Tech Boys

New York is taking steps to regulate the use of AI in the state's entertainment industry. NY State Governor Kathy Hochul passed two pieces of legislation on Thursday that forces certain productions to disclose the use of AI-generated performers, and defines rules around how someone's likeness can be used after their death. Assembly Bill A8887B, now known as S.8420-A, specifically covers the use of AI performers in advertisements. Per Hochul's announcement, the law "requires persons who produce or create an advertisement to identify if it includes AI generated synthetic performers." S.8391, meanwhile, "requires consent from heirs or executors if a person wishes to use the name, image, or likeness of an individual for commercial purposes after their death." “By signing these bills today, we are enacting common sense laws that will ensure we are fully transparent when using images generated by artificial intelligence and also prevent the unauthorized com...

OpenAI has announced its launching GPT-5.2 effective immediately, with access rolling out in phases starting Dec. 11. This is the second major update to GPT-5, the long-awaited OpenAI model that launched on Aug. 7. In a blog post announcing the new series of ChatGPT models, the company called GPT-5.2 the "most capable model series yet for professional knowledge work." This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. GPT-5.2 is actually a series of models; the series itself is part of the larger GPT-5 series. Here's what we're looking at: GPT-5.2 Instant GPT-5.2 Thinking GPT-5.2 Pro When can you start using GPT-5.2? With a Dec. 11 release date, GPT-5.2 is available now — though not all users will see it listed as an available model in ChatGPT. As with previous model rollouts, OpenAI will first deploy the model to paid users on Plus, Pro, Go, Business, and Enterprise plans. Even for paying customers, OpenAI tends to mak...

OpenAI announced today that it's launching GPT-5.2, the newest model in its GPT-5 series. The new model will start rolling out immediately, with paid ChatGPT customers getting access first. In a blog post announcing the new model — which is actually a series of models, comprised of GPT‑5.2 Instant, GPT-5.2 Thinking, and GPT-5.2 Pro — OpenAI said that GPT-5.2 makes noticeable improvements in math and science, imaging, coding, handling agentic tasks, and overall accuracy. The company called GPT-5.2 its "most capable model series yet for professional knowledge work." The new model comes at a difficult time for OpenAI, which is rumored to be in a "code red" state over stronger competition from rivals like Google Gemini and spreading fears of an AI bubble . Ever since it launched ChatGPT in 2022 , OpenAI has been securely on top of the AI industry. However, the company is in an increasingly precarious position. Google has an almost unfathomable amount of tr...

Spotify is attempting to give users more control over the music the streaming service recommends with a new playlist feature called "Prompted Playlist." The beta feature is rolling out in New Zealand starting on December 11, and will let users write a custom prompt that Spotify can use — alongside their listening history — to create a playlist of new music. By tapping on Prompted Playlist, Spotify subscribers participating in the beta will be presented with a prompt field where they can type exactly what they want to hear and how they want Spotify's algorithm to respond. And while past AI features took users' individual taste into consideration, Spotify claims Prompted Playlist "taps into your entire Spotify listening history, all the way back to day one."  Prompted Playlist will exist alongside Spotify's other playlist features. Spotify Prompts can be as broad or specific as users want, and Spotify says playlists can also be set to automatically ...

The long-awaited foldable iPhone — rumored to be called the iPhone Fold — could be here soon. Tech enthusiasts and early adopters already love foldable phones — and they have plenty of options — but Apple's been notably absent from the genre. But that's reportedly due to change in 2026, when Apple is expected to release the iPhone Fold. Here's everything we know about the future addition to the iPhone lineup, including the latest rumors and pricing information. When will the iPhone Fold be released? We think the iPhone Fold is coming in 2026. Chinese site UDN (via MacRumors ) reported last month that the phone was coming next year and that it would, indeed, be called the iPhone Fold. That's far from a guarantee, but as Mashable's Stan Schroeder wrote , it is a bit of comfort for Apple fans who'd seen other reports that it could be pushed to 2027. That's also in line with new rumors that hit the internet this week, suggesting Apple had purchased abou...

Google is rolling out a suite of new video editing tools for Google Photos, making it easier for users to craft polished highlight reels directly from their phones. The updates, announced in a press release , expand on the app’s existing highlight video feature and introduce more creative control for Android and iOS users. SEE ALSO: Google AI Overviews sparks antitrust probe for using publisher content According to Google, one of the biggest additions is the launch of video templates on Android. These pre-built formats come with coordinated music, text, and pacing already synced to the soundtrack. Users simply choose a template, select their clips, and Google Photos automatically assembles a shareable video. The company is also debuting a redesigned video editor across Android and iOS. The update introduces a faster interface, a universal timeline for multi-clip editing, and an adaptive canvas that makes rearranging and refining shots more intuitive. The goal, the press release...

Despite making some moves to address the proliferation of AI-generated audio on its platform, Spotify failed to catch a copycat making imitations of music by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. The long-running experimental rock band from Australia, has been a vocal critic of Spotify and was one of several artists that took their music off the platform in the summer. The move was in response to the discovery that outgoing CEO Daniel Ek was a leading investor in an AI-focused weapons and military company. Today, a poster on Reddit was recommended what appeared to be an AI-generated copy of one of the band's songs in Spotify’s Release Radar playlist. The phony artist was called King Lizard Wizard and it had an album of tracks all sharing titles with songs by the original band and using their original lyrics. Futurism grabbed screenshots of the imposter, although it appears to have since been taken down; only the band's original page appears in searches for both their name a...

Local pro-environment groups in all 50 states delivered a blunt message to the U.S. Congress: Put a moratorium on new power-hungry AI data centers, or face the wrath of voters everywhere. "The harms of data center growth are increasingly well-established, and they are massive," read the letter , signed by more than 350 nonprofit groups, from Alabama Climate Reality to West Virginia Citizen Action Group. That includes the swing state of Michigan, where the OpenAI-led Stargate project is already running into local opposition on a $7 billion data center built on farmland. Focusing on kitchen-table issues as much as the use of fossil fuels (which power an estimated 56 percent of U.S. data center electricity ), the letter noted that electricity bills have shot up by more than 21 percent since 2021 — "driven largely by the rapid build-out of data centers." If nothing is done to stop a proposed tripling of data centers in the next five years, these vast server farms w...

Google and Apple have long existed as polar opposites, each ruling over their tech kingdoms with little interest in cooperation. But the latest build of Android's Canary operating system hints at an unusual instance of collaboration between the brands, with a new feature that seems aimed at making data transfer simpler between Android and iOS mobile device during the setup phase. It is expected to also be available in a future developer beta of iOS 26.  A representative for Google confirmed that the report from 9to5Google on this development is accurate, but didn't provide any additional details on how the transfer will work. Each brand already has their own dedicated Switch to Android and Switch to iOS apps for making the swap between ecosystems, but making the transition easier at the operating system level and adding support for moving more types of data certainly sounds promising. That said, features can go through a fair bit of iteration between the dev betas and the fin...