The Morning After: Meta crams its AI chatbot into your Instagram DMs – Engadget
Instagram got a surprise visitor. Meta AI, the company’s AI-powered chatbot that can answer questions, write poetry and generate images with a simple text prompt, is up in your DMs. Meta warned that Meta AI was coming and has spent the last few months adding the chatbot to products like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. We all knew Instagram would be next.
“Our generative AI-powered experiences are under development in various phases, and we’re testing a range of them publicly in a limited capacity,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. For some of us at Engadget, the feature appeared in Instagram’s Direct Messaging inbox.
We could tap it to start a conversation with Meta AI, where it could give definitions of words, suggest headlines and… generate images of dogs on skateboards.
Ah, the future.
— Mat Smith
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TCL, maker of many TVs, is to release its first special — a short romance movie — on TCLtv+ this summer. Minimizing effort (and artistic license), it’s using generative AI, and the result is as creepy, dreamy and blurry as all the other generative AI video we’ve seen so far. Watch the protagonists’ faces contort and blur. Marvel at the tone and color profiles switching for no apparent reason. You have to watch it: a rare laugh on a Monday morning.
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Last month, Epic Games filed a motion asking a California judge to hold Apple in contempt for what it claims are violations of a 2021 injunction. Now, Apple is asking the judge to reject Epic’s request, alleging the motion is an attempt to “micromanage Apple’s business operations in a way that would increase Epic’s profitability.” Epic said Apple’s “so-called compliance is a sham” and accused the company of violating the injunction with its recent moves. Apple maintains it has acted in compliance with the injunction, stating in the new filing: “The purpose of the injunction is to make information regarding alternative purchase options more readily available, not to dictate the commercial terms.”
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Google, the search giant that brought in more than $73 billion in profit last year, is protesting a California bill that would require it and other platforms to pay media outlets. The company announced it was beginning a “short-term test” to block links to local California news sources for a “small percentage” of users in the state. How will this end up? Let’s take a look elsewhere.
The company pulled its News service out of Spain for seven years in protest of local copyright laws. However, in Australia, the company signed deals worth about $150 million to pay publishers. It also eventually backed off threats to pull news from search results in Canada and forked over about $74 million.
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Gaming laptops are now cheaper and more powerful than ever, and many wouldn’t look out of place in a classroom. If you aim to do some serious multimedia work alongside playing video games online, it’s worth looking at a dedicated gaming system. We select the best machines for balancing work with play, with advice on screen sizes, portability and more. Jack will no longer be a dull boy.
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If you’re looking to automate more of your home cleaning setup, iRobot’s flagship Roomba Combo J9+ is on sale for $400 off. The vacuum-mop hybrid robot, which only arrived last fall, has a redesigned dock that automatically empties debris and refills the device’s mopping liquid.
Tesla has issued a recall for around 3,878 Cybertruck vehicles, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notice has revealed.
This week, Engadget Senior Editor Jessica Conditt joins Cherlynn and Devindra to chat about the PS5 Pro, as well as her piece on the PlayDate two years after its release.
The biggest news stories this morning include US vs China in the form of TikTok vs WhatsApp, and did you know Taylor Swift has a new album out?
Amazon has renewed the hit show for a second season.
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China's Cyberspace Administration ordered Apple to pull Threads and WhatsApp from its App Store in the country, the company said.
Taylor's Threads account, and her first post, are going live around midnight.
The bill that could lead to a ban of TikTok in the United States appears to be much closer to becoming law.
Although subscriber metrics are an important signal to Wall Street that show how quickly a company is growing, Netflix isn't the first company to do this.
Blizzard is targeting Overwatch 2 cheaters who use a keyboard and mouse on consoles to gain an advantage over controller users.
Though it feels like Children of the Sun popped into existence over the span of two months, it took Rother a lifetime to get here.
Quicken Simplifi subscriptions are half off through April 21. This brings the price down to $2 per month, which is billed annually at $24.
Meta has given the base Quest 2 a permanent price cut for the second time this year. A headset with 128GB of storage is now $199.
If you watch movies and TV on a 1080p screen, the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) provides a rock-solid streaming experience on the cheap. Today, Amazon has it for $10 off, letting you pick up the HDR10-capable streaming stick for only $20.
Razer just released the Kishi Ultra mobile gaming controller. It works with some foldable phones, in addition to Android devices, iPhones and iPads.
Netflix has renewed The Witcher for a fifth season, but that will be the show's last. Liam Hemsworth is taking over as Geralt of Rivia for the final two seasons.
Cities: Skylines 2 developer Colossal Order is unlisting and refunding purchases of its controversial Beach Properties asset pack less than a month after its release.
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