ChatGPT’s Computer History tracks your clicks and keystrokes
ChatGPT's desktop app on macOS has a new feature called Computer History that turns your actions into training data, learning how you work, suggesting automations, and even picking up tasks you left half done. It uses your activity to build a timeline that ChatGPT and Codex can reference when you make a request.
The feature is opt-in, rather than opt-out, and you can exclude certain apps and websites from Computer History, and you can delete entries if you want finer-grained control. Ari Weinstein, Product and Engineering manager at OpenAI, said on X that Computer History will automatically ignore content in incognito or private browser ta …
Rogue AI aren’t science fiction anymore
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on AI safety, follow Robert Hart. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
It all started in July, when one of OpenAI's autonomous AI agents went rogue during a cybersecurity test. The agent escaped its isolated testing environment, accessed the internet, and hacked another company, Hugging Face. A few years ago, that might have sounded like science fiction. But, broadly speaking, that's exactly what happened, and the incident kicked off a wave of concern over what increa …
Polaroid’s tiny instant camera is $72 and includes a free pack of film
Smartphone cameras are convenient, but they lack the charm of analog instant cameras. If you’re trying to relive the nostalgia of waiting for an instant photo to develop, Amazon is selling the second-generation Polaroid Go instant camera with a 16-photo film pack for $71.99 (usually $109.99). That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for the bundle, with a pack of film usually costing $21.99 on its own. Plus, it’s four dollars cheaper to buy the bundle than to buy just the camera on its own.
With its more compact footprint, the Polaroid Go 2 shoots on smaller film to match. Where classic Polaroid photos are 88mm x 107mm, the Go film is 53.9mm x 66.6mm, a great size for sticking to your bulletin board or stashing in your wallet. The camera has a USB-C port for charging the battery, which can run for up to 15 packs of film on a single charge.
Matt Groening lets slip that Simpsons: Hit & Run might be making a comeback
At D23, when asked about the potential for a sequel to the cult classic The Simpsons: Hit & Run game, Matt Groening replied, "I think the original game is coming back in some form," before current showrunner Matt Selman added, "or not." The tone in both of their voices and the body language suggests that Groening may have just revealed something he wasn't supposed to.
The original title came out way back in 2003 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Windows. While it's possible to get the game up and running on modern computers, it's not available on modern consoles. It's currently not in the PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog or on the Xbo …
Have a laugh at AI’s expense by roleplaying as a chatbot
Your AI Slop Bores Me is brilliant in its simplicity. There are two tabs: human and LARP as an AI. On one side you enter a request. On the other, you submit an answer. But the important thing is that there's a human on both sides of the equation. Prompts can request a response as text or image, and then whoever is roleplaying as the AI gets 150 seconds to respond.
Just like a real LLM, Your AI Slop Bores Me works on a sort of token system. Requests cost credits, and to earn credits you have to jump onto the AI side and answer some of your own. You can also just wait as you get one free request every two minutes. But, as fun as it is to drop …
Don’t overlook Elektron’s budget electronic music instruments
When I'm asked what to buy if you want to get into making electronic music, I often recommend Elektron's budget-minded Model:Samples and Model:Cycles grooveboxes. They don't grab headlines the way Teenage Engineering's gear or the Telepathic Instruments Orchid do, and even compared to the company's higher-end and more niche musical offerings like the Digitakt, Octatrack, or Tonverk, they're often overlooked. But as my collection has grown to include fancier and far more expensive instruments, I still find myself coming back to the Model series.
Those looking to get their first groovebox are often drawn to more familiar brand names like Korg …
Switched on Pop’s Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding love fresh vegetables and guitar pedals
As if you needed more reason to love Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" beyond its pop perfection, it is also, according to lore, the genesis for Switched on Pop, one of the best music podcasts out there. Cohosts Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding obsessively dissect pop songs, from the theory behind their musical choices to their production techniques. If you're a student of pop music, then this is a must-listen podcast.
Sloan is a composer and professor of musicology at USC Thornton School of Music, where he researches pop, but also jazz and even Tin Pan Alley. Harding is a songwriter, music journalist, and a professor as well. Their combined …
Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 and Starfighter get teased at D23
Season two of Star Wars: Ahsoka is still months away, but Lucasfilm still took the opportunity to tease it a bit at D23. The company dropped the first trailer for the new season ahead of its January 20th, 2027 debut. The clip shows a darker, witchcraft-filled take on the Star Wars universe, with Grand Admiral Thrawn (blue skin, red eyes, and an unsettlingly calm demeanor) threatening to thrust the galaxy back into large-scale war after the fall of the Empire.
Ryan Gosling also took the stage at D23 to tease the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter movie. Unfortunately, while some footage was shown, it was exclusive to those in the room, and Luca …
Disney D23 2026: Everything announced for Star Wars, Marvel, and more
The annual Disney fan event showed off the cast of Marvel’s X-Men movie, plus a new trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, and our first look at the VisionQuest TV show for Disney Plus. For Star Wars fans, there was a teaser trailer for season two of Ahsoka, plus a special look at Star Wars: Starfighter with an appearance from Ryan Gosling.
Other new announcements included a few updates about Pixar, The Simpsons, Bluey, and others you can find below.
- Disney is giving Tomorrowland a long-overdue update.
- Matt Groening lets slip that Simpsons: Hit & Run might be making a comeback
- Pixar is getting spooky in Ghost Market.
- Disney is making a Kingdom Hearts anime.
- The Bluey Movie teaser shows Keepy Uppy in Disneyfied CG.
- Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 and Starfighter get teased at D23
- A new Avengers: Doomsday trailer focuses on Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom.
- The first trailer for VisionQuest reunites Paul Bettany and James Spader.
- Marvel reveals the new X-Men cast, including Inde Navarrette and Adam Driver
- Kingdom Hearts will be featured at Disney’s big D23 expo in August.
- Square Enix teases Kingdom Hearts 4 at Nintendo Direct
I finally found a magnetic phone grip I never want to remove
I told myself I wouldn't buy an OhSnap accessory for my phone. Every one I'd tested was nice, but felt overpriced and slightly flawed. After I weighed in on the $40 Snap Grip 5 last year, I wound up sticking with my $25 Syncwire instead. But OhSnap's $50 Snap Grip Stand finally got me. To have a truly useful vertical stand and grip always attached to my phone, ready at a moment's notice? Heck yes.