Have you ever wanted a gaming tablet that coordinates with street-style fashion? No? You're getting one anyway. Hypebeastreports that ASUS is teaming up with German label Acronym to release the special edition ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM RMT02 gaming tablet. The hybrid PC includes a chassis platform that both protects the machine and lets you attach slings that attach to Acronym jackets, like one that hangs the system off your chest. If you just have to play a game before you sit down, you can — although you will look like you should be selling hot dogs at a baseball game.

Other customizations include the usual abundance of branding on-screen and off. Even the detachable keyboard is themed around Acronym colors, although you might appreciate that touch when it highlights the WASD key combo used by so many first-person shooter games.

Acronym/ASUS

Thankfully, there's some substance to back up the style. The Acronym ROG Flow Z13 runs on a Core i9, 32GB of RAM, GeForce RTX 40-series mobile graphics and a 1TB SSD. You'll still get a 13.4-inch display with a full DCI-P3 color range and a 165Hz refresh rate. We wouldn't expect great battery life given the mediocre runtime of past models, but that's not really the point — this is a gaming PC that just happens to be usable as a Surface-style tablet in a pinch.

This isn't the first collaboration between the brands. ASUS and Acronym previously released the ROG Zephyrus G14-ACRNM RMT01 laptop in 2020. This is a more elaborate project, however, and certainly the first where the computer and clothing are meant to work together.

Acronym/ASUS

The ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM RMT02 should be available April 3rd for $2,500 through Amazon and ASUS. That's a lot to pay for a gaming tablet, especially when you can buy the regular Z13 for $1,750. With that said, it's not often you can buy any tablet PC that truly stands out. This is as much a conversation piece as it is a computer, especially if you're determined to wear it as a fashion accessory.

Drew Carey isn't afraid of AI. Instead, The Price is Right host and longtime improv comedian is embracing the technology. During a recent episode of his SiriusXM radio show, "Friday Night Freakout," Carey used an artificially generated version of his voice to handle most of his DJ work, reading a script written by ChatGPT. His AI voice kicked off the show, introduced upcoming songs and recapped what listeners were hearing. As an experiment to see just how far AI could go on the radio, the episode was mostly a success. But Carey's fans weren't happy about it.

"I violated a rule from Radio 101," Carey told me. His Twitter fans complained that the voice sounded soulless, and that they missed the "real Drew." "The reason FM stations and treasured radio stations still make money is because people like the personality of the DJs," he said. "You don't have to be like a big boss radio guy and be phony. You can just talk... that's what listeners like."

While his fans were ultimately forgiving of the experiment, Carey says he got the message: "Don't do it again."

For many entertainers, AI could be viewed as yet another threat in an increasingly precarious industry. Soon after ElevenLabs introduced a beta version of its AI voice tool — the same software Carey used for his radio show — online trolls used it to impersonate Emma Watson, Joe Rogan and other celebrities. Watsons' simulated voice read portions of the Mein Kampf aloud, while other deepfaked voices made openly racist and transphobic statements, according to Vice.

Carey's AI voice wasn't perfect: It sounded a tad robotic, it didn't have the inflections his fans have grown to love over the years, and the ChatGPT-written script was noticeably simplistic. But if you were driving down the highway late at night, and you just wanted a bit of company alongside some classic rock, it's possible you wouldn't notice the DJ wasn't human. In fact, ElevenLabs recently partnered with Super HI-Fi to create "fully customized and personalized" AI driven radio stations.

"I was just playing with it, and I wanted to show what it was capable of," he said. "Plus, I thought, oh, I don't want to show everybody how to make an exact copy of my voice right now. I thought it might screw me over somehow. So I had that little fear in the back of my head."

It took a weekend for Carey and a friend, who already had experience training ChatGPT and other AI tools, to create his AI voice. ChatGPT wrote 99 percent of his radio show's script, though Carey made a few tweaks of his own. Funny enough, when he asked the chatbot to write a joke about how easy it was to use, it wrote the line "even Drew Carey can use it." (Perhaps ChatGPT is just trying to snag a spot on the inevitable Whose Line Is It Anyway? revival.)

Carey envisions AI being used in the future for the grunt work of radio and other production. Perhaps it could read a script late at night, or churn out some ad copy. When I asked if that's a potential problem for newcomers, he noted, "There are no blacksmiths anymore... If you're a mechanic that works on internal combustion engine cars, if you don't make the switch to electric soon, you're out of a job."

According to a recent Goldman Sachs report, up to 300 million jobs around the world could be automated thanks to recent advancements in AI. But the bank's economists also point out that major innovations that replace some jobs typically lead to the creation of new roles. And for those who are only partially impacted by AI, they'll likely be able to complement their work with generative intelligence.

For celebrities like Carey, AI could also be a way for them to continue working indefinitely, long after they've retired or passed on. James Earl Jones's voice has already been reconstructed for the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he's approved future work to "keep Vader alive." Eventually, actors (and their estates) could sign off on AI clones that entertain us for generations to come.

Carey isn't afraid of such an outcome. "You know what, if the price is right, anything can happen," he said when I asked if he'd ever sell his digital likeness. "I'm not worried about CGI Drew Carey taking over, because people want to see me, they want some kind of host. They want that interaction."

Italians might not have access to ChatGPT for much longer. Italy's Privacy Guarantor has ordered ChatGPT blocked over concerns OpenAI is violating the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through its data handling practices. The regulator claims there's no "legal basis" for OpenAI's bulk collection of data for training ChatGPT's model. The sometimes-inaccurate results also indicate the generative AI isn't processing data correctly, the Guarantor says. Officials are particularly concerned about a flaw leaked sensitive user data last week.

The data agency also says OpenAI isn't doing enough to protect children. While the company says ChatGPT is meant for people over the age of 13, there are no age checks to prevent kids from seeing "absolutely unsuitable" answers, according to officials.

The Guarantor is giving OpenAI 20 days to outline how it will address the issues. If the company doesn't comply, it faces a fine of up to €20 million (about $21.8 million US) or a maximum four percent of its annual worldwide turnover.

We've asked OpenAI for comment and will let you know if we hear back. The company's ChatGPT privacy policy makes clear that trainers can use conversation data to improve the AI, but that it also aggregates or anonymizes that data. OpenAI's terms forbid use by children under 13, while the policy says the company doesn't "knowingly" gather personal info from those underage users.

Italy's action comes just a day after a nonprofit research organization filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hoping to freeze future ChatGPT releases until OpenAI meets the agency's guidelines on transparency, fairness and clarity. Tech leaders and experts have also called for a half-year pause on AI development to address ethical issues. There's worry that OpenAI doesn't have enough checks on its platforms, and that could now lead to a country-level ban.

People haven't exactly been impressed in the short time since Google released its "experimental conversational AI service" Bard. Coming up against OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing Chat (also powered by OpenAI's GPT-4) users have found its responses to not be as knowledgeable or detailed as its rivals. That could be set to change, however, after Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed on The New York Times podcast "Hard Fork" that Bard will soon be moving from its current LaMDA-based model to larger-scale PaLM datasets in the coming days.

When asked how he felt about responses to Bard's release, Pichai commented: "We clearly have more capable models. Pretty soon, maybe as this goes live, we will be upgrading Bard to some of our more capable PaLM models, so which will bring more capabilities, be it in reasoning, coding."

To frame the difference, Google said it had trained LaMDA with 137 billion parameters when it shared details about the language-based models last year. PaLM, on the other hand, was said to have been trained with around 540 billion parameters. Both models may have evolved and grown since early 2022, but the contrast likely shows why Google is now slowly transitioning Bard over to PaLM, with its larger dataset and more diverse answers.

Pichai claims not to be worried about how fast Google's AI develops compared to its competitors. When Bard first debuted in February, he acknowledged its reliance on LaMDA gave it a smaller scale, but framed having less computing power as a benefit, giving more users the change to test it out and provide feedback. Pichai also ensured that Google would be doing its own analysis of Bard's safety and quality once provided with real-world information. 

To that end, Pichai expressed that Google doesn't want to release a "more capable model before we can fully make sure we can handle it well. We are all in very, very early stages. We will have even more capable models to plug in over time. But I don’t want it to be just who’s there first, but getting it right is very important to us." 

That thought is on the minds of over 1,800 people (including tech leaders and AI researchers) who have signed an open letter calling for a minimum six month pause on the development of AI technology "more powerful than GPT-4."

Pichai doesn't think this can be effectively done without involving the government, but agrees with the need for guidance: "AI is too important an area not to regulate. It’s also too important an area not to regulate well. So I’m glad these conversations are underway." 

Solo Stove is back with another holiday sale, this time on its fire pit bundles. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the outdoor company has honored all the big summer holidays with fire pit discounts, and now it's welcoming the warm weather with an April Fool's Day sale. The very real flash sale offers each of Solo Stove's three fire bit bundles at over 45 percent off. 

The cheapest option — and smallest, with a 15 inch diameter — is the Ranger Essential Bundle, down to $230 from $425. It's closely followed by the 19 inch Bonfire Essential Bundle, now at $300 from $570. The largest option is the Yukon Essential Bundle, at 27 inches in diameter and discounted to $550 from $1,010. 

The essential bundles all come with the fire pit itself, a stand, a lid, and a removable base plate and ash pan. The Ranger and Bonfire models also include a carrier bag. 

The removable base plate and ash pan are new to Solo Stove's Fire Pit 2.0. Until their release last summer, you had to turn the original fire pit upside down every few uses and dump the ashes into a garbage bag. The Ranger, as the smallest model, is 15 pounds and the Yukon weighs in at almost 42 pounds, so this was no easy feat. Now all that's required to clear it out is lifting up the base plate and grabbing the ash tray.

Solo Stove's flash sale lasts through end of day Sunday, so you have the weekend to decide if it's time to upgrade your fire pit for the summer. It's also worth noting that Amazon has a few of the fire pits on sale, too. The Bonfire model bundled with the ash pan and the base plate is on sale for $276, while the tabletop Mesa version is only $80.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

With the Tetris movie hitting Apple TV+ this week, we chat with the game’s creator, Alexey Pajitnov, and Henk Rogers, the man who helped bring it out of the Soviet Union. We discuss just how realistic the film is (it definitely takes plenty of liberties), the impact of Tetris on gaming and where it could be headed in the future. Also, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into the recent letter from the Future of Life Institute, which was signed by Elon Musk and other tech leaders, and called for a pause on AI development beyond GPT4. It turns out that wasn’t entirely altruistic.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

• Interview with Tetris designer Alexey Pajitnov and Tetris publisher Henk Rogers – 1:17

• The open letter asking for a 6-month pause of AI development is more suspicious than you think – 16:57

• Do the proposed U.S. DATA and RESTRICT acts reach too far in trying to ban TikTok? – 26:48

• Pres. Biden bans the use of commercial spyware – 36:20

• Microsoft is focused on security, AI and a light processor friendly version in Windows 12 – 39:11

• Google unveils AI planning tool to help beat extreme heat due to climate change – 43:21

• Apple’s WWDC dates announced: June 5 to 9 – 45:12

• Working on – 57:39

• Pop culture picks – 1:02:16

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Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guests (Audio): Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers
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It’s a day of reality catching up with the chatbot boom. In the last 24 hours alone, we’ve had hoaxes, FTC complaints and… ads. Hooray. We’ll get into how Microsoft is bringing ads to its Bing chatbot – bound to happen – while OpenAI may have to halt ChatGPT releases in the face of FTC complaints.

The nonprofit research organization, Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), says OpenAI’s models are "biased, deceptive" and threaten privacy and public safety. The CAIDP says OpenAI also fails to meet Commission guidelines calling for AI to be transparent, fair and easy to explain. There's no guarantee the FTC will act on the complaint. If it does set requirements, though, the move would affect development across the AI industry.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Microsoft explains how ads will happen in Bing's AI chatbot

Ah, the end of the fun.

Over the past few days, users have reported seeing ads inside Microsoft’s Bing chatbot experience. Based on the limited examples we've seen, the GPT-4-powered chatbot embeds relevant ad links in response to users' actual questions. Ads don't seem to appear for most people (including us) yet, but they'll most likely pop up more frequently and in more places soon. In a post on the Bing blog, Microsoft Corporate VP for Search and Devices Yusuf Mehd, explained that ads would come in the form of a linked citation, along with additional links in a "Learn More" section below Bing's response to their query. In the future, Microsoft could add functionality where hovering over a link from an advertiser would display more links from its website to drive more traffic to it.

Continue reading.

Midjourney ends free trials of its AI image generator due to 'extraordinary' abuse

The tool had been used to fake images of Trump and the Pope, among others.

Midjourney CEO, David Holz, announced on Discord that the company is ending free trials due to "extraordinary demand and trial abuse." New safeguards haven't been "sufficient," and you'll have to pay at least $10 per month to use the image generator going forward. As The Washington Post reported, Midjourney has picked up unwanted attention in recent weeks. Users relied on the company's AI to build deepfakes of Donald Trump being arrested, and Pope Francis wearing a trendy coat.

Continue reading.

Polestar 3 first look

Possibly the best-looking EV of the year.

The Polestar 3 was recently showcased in New York for its North American debut, so we had to check it out. It might just be the best-looking new SUV in 2023. The Polestar 3 is built on the same platform as the Volvo EX90, but the company has made some significant changes that ensure there won’t be confusion between the two. Instead of three rows of seats, the Polestar 3 maxes out at two, with slightly less rear storage in favor of a more spacious cabin.

Continue reading.

A new Twitter clone is trying to seduce original blue checkmark owners

T2 is led by former Twitter employees who want to recreate Twitter’s “public square.”

With “legacy” Twitter checkmarks about to disappear (tomorrow!), one Twitter alternative hopes to lure some of those OG verified users to its platform. T2, an invite-only service led by two former Twitter employees, says it will allow accounts to carry over their “legacy” Twitter verification to its site. T2 is part of a growing crop of Twitter alternatives that have sprung up after Musk’s takeover. Founder Gabor Cselle has been clear that he intends to create “a pretty straightforward copy of Twitter with some simplifications”.

Continue reading.

Netflix is testing TV games that use phones as controllers

Hidden code references games on TV in the Netflix app.

Netflix might have started (or is at least looking to start) testing games for TV, based on code within its app that developer Steve Moser shared with Bloomberg. Moser reportedly found hidden references to games played on television, as well as additional code that indicates the possibility of using phones as controllers to play them. One line from within the app apparently reads: "A game on your TV needs a controller to play. Do you want to use this phone as a game controller?" The streaming giant launched several games on Android, iPhones and iPads in 2021, but on the Netflix app for TV, these games were notably absent.

Continue reading.

Today is World Backup Day (March 31st), meant to remind everyone to protect their precious data. Amazon is having a large storage sale to commemorate the occasion with discounts of up to 67 percent on hard disks, memory cards, SSDs and more. Some standout deals include the WD Black 2TB NVMe SSD for PS5 consoles for $170 (43 percent off), the SanDisk 2TB Extreme Pro Portable SSD for $175 (24 percent off) and SanDisk's 1TB Extreme microSDXC memory card for $100, a full two-thirds off the regular price. 

WD's Black Gen4 PCIe NVMe 2TB SSD can hold up to 50 games on your PS5 and delivers read/write speeds of 7,000MB/s and 5,300MB/s respectively, allowing for seamless gameplay. It'll work equally well for your PC, particularly for content creation. The 2TB model is an incredible deal at $170, considering the regular price is $300. But if you want to spend a bit less and don't need as much storage, the 1TB model is also on sale for $125 for a savings of 31 percent. 

If it's backup storage you're after, Amazon has you covered here as well. The SanDisk 2TB Extreme Pro portable SSD, with speeds up to 2,000MB/s (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2) is $175, for a savings of $24 percent. You can also pick up the 1TB version for $130 (58 percent off), and the 4TB model is $400, a whopping $500 off the regular price — though you'll actually spend less by getting two 2TB models.

The final product of note is SanDisk's 1TB microSDXC card, on sale for just $100, or 67 percent ($200) off the regular price. You'll also see a stellar deal on the 512GB version, which can be found for $48 or 56 percent off (again, it's cheaper to get two of these than a single 1TB card, though the latter may be more convenient). 

You'll find plenty of other deals, like WD's 20TB Elements external HDD for $280 (45 percent off), Lexar's 2TB NM800 Pro NVMe Gen 4.0 SSD for $112 (57 percent off) and Lexar's CFexpress Type A Gold Series memory cards for Sony cameras at $272 (32 percent off). And bear in mind that a number of Samsung SSDs and memory cards are still on sale from last week with savings of up to 54 percent. The deals are just on for today, so if you're in the market, act soon. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Netflix released at least one movie a week over the past two years, but for 2023, the company is changing course. According to Bloomberg, the streaming giant is restructuring its movie division and releasing fewer movies overall. Netflix will combine the team working on small projects with a budget $30 million or less and the unit that produces mid-budget films that cost $30 million to $80 million to make. The restructuring will result in a "handful" of layoffs — the company didn't specify a number — and the departure of two notable executives. Lisa Nishimura, who oversees documentaries like Tiger King and small budget films, as well as VP for film Ian Bricke are both leaving the company after over a decade. 

As Bloomberg notes, Netflix ramped up its film development efforts after studios started building their own streaming services instead of licensing their movies to the company. In addition to the units working on small and mid-budget films, Netflix has one more division developing big-budget projects. It's unclear if the last group is also affected by the restructuring.

Despite the sheer number of titles Netflix previously released, only a few had won accolades, had reached millions of hours of streaming, or had the kind of cultural impact some of the biggest blockbusters had achieved. (According to the company's Top 10 page, its most watched movies for 2021 and 2022 include Red Notice, Don't Look Up and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.) Netflix Film chief Scott Stuber reportedly decided to cut down on the titles the service is releasing this year so he could ensure that the division is producing more high-quality projects. 

Stuber didn't say how many people are losing their jobs from the shakeup, but the numbers are supposed to be smaller than the layoffs that happened at the company last year. Netflix implemented job cuts before many of its rivals in the film, TV and entertainment space did. HBO and HBO Max had to let some production staff members go as part of a larger Warner Bros. Discovery restructuring back in August, while Disney recently announced that it's laying off 7,000 workers, including those involved with media and distribution.

Virgin Orbit’s days of slinging satellites into space aboard aircraft-launched rockets have come to an end Thursday. After six years in business, Virgin’s satellite launch subsidiary has announced via SEC filing that it does not have the funding to continue operations and will be shuttering for “the foreseeable future,” per CNBC. Nearly 90 percent of Virgin Orbit’s employees — 675 people in total — will be laid off immediately.

Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 for the purpose of developing and commercializing LauncherOne, a satellite launch system fitted under a modified 747 airliner, dubbed Cosmic Girl. The system was designed to put 500 pounds of cubesats into Low Earth Orbit by firing them in a rocket from said airliner flying at an altitude of 30,000 - 50,000 feet. Despite a string of early successes — both in terms of development milestones and expanding service contracts with the UK military, LauncherOne’s first official test in May of 2020 failed to deliver its simulated payload into orbit.

A second attempt the following January in 2022 however was a success with the launch of 10 NASA cube sats into LEO, as was Virgin Orbit’s first commercial satellite launch that June. It successfully sent seven more satellites into orbit in January 2022 and quietly launched Space Force assets that July.

In all, Virgin Orbit made six total flights between 2020 and 2023, only four successfully. The most recent attempt was dubbed the Start Me Up event and was supposed to mark the first commercial space launch from UK soil. Despite the rocket successfully separating from its parent aircraft, an upper stage “anomaly” prevented the rocket’s payload from entering orbit. It was later determined that a $100 fuel filter had failed and resulted in the fault.

As TechCrunch points out, Virgin Group founder, Sir Richard Branson, “threw upwards of $55 million to the sinking space company,” in recent months but Start Me Up’s embarrassing failure turned out to be the final straw. On March 16th, Virgin Orbit announced an “operational pause” and worker furlough for its roughly 750 employees as company leadership scrambled to find new funding sources. The company extended the furlough two weeks later and called it quits on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to secure the funding to provide a clear path for this company,” Virgin CEO Dan Hart said in an all-hands call obtained by CNBC. “We have no choice but to implement immediate, dramatic and extremely painful changes.” 

Impacted employees will reportedly receive severance packages, according to Hart, including a cash payment, continued benefits and a “direct pipeline” to Virgin Galactic’s hiring department. Virgin Orbit’s two top executives will also receive “golden parachute” severances which were approved by the company’s board, conveniently, back in mid-March right when the furloughs first took effect.