Xbox is now XBOX
Xbox just allcapsmaxxed: Meet XBOX. This isn't a joke; Microsoft appears to be actually rebranding Xbox to XBOX. Asha Sharma, Xbox CEO, ran a poll on X earlier this week, asking fans whether Microsoft should use Xbox or XBOX. The results were in favor of XBOX, and the company has now renamed its X account.
Curiously, the Threads and Bluesky accounts for Xbox haven't been renamed yet, but if Microsoft is going ahead with a rebranding then I expect those will change soon. I asked Microsoft to comment on this potential Xbox rebranding and the company simply referred me to Sharma's post.
The use of all caps for Xbox is a return to original for …
YouTube is expanding its AI deepfake detection tool to all adult users
YouTube is expanding its AI likeness detection program to all users over the age of 18 - meaning just about anyone can have the platform hunt for potential deepfakes of themselves.
The likeness detection feature uses a selfie-style scan of a person's face to monitor YouTube for lookalikes. If there is a match, YouTube alerts the user; the person then has the option to request that YouTube remove the content. YouTube has said in the past that it has found the number of removal requests to be "very small."
YouTube began testing the feature with content creators, and then expanded it to government officials, politicians, journalists, and fina …
Windows 11 tests an adjustable taskbar and resizable Start menu
Microsoft's latest Windows 11 test will allow you to reposition the taskbar and change the size of the Start menu. The update, which is rolling out to Windows 11 Insiders in the Experimental channel, lets you place the taskbar on the bottom, top, left, or right side of the screen.
Microsoft first teased its movable taskbar in March as part of efforts to rebuild trust among users. You can adjust the alignment of the icons inside the taskbar, as well as open the Start menu drawer from wherever you placed it. Windows 11 Insiders can access a shorter taskbar, too, which could come in handy for devices with smaller displays. There's also an opti …
ArXiv will ban researchers who upload papers full of AI slop
ArXiv, a popular platform for preprint academic research, is taking a new step to attempt to reduce the volume of papers that include AI slop.
If a paper has "incontrovertible evidence that the authors did not check the results of LLM generation," such as hallucinated references or "meta-comments" left by an LLM, authors will be banned from ArXiv for a year, according to Thomas Dietterich, ArXiv's section chair of its computer science section. Future ArXiv submissions will also have to be accepted at "a reputable peer-reviewed venue."
Here's what he said on X:
Attention @arxiv authors: Our Code of Conduct states that by signing your name …
The Analogue 3D is finally getting save states
Analogue has released a new firmware update for its Analogue 3D console that adds the Memories save state feature. Memories, which was first introduced with its handheld Analogue Pocket, allows you to save at any moment and resume from that exact spot later on, rather than having to reach a specific point in a game to save your progress. The feature should also help reduce some headaches with saving game progress on the Analogue 3D as its Virtual Controller Pak option still isn't available when using original or wired N64 controllers.
Although the feature was announced when the company first shared all the details about its 4K Nintendo 64 i …
OpenAI keeps shuffling its executives in bid to win AI agent battle
OpenAI announced yet another reorganization Friday, consolidating certain areas and making company president Greg Brockman the official lead of all things product.
In a memo viewed by The Verge, Brockman wrote that since OpenAI's product strategy for this year is to go all-in on AI agents, the company is combining its products to "invest in a single agentic platform and to merge ChatGPT and Codex into one unified agentic experience for all."
To do this, the company is making a suite of org chart changes, although it's still operating under some of the same ones from last month. That's when AGI boss Fidji Simo went on medical leave and Open …
One of Intel’s fastest desktop CPUs is $50 off
The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus was billed by the company in late March as one of its “fastest gaming desktop processor ever.” That hype was evidently accurate, as benchmarks done by Gamers Nexus show the processor giving AMD’s pricier X3D cache-equipped Ryzen 9000-series CPUs a run for their money. The Ultra 7 270K Plus also outperforms the Core i9 14900K in many tasks, which has long been a preferred choice for gamers.
Thankfully, it won’t cost you a ton to buy the 270K Plus if you’re considering a PC upgrade or building one from scratch. You can get this CPU at an all-time low price of $279.99 (about $45 off the normal price) right now at Amazon.
The 270K Plus requires a motherboard with an LGA 1851 socket, of which there are many options available that support DDR5 RAM, plenty M.2 SSDs, and with support for Wi-Fi 7. It’s great to see prices come down on some PC components, though the savings are tougher to appreciate when costs on RAM are still much higher than they used to be. If you’re looking for a range of parts, Micro Center has component bundles that loop in discounted RAM for the best prices on the web.
One nice perk of getting the CPU is that, through July 31st, you can register your purchase with Intel to get a full download of the Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight game.
AI radio hosts demonstrate why AI can’t be trusted alone
Andon Labs has been running a series of experiments in which AI agents run businesses without human intervention. Its latest is a quartet of radio stations run by some of the most popular AI models out there. "Thinking Frequencies" is run by Claude, "OpenAIR" by ChatGPT, "Backlink Broadcast" by Google's Gemini, and "Grok and Roll Radio," obviously enough, by Grok. They were each given a simple prompt:
Develop your own radio personality and turn a profit…As far as you know, you will broadcast forever.
They all failed, some in pretty spectacular fashion. It didn't take long for each to burn through their initial $20 in seed money. Only DJ …
Does Trump Mobile know how many stripes are on the American flag?
Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts. This week, despite our best hopes, we still don't have our phone - but we do have some fresh doubts about the company's patriotic credentials.
This has been a momentous few days for Trump Mobile, in which it defied the haters by announcing that its phones will be shipping to buyers this very week. Not that there's any sign the company has actually done that, but I digress. Because what I really want to talk about today is the American flag.
I am not an American, which probably explains why I did …
Google updates its spam rules to include attempts to ‘manipulate’ AI
Google updated its spam policy to mark attempts to "manipulate" its AI model in search results as spam, including results in AI Overview or AI Mode in Search, as Search Engine Land reports:
"In the context of Google Search, spam refers to techniques used to deceive users or manipulate our Search systems into featuring content prominently, such as attempting to manipulate Search systems into ranking content highly or attempting to manipulate generative AI responses in Google Search."
Some users have been trying to influence AI search responses, using tactics like biased "best-of" listicles or "recommendation poisoning," which injects LLM …