TP-Link is in the hot seat in the US, as it might see its routers banned from the market. It comes as three US agencies have investigated the company, with fears that it’s actively spying on users.

The concern comes as more tech companies are under scrutiny by the US government, with a big focus on Chinese manufacturers. In January, we might potentially see a TikTok ban over similar security concerns from the US.

United States Commerce, Defense, and Justice departments are all investigating the company. Part of what promoted this was Microsoft’s analysis in October. The Seattle giant found that a Chinese hacking group has an expansive network of TP-Link routers, which are all compromised.

These routers are the target of attacks from the group, which is allegedly part of a Chinese government-backed project.

It is reported that TP-Link supplies most US entities, including the Defense Department. The router company is also in 65% of US homes and small businesses, as the cheap cost usually outweighs its competitors.

A generic TP-Link router can be picked up for as little as $50 on Amazon as of writing. Along with solid performance and reliability, has made it a staple for networks across the world.

US agencies investigate TP-Link over Chinese hacking fears

The US Justice Department has also accused TP-Link of undercutting the market to avoid anti-monopoly laws, which it denies.

Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, a spokesperson for TP-Link said, “We welcome any opportunities to engage with the US government to demonstrate that our security practices are fully in line with industry security standards, and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the US market, US consumers, and addressing US national security risks.”

However, the ban could go through with the incoming Trump administration and general fears from officials within the US government. In 2019, Huawei – which was supplying 5G network hardware – was banned from the US due to the same fears.

The Biden administration has also fuelled disputes with China. It has recently put blocks on Nvidia (a US company) from shipping high-end AI and gaming hardware to the country, as the AI rat race heats up between countries.

Featured image: US Flag, Chinese Flag, TP-Link

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Accessory manufacturers just couldn’t hold their horses, as the Nintendo Switch 2 leaks have flooded the internet. With no planned announcement date, it seems that we’re inching closer to seeing an official reveal as more accessories show more and more of the console.

Nintendo has kept its lips sealed around the Switch 2 since pressure from shareholders had them acknowledge that it exists. Originally, CEO Shuntaro Furukawa said that there’d be no reveal before April 2024, and with 2025 just around the corner, that’s remained true.

Nintendo Switch 2 More New Photos pic.twitter.com/Ik1f4yhUof

— Deck Wizard (@deckwizardyt) December 15, 2024

However, over the last month, a series of leaks have shown off the Switch 2 in unanticipated detail. The most recent stems from Switch 2 Joycon (the detachable controllers) accessories, like a wheel or grip.

The device is expected to be considerably bigger than the original Switch, with magnetic Joycons rather than a sliding rail. It’ll also have a U-shaped kickstand, rather than a large flap of plastic like the OLED model or a small flimsy stand on the original model.

Switch 2 leaks have already shown us everything

Of course, right now the images are potentially mock-ups by the manufacturer. However, with each leak, more and more is corroborated. We’ve seen a similar Switch 2-like device from multiple sources, including leading skin and case maker, dbrand.

dbrand has given the most “official” look at the Switch 2 so far, and again, even under the blurry 3D rendering of a case, it matches with the other leaks.

Nerd Nest on YouTube has shown off what is allegedly a finished reference model of the device. This again corroborates other images and mock-ups.

The Switch 2 has been leaking for quite some time now. Intrepid fans have tracked everything from the Nvidia chip it’ll harness, to what games might launch. A more recent leak hinted that Mario Kart 9 could be a launch title, with a potential special edition available. Another pegged the remake of Final Fantasy IX as a launch title too. However, it’s basically confirmed that the system will still support old games.

Current rumors swirling around position Nintendo as scrambling to get ahead of even more leaks. With manufacturers bleeding any surprise dry, it is now expected that Nintendo could announce something in January.

Featured image: DeckWizard, Pexels

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NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation), an energy watchdog, has warned that the rising demand for artificial intelligence could outpace power grids.

AI is currently experiencing major issues with power supply. So much so, that companies like Microsoft have begun to invest in reopening nuclear power plants. NERC now warns that there’s a possibility that this could lead to blackouts in both the US and Canada.

On top of this, cryptocurrency’s revived boom since the election of Donald Trump has continued to put stress on power grids across the country. Bitcoin currently sits at $105,000, and its breaking of the $100K mark has sparked a renewed interest in mining.

This involves running heavy-load PCs – in some cases en masse – running constantly to crack codes to mine a Bitcoin. In 2024, it is estimated that 0.6% to 2.3% is used by cryptocurrency mining operations.

On the AI front, it is estimated by a Goldman Sachs report that the US will use an estimated 8% of its power to fuel AI by 2030. That’s a 160% increase.

It’s not just crypto and AI draining the US grid

NERC’s 2024 report also highlighted that more electric vehicles are adding to the stresses on power grids. Texas, which runs its own grid, is facing the possibility of shortages due to damage to the grid from storms and the excess needed from tech infrastructure.

In October, the Texas Public Utility Commission reported that its grid won’t be able to fully support any more data centers on the Texas grid.

NERC’s report found that the US could suck up as much as 132 gigawatts of power. This is up by 80 gigawatts since last year.

A major part of NERC’s concerns is the lack of progress on installing alternative energy sources. Options like solar panels are constantly hit with delays, which could knee-cap energy reserves as big tech companies shift more and more into energy-guzzling AI projects.

Featured image: Pexels (1, 2)

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A new $20 trillion hyperloop tunnel was proposed, connecting the UK to the US. If the project were to go ahead, London to New York would be done in just 54 minutes.

Hyperloops are essentially tunnels with the specific purpose of speeding up travel. This new “Transatlantic Tunnel” would be far more expansive than similar projects, like the Channel Tunnel in the UK. It would also cost around $19.8 trillion.

The tunnel has had multiple proposals, with different ways of managing the colossal tunnel’s location. According to The Mirror, these include putting it under the seabed, a floating tunnel, or middle grounds like placing it on top of the seabed.

While the tunnel is a complicated nightmare on its own, the vessels that would travel in the tunnel are another story. It has been proposed that vacuum tubes be used, which would shoot travelers across the tunnel at more than 3000 miles per hour.

Hundreds of years before hyperloop is even a thing

Of course, this is theoretical. Tunnel and tube technology might be seeing advancements in places like India, but it’s still years away. Estimates, if built in the same methods as the Channel Tunnel, would put it at 782 years away.

As mentioned, in India, the country recently completed its first test track for a hyperloop. Built by IIT-Madras, the track is at 400 meters (0.2 miles). It’ll be expanded to seven miles and eventually is planned to hit 62 miles.

The US has had a hyperloop before. Hyperloop One was shut down in December 2023, before it could even launch. It had test tunnels and ran a couple of passengers in 2020. However, it could never materialize.

Elon Musk weighs in on hyperloop proposal

This said, Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and X owner has built “Loop”. Part of The Boring Company, it’s a Las Vegas-based tunnel that uses Tesla Model 3s to transport passengers to a number of stations. In a 2023 video, a user on X, formerly Twitter, said that the 200-meter tunnel is “dumber than I could have imagined” while sharing a video of the process.

lol I can’t believe this is actually what Tesla’s Hyperloop looks like. It’s dumber than I could have imagined: pic.twitter.com/3PEnGWE1YN

— Politics & Education (@PoliticsAndEd) January 7, 2023

Musk has weighed in on the proposed hyperloop and said that it could be done for $20 billion dollars. X users have posted to Community Notes – X’s system for fact-checking – with pushback, claiming that the 1000 times less budget doesn’t take into account “other expenses like engineers and infrastructure”.

Musk was also corrected with the cost per kilometer (0.6 miles) of track, which is €25 million per KM on average.

According to a report five months ago on the proposals, no one has seriously considered the project.

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Nvidia has released a new mini-PC specifically aimed at developers and hobbyists working in the artificial intelligence space. It’s a follow-up to their previous single-board computer (SBC), Jetson Nano released in 2019 and part of the company’s mega push into AI.

Dubbed Jetson Orin Nano Super, it’ll provide improved performance for AI applications, as well as a bump in performance. While there are a lot of SBCs on the market, Nvidia’s is particularly interesting as the company rarely produces its own PC systems.

Nvidia is known for its graphics cards (GPU), and more recently, its AI hardware. The company has exploded in value due to its continued developments in the space, as well as providing a vast majority of companies with the necessary equipment.

This particular board comes with an ARM Cortex A78E processor and a custom Nvidia GPU with 1024 CUDA cores and 32 Tensor Cores. It’s not the most powerful machine in the world, but in the SBC space, it’s reasonably powerful.

It’ll also provide 67 TOPs (trillions of processes per second), which is how AI is measured. For comparison, the SBC Raspberry Pi 5 and its AI kit can provide around 13 TOPs. An M4 Mac Mini can do 38 TOPS.

Nvidia has included a custom version of Linux for projects to run on, complete with Nvidia theming.

Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano performance is impressive – so is its price

In a video breaking down its performance by Dave’s Garage, the Orin was put through its paces with a local large language model (LLM). This is essentially like running your own version of ChatGPT.

Using Meta’s Llama 3.2, it managed to run at 21 tokens a second. A token is the metric used to count how many characters an LLM can produce. OpenAI’s estimates put it at 4 characters per second.

Compared to major PC rigs or workstations that are running LLMs, it’s not much. However, when you consider it only draws 25 watts of energy at its maximum output, it’s very impressive. It manages this by leveraging the CUDA cores, Nvidia’s tech for processing.

The Jetson Orin Nano isn’t going to be someone’s replacement PC. It’s more for development, and eventually to be built into an embedded solution or be the jumping-off point for a larger project.

The Jetson Orin Nano is also interesting thanks to its price point. Nvidia has slashed the price from $499 to $249, making it a cheaper entry point into AI development. Since the pandemic and electronics shortage, as well as cryptocurrency jacking up the price of graphics cards thanks to scarcity, Nvidia has rolled with it.

Its prices on GPUs have inflated, with the upcoming RTX 5090 rumored to be north of $1500 and nearing $2000. Even its lower-end cards, like the RTX 4060, have been criticized for being overtly expensive compared to the competition.

Nvidia has its big CES 2025 event coming up, where it’ll share more about the world of AI and its future for gaming hardware. We’ve yet to see what the Nano can do gaming-wise, however.

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YouTube and Hollywood agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) are partnering together. It comes as the Google-owned platform takes further action against malicious artificial intelligence content.

YouTube has been working on these tools for quite some time now and quietly launched a similar program in July for anyone to use.

One of the major differences between the July update is this new partnership will focus on actors and similar talent. It’ll allow them to take down videos that use their likeness through generative AI methods.

Speaking in a press release, Neal Mohan the CEO of YouTube said, “At YouTube, we believe that a responsible approach to AI starts with strong partnerships.”

“In the days ahead, we’ll work with CAA to ensure artists and creators experience the incredible potential of AI while also maintaining creative control over their likeness.”

Part of the reason for a partnership with CAA is potentially thanks to its “CAAvault”. This scans and then stores the CAA’s client’s likeness, and with a database onboard, should make it easier for those affected to take down videos.

Bryan Lourd, CEO and Co-Chairman of Creative Artists Agency added, “At CAA, our AI conversations are centered around ethics and talent rights, and we applaud YouTube’s leadership for creating this talent-friendly solution, which fundamentally aligns with our goals.”

For instance, megastar Will Smith has been at the forefront of those parodied in AI-generated videos. With every major video generator’s update, a new version of Smith eating spaghetti is made to show progress.

YouTube adds more protections as advanced AI video generators launch

The move comes as OpenAI and Google both launch their new generative AI video models. Both companies will have huge safeguards in place to prevent malicious content being generated.

However, AI software can be manipulated through prompts, or other unprotected models could still be used. While there’s no video component yet, Grok’s latest image-generation model has succeeded in replicating celebrities.

Google is also gearing up for a wider release of its Veo 2 video model, which has wowed those in the industry. The initial – and highly curated – trailer shows hyper-realistic humans, which have the potential to be one of CAA’s clients.

Featured image: Pexels, Wikicommons

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Europe’s digital euro currency is potentially about to make some progress, as a key figure has stepped aside to avoid delays.

Stefan Berger, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Germany, has stood down from his position in the talks. He has been involved for some time after Meta, then Facebook tried to introduce Diem into the region. While the project was killed, Berger called for a digital euro to be developed.

The digital euro isn’t a cryptocurrency, but a “stablecoin”, which would match the euro’s current value. It is intended to offer another method of payment and eliminate transaction fees that are incurred when paying by debit or credit card.

A digital euro would ensure that anyone, anywhere within the EU – whether online or offline – would have access to their money.

This is why, despite contactless payment technology being available in the EU for quite some time now, restaurants in Germany and other countries in the region won’t accept cards.

Stefan Berger steps aside for EU digital euro project to move forward

Berger has become a skeptic of the project, and rather than impeding any progress that the EU makes on bringing it to life, he has stood aside. Part of his concerns include a central bank having that level of control over what could be important infrastructure.

Despite misgivings around the digital euro, Berger has been instrumental in bringing the MiCA regulation (Markets in Crypto Assets) in 2023. This brought clear, defined rules to cryptocurrency in the area, intending to “protect consumers and investors” from the risks of the technology.

According to Politico, MEPs have been pushing for someone to take charge that would bring progress to the project. Some have even pointed to Berger as a main reason for delays, as it is claimed he missed “key deadlines”.

Key members of the EU are now pushing for “quick progress” on the digital euro project.

Featured image: Wikicommons, Digital Euro demo video

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After its latest boom, it appears that cryptocurrency is still on the menu for a lot of Americans going into 2025. In a new survey by exchange Kraken, it found that 73% will return to it next year.

The survey is littered with interesting tidbits about people’s crypto habits. This includes that only 8% of those asked think the technology is a “Ponzi scheme”, while 29% “remain undecided”.

Cryptocurrency is the current hot topic in America. As President-elect Trump puts his weight behind it, with planned White House roles, Bitcoin has broken the $100,000 mark. As of writing, Bitcoin sits at $100,407.20.

With the price rising, it’s unsurprising that over half, at 52%, see the digital currency as a long-term investment. However, the Web3 tech is still known for criminal activity, including the buying and selling of drugs online.

60% of Americans believe crypto is used for crimes

Americans appear to agree, with 60% believing that crypto is still heavily used in crimes. It’s hard to gauge where criminal activity lies with crypto transactions as unless the “illicit address” of the wallet is known beforehand or tracked properly, things can fall through the cracks.

Chainalysis found that $24.2 billion, or 0.34% of “total on-chain transaction volume” were related to criminal activities. The analytics company admits that it hasn’t tracked every address and doesn’t include “funds associated with crypto money laundering.”

Interestingly, the younger the audience, the less likely they are to believe that crypto has “practical applications”. Only 32% of 18 to 29-year-olds think this, while 55% of 30-44-year-olds hold this belief. The 45 to 60 age group is by far the largest, with 63% thinking crypto has real-world applications. 60 and over is at 52%.

Kraken marks this as “younger participants may still be navigating the complex truths of crypto”.

Featured image: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Kraken

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Surgeons in the United Kingdom have implanted a chip in patients to allow them to get over their sleep apnea. The condition affects an estimated eight million people in the UK; this surgery is another step in combating it.

Sleep apneas cause sufferers to have their airways blocked while resting. This can go on for minutes at a time, and potentially result in death if not treated properly. One of the only treatments is to use a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which can be bulky and require a mask. This pumps through your airways to keep you breathing at night.

There are currently two options for patients, Genio Nyxoah and Inspire. Genio hasn’t yet been approved by US authorities, but Inspire has received FDA approval.

Sleep apnea chips surgery doesn’t sound so bad

Genio works by having a small surgery on your chin, where the chip is inserted. Rather than having an entire CPAP machine placed over your head at night, users strap a small device to the chin that talks to the chip. Using your smartphone or a remote, you can then activate it whenever you need assistance.

However, Inspire is a little more invasive than Genio. It implants a small device inside your chest and chin, which then work in conjunction with each other. Both devices stimulate the airways and tongue to move, leaving the patient without any blockages.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has conducted the first surgeries in the country but is limiting it to those who can’t use a CPAP machine for now.

This type of surgery isn’t new, however. Inspire is currently on its “V” model, with tests using its technology dating back almost a decade. While it has been around quite some time, this is one of the first times it has been widely adopted by hospitals outside of testing.

Featured image: Rawpixel, Nyxoah

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Adobe has updated Photoshop with another artificial intelligence-backed feature. The company’s latest tool allows for heavy reflections to be removed from images, but only from RAW images for the time being.

It’s part of the ongoing updates for Photoshop 2025, which was released in October. By analyzing the image, Photoshop detects the reflection and the intended target of the photo. In the blog, Adobe admits that the AI “mixes up” the reflection and wanted scene, which is why it provides a slider.

In our testing, the model works as intended, but struggles with smaller reflections like those on glasses. It also requires you to edit around the removal effect, as it either darkens or lightens the image excessively.

Right now, the reflection remover is limited to RAW images. It’s not explained in the Adobe blog, but it’s presumed that thanks to RAW photos containing far more data compared to JPG or PNG, it’s able to work better with the AI.

Adobe’s AI push has seen it directly integrate image generation into its suite of apps. Video editing app, Premiere Pro, has an auto-caption generator for example. Photoshop, however, has seen the most additions. On top of image generation, it can leverage generative AI to assist with removing elements from photos.

The company has been moving in this direction for nearly a decade, as in 2015 it introduced its machine learning backend, Adobe Sensei. This provided the “Content Aware” tool, which scanned the images and layers of the file, and can “create” an estimation to mask something in the image.

With generative AI, it not only pulls from the image in the file, but also from Adobe’s trained models and backend.

How to use AI reflection removal in Photoshop 2025

• To get the feature, you’ll need to upgrade to Photoshop 2025 in the Creative Cloud app
• After that, it’ll automatically update the Camera RAW plugin to 17.1
• Open Photoshop and open Camera RAW by pressing Shift + Ctrl + A on Windows or Shift + Cmd + A on macOS
• In the corner, press the setting button, and in the menu press Technology Previews
• Press OK and then restart Photoshop itself
• Load up your RAW image and press the eraser button the side of Camera RAW
• Check “Distraction Removal” and it’ll begin to analyze the image for reflections to remove

Featured image: Adobe’s reflection removal library

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Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, is bringing its own version of Bluesky’s Starter Packs to the platform. Announced by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, the feature has received a mixed reception with some welcoming the decision and others blasting the platform.

Bluesky, another competing Twitter alternative, features “starter packs”. These can be made by any user and allow for a curated list of accounts to follow. It’s been praised as a quick way to build up following lists and as a great method of highlighting particular people.

However, Threads’ version has already drawn ire. Initially, starter packs on Threads won’t be able to be made by anyone and only select accounts. ">Mosseri has said that for now only “community leaders” will be able to share these.

In a follow-up response asking for anyone to make packs, the plan is to make the option available publicly.

Threads now has starter packs, but not how you’d want

It’s not known how long the feature will be locked behind specifically chosen individuals, with reactions ridiculing the temporary measure. On Bluesky, tech pundit, and PR specialist Ed Zitron said that Meta “has no idea how social networks work and what makes them good.”

Piggybacking off of your Instagram account, Threads was quickly put out after the Elon Musk buyout of Twitter. As Twitter, now X, began to lose users due to Musk’s decisions, multiple replacements began to pop up. Threads hasn’t been the best received, but Meta claims over 275 million people use the app.

Meanwhile, Bluesky appears to be going from strength to strength. Since the Twitter alternative’s massive rise – surpassing 25 million accounts – one user said it “continues to benefit Threads users” as Meta has increased shipping features.

However, some users on Bluesky are beginning to turn on starter packs. The en masse following some users do, is resulting in certain people getting unwanted interactions on the platform.

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Microsoft has reintroduced its artificial intelligence-powered Recall feature to beta testers, or Windows Insider users. Originally planned to be launched earlier this year, Recall was lambasted by cybersecurity experts and online communities due to major security concerns.

Recall a CoPilot+ PC exclusive – for now – and leverage the particular hardware of these devices to capture everything you do. It then stores this locally on the PC, which can be searched to “recall” something you’ve forgotten.

An issue with this was that it was very easy for Recall to capture sensitive information. Passwords, credit card numbers, and bank details were all being stored in an easily accessible database.

Cybersecurity experts like Kevin Beaumont found that rather than storing the information in a secure fashion, or even with basic encryption, it was available in a database format. This could then be extrapolated with basic database software.

The second round of Recall appears to have improved its security but is still storing sensitive information. In a new report from Tom’s Hardware, they found that Recall was storing and capturing credit card information in some tests.

Using mock-up web pages, Recall stored everything down to the social security number. On more recognizable checkout sections, it managed to sensor that information by simply not capturing it.

Microsoft ups Recall’s security – but is it enough?

Microsoft’s second stab at Recall also appears to have upped the security. Databases seem to have some basic encryption, but the company still makes it a little too easy for potential hackers to get in.

If your Windows pin is discovered, there’s still a chance someone can access Recall through the official app. If someone gains remote access to your PC, the folder could potentially also be extracted.

While it is still in a preview state, a lot of users across social media are already showing multiple methods of how to disable it on systems. Microsoft is apparently adamant about getting this feature adopted by more users, with some finding that it’s being activated on a fresh install, including enterprise versions of Windows.

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LinkedIn has a new initiative to tackle short-form video platforms, like TikTok. This comes as more content-focused apps try implementing their version of the Chinese company’s video methods.

The video-sharing app has ballooned in popularity since it rebranded from Musical.ly to TikTok. It became especially popular during the worldwide lockdown in 2020, with different trends taking over each month.

LinkedIn, however, is the dominant force in the job market. The social network incorporates job searching, business networking, and content creation under one roof. It was bought by Microsoft in 2016, and can now be accessed through a Windows 11 shortcut by pressing Ctrl+Win+Alt+Shift+L.

Speaking with a range of people, Business Insider has found that interaction on the platform has boomed since the company pushed for video. One example found a text post that received 10,000 impressions from 15,000 followers. Switching over to video, this exploded to 2 million.

LinkedIn itself has confirmed that video content is viewed 1.4 times more than regular text or link-based posts. Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, said in the October earnings call that LinkedIn’s viewership was up “36% year-over-year”.

Short form video is coming for LinkedIn too

Speaking with Business Insider, community manager Jamé Jackson said that they want to make LinkedIn “a daily habit for people”, as well as show that it is “much more than just a platform for job searching.”

Meta and Google have also taken notice of TikTok’s success. The scrolling, addictive nature of the app with hundreds of hours of short content has taken hold of Instagram and YouTube. In 2020, Instagram launched Reels, and YouTube Shorts was made live.

TikTok is currently in an embittered battle with the US government. It looks likely that owner Bytedance will have to sell it off to a US company, or risk being banned from the country.

However, as with LinkedIn’s huge boom in content views, TikTok creators are warning that their businesses could be at risk in the event of a ban. Microsoft, Google, and Meta will be using this potential ban as an in to replace the app.

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Aurora, the new AI image generator from Elon Musk’s xAI was quickly taken down over the weekend after being made live. It is planned to be baked into Grok, X’s (formerly Twitter) generative AI chatbot, and has already drawn attention for its capabilities.

X hasn’t officially commented on the removal of Aurora, with speculation being that it was made live too early. Elon Musk simply said it was a “beta” and “will improve very fast”.

However, it might be drawing more attention thanks to limited guardrails around the software. As with Grok’s previous Flux AI creator, it appears Aurora is quite capable of generating copyrighted materials – as well as celebrities.

Muy impresionante Aurora, la función hiperrealista de Grok para generar imágenes por IA con rostros conocidos pic.twitter.com/cdq9eYAVuq

— Ricardo Sametband (@rsametband) December 10, 2024

Multiple images were posted by users who managed to get in before Aurora was pulled. Some depict Elon Musk in the army or as Thor. Two users found that it’s exceptionally good at recreating Taylor Swift, Jeff Bezos, and other tech luminaries.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as these massive AI language models are trained on huge quantities of data. In the last few months, companies like Nvidia were found to be harvesting YouTube and Netflix for sources. OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, has said it’s “impossible” to train these models without touching on copyrighted material.

However, X pushed the limits with Grok, as the platform became flooded with copyrighted images on Flux AI’s initial release.

Musk flexes X’s AI capabilities with Aurora

xAI's Grok 2 Stuns with Ultra-Realistic AI Images

xAI just made waves by releasing Grok 2, paired with Aurora their groundbreaking AI image model (though quickly pulled offline).

The level of photorealism achieved is absolutely mind-blowing pic.twitter.com/TLdK53pFra

— Amit | Product Upfront | AI (@ProductUpfront) December 10, 2024

Musk is going all in on AI. The xAI company has one of the world’s largest AI clusters in the world. It’s made up of around 100,000 Nvidia chips, all designed to train and run the models xAI is developing.

It’s not known how much involvement Musk will have in xAI, as his duties are about to expand rapidly. Between running X, xAI, and Tesla, he is slated to run DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) under the incoming Trump administration.

He’s also currently embroiled with a competitor, OpenAI, as it pivots to becoming a for-profit company. OpenAI has recently released its video generator, Sora, to praise and concern surrounding its realism.

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finally begun to pay out part of the $520 million settlement from its 2022 Epic Games and Fortnite lawsuit. More than $72 million has been dished out to those affected by “dark patterns” or “tricked” into making unwanted purchases.

However, the full $520 million isn’t entirely set aside for refunding players. Instead, Epic’s cash has been split in half, with the rest going to pay off penalties from the FTC. In 2022, the FTC sought to take Epic to task for its handling of data from those 13 and under, as well as its design philosophies.

The agency said that the way Fortnite was designed was to effectively “trick” players into making unwanted purchases. In its complaint, the FTC said these “dark patterns” were allowing players to make “unwanted purchases”, as well as giving children carte blanche to “rack up unauthorized charges without any parental involvement.”

These dark patterns could be anything from a button placed in an easily accessible location, or providing no parental consent warnings before purchases.

Fortnite FTC payout finally hits two years later

Fortnite is one of the biggest games to date, accumulating billions per year since it launched the Battle Royale mode in 2017. The game was originally in development hell, announced in 2011 as a co-op survival game.

This was eventually released but to a muted reception. After the massive success of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (now known just as PUBG), Epic pivoted to the battle royale genre, where 100 players must duke it out for survival.

Since then, Fortnite has become a staple of the live service industry, with dozens of games chasing after its success. It has released a dedicated LEGO game, as well as introducing games released within Fortnite. On top of this, it regularly has high-value crossovers.

However, its huge popularity with children and teens raised suspicions of the FTC, which eventually cracked down on Epic after multiple complaints. Part of these complaints was the banning of accounts and ignoring those with issues around payments.

How to get a Fortnite FTC refund

To claim your PayPal payment or cash cheque from the FTC Fortnite payment, you’ll need to sign up through their website. This will require your Epic Account ID, which the FTC provides a guide for those without an email from them on how to find. You’ll also need to be in the US.

You can also still make a complaint.

Am I eligible for the Fortnite FTC refund?

Here are the requirements to be eligible:

• Charged for in-game currency for items that you didn’t want between January 2017 and September 2022
• You were locked out of your account after complaining to your credit card company between January 2017 and September 2022
• Your child made charges to your card without your prior knowledge between January 2017 and November 2018

Featured image: Fortnite, FTC, Epic Games

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The US government has sanctioned a Chinese cybersecurity firm and charged Guan Tianfeng, an employee, with “a conspiracy to hack indiscriminately into firewall devices worldwide in 2020.”

Tianfeng, who goes by gbigmao, was at the center of a major hacking scandal. According to the US Treasury and Justice Department, he and his team wrote malware that exploited a vulnerability in Sophos firewall tech, or a “zero-day” exploit.

While the hack was primarily to steal data, a statement by the Treasury Department claims that “serious injury or loss of human life” was also on the table.

Targeting around 81,000 firewalls, Tianfeng and other hackers hit glaring vulnerabilities. The main one in question is CVE-2020-12271, which targets SQL databases (the most common type) by injecting bad code to give access to remote code execution. With this access, it would allow the hackers to do as they wished.

The Treasury Department reports that over 23,000 of these firewalls were within the United States. According to the report, “36 were protecting U.S. critical infrastructure companies’ systems.”

A zero-day vulnerability is usually applied to exploits in things like software, where the issue at hand isn’t immediately fixable or known to those being hacked. Sophos has been in an ongoing battle with malicious Chinese hackers for years, which it revealed in a report earlier this year.

Sophos’ Chinese hacking woes continue

Sophos, a UK cybersecurity company, provides security services worldwide. As it’s embedded in dozens of important systems, it makes its firewalls and security tools a prime target for hackers.

One of these targets might have been oil rigs, which the Treasury Department claims could have been subject to “malfunction” if the hack had gone through.

Part of the hack involved social engineering. To avoid being too obvious, they signed up for fake Sophos domains, which they then used as part of their hack.

Chinese hacking group, Volt Typhoon, has also been accused of striking Sophos’ infrastructure. Along with Tianfeng, they are also being sought after by the US. Other groups like APT31 and APT41 are also implicated in the hacking. Just last week, the US government issued a warning against Salt Typhoon as its hacking escalates.

However, the US hasn’t arrested Tianfeng or any of the hackers involved. He remains wanted by the FBI, with a reward of up to $10 million for information.

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Humane, the maker of the AI pin, has decided to pivot from its hardware aspirations to software. After a less-than-stellar launch, with it unable to complete certain advertised tasks, the Humane AI Pin has been moved aside.

It seems that the company doesn’t intend to target just one product anymore, but every product. In a new video demo, Humane shows off its vision for the “information age”. This includes baking its AI into cars, TV, and more.

The company is now trying to launch its own operating system (OS), dubbed CosmOS. It aims to “orchestrate” various artificial intelligence agents and actions by restructuring the way users interact with a device or OS.

Rather than the user interacting with each individual program and interface, the AI would do it for you through different AI Agents. Agents are specialized pieces of software aimed to make AI do a very specific job.

Humane’s CosmOS doesn’t seem to be an actual operating system

However, in the video demo – in which Humane added fine print that it was for “illustrative” purposes – Humane claims it built the OS for the Pin. The Pin actually ran on a version of Android, and in the demo appears to be an interactive AI agent layer rather than a fully fledged alternative to iOS or Android.

Building a brand-new OS is incredibly difficult, and adoption is even harder. Huawei is currently poised to ditch Android after the West ditched it due to fears of Chinese interference. HarmonyOS is expected only to succeed because 25% of Chinese phone owners are already with Huawei.

Skepticism is high with the announcement. At launch, the Humane Pin’s CosmOS struggled to pronounce and find Beyoncé songs in a video because of the accented e. The Pin itself was actually returned more than it sold during launch.

The video mostly deals with managing calendars, and appointments and listening to recipes on what appears to be a censored Amazon Alexa. It’s planned to also read emails, and what’s on the screen to provide more information.

Everything demonstrated is what Google and Apple plan to bake into their devices with Gemini and Siri. However, even early attempts through Apple Intelligence and Google Assistant updates have been met with issues, including making things up.

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Amazon is giving away a variety of games to coincide with its new Secret Level show. The show is an anthology series, based on games like Armored Core and Warhammer 40K, either directly pulling from the worlds or reimagining them, as it is with Pac-Man.

Not every game is featured in the giveaway, with it mostly being older Warhammer 40K and Dungeons & Dragons themed games. Space Marine 2’s story might be continued in some fashion in Secret Level, but you’ll only find the excellent original, classic real-time strategy game Dawn of War and shooter, Necromunda: Hired Gun.

The biggest draw here is the giveaway of Obsidian’s spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds. It’s a satire-heavy roleplaying game in the same fashion as a Bethesda RPG, like Fallout, but on a slightly smaller scale.

Indie legend Spelunky and Capcom’s legacy sequel, Mega Man 11 will keep you on your toes with their difficulty as well.

A big focus of Secret Level is Dungeons & Dragons. Off the back of this, Amazon has packed the giveaway with three classic D&D-based games, Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 Enhanced Editions and Neverwinter Nights. These aren’t as friendly as the recent Baldur’s Gate 3, but if you can get around their little retro quirks (or follow a guide), you’ll be right at home.

What games are free with Amazon’s Secret Level giveaway?

• Warhammer 40K
  • Dawn of War
  • Space Marine
  • Necromunda
  • Space Hulk: Death Wing
• Dungeons & Dragons
  • Baldur’s Gate 1: Enhanced Edition
  • Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition
  • Neverwinter Nights
• Spelunky
• Mega Man
• The Outer Worlds

You’ll need an Amazon Prime membership, as well as a Good Old Games account for a majority of the games included. Necromunda requires an Epic Games account, however.

Amazon and the entertainment industry have begun to move more into video game adaptations as time goes on. The year will end with a third Sonic The Hedgehog movie, as well as Secret Level. Fallout was a major success for Amazon, and it plans to bring Bioware’s sci-fi epic, Mass Effect, to screens soon. Secret Level airs on December 10 on Amazon Prime.

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League of Legends developer, Riot Games, is moving ahead with “Project K”. Announced in a video, it’s a League of Legends trading card game (TCG). It’s the latest game from the studio, as it pushes to create more games rather than relying solely on the massive esports title.

The TCG will not be a physical version of its digital card game, Legends of Runeterra, but its own game entirely. This is just a first glimpse at the game, but Riot appears to be putting its full weight behind it.

Project K will launch in China first, with a planned release in 2025. Riot has confirmed that it has secured printing and production on the game, meaning that a Western launch shouldn’t be too far behind.

From the video, it’s hard to tell how the game will be played, but small glimpses of cards and terms used by those featured let us vaguely guess. Terms like “ganked” are used, as well as references to “moving battlefield”. League’s game is split into three lanes, which you have to defend from the other team.

Movement between battlefields indicates that the game will try to emulate that lane-like structure. This would be similar in concept to Artifact, Valve’s Dota 2 digital card game designed by the creator of Magic: The Gathering.

It’ll also support up to four players, and known TCG terms like “aggro” and “tempo” are thrown around to give an idea of who it’s aimed at.

League of Legends TCG already plans a competitive scene

Announced by Game Director Dave Guskin and Chengran Chai, Executive Producer, the game will be supporting organized play. They’ve described it as a “whole competitive ecosystem”, as it appears to be targeting Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering (MTG) and Pokemon: TCG (PTCG).

These games don’t only run major tournaments, but also support local store competitions and casual events, like Friday Night Magic. However, Riot has a significant advantage over Wizards and even Pokemon.

League of Legends is a huge esport, with millions of dollars spent each tournament on prize pools, as well as major sport-level productions.

Wizards of the Coast’s MTG tournament scene has been heavily critical over the last few years for its inability to put on a decent show. While the Hasbro-owned company has picked up the slack more recently, it pales in comparison to how Riot covers its games.

Riot’s League TCG has a lot to beat

For the last few years, Riot has been pushing to produce more with League of Legends. It has already managed to produce the highly praised Arcane TV series on Netflix. The company also managed to sit side-by-side with Valve with its take on Counter-Strike, a multiplayer shooter with a 24-year history, with Valorant.

Smaller games have also been released, as well as plans to bring a League of Legends fighting game, 2XKO (previously Project L).

Project K, however, has an uphill battle. While Magic and Pokemon are growing from strength to strength, Disney threw its hat into the ring last year with Lorcana.

MTG is also expected to grow exponentially next year, as it introduces Marvel and Final Fantasy cards into the mix. There’s also the ever-growing popularity of the One Piece TCG, as well as smaller games like Flesh and Blood, all vying for the attention of players.

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Snoop Dogg has posted his Xbox Year in Review, and it definitely is the American stoner stereotype. 2024 was seemingly massive for the notorious weed smoker, as he not only commentated and performed at the Olympics, has an album out on December 13, but also managed to squeeze in thousands of hours of gaming time.

The rap and pot legend has accumulated 1363 hours across 2024, placing him in the top 2% of all players. He’s also spent enough time in Madden 24 and 25, EA’s yearly football titles, to be placed in the top 1% in the world. While Madden 24 would have been played across the last 12 months, 25 was only released in August.

Time 2 flex Tha Dogg top 1% in the world n clocced 1300 hours of Xbox this year @Xbox Year in Review https://t.co/Re2vnKhQ5g real gamer yadigg #xboxpartner #xboxyearinreview pic.twitter.com/BXfOjxI75j

— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) December 5, 2024

Much like Spotify Wrapped, Xbox Year in Review gives players insights into how much time they spend in games and where they stand amongst the rest of the players.

Snoop Dogg’s Xbox gaming habits are the stuff of legend

Snoop Dogg’s gaming habits have been a thing of legend within the gaming community. His Twitch streams were hastily put together, often without sound.

He has also appeared in Call of Duty, as both a skin in the rebooted Modern Warfare 2 and 3, as well as Vanguard. For 2014’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, he provided a voice-over as an announcer.

Snoop Dogg’s love of Xbox also resulted in him receiving a giant Xbox Series X fridge, complete with cake. He’s also spoken out publicly whenever one of his favorite games goes down. In 2016, he railed against Xbox when servers went down.

In multiple videos, he blames EA, Bill Gates, Microsoft, and Xbox for EA’s servers being down when he was trying to play.

Snoop Dogg is scheduled to perform at The Game Awards, on December 12. Announced December 5, the Geoff Keighley run show will be the last live performance before the release of his newest album, Missionary.

Featured image: Microsoft, Wikicommons

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