Apple's App Store rules now more explicitly ban so-called "nudify" apps that generate intimate images of people without their consent using AI tools.

The rule changes follow significant criticism toward Apple after X users used Grok earlier this year to make nonconsensual, sexualized deepfakes, including minors. Apple didn't pull X or Grok from the App Store, though it told senators that it threatened to yank Grok. At Apple's WWDC event in June, protestors also called on Apple to "remove Grok, X, and all nudify technology from the App Store," and in July, a San Francisco city attorney ordered Apple to remove 13 "nudify" apps, which it said …

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Wu-Tang's Once Upon A Time in Shaolin album has, for the most part, been extremely difficult to listen to, but you can now hear two snippets of the album thanks to the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, which just published an episode all about the exclusive record.

Once Upon A Time in Shaolin has a long history, which Pablo Torre Finds Out goes into in detail. Disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli bought the only copy of the album, which cannot be commercially released until 2103, in 2015 at auction. Shkreli had to forfeit the album to the US government, and the government sold it in 2021 to the crypto art collective PleasrDAO, whi …

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Valve is introducing a major new feature for Steam achievements called "achievement sets" that lets developers list different groups of achievements for a base game and DLCs.

"In games that support sets, you still unlock achievements by playing the game as usual," Valve says. "But when you browse what you have unlocked afterward, Steam will break the long list of game achievements into the developer-created sets, making it easier to see what you have completed and to find other related achievements you can unlock next." Achievement sets have their own progress bars, and if you finish a set, you'll get a "set complete" trophy that's visible …

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Sega is removing Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Edition from storefronts following a disastrous launch where users complained about issues like bugs and upscaling that appears to have been done by AI.

Complete Edition, a remaster of the 2011 strategy game, launched on Tuesday, and it bundled the main game and all of its DLC with promised upgrades including "improved visuals," "1440p and 4K UI scaling," and modernized controls. It has an "Overwhelmingly Negative" rating on Steam, where it has already been pulled, and posts on Reddit showcase artwork that users believe AI messed up.

"We're aware that Total War: Shogun 2 - Complete Editio …

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Bluesky's Attie AI tool, which initially launched earlier this year as a way to use AI to build your own feeds, now lets you make "small" social apps like games, polls, and dashboards that you can then share with others as their own websites. In an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt, Bluesky CEO Toni Schneider said to think of Attie as "social vibe coding or vibe coding for your community."

You can make your own Attie app by typing in a prompt. A simple poll I made about Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue took a few minutes to generate. If you want to check out something more full-featured, the Attie website currently highlights a few examples l …

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Meta announced the Muse Spark Open AI model today, claiming that it's the "most capable US open-weight model to date." But the company also says that it's the "the first model in its class" that can "run on your desktop using two Apple M5 Ultra Mac Studios with the latest MLX framework."

Meta and Apple, typically rivals, worked together on the launch and are publicly supporting each other.

"Muse Spark Open - weights releasing today - runs great on new Mac Studios thanks to work with @johnternus and Apple," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on X.

"Congrats to the team!" new Apple CEO John Ternus said in a reply. "Amazing to run a model of Muse …

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Google is updating its AI search results to make inline links appear "higher up in responses more frequently," according to a blog post. The company's search results from AI Overviews and AI Mode give you answers in a customized view instead of the traditional list of links, but there are concerns that the format reduces traffic to publishers. Google says it's been making "continued and substantial increases to the presence of inline links in our AI experiences," and this new change will help ensure "ensure key sources are easily clickable right when you need them."

The company is announcing several other changes to highlight links an …

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Consulting firm McKinsey & Company is going to ask some entry-level candidates to have a 10-minute conversation with an AI simulation of a client as part of the interview process, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The AI simulation "aims to reflect 80% of the scenarios McKinsey consultants might encounter in their day-to-day work," the WSJ says, and it isn't designed to "mimic an unhinged client." The AI won't score the candidates - humans will be in the room to assess the candidates and see how well they deal with the simulated situations.

The McKinsey tool will be in testing for undergrads seeking business-analyst jobs in "some" offi …

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If you don't get AppleCare Plus for the iPhone Duo, any repairs are going to be pretty expensive. Apple published the estimated repair costs for the iPhone Duo without AppleCare Plus today, as reported by MacRumors, and they can be high: Battery service, for example, will cost $229, inner display damage will cost $999, and "other damage" costs $1,499.

Here's Apple's estimated costs for various repairs if you don't have AppleCare Plus:

Cover layer damage $49

Back glass damage $199

Battery service $229

Rear camera damage $229

Outer display damage $379

Outer display and back glass damage $509

Inner display damage $999

Ot …

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Epic Games is announcing a big refresh of its PC games launcher today in preview, saying that the new version is "way faster" and now supports Linux. But the company, which has been publicly making a big push into AI-assisted development, also notes that the refresh was "vibe coded."

"Programming is hard," Epic says in a blog post. "So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that's way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look."

On Monday, CEO Tim Sweeney announced that the company has a "huge pivot underway," where it will be "moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. …

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Epic is working on bringing Fortnite to Linux through its Epic Games Launcher. The new launcher is releasing in preview today, and for the first time on Linux, and while Fortnite isn't available there just yet, Epic wants to make that a reality.

So far, part of the reason Fortnite hasn't been available on Linux is concerns about cheating. While Epic's Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) service does support Linux, Fortnite itself does not, and in February 2022, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that for Fortnite, "We don't have confidence that we'd be able to combat cheating at scale under a wide array of kernel configurations." But now, Epic says it's pla …

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Apple is hosting an event on October 13th that seems like it will be all about its efforts for the smart home. The event’s tagline is certainly a big hint — “Welcome home” — but the company is also heavily rumored to be launching a series of new smart home products soon.

One of the rumored new products is a smart home hub with a display that will also feature the newly released Siri AI assistant, according to Bloomberg. MacRumors has obtained what appear to be official images of a new HomePod Mini with refreshed colors and a new Apple TV 4K with a similar design to the current version. Bloomberg has also reported that Apple is collaborating with LG on devices like a video doorbell and a thermostat, and recent leaked renders appeared to show off some of those new devices.

The event takes place in New York at 9AM ET, and you can follow along with all of our coverage right here.

• How Apple can win the smart home
• What to expect from Apple’s ‘Welcome Home’ event
• Apple may have filed to trademark the word “HomeView.”
• Apple announces surprise ‘Welcome home’ launch event

FCC chairman Brendan Carr said he will defer to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on whether TV networks can air the planned execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan by firing squad.

The Pentagon has said the execution will be livestreamed, suggesting it'll appear on an online platform beyond the FCC's jurisdiction. But it's common for broadcast TV networks to air live video of government events, and Carr's agency does have a say over what happens on public airwaves.

"My understanding is it's not on broadcast TV, so I don't think there's a role for the FCC one way or the other," Carr said in a CNBC interview today. "But I trust …

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The United States' execution of the Fort Hood shooter will be livestreamed, anonymous officials from the Defense Department told the BBC and Associated Press. The planned execution of Nidal Hasan, the former US Army major convicted of killing 13 people at the Texas military base, was announced this week. He is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3rd at 2PM ET.

The Verge contacted YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Meta, Rumble, and Kick to ask if they plan to allow the livestream to be aired on their platforms. None responded before publication.

"We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need …

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Apple is set to introduce a new MacBook Pro with a touchscreen and an updated iPad Mini "on or around" October 27th, Bloomberg reports. If true, that would put the event just two weeks after the October 13th event Apple announced today, which is rumored to focus on smart home products.

Bloomberg says that the late October event will include an "online video presentation" and an "in-person component for the press," which it reports is similar to what Apple is planning for the October 13th event.

At this Mac and iPad event, Bloomberg reports that Apple will announce new MacBook Pros that are lighter than what's available now, have touchscree …

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The California State Athletic Commission sent a cease-and-desist letter to a startup that hosted a match between a human and a robot last month, as reported by The New York Times.

The fight, which took place on September 18th, pitted a human, Frankie LaPenna, against a humanoid robot owned by a tech startup, Rek, that was being piloted by a human using what the NYT described as a "remote virtual-reality system." Rek says it is the "the humanoid robot fighting league" on its website, and the robot appears to be one from EngineAI but with a Terminator-like head swapped on top.

You can watch a replay of the fight on YouTube:

The CEO of Rek …

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Cyberpunk 2077 is heading to the big screen. Deadline reports that CD Projekt Red's popular sci-fi video game franchise is being adapted into a live-action film by Paramount Pictures. There's no details just yet on when the film might premiere. But Deadline says that Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who is known for producing the Transformers films, will be a producer on the movie.

"We're excited about Paramount as a future partner who shares our creative ambitions for the Cyberpunk franchise," says CD Projekt Red joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski. "We look forward to sharing more details at the appropriate time."

Despite its rocky 2020 launch, Cyberpunk …

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Tim Cook stepped down as Apple CEO in September, handing over the top job to former hardware chief John Ternus and taking an executive chairman role. Cook's still a visible representative of the company, having been recently photographed attending a state dinner at the White House. But in an interview with The Independent, Cook says he's "not meddling" in Ternus' work.

"First of all, John and I have an incredible level of trust in each other," Cook said. "The relationship must be based on trust, and the communication must be frequent and significant. But other than that, what I'm focused on right now is worldwide policy. And the interface w …

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The Trump administration is suspending some tech companies, including Microsoft, from an immigration program that lets an employer hire foreign workers that can reside permanently in the US, as reported by Reuters.

In a press conference, Vice President JD Vance claimed the permanent labor certification program - intended for use when there aren't "sufficient" US workers available to do a job - has become "rife" with fraud over the "past several years," and that no company has "abused" the system more than Microsoft. "Our message to Microsoft is: you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers."

The administr …

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Apple has just announced a new October event, taking place in New York on October 13th at 9AM ET. The company is rumored to be launching smart home-focused products this month, and the event invite hints that'll be the case: Apple is using the tagline "Welcome home."

At the event, Apple is rumored to announce products including a smart home hub with a display, an updated HomePod Mini, a new Apple TV. The company is also reportedly teaming up with LG on new smart home devices that will launch at the event, including a video doorbell, thermostat, …

Read the full story at The Verge.