words, the value of security investments aren’t proven until it’s already too late.

This has gotten better. Security investments in the federal government largely trend upwards. Still, it’s not enough. “Sometimes their budgets don't allow them to take every step or to everything that they would like to do, because you just simply don't have the money,” Marisol Cruz Cain, director of information technology and cybersecurity at GAO, said.

But the reason why the federal government may appear less secure is because of its obligation for transparency. There’s a responsibility to share lessons learned after an incident, and make sure citizens know what happened. That’s actually a big part of CISA’s job. “We are really looking at ways that we are making it more acceptable to raise the hand and say this is the way that we were attacked or an incident occurred,” Duffy said.

The government also interacts with a ton of outside businesses. So, say a government contractor experiences a breach or security incident, that means that data held in federal tech could be exposed. This opens up a slew of new attack vectors, and possibilities for malpractice.

You can actually see how secure certain agencies are thanks to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and legislation like the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act. The latter documents tech modernization efforts across major agencies, including cyber readiness. GAO, for its part, audits cybersecurity efforts and develops privacy impact assessments that are publicly available descriptions about what information the agency collects, how they use it and more.

But with all these audits come a relatively bleak conclusion. Agencies aren’t evaluating their policies and procedures to make sure that high profile incidents don’t happen on a regular basis, Cruz Cain said. Your information will be on those servers whether you like it or not.

When it comes to streaming devices, there’s almost too much choice out there. However, if you’re looking for an affordable but capable option, it’s hard to go wrong with Amazon’s Fire TV offerings, especially when those devices are on sale like they are right now.

The highlight of the promotion is the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Thanks to a $20 discount, you can get the device for $35. The 4K Max is Amazon’s most powerful streaming stick, thanks to a faster processor the company claims is 40 percent more powerful than the one found in the Fire TV Stick 4K. The additional processing power translates to faster app start times and more fluid menu navigation. The Fire TV Sitck 4K Max also comes with WiFi 6 connectivity, as well as support for Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+ and Doly Atmos audio.

If you want to add Amazon’s Fire TV interface to an older Full HD TV, consider the Fire TV Stick Lite. It’s down to $20 following a $10 discount. The Fire TV Stick Lite is on Engadget’s list of the best streaming devices you can buy. It might not offer 4K output, but it does come, like its more expensive siblings, with an Alexa Voice Remote out of the box. It also supports HDR output, so you won't miss out on HDR content just because you're buying a more affordable streaming stick.

On the other end of the scale is the latest Fire TV Cube. It’s currently priced at $125, down from $140. Thanks to the inclusion of a 2.0GHz octa-core processor, the Fire TV Cube is the most powerful streaming device Amazon offers. It’s a great option if you own a WiFi 6E-capable router and want to control some of your other entertainment devices with Alexa.

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It is not hard — at all — to trick today’s chatbots into discussing taboo topics, regurgitating bigoted content and spreading misinformation. That’s why AI pioneer Anthropic has imbued its generative AI, Claude, with a mix of 10 secret principles of fairness, which it unveiled in March. In a blog post Tuesday, the company further explained how its Constitutional AI system is designed and how it is intended to operate.

Normally, when an generative AI model is being trained, there’s a human in the loop to provide quality control and feedback on the outputs — like when ChatGPT or Bard asks you rate your conversations with their systems. “For us, this involved having human contractors compare two responses,” the Anthropic team wrote. “from a model and select the one they felt was better according to some principle (for example, choosing the one that was more helpful, or more harmless).”

Problem with this method is that a human also has to be in the loop for the really horrific and disturbing outputs. Nobody needs to see that, even fewer need to be paid $1.50 an hour by Meta to see that. The human advisor method also sucks at scaling, there simply aren’t enough time and resources to do it with people. Which is why Anthropic is doing it with another AI.

Just as Pinocchio had Jiminy Cricket, Luke had Yoda and Jim had Shart, Claude has its Constitution. “At a high level, the constitution guides the model to take on the normative behavior described [therein],” the Anthropic team explained, whether that’s “helping to avoid toxic or discriminatory outputs, avoiding helping a human engage in illegal or unethical activities, and broadly creating an AI system that is ‘helpful, honest, and harmless.’”

According to Anthropic, this training method can produce Pareto improvements in the AI’s subsequent performance compared to one trained only on human feedback. Essentially, the human in the loop has been replaced by an AI and now everything is reportedly better than ever. “In our tests, our CAI-model responded more appropriately to adversarial inputs while still producing helpful answers and not being evasive,” Anthropic wrote. “The model received no human data on harmlessness, meaning all results on harmlessness came purely from AI supervision.”

The company revealed on Tuesday that its previously undisclosed principles are synthesized from “a range of sources including the UN Declaration of Human Rights, trust and safety best practices, principles proposed by other AI research labs, an effort to capture non-western perspectives, and principles that we discovered work well via our research.”

The company, pointedly getting ahead of the invariable conservative backlash, has emphasized that “our current constitution is neither finalized nor is it likely the best it can be.”

“There have been critiques from many people that AI models are being trained to reflect a specific viewpoint or political ideology, usually one the critic disagrees with,” the team wrote. “From our perspective, our long-term goal isn’t trying to get our systems to represent a specific ideology, but rather to be able to follow a given set of principles.”

Spotify has reportedly pulled tens of thousands of tracks from generative AI company Boomy. It's said to have removed seven percent of the songs created by the startup's systems, which underscores the swift proliferation of AI-generated content on music streaming platforms.

Universal Music reportedly told Spotify and other major services that it detected suspicious streaming activity on Boomy's songs. In other words, there were suspicions that bots were being used to boost listener figures and generate ill-gotten revenue for uploaders. Spotify pays royalties to artists and rights holders on a per-listen basis.

“Artificial streaming is a longstanding, industry-wide issue that Spotify is working to stamp out across our service,” Spotify, which confirmed that it had taken down some Boomy tracks, told Insider. "When we identify or are alerted to potential cases of stream manipulation, we mitigate their impact by taking action that may include the removal of streaming numbers and the withholding of royalties. This allows us to protect royalty payouts for honest, hardworking artists."

Universal Music's chief digital officer Michael Nash told the Financial Times, which first reported on Spotify removing Boomy's tracks, that his company is "always encouraged when we see our partners exercise vigilance around the monitoring or activity on their platforms."

AI-generated music hit the headlines last month after a song that appeared to include vocals from Drake and The Weeknd went viral. Universal Music Group, which represents both artists, claimed that using the duo's voices to train generative AI systems constituted “a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law." Both Spotify and Apple Music removed the song from their libraries.

Music industry figures have been sounding the alarm bells about the overarching impact of AI-generated tracks, as well as people using bots to drive up listener figures and siphon money out of the kitties that streaming services use to pay royalties.

Boomy, which opened its doors in 2021, enables people to generate songs based on text inputs. Over the weekend, the company said that "curated delivery to Spotify of new releases by Boomy artists has been re-enabled."

Boomy says its users "have created 14,554,448 songs" or just under 14 percent of "the world's recorded music." Its website states that users can create original songs in seconds, then upload them "to streaming platforms and get paid when people listen."

Your first apartment after graduation is probably not your forever home, but you can make it something you’re proud of with gadgets that do your bidding. You can automate your lights, keep an eye on your pets and clean up your floors more efficiently with relatively affordable devices that won’t eat up too much of your paycheck. We’ve tried out a lot of smart home tech over the years and here’s what we recommend for newbies and those with tight budgets.

Echo Show 5

Amazon’s Echo Show 5 is a diminutive smart display often marketed as a bedside alarm clock, but it works equally well in small kitchens. You can play music, watch shows, check the news and weather and make video calls. Plus, with Alexa’s help, you can do all of that hands-free. But more importantly, the Show 5 can act as a smart dashboard of sorts, from which you can control connected devices and see feeds from security cameras. The Show 5 also acts as a digital photo frame when not in use and the built-in camera has a physical shutter for your privacy.

Blink Mini

If you’ve got pets or just want extra peace of mind when you’re away, you might want to get an indoor security camera. Amazon’s Blink Mini cameras are some of the most affordable options around and they easily sync with other Alexa-enabled devices. They can deliver video feeds to your smartphone, Echo Show, Fire TV or any compatible screen, and they’ll send you an alert when their motion sensor detects disturbances. You can hear and talk to whoever’s in the room via the built-in mic and speakers as well – handy for telling your dog to get off the couch.

Roku Streaming Stick 4K

Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K turns any screen with an HDMI port into a smart TV for under $50. Our commerce writer, Nicole Lee, likes Roku’s straightforward interface and the fact that it supports universal search so you can find out which service a given show is playing on. Unlike some streaming sticks, Roku works with all the major voice assistants: Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa. You can even control your TV by saying “hey Roku” to the included remote or through the Roku app. The same app turns your phone into a second remote and enables private listening through your headphones as well. The 4K dongle is made for high-resolution screens, but if you don’t have a 4K TV and want to save more money, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick Lite is our favorite budget option.

Kasa Smart Bulbs

Connected bulbs might be the easiest way to turn your analog home into a “smart” one. A single smart light can ensure you never walk into a dark apartment again. You can set schedules for your daily routines or make it look like you’re home when you’re not. Being able to turn things off with just your voice or via an app can save you from getting out of bed when you’re ready to crash. Our senior commerce editor, Valentina Palladino tested a number of bulbs for our guide and thinks TP-Link’s Kasa Smart Bulbs give you the best value. Installation will be easy, even for those new to smart devices, thanks to Kasa’s clean and simple app. It’s worth noting that voice control is only available with Alexa or the Google Assistant; Siri is unfortunately incompatible.

Wyze Smart Plug

Like smart lights, smart plugs are affordable gadgets that can help you automate simple tasks around your home. You could program a fan to turn on before you get home from work or run a humidifier just before bed. If you have a basic on/off coffee maker, you can fill it with water and grounds the night before and wake up to a fresh pot of joe. Commerce writer Nicole picked Wyze’s Smart Plug for our smart home guide because it’s cheap, has an easy-to-use app and doesn’t hog the other outlet thanks to its thin profile.

iRobot Roomba 694

Senior commerce editor Valentina has tested more than a dozen robot vacuums and recommends iRobot’s Roomba 694 to anyone looking to keep their floors clean without spending too much money (or time). The company’s companion app is simple and probably the 694’s biggest selling point, guiding you through installation and programming. The vacuum can handle hard floors and carpet, and it runs for about 45 minutes on a charge, which should be enough for most smaller apartments. You’ll have to help it out when it gets snagged on a cable and empty the bin when it's full, but other than that, it’s a fairly hands-off way to get cleaner floors.

Govee M1 RGBIC smart light strip

Nobody’s knocking Christmas lights as decor, but strip lights are a slightly classier way to add flair to your space. You can use them to light up bookcases, create ambiance for your streaming setup or turn your bedroom into a color-coordinated haven. Govee makes many different smart LED strips, but the one senior commerce editor Valentina recommends in our guide is the M1 RGBIC. She was impressed by the light's brightness and wide spectrum of available hues. You can control different segments independently and the app has an “effects lab” that offers pre-programed lighting presets like sunsets, starry nights and movie-themed color palettes.

Sonos Roam

The Sonos Roam is both a smart and portable speaker, packing a decent amount of utility into a $180 package. While not the cheapest around, it’s relatively low-cost for Sonos, a brand known for quality audio. The Roam will play whichever music service you prefer, delivering clear highs and impressive bass for its size. Alexa is built in and you can access the Google Assistant too, which means you can use the speaker to order around your compatible smart home devices. And when it’s time to relax, you can ask Roam to play just about any song you can think of.

TP-Link AC1200 RE315 WiFi extender

Thick walls, weird layouts and other factors can make home WiFi reception spotty. If you’re experiencing dead zones in your apartment, a WiFi extender might help. TP-Link’s AC1200 RE315 is our favorite budget pick: it covers 1,500 square feet and delivers speeds of up to 1,200Mbps – plenty fast for streaming and working from home. It also has a built-in Ethernet port, which should provide an even more reliable connection to essential tech like your TV or game console.

Instant Pot Duo (3-quart)

Cooking for yourself is one of the bigger adjustments of adulting – it certainly was for me. Luckily a big batch of beans and rice can keep most humans alive for much longer than you’d think. The Instant Pot Duo cooks beans without soaking and makes fluffy rice; add a jar of salsa and you have a fairly well-rounded meal. Of course, it can cook more elaborate stuff too: search for Instant Pot recipes and you’ll get a lifetime’s worth of ideas. We recommend a larger version in our guide to kitchen gadgets, but this three-quart model is both more affordable and a better size for just one or two people.

Aria Air smart scale

Smart scales offer a more comprehensive view on your overall health, by presenting information like your body mass index and trends over time instead of just your weight. Our top budget pick is Fitbit’s Aria Air. It’s not as advanced as other options out there, but it tracks weight changes and gives you BMI metrics based on profile information. For $50, it's a good entry-level scale that syncs nicely with an app that our senior editor, Daniel Cooper, says is very polished.

The Apple Watch has effectively used the same processor since the S6 inside 2020's Series 6, but it's apparently poised for a long-due upgrade. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman tells subscribers in his newsletter Discord channel that Apple Watch Series 9 will reportedly use a truly "new processor." He believes the CPU in the S9 system-on-chip will be based on the A15 chip that first appeared in the iPhone 13 family.

Apple has upgraded the SoC hardware in Watch models following Series 6, but the revisions have added functionality rather than CPU improvements. The S8 chip in Series 8, Ultra and current-gen SE watches includes an updated accelerometer and gyroscope, for instance. Apart from that, it's largely identical to the S6.

While most details remain a mystery, there are some likely improvements. The S8 is still built using an old 7-nanometer manufacturing process, while an S9 is more likely to be made on a denser and more efficient 5nm or 4nm process. That could not only boost performance, but extend battery life. Apple has historically introduced new Apple Watches in September. 

Apple Watch Series 9 is otherwise believed to be an iterative update. Gurman previously suggested there will be no major design or feature changes. You may get the Bluetooth 5.3 support that came with the Ultra, but there might not be much incentive to upgrade if you already have a Series 7 or newer. For owners of older models, however, a speedier processor may help justify an upgrade on top of all the refinements from recent years.

Fall Guys is getting a shot in the arm this week with the introduction of the long-awaited level creator, which players can use to build their own levels (known as rounds). Before season four goes live on May 10th, I had the chance to tinker around with the creative mode on a PC preview build. The mode will be available on all platforms. It's a fairly robust toolkit that Mediatonic plans to build out significantly in the coming years. 

For now, users are restricted to building race rounds and they only have two themes to choose from. Levels need to have a start line and a finish line, and it's up to you to decide what goes in between (probably chaos).

Creative mode is debuting with what Mediatonic describes as a "greatest hits" of Fall Guys platforms and obstacles, including the Door Dash gates, slime floors, a cannon that can launch houses at players and, of course, Yeetus (a big rotating hammer). While the options might not be as extensive as some may have hoped, there's enough here for fiendish level creators to get started with.

Having a limited set of pieces at the outset may not be a bad thing. Constraints can foster creativity, as we've seen in the past with the old 140-character limit on tweets (which can now, regrettably, be up to 10,000 characters long) and short-form video.

The creative mode controls are a little janky, unfortunately, especially on a keyboard. You'll need to use the plus and minus keys (which are on the opposite side of my keyboard from the other buttons) to move pieces vertically. The preview build I was using didn't have the option to rebind the creative mode controls. Hopefully, that's something Mediatonic addresses swiftly.

Aside from that, creating a level is a cinch. It doesn't take long to build a tower with fans, bounce pads and boxing gloves that can send beans off the map and back to the start line if they're not careful. You can't go too off the rails with your rounds, though. There's a limit on how many objects you can include and you'll need to beat your levels yourself before you can publish and share them.

The creative mode had to be robust, since Mediatonic is using the same tools to build its own levels. The toolset has allowed the developers to create 50 new rounds for this season, more than ever before.

Extensive options for creativity have helped Fortnite enshrine itself as one of the biggest games in the world. Mediatonic and Epic will surely be hoping that this update will help do the same for Fall Guys. At the very least, it could bring back some lapsed players.

I probably won't spend too much time building my own rounds. I made one, Marie Kondo-inspired level in Super Mario Maker 2 and then went back to trying out other players' creations. I'll surely dip back into the Fall Guys creative mode as Mediatonic adds more obstacles (I'd like to try building my own version of Slimb Climb), but I'm mainly looking forward to seeing what nonsense other players come up with.

Meta is bringing more ads to Reels on Facebook and Instagram, and changing up how creators can earn money from their content. The change comes two months after Meta “paused” a bonus program that rewarded creators for hitting specific goals.

Now, Meta says it’s “accelerating” its plan to bring ads into Reels on Facebook, with “thousands” of creators now eligible to join the monetization program. The company plans to test a similar program for Reels creators on Instagram in the “coming weeks.”

Notably, Meta is structuring the program a bit differently than typical revenue sharing arrangements. The company says it will pay creators using “a new payout model that pays creators based on the performance of their public reels, not the earnings of ads on their reels” and that “initially, payouts in the test will be determined by the number of plays.” In other words, creators who rack up the highest number of views will earn the most, regardless of other engagement metrics or how much ad revenue their clips generate.

The decision to prioritize views apparently came as a result of the company’s earlier tests, with Meta noting that payments based on ad performance can sometimes negatively impact creators for things out of their control, like the company’s own ad inventory. Those terms are also likely a reflection of the fact that while Reels drive a lot of engagement for Meta, the feature hasn’t proven to be as easily monetized as its feeds and stories features. (The company says in its blog post that it’s continuing to “optimize the ad experience for advertisers,” on Reels.)

It’s also not yet clear just how much creators can expect to make through the new program. Meta had previously promised Reels creators monthly bonuses up to $35,000 a month when it launched the Reels Play bonus program in 2021. But the company reportedly slashed those payments last year, before “pausing” the program entirely in march. According to a Meta spokesperson, the ‘overarching goal” is for creators to be able to earn consistent payouts, but these numbers “will vary widely by creator.”

Meta is bringing more ads to Reels on Facebook and Instagram, and changing up how creators can earn money from their content. The change comes two months after Meta “paused” a bonus program that rewarded creators for hitting specific goals.

Now, Meta says it’s “accelerating” its plan to bring ads into Reels on Facebook, with “thousands” of creators now eligible to join the monetization program. The company plans to test a similar program for Reels creators on Instagram in the “coming weeks.”

Notably, Meta is structuring the program a bit differently than typical revenue sharing arrangements. The company says it will pay creators using “a new payout model that pays creators based on the performance of their public reels, not the earnings of ads on their reels” and that “initially, payouts in the test will be determined by the number of plays.” In other words, creators who rack up the highest number of views will earn the most, regardless of other engagement metrics or how much ad revenue their clips generate.

The decision to prioritize views apparently came as a result of the company’s earlier tests, with Meta noting that payments based on ad performance can sometimes negatively impact creators for things out of their control, like the company’s own ad inventory. Those terms are also likely a reflection of the fact that while Reels drive a lot of engagement for Meta, the feature hasn’t proven to be as easily monetized as its feeds and stories features. (The company says in its blog post that it’s continuing to “optimize the ad experience for advertisers,” on Reels.)

It’s also not yet clear just how much creators can expect to make through the new program. Meta had previously promised Reels creators monthly bonuses up to $35,000 a month when it launched the Reels Play bonus program in 2021. But the company reportedly slashed those payments last year, before “pausing” the program entirely in march. According to a Meta spokesperson, the ‘overarching goal” is for creators to be able to earn consistent payouts, but these numbers “will vary widely by creator.”

LinkedIn is the latest notable tech company to announce a round of mass layoffs. It's letting 716 staff go and shutting down its job search app in China. LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said in a memo to employees that the cuts were part of a shift in strategy that was driven by changes in customer behavior and slower revenue growth. That's despite the platform seeing record levels of engagement and "making meaningful progress creating economic opportunities for our members and customers."

In 2021, LinkedIn shut down the seven-year-old Chinese version of its service, citing the difficulties of operating in the country. It rolled out a job board app for Chinese users called InCareer that did not have any social networking features. Now, Roslansky says the company will phase out that app by August 9th. While InCareer found some success, Roslansky wrote, "it also encountered fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate."

LinkedIn is shifting its strategy in China toward helping companies based there recruit and train workers from other countries. It will cut its product and engineering teams in China and reduce the headcount of its local corporate, sales and marketing divisions. As The New York Times notes, LinkedIn did not say how many of the layoffs will be in China.

Around 20,000 people work at LinkedIn, so the layoffs account for around 3.5 percent of the overall headcount. However, Roslansky said LinkedIn will open more than 250 positions in other areas starting next week, namely in the operations, new business and account management divisions. 

This is just the latest instance of widespread layoffs in the tech industry over the last several months. LinkedIn parent Microsoft said in January it would cut 10,000 workers. Meta, Alphabet and Amazon have all laid off tens of thousands of workers too.