The judge presiding over Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk has mostly rejected the multi-company executive's request to access an "absurdly broad" amount of data. She did, however, agree that additional data from Twitter is warranted and has ordered the social network to produce a subset of what Musk's camp had requested. To be exact, Judge Kathaleen McCormick has ordered Twitter to hand over data from the 9,000 accounts it reviewed in the fourth quarter of 2021 to determine the number of spam accounts on the platform. Further, it must produce the documents showing how those accounts, which Twitter calls "historical snapshot," were selected for review.

Twitter, if you'll recall, is suing Elon Musk to force him to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the website. Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share back in April, and Twitter had quickly agreed. Their talks broke down over the next few months, though, and Musk accused Twitter of fraud for hiding the real number of bots on its platform. Twitter has long been claiming that the inauthentic accounts that see ads, which are called monetizable daily active users or mDAU, represent less than five percent of its userbase. However, Musk claimed in a legal filing that the actual numbers are much higher and that mDAUs represent 10 percent of the website's users. 

Musk's camp has been requesting access to "all of the data Twitter might possibly store for each of the approximately 200 million accounts included in its mDAU count every day for nearly three years," according to the judge's decision as obtained by The Verge. Twitter couldn't even say how much time it would take to do that, because "no one in their right mind has ever tried to undertake such an effort," McCormick continued. Twitter told the court that the historical snapshot it used in the fourth quarter of 2021 no longer exists and that it could take up to two weeks to recreate it, so the judge gave the company that much time to do so. 

In a statement sent to Reuters, Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro said: "We look forward to reviewing the data Twitter has been hiding for many months."

Duolingo is holding its annual Duocon event today to show off some of what it's working on. One of the big things the company has in the pipeline is an app called Duolingo Math, which marks its first move outside of language learning.

The app has two main elements. The first is a math course designed for elementary school-level kids. As you'd expect if you've used the main app, Duolingo will offer short, gamified math lessons. The app also has a brain training component geared toward those aged 13 and older. The idea is to help you improve your math and everyday thinking skills. 

Meanwhile, Duolingo is set to add another language course. This time it's for Zulu, which is the most widely spoken first language in South Africa. Duolingo said the introduction of the Zulu course is part of its efforts to increase cultural awareness of lesser-studied and endangered languages.

In addition, the company will offer a look at a redesign for Duolingo ABC, a literacy app for kids. Duocon will also include details on some upcoming social features. One of those is called Friends Quest. Duolingo says it hopes to help folks have more fun while they work toward their language learning goals.

LG has presented its upcoming premium monitors at IFA Berlin this year, and one of the models it unveiled is a 45-inch curved display that was specifically design for more immersive gaming experiences. The company says the model (45GR95QE) is its first curved display under the UltraGear brand of gaming monitors and is also its first OLED display with a 240Hz refresh rate. It has a 21:9 aspect ratio for an ultrawide view, has a WQHD (3440 x 1440) resolution, and it supports HDR10 and HDMI 2.1.

The monitor's aspect ratio and borderless design combined with its 800R curvature are supposed to make gamers feel like they're truly in the game they're playing. LG even gave the screen an anti-glare and low-reflection coating to lessen the feeling of viewing the game on a screen. If all these are sounding familiar, that's because Corsair also just launched a 45-inch 1440p gaming monitor called Xeneon Flex that it developed in partnership with LG. Unlike this UltraGear model, though, that one has a bendable design that can go from straight to 800R in curvature. 

In addition to its upcoming 45-inch curved display, LG has also showcased the UltraFine Display Ergo AI at IFA. The 31.5-inch display has a built-in camera that monitors the user's eye level and then automatically adjusts its height and tilt so that the user doesn't remain in a single position for a long period of time. Unfortunately, LG didn't reveal the monitors' pricing and availability, so those interested will just have to wait for more information. 

T-Mobile and SpaceX have announced a new technology alliance they're calling "Coverage and Above and Beyond" that aims to end mobile deadzones. In an event at SpaceX's Starbase facility, the companies have revealed that they're working on integrating a slice of T-Mobile's mid-band 5G spectrum into the second-gen Starlink satellites launching next year. It's like putting a cellular tower in the sky, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said during the event. He also said that they're envisioning a future wherein if you have a clear view of the sky, you are connected on your mobile phone — even if it's the middle of the ocean. No more getting worried that you won't be able to get in touch with first responders or friends and family while driving or hiking in places where there's typically no coverage. 

The companies are making it so that your existing phones can connect to the service, which will enter beta as soon as late next year. It will start with messaging (SMS, MMS and select messaging apps), allowing you to send and receive messages in real time, and Sievert said the companies will keep going until the service can also offer data and voice. While the partners didn't exactly launch a product during the event, the T-Mobile CEO promised that the service will come free with T-Mobile's popular plans. For low-cost plans that don't include it, the carrier may charge for the service, but for far lower prices than satellite services do. 

SpaceX chief Elon Musk tweeted that connectivity will be 2 to 4 Megabits per cell zone, which isn't a high bandwidth, but will work great for texting and for voice calls.

On stage, Musk said the service will save lives, as it will allow people to call for help even from the most remote places. When asked how his company had to tweak Starlink satellites for the service to work, Musk said SpaceX had to design a very big, extremely advanced antenna that has the ability to pick up very quiet signals from your cellphone. The company is still currently working on it in the lab, but Musk said SpaceX is confident that it's going to work in the field. 

The company chiefs have issued an open invitation to carriers around the world to make the service available everywhere. In the US, international carriers can team up with T-Mobile so that visitors to the country will also be able to connect to Starlink satellites with their mobile devices.

Back in February, Netflix announced it was working with 2K and Take-Two Interactive for a live-action movie based on the BioShock series. The project has taken an important step forward, as it now has a writer and director on board. Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049 and American Gods) is on script duties, while Francis Lawrence will be keeping the director's chair warm.

Along with I Am Legend, Lawrence has directed four of the five Hunger Games movies as well as some episodes of the Apple TV+ series See. He's currently shooting The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, so don't expect a trailer for the BioShock movie anytime soon.

It appears as though the film will in fact be an adaptation of the first game. Netflix's Tudum site explains a few basics of the original BioShock and notes that Lawrence will presumably "strap into a Big Daddy suit and get ready to brave the flooded corridors of Rapture soon enough." For the sake of clarity, there's only one question truly worth asking: Netflix, would you kindly reveal more details about the movie?

Twitter really isn’t giving up on this whole “also becoming an audio app” thing. The platform announced today it is testing a newly re-designed Spaces tab that will also offer a selection of popular podcasts. The podcasts — which include well-known titles from Vox Media, NPR and more — will be categorized under themes like news, music and sports and featured alongside similar Spaces. Twitter is currently testing the feature with a limited group of global English-speaking users on the iOS and Andriod apps, with a wider release and more features on the way.

Earlier this year, under-the-hood sleuth Jane Manchun Wong discovered that Twitter was working on a “Podcasts” tab. Instead, it appears Twitter wants to lump all of it audio content under Spaces as an all-in-one destination for podcasts and live audio. Furthermore, the Spaces tab features separate categories for current Spaces, upcoming Spaces and a “Stations” tab that will group podcasts and Spaces under similar themes — which it will auto-play once selected.

If this doesn’t seem like the most instinctual or user-friendly design for those looking for a specific podcast or episode, you’re right. Instead, Twitter seems to have tailored the feature to work as a sort of a curated radio experience in the style of Pandora. Users can rate each audio selection with a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down," allowing Twitter to further tailor a station to fit your specific interests. This isn’t restricted to content you view under Spaces. As the company noted in its blog post, if you regularly interact with Vox Media content on Twitter, you’ll likely see their podcasts show up in your Spaces tab.

At the I/O 2022 conference this past May, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company would, in the coming months, gradually avail its experimental LaMDA 2 conversational AI model to select beta users. Those months have come. On Thursday, researchers at Google's AI division announced that interested users can register to explore the model as access increasingly becomes available.

Regular readers will recognize LaMDA as the supposedly sentient natural language processing (NLP) model that a Google researcher got himself fired over. NLPs are a class of AI model designed to parse human speech into actionable commands and are behind the functionality of digital assistants and chatbots like Siri or Alexa, as well as do the heavy lifting for realtime translation and subtitle apps. Basically, whenever you're talking to a computer, it's using NLP tech to listen.   

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that" is a phrase that still haunts many early Siri adopters' dreams, though in the past decade NLP technology has advanced at a rapid pace. Today's models are trained on hundreds of billions of parameters, can translate hundreds of languages in real time and even carry lessons learned in one conversation through to subsequent chats.   

Google's AI Test kitchen will enable beta users to experiment and explore interactions with the NLP in a controlled, presumably supervised, sandbox. Access will begin rolling out to small groups of US Android users today before spreading to iOS devices in the coming weeks. The program will offer a set of guided demos which will show users LaMDA's capabilities. 

"The first demo, 'Imagine It,' lets you name a place and offers paths to explore your imagination," Tris Warkentin, Group Product Manager at Google Research, and Josh Woodward, Senior Director of Product Management for Labs at Google, wrote in a Google AI blog Thursday. "With the 'List It' demo, you can share a goal or topic, and LaMDA will break it down into a list of helpful subtasks. And in the 'Talk About It (Dogs Edition)' demo, you can have a fun, open-ended conversation about dogs and only dogs, which explores LaMDA’s ability to stay on topic even if you try to veer off-topic."  

The focus on safe, responsible interactions is a common one in an industry where there's already a name for chatbot AIs that go full-Nazi, and that name in Taye. Thankfully, that exceedingly embarrassing incident was a lesson that Microsoft and much of the rest of the AI field has taken to heart, which is why we see such strident restrictions on what users can have Midjourney or Dall-E 2 conjure, or what topics Facebook's Blenderbot 3 can discuss. 

That's not to say the system is foolproof. "We’ve run dedicated rounds of adversarial testing to find additional flaws in the model," Warkentin and Woodward wrote. "We enlisted expert red teaming members... who have uncovered additional harmful, yet subtle, outputs." Those include failing "to produce a response when they’re used because it has difficulty differentiating between benign and adversarial prompts," and producing "harmful or toxic responses based on biases in its training data." As many AIs these days are wont to do.

Seven long months after FromSoftware shut off the Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3 PC servers due to a security issue, it's finally starting to bring them back online. "Online features for the PC version of Dark Souls 3 have been reactivated," a tweet on the official Dark Souls Twitter account reads. "We are working to restore these features for all other #DarkSouls titles and will inform you when they are back in service."

Back in January, it was reported that attackers found an exploit in Dark Souls 3 that enabled them to remotely execute code and hijack a player's PC. From and publisher Bandai Namco shut down the player vs. player servers for the PC versions of the Dark Souls games while they worked on a fix.

They hoped to have the servers online again in time for the release of Elden Ring in February. That obviously didn't happen. In May, From said it was "currently in the process of restoring the online servers for the Dark Souls series on PC," starting with Dark Souls 3. It's not clear why that process took another three months. Hopefully, From and Bandai Namco will get the Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 servers up and running again soon. In the meantime, you can once again invade another player's Dark Souls 3 game on PC.

The White House has updated its policy on federally funded research. Going forward, the results of studies funded by the government must be made public right away. Until now, researchers who receive federal funding have been allowed to publish their findings in academic journals exclusively for one year, effectively adding a paywall to their work. Agencies will need to update their policies accordingly by December 31st, 2025.

The Biden administration hopes that the move will afford more equitable access to research. "All members of the American public should be able to take part in every part of the scientific enterprise—leading, participating in, accessing and benefitting from taxpayer-funded scientific research. That is, all communities should be able to take part in America’s scientific possibilities," senior policy advisor Dr. Ryan Donohue and assistant director for open science and data policy Dr. Christopher Steven Marcum wrote in the White House's announcement.

They note that several discriminatory factors have prevented many Americans from accessing research, not least because of the paywall. The lack of adequate funding at "minority-serving colleges and institutions" and people's socio-economic statuses "have historically and systemically excluded some Americans from accessing the full benefits of scientific research," the announcement reads.

Under the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's (OSTP) latest guidance, the administration is eliminating the option to put federally funded peer-reviewed research articles exclusively behind a paywall for 12 months. The refreshed policy builds on a 2013 memo on bolstering access to federally funded research results with a requirement to make "data published in peer-reviewed research articles immediately available upon publication." Other research data will be made available "within a reasonable timeframe."

Publicly publishing such data as soon as possible could accelerate the pace of scientific research. It may be easier for others to replicate and build on the results of studies. Still, the policy clarifies that it's important for researchers and agencies to share data responsibly to ensure privacy and security standards are upheld.

Among other things, the guidance affords researchers the ability to include the costs of publishing and sharing data in their research budget proposals. OSTP is also working with several agencies to combat funding inequities. Several agencies have programs through which they provide grants to researchers in the early stages of their careers, and bolster the "racial and gender diversity of award applicants and the scientific workforce."

More than 20 agencies were subject to the 2013 memo, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Transportation and NASA. All of the agencies have established policies to release scientific data swiftly, which they may now need to update.

Instagram will automatically switch on its most restrictive content filter for any new users who are under 16 years old — and recommend that existing teen users do the same, the platform announced today in a blog post. Instagram renamed its existing content settings earlier this summer, which are now categorized as “Less”, “Standard” and “More” and allow users to limit content containing violence, sexual imagery, cosmetic procedures and other “sensitive” subjects. Only users over the age of 18 years old can access the “More” setting, which offers up the least filtered version of Instagram available to the public. (Note: This may cause confusion for some users accustomed to Instagram's older settings, where the "Limit Even More" option meant the strictest controls on content.)

Now, new Instagram users under 16 years old will have the “Less” setting turned on by default, which will affect the type of content they see throughout the platform, including in Search, Reels, suggested accounts, hashtags and in-feed recommendations. Instagram will also ask all existing teen users to perform a “settings check-up” and limit who can share their content, direct message them and what kind of content their followers can view. It’ll also ask teens if they want to update a feature that lets them limit the amount of time they spend on Instagram.

An Instagram spokesperson told Engadget that one example of the type of content that the "Less" setting would restrict (that the Standard setting would not) is video footage from a protest gone violent. The content settings only apply to accounts that teens don't currently follow. 

Growing concern over the psychological and emotional toll of Instagram for its youngest users prompted a Senate panel last year to bring in head Adam Mosseri for questioning. Ahead of the hearing, the platform unveiled new teen safety features, including one that notified users if they were spending too much time on the app and an option to automatically report that objectionable content to their parents. And earlier this year, Instagram launched parental controls that allow guardians to monitor who their teen follows and impose time limits on the app. 

Mental health experts have warned that parental controls on social media can only go so far — especially given the fact that algorithms are known to slip up and reveal risky content. Tech-savvy teens can also easily bypass such parental controls or simply view the content of their choice on a different platform or on a friend’s phone.

This recent change likely won’t be too impactful for teen users whose parents or guardians already control their accounts through Instagram’s Family Center. And for teens who are allowed to roam free on Instagram, it’s hard to imagine how many will willingly switch on the most restrictive content settings — especially if many of their peers pick the more lenient filter.