There's some good news if you've been holding off on buying a Steam Deck. Valve's terrific portable gaming system is on sale for the first time, just over a year after the company started shipping the device. The price of the Steam Deck has dropped by 10 percent. 

The 64GB model is currently $359.10 ($40 off). The 256GB variant has dropped from $529 to $476.10. The 512GB Steam Deck, which has a screen with anti-glare glass and the fastest storage of the bunch, is $65 off at $584.10. As things stand, it should take 1-2 weeks for your Deck to arrive. The discount will apply in all regions where the Deck ships until 1PM ET on March 23rd, when the Steam spring sale that just started comes to an end.

There are currently discounts on hundreds of games, so you'll surely find plenty of things to play on your shiny new Steam Deck. The deals include Red Dead Redemption 2 (67 percent off), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (70 percent off), Marvel's Midnight Suns (50 percent off) and NBA 2K23 (75 percent off). All are among the 100 most-played games on Steam Deck to date, but Valve has verified that thousands of titles will work on the portable PC just fine (keep an eye out for green and yellow check marks on the Steam store).

Valve, which has constantly been updating the Steam Deck over the last year, has added another feature. It'll now be easier to change the startup video that plays when you boot up the system. Valve has created 20 startup videos that you can buy from the Steam Points Shop, but you can easily find other custom boot clips elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in case you're worried that the Steam Deck will soon be obsolete, there likely won't be a vastly more powerful second-generation model anytime soon. While Valve might continue to iterate on the system, "a true next-gen Deck with a significant bump in horsepower wouldn’t be for a few years," designer Lawrence Yang told Rock Paper Shotgun earlier this month.

YouTube TV is getting another price hike, from $65 to $73. The company says new members will see the updated pricing starting today while existing subscribers will pay more beginning April 18th. 

It’s the latest in a long line of YouTube TV price hikes. Before the latest increase, it had last raised them by $15 in June 2020. The service started at a mere $35 in 2017 and has ballooned incrementally as cord-cutting television has evolved from a scrappy disruptor to oh my god this costs $73 every single month.

A message sent this morning to YouTube TV subscribers reads, “As content costs have risen and we continue to invest in the quality of our service, we are updating our price to keep bringing you the best possible service.” In addition, the email notes that the service has dropped the cost of its 4K Plus add-on from $20 to $10 per month. The message also guides users to cancel their subscriptions if the new monthly fee pushes pricing out of their comfort zone.

Baseball fans may be especially peeved with the new price, as YouTube TV dropped MLB Network from its lineup last month after failing to reach a new agreement. Although the company kept the door open to eventually restoring the service, that has yet to materialize over six weeks later.

After 16 years with Twitch, company co-founder Emmett Shear is stepping down from his role as CEO. Shear was there at the beginning, when the popular entertainment platform was still called Justin.tv, a live video site designed to host a 24/7 reality show about the life of co-founder Justin Kan. When the company spun the platform's growing gaming category into its own brand, Twitch was born. Shear shepherded the company through that transition, through Amazon's $970 million acquisition of the company in 2014, and beyond. Now, he says he says fatherhood has inspired him to step down from his leadership role. "I want to be fully there for my son as he enters this world," he wrote in a farewell blog. "I will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role."

Dan Clancy will be taking over as CEO. Originally hired in 2019 as the executive VP of creator and community experience, Clancy soon rose to the role of President at Twitch. When streaming partners raised concerns over Twitch's revenue split with creators, Clancy was the one who put the issue to bed — explaining in a letter to streamers that the share would remain at 50/50 and premium 70/30 splits given to the platforms biggest stars would be subject to new limitations. As the face of this decision, Clancy bore the brunt of much of the backlash.

As for Shear, his exit letter exudes confidence for the new CEO. "He cares deeply about the Twitch community, its streamers and our staff and understands what makes Twitch, Twitch," he wrote. Dan Clancy will step into his role as CEO effective immediately.

Any images that are produced by giving a text prompt to current generative AI models, such as Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, cannot be copyrighted in the US. That's according to the US Copyright Office (USCO), which has equated such prompts to a buyer giving directions to a commissioned artist. "They identify what the prompter wishes to have depicted, but the machine determines how those instructions are implemented in its output," the USCO wrote in new guidance it published to the Federal Register.

"When an AI technology receives solely a prompt from a human and produces complex written, visual, or musical works in response, the 'traditional elements of authorship' are determined and executed by the technology — not the human user," the office stated.

It noted that the level of human creativity involved in a work is a significant consideration as to whether it will grant copyright protection. It suggested that current AI models can't generate copyrightable work. "Based on the Office's understanding of the generative AI technologies currently available, users do not exercise ultimate creative control over how such systems interpret prompts and generate material," the USCO said. "In the Office’s view, it is well-established that copyright can protect only material that is the product of human creativity." In one famous case, the office ruled that it couldn't allow selfies taken by a monkey to be copyrighted.

When it comes to works that contain material generated by an AI, the USCO looks at whether the model's contributions to the work are the result of "mechanical reproduction" (i.e., generated in response to text prompts) or if they represent the author's "own mental conception." Current rules state that the USCO “will not register works produced by a machine or mere mechanical process that operates randomly or automatically without any creative input or intervention from a human author.”

However, the office has left the door open to granting copyright protections to work with AI-generated elements. "The answer will depend on the circumstances, particularly how the AI tool operates and how it was used to create the final work," it said. "This is necessarily a case-by-case inquiry. If a work’s traditional elements of authorship were produced by a machine, the work lacks human authorship and the Office will not register it."

Last month, the USCO determined that images generated by Midjourney and used in a graphic novel were not copyrightable. However, it said the text and layout of Kris Kashtanova's Zarya of the Dawn could be afforded copyright protection. The office said there was too much “distance” between Kashtanova's inputs and Midjourney's output for the images to be copyrightable. Kashtanova's lawyers have said that by focusing on the output rather than the input, the office "applied the wrong legal standard."

Meanwhile, the USCO has started an initiative to further explore copyright law and policy issues related to AI following requests from Congress and the public. It will host several panel discussions on the topics in April and May. The office plans to solicit public comments later this year on a swathe of copyright issues relating to the use of AI.

NVIDIA's DLSS 3 upscaling (Deep Learning Super Sampling 3) will soon be available for some particularly high-profile games. To begin with, Diablo IV will use the AI-based technology when the game launches on June 6th. If you have a GeForce RTX 40 series GPU, you can push the click-heavy action RPG to a high resolution without worrying so much about a frame rate drop.

Bethesda's open-world vampire shooter Redfall will also support DLSS 3 when it ships on May 2nd. And if you're a fan of arcade-style racing, you'l be happy to know that a Forza Horizon 5 update will introduce the feature on March 28th.

You may see broader game industry support before long. Epic is integrating DLSS 3 support into Unreal Engine 5.2 through an upcoming plug-in, so developers won't have to go to great lengths to add the performance-boosting feature to their titles. At the same time, NVIDIA is making the tech's signature frame generation available through an open source framework.

DLSS 3 builds on earlier iterations by generating whole new frames, not just pixels. It's particularly useful for CPU-limited games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Microsoft Flight Simulator, as it doesn't lean on your computer's processor. The catch, of course, is that you need NVIDIA's latest hardware to use it. While that's more affordable than before thanks to the RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 40 laptop GPUs, you'll still need to invest significant funds to see the benefits.

Tinder announced this week that its users can now add relationship types and pronouns to their profiles. For example, you can specify whether you’re seeking monogamous or non-monogamous relationships (or are still figuring it out) and list your preferred gender pronouns. Both new features are borrowed from Hinge, owned by the same parent company, which added the same profile options last year.

Tinder’s new relationship-type options, spurred by growing interest in less traditional dating approaches, include monogamy, ethical non-monogamy, open relationship, polyamory and “open to exploring.” The company cites a study of 4,000 18-to-25-year-olds showing that 41 percent are open to or seeking non-monogamous connections. Among those, open relationships (36 percent) and hierarchical polyamory (26 percent) are the most popular choices. Perhaps just as critical, a survey indicated that 73 percent of young singles of any gender say they want someone who is clear about what they want. Most people don’t want to waste time with partners who have incompatible intentions.

Likewise, Tinder’s addition of pronouns can be tied to a poll revealing that 33 percent of young adults say their sexuality has become more fluid in the last three years, while 29 percent say their gender identity is more fluid. Additionally, it says the LGBTQIA+ community is the platform’s fastest-growing demographic. Thanks to these revelations, Tinder now lets you select up to four pronouns out of more than 15 options to show on your profile.

This follows the app’s addition of relationship goals, launched in December. That option lets users clarify whether they want short-term, long-term or an uncertain combination. The company says 40 percent of its users who specify their intent say they’re looking for a long-term relationship, while 13 percent claim they only want a short-term connection. If nothing else, it highlights how Tinder has expanded its brand from its early reputation as a “hookup app.”

The new features follow a dismal Q1 forecast for Tinder’s parent company Match Group after the app sparked the company’s first quarterly revenue decline. The options also align with Tinder’s recent marketing campaign, “It Starts with a Swipe,” which paints the app as a fluid experience that may just as easily lead to casual flings or more committed connections.

Sony may soon release a sequel to its well-received WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds. The Walkman Blog has discovered certification images for the WF-1000XM5, and there are hints Sony may address the comfort issues we have with the current model. The photos suggest the XM5 design may be curvier — you could listen for longer periods without a flat side digging into your ear. It's not clear if the buds are smaller.

The case also hints at potentially faster wireless charging times. And yes, the charging status light should finally be on the outside of the case. Don't read too much into the plain, sometimes-glossy looks. The buds you see here appear to be prototypes and likely won't reflect what you can buy.

It's too soon to say if the WF-1000XM5 will sound any better or introduce features. A release may come soon, though. An FCC filing appeared in late February, with short-term confidentiality due to expire in August. Given that the XM4 reached the FCC in February 2021 and debuted that June, it won't be surprising if its follow-up is weeks away.

The XM4 remains our pick for the best wireless earbuds, and for good reason. While the buds are on the large side, they provide excellent sound quality, strong active noise cancellation and healthy battery life in a platform-agnostic design. If the XM5 improves on that formula, they may be the go-to option if you'd rather not spring for AirPods or Pixel Buds.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has claimed that, were parent ByteDance to sell the company, that alone wouldn't be enough to prevent it from scrutiny over security concerns. Chew made the assertion following reports this week (which TikTok has confirmed) that the US government has told TikTok to divest itself from ByteDance or face a national ban. "Divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access," TikTok said in the wake of those reports.

Chew claimed that the US and other countries would still have problems with how the app handles user data were it to have a different owner. Officials have expressed fear that China will gain access to user data linked to their residents. 

TikTok's CEO told The Wall Street Journal that, were Beijing-based ByteDance to sell the company, that won't provide more data protection beyond projects it's already working on. TikTok has promised to protect US user data from China by routing it through domestic Oracle servers and putting other safeguards in place, such as third-party oversight of the app's algorithms.

TikTok has spent billions of dollars on that plan, which it calls Project Texas. It has been working on the project over the last two years in an attempt to address US security concerns after former President Donald Trump attempted to force ByteDance to sell TikTok. The company recently announced a similar project for European user data.

Some officials are worried that ByteDance might be compelled to share data with the Chinese government or that China might demand changes to the content that TikTok's algorithms show to Americans. TikTok has claimed it wouldn't provide data to Chinese officials if they asked for assistance with spying — the company says it has not received such a request.

Meanwhile, a former employee of TikTok's trust and safety team has claimed there are significant flaws with Project Texas. They said it would still theoretically be possible for China to access US data as TikTok could still be linked to ByteDance's Chinese news app Toutiao. That said, reports suggest the person left TikTok months before Project Texas was finalized and that he may not know all the details of how it works.

“The idea behind Project Texas is it won’t matter what the Chinese law or any law says, because we’re taking US user data and we’re putting it out of their reach,” Chew said. “You’re talking about real concerns. I think these are the real solutions.”

Chew hasn't said whether ByteDance is open to selling its stake in TikTok. He has also dismissed the option of listing TikTok on the stock market as a publicly traded company any time soon, but that's something his company and ByteDance are mulling.

Next week, Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He'll discuss TikTok's links to China as well as issues such as privacy and the app's impact on kids.

The US government and dozens of states have banned their employees from using TikTok on their federal- or state-owned devices. Canada and the European Commission have enacted similar bans in recent weeks, while the UK announced a similar measure earlier today.

Microsoft is using artificial intelligence to help eliminate drudgery at the workplace. At its "Future of Work" event, the company has revealed an AI-powered Microsoft 365 Copilot that, as suggested by leaks, can create content in Office apps using text requests. You can ask PowerPoint to create a presentation based on a Word document, for example, and even get it to apply animations or styles across all your slides.

Other apps have similar functionality. Word can create a proposal based on spreadsheet data, or change a report's entire tone. Excel can break down data or predict the effect of a variable change. Outlook can summarize your emails or draft responses, while Teams can recap meetings or even weigh the pros and cons of a discussion topic. A new Business Chat tool brings in information from multiple apps to deal with project developments, customer incidents and planning strategies.

The new technology is believed to run on the same OpenAI GPT-4 model that powers the upgraded Bing search rolling out to everyone. The technology is more factual, higher performance and less likely to venture out of accepted boundaries than the GPT-3.5 predecessor that currently powers ChatGPT.

Microsoft is already testing 365 Copilot with 20 business customers. It plans to expand access in the "coming months," and will share details of IT administrator controls to help deploy the technology.

The additions come just days after Google said it would bring generative AI to Gmail and Workspace apps like Docs and Slides. The tools will let you draft and revise content, and even autogenerate images and videos for presentations. The feature will only be available to English-language US users by the end of March, but it should reach more languages and countries in the future.

The introduction underscores the race between Microsoft and Google to weave AI into their products. Microsoft is using AI to claim an edge in search, video chat and other common productivity tasks. Google, meanwhile, is treating AI as a defensive tool. Systems like Bard may help it protect its core search business against ChatGPT and other AI systems that Google reportedly sees as threats. However this race ends, it's safe to presume AI is becoming more of a mainstay in the working world.

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The UK has become the latest major jurisdiction to ban TikTok from government devices. The measure is in place with immediate effect following a security review ordered by ministers. The move is part of broader restrictions on third-party apps on government devices.

"The security of sensitive government information must come first, so today we are banning this app on government devices," Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden, the government's second highest-ranking minister, said in a statement. "The use of other data-extracting apps will be kept under review."

Dowden noted in Parliament that this is a precautionary measure. "We know there is already limited use of TikTok across government, but it is also good cyber hygiene," he said.

The ban is intended to protect sensitive data on government devices as well to prevent things like location data harvesting. The measure doesn't apply to personal devices belonging to government employees, ministers or the public. In addition, the UK government will only allow its staff to use a third-party app on an official device if it's on an approved list.

There will be exceptions to the TikTok ban in cases where the app is needed for work purposes, such as for law enforcement or those working on projects related to online harms. These exceptions will be granted on a case-by-case basis and security measures will need to be in place.

The government noted that people should be aware of each app's data policies. It said TikTok requires users to give permission for the app to access certain information stored on a phone or tablet, such as geolocation data and contacts. Officials say they are worried about how this data may be used.

Leaders in many countries and other territories have expressed concern that China may gain access to their residents' or officials' data through TikTok. ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is headquartered in Beijing. Many legislatures have banned TikTok from government-owned devices in recent months, including the US, dozens of states, Canada and the European Commission.

On Wednesday, it was widely reported (and confirmed by TikTok) that the US government has told ByteDance to sell the app or face a complete ban in the country. There are several pieces of legislation in progress that seek to grant President Joe Biden or the Commerce Secretary the power to ban TikTok. The reported development comes almost three years after former President Donald Trump attempted to force ByteDance to sell TikTok and a week before TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before a House committee.