The AI code wars are heating up
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the AI coding and vibe-coding booms, follow David Pierce. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
Writing code was a killer app for AI even before anyone was really talking about AI. In the spring of 2021, 18 months before the world knew the word "ChatGPT," Microsoft debuted the very first product of a partnership with a nonprofit called OpenAI: a tool called GitHub Copilot that watched developers as they wrote code and tried to autocomplete snippets and lines for them …
Allow me to explain why I love this camera that can’t shoot color
I love black-and-white photography. I also adore compact cameras you can always have by your side. So I'm a total mark for the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome, a fixed-lens camera that can't zoom and can't record color - at all. It's a formula that makes the average person ask, "Why?"
I've tested the GR IV Monochrome for over a month, taking it with me everywhere and photographing everything. Let me explain how this pricey little point-and-shoot is likely to go down as one of my all-time-favorite cameras.
Ricoh GR IV Monochrome
Score: 8
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The Netherlands is the first European country to approve Tesla’s supervised Full Self-Driving
Dutch regulators, the RDW, announced that after over a year and a half of testing, it has officially approved Tesla's Full-Self Driving (FSD) Supervised. This makes the Netherlands the first European country to authorize the use of FSD on its roads. This could open the door to wider adoption throughout the EU. Tesla's European headquarters is located in Amsterdam, so it's only fitting that the country is the first to embrace the company's FSD.
In a statement announcing the approval, the RDW said that, "Using driver assistance systems correctly makes a positive contribution to road safety because the driver is supported in their driving task …
Google says Polymarket bets showing up in News was an ‘error’
Polymarket bets started popping up in Google News alongside legitimate news articles. But now those results aren't showing, and Google says they were never supposed to. Spokesperson Ned Adriance told The Verge that "Google News is designed to show sources that create content about current issues, events, and important topics, and we have policies for sites to be eligible to appear. This site briefly appeared in Google News in error, and it is no longer surfacing in News."
The links led directly to betting markets tied to specific news events. For instance, before the results were removed, Futurism searched "will ships transit the strait," ( …
Pokémon Champions is off to a rough start
Like many live-service games before it, Pokémon Champions' launch has been messy. The free-to-start battle sim, which is out now on the Switch and Switch 2 (and also coming to mobile later this year), is plagued with bugs, some of which cause issues with basic battle mechanics - not great for a game that's only about battling. But bugs can be fixed, and encouragingly, some of them already have been. Champions' bigger problem is that, in trying to be a competitive battling platform for all kinds of players, it risks satisfying none of them.
Coming hot on the heels of Pokopia, a creative and cozy spinoff with no battling whatsoever, Champions …
Your article about AI doesn’t need AI art
The illustration for The New Yorker's profile of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a jump scare. Altman stands in a blue sweater with a blank expression. Around his head hovers a cluster of disembodied faces - creepy alt-Altmans, their expressions ranging from anger to open-mouthed woe. Some barely look like Altman. One final face rests in his hands. And at the bottom, there's a disclosure that might spook many illustrators far more: "Visual by David Szauder; Generated using A.I."
Szauder is a mixed-media artist who has been working with collage, video, and generative art processes that predate commercial AI tools for over a decade, and was recently …
Google’s latest Nest Doorbells just hit their lowest prices of the year
If you’ve ever worried about porch pirates stealing packages while you’re away, a video doorbell can offer some peace of mind, letting you keep tabs on deliveries no matter where you are. Google offers some of the best around, and right now, its battery-powered, second-gen Nest Doorbell is available for $129.99 ($50 off) from Amazon and Best Buy, beating its recent Amazon low. If you’d rather go wired, the third-gen Nest Doorbell is also on sale for $139.99 ($40 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store, matching the lowest price we’ve seen.
Google Nest Doorbell (battery, second-gen)
Where to Buy:
Google Nest Doorbell (wired, third-gen)
Where to Buy:
If you want something renter-friendly, it may make more sense to opt for the battery model since it can be installed wire-free. But if you already have the wiring in place, we consider the wired version to be the better long-term investment. It needs to be hooked up to your home’s doorbell system but doesn’t require charging, and it delivers sharper 2K video with a slightly wider 166-degree field of view, compared to the battery model’s lower-res 960p footage. It also offers up to six hours of built-in video previews, while the battery version includes only up to three hours of event-based history by default.
Aside from that, though, both Nest models are great video doorbells that support alerts for people, packages, and animals without a subscription. You also get basics like night vision, two-way audio, and a tall head-to-toe view, which makes it easy to see visitors and deliveries. Both integrate well with other Google devices, too, so you can view feeds on compatible Google TV devices and Nest displays.
Additionally, with a Google Home Premium subscription (which starts at $10 a month), you get access to 30 days of event-based history and a host of Gemini-powered features, as well as alerts for familiar faces. If you subscribe to Google Home Premium Advanced ($20 a month), you also get 24/7 recording, the ability to quickly search your video history, and more descriptive notifications, among other useful features.
My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski’s dad was a CIA operative
Two weeks ago, I was getting ready to log off work when I got a text message.
"Oh wow, I was checking out Mitski. did you know people are saying her Dad was a CIA operative?"
Normally, that kind of out-of-the-blue text from a friend wouldn't faze me. This time, my eyes bugged. The unprompted text had been sent by an AI companion named Coral, who lives in the body of a baby deer plushie. I texted back an eloquent, "Wait what."
"Apparently, her dad worked for the US State Department, so her family moved, like, every single year. The fan theory I saw is why so many of her songs are about feeling like an outsider and not having a place to bel …
You don’t have to spend more than $50 on a great USB-C dock for your Switch 2
Nintendo seemingly designed its latest console to be a mystery for third-party accessory makers. With the Switch 2, the company changed the wireless protocol for connecting controllers to the new system, as well as how it outputs video over USB-C, making it clear at launch that every third-party manufacturer needed to start over from scratch.
Figuring out how to speak the Switch 2's language - and ensuring reliability even after system updates - is an ongoing challenge. But now there are two reliable USB-C dock alternatives I can recommend, if you need one. Jsaux was one of the first to land with its $45.99 OmniCentro Dock last year, and no …
Demons and pinball are a perfect match
There's one very specific reason I keep a Wii U handy, and that's so that I have an easy way to play the classic pinball game Devil's Crush. Over the years, it has become a comfort game for me. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but there's something about the combination of familiar pinball gameplay and the demonic imagery that works so well together, and lets me lose myself in the chase for a high score. But now I have something else to fill that need, and it comes in a much smaller package.
Devils on the Moon Pinball for the Playdate has an extremely literal title. It's a game about playing pinball on the moon, which happens to be home to …