The Morning After: Meta crams its AI chatbot into your Instagram DMs
More DMs.
Instagram got a surprise visitor. Meta AI, the companyâs 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.
âOur generative AI-powered experiences are under development in various phases, and weâre testing a range of them publicly in a limited capacity,â a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. For some of us at Engadget, the feature appeared in Instagramâs 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.
â Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
Our favorite Sony wireless earbuds are on sale for a record-low price
Interstellar is coming back to theaters in September for its 10-year anniversary
Playdate revisited: Two years later
ââYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
TCLâs first original movie is this terrible-looking AI-generated love story
Stop reading this and just watch.
TCL, maker of many TVs, is to release its first special â a short romance movie â on TCLtv+ this summer. Minimizing effort (and artistic license), itâs using generative AI, and the result is as creepy, dreamy and blurry as all the other generative AI video weâve seen so far. Watch the protagonistsâ 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.
Apple claims Epic is trying to âmicromanageâ its business
The company is asking a judge to deny Epicâs recent motion.
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 Epicâs request, alleging the motion is an attempt to âmicromanage Appleâs business operations in a way that would increase Epicâs profitability.â Epic said Appleâs âso-called compliance is a shamâ 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: âThe purpose of the injunction is to make information regarding alternative purchase options more readily available, not to dictate the commercial terms.â
Google, a $1.97 trillion company, is protesting Californiaâs plan to pay journalists
The company is temporarily removing links to California news for some.
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 âshort-term testâ to block links to local California news sources for a âsmall percentageâ of users in the state. How will this end up? Letâs 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.
The best laptops for both gaming and schoolwork
True work-and-play machines.
Gaming laptops are now cheaper and more powerful than ever, and many wouldnât look out of place in a classroom. If you aim to do some serious multimedia work alongside playing video games online, itâs 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.