Tech Boys

Meta introduced new safety tools for teen accounts on Wednesday, along with stats that show the impact of their latest safety features. In a blog post, Meta said that it removed approximately 635,000 Instagram accounts earlier this year, part of a larger effort to make Instagram safer for teens. The new features include the option for teens to view Safety Tips, to block and report accounts with just one button, and to view the date a person joined Instagram, which is all "designed to give teens age-appropriate experiences and prevent unwanted contact." "At Meta, we work to protect young people from both direct and indirect harm. Our efforts range from Teen Accounts, which are designed to give teens age-appropriate experiences and prevent unwanted contact, to our sophisticated technology that finds and removes exploitative content," the platform said in a press release . "Today, we’re announcing a range of updates to bolster these efforts, and we’re sharing...

The issue of states regulating — or not regulating — AI is back in a big way. On Wednesday, the White House unveiled the AI Action Plan , its highly-anticipated report identifying key areas for federal AI policies. The plan largely focuses on pulling back restrictions for tech companies in order to foster AI innovation and secure the U.S. as a global industry powerhouse. Part of these recommendations laid out in the sweeping report bring back policies that look an awful lot like the AI moratorium that Republicans tried to pass in the Big Beautiful Bill Act . The Senate voted 99-1 to remove the proposed 10-year ban on state regulation of AI from the budget bill. But the AI Action Place looks to bring it back, citing "states with burdensome AI regulations that waste [federal] funds" as bureaucratic barriers to AI prosperity. In the section titled "Remove Red Tape and Onerous Regulation," the plan advises the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to "work wit...

Sony is bringing a welcome quality-of-life feature to the PlayStation 5. In the next PS5 system update beta, players will be able to have their DualSense controllers synced with multiple hardware platforms at the same time. That means you could swap a controller from a PS5 to your gaming PC to your smartphone without needing to re-pair the DualSense each time. Up to four devices can be simultaneously paired with a single controller, and each of them will be mapped to one of the action buttons. To switch between them, first make sure the hardware you want to start using is on, then press the controller's PS button and the corresponding action button at the same time. Hold for three seconds, and when you see blinking on the controller's light bar, release both buttons. It's the sort of change that may not carry weight for all players. But for those of us who do like to hop between platforms, this is very exciting news. The current beta access is limited to an invite-only ...

Current and former members of the FDA told CNN about issues with the Elsa generative AI tool unveiled by the federal agency last month. Three employees said that in practice, Elsa has hallucinated nonexistent studies or misrepresented real research. "Anything that you don't have time to double-check is unreliable," one source told the publication. "It hallucinates confidently." Which isn't exactly ideal for a tool that's supposed to be speeding up the clinical review process and aiding with making efficient, informed decisions to benefit patients. Leadership at the FDA appeared unfazed by the potential problems posed by Elsa. "I have not heard those specific concerns," FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told CNN . He also emphasized that using Elsa and participating in the training to use it are currently voluntary at the agency. The CNN investigation highlighting these flaws with the FDA's artificial intelligence arrived on the same day a...

Heavy metal lost one of its loudest voices today. Ozzy Osbourne — iconic Black Sabbath frontman, solo artist, and unlikely reality TV star — has died at the age of 76. The BBC confirmed his passing following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. With a career spanning over five decades, Osbourne wasn’t just a rock star — he was a cultural force. From pioneering the sound of British heavy metal to redefining celebrity with the MTV reality show The Osbournes , his influence reached far beyond music. His family confirmed the news in a heartfelt statement released Tuesday, saying he passed away that morning "surrounded by love." "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning," the statement read. "He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time." News of his death rippled across social media, with fans, musici...

The British government has announced plans to move forward with a law that would bar public organizations from paying off ransomware attackers. The proposed legislation would add schools, town councils, National Health Service (NHS) hospitals and critical infrastructure managers to a ban which already applies to the national government. The logic behind banning payments is simple. If cybercriminals know a ransomware attack against a UK school or hospital won't get them paid, they'll look somewhere else for a more lucrative target. Security Minister Dan Jarvis said that the government is "determined to smash the cyber criminal business model," and added that laws in the proposed package will require even private businesses to seek guidance from the government before paying a ransom. Since the WannaCry attack on the NHS in 2017 launched the modern era of ransomware attacks, the UK has suffered a number of serious incidents. In the last two years alone , attacks have...

Is Google Gemini free? Yes and no. While there are paid plans for Google AI, aka Gemini, you can access many of its most popular features for free. As one of the world’s largest tech companies, Google has an advantage over its AI rivals: the company has the money to float the tech while it figures out how to monetize it. On top of that, Google has unparalleled access to a critical AI resource — data. "The data is their biggest immediate powerhouse," AI researcher and consultant Jack Teitel told Mashable by email. "Competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI have good talent, and can raise lots of capital, and they have the advantage of being earlier to market, making it easier to capture a 'piece of the pie.' However, between YouTube and Google, Google has access to an unmatched repository of data that they are most definitely using to train models." The end result of these advantages? Google Gemini offers a ton of advanced AI features that are completely f...

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle . As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer. If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for July 21 Where did Wordle come from? Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble , music identification game Heardle , and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once .  Word...

The iPad Pro with the M5 chip is expected to be just as easy to use for selfies in a landscape or portrait orientation. According to Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman , Apple will add a second front-facing camera on the portrait edge of the upcoming iPad Pro that's expected to launch later this year. It may seem like a small quality-of-life upgrade, but it means the iPad Pro can use either camera to center the subject for selfies or FaceTime calls. Compared to the previous iPad models, the upcoming iPad Pro with Apple's latest silicon removes the guessing game of where the front-facing camera is. In the past, iPad models only had one front-facing camera alongside the portrait edge, but Apple decided to shift this to the landscape side in 2024 with the iPad Pro M4 . iPad Pro owners who mostly use their devices in landscape mode welcomed this change, but those who preferred holding it vertically found it was trickier to unlock through Face ID. Beyond the new front-facing camera, ...