Author: Admin

It’s almost time for football’s triumphant return. As fantasy leagues around the country continue their drafts, and the real teams finalize their actual rosters, NFL fans around the world are prepping in earnest for the start of the 2023 regular season. Week 1 begins on Thursday, Sept. 7, with the Detroit Lions visiting the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. That game will be live on NBC, but how about watching the rest of the 2023 campaign?

This year there are more options on streaming services than ever. YouTube and YouTube TV are now the exclusive home of NFL Sunday Ticket, the plan that lets you watch any out-of-market game. Meanwhile, the NFL has improved its own NFL Plus streaming service to include RedZone and the NFL Network in the Premium tier and allowing both channels to be viewable on your TV or computer. Local and primetime games, however, are still locked to mobile devices.

Throw in the games that appear on Paramount Plus (all CBS contests), Peacock (all NBC games, plus an exclusive Week 16 game between the Bills and Chargers), ESPN Plus (some Monday Night Football and an exclusive Week 4 international game between the Falcons and Jaguars in London) and Amazon’s Prime Video (all Thursday night games after opening night), and things can get complicated in a hurry.

Here’s what you need to know to stream all the NFL action this year, and our recommendations for watching the 2023 NFL season, including RedZone, week in and week out.

Who airs games and when?

Paying for cable used to be the easiest solution, but not the cheapest, for watching all the football. In today’s world things have gotten a bit more complicated with games played across three different days and nights each week on different channels and streaming services.

Most NFL games are played on Sunday, with a game each week on Monday and Thursday nights. On Sundays, games start around 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) and 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. ET), with most AFC teams on CBS and most NFC teams on Fox. NBC has the primetime Sunday night game.

Although the first Thursday night game will be on NBC, the rest of the games for Thursday Night Football (with the exception of Week 12’s Thanksgiving Thursday games) will be shown on Amazon’s Prime Video. Week 12’s Amazon game will be taking place on Black Friday and feature the Dolphins visiting the Jets.

As in previous seasons, Monday Night Football games will be on ESPN and/or ABC. This year there will be several Monday night doubleheaders including in weeks 2, 3 and 14 with games airing on ABC and ESPN. It is worth mentioning that ABC will be the exclusive TV broadcast for one of the Monday night games during those weeks, as well as having the exclusive TV broadcast feed for Week 16’s Christmas game between the Ravens and 49ers.

What are my streaming options for NFL games in 2023?

All five of the live TV streaming services (YouTube TV, Hulu Plus Live TV, DirecTV Stream, Sling TV and Fubo) carry ESPN, ABC, NBC and Fox, and all but Sling TV carry CBS (though you need Sling Orange to get ESPN). All but DirecTV Stream carry the NFL Network with their base plans (DirecTV does offer it with its pricier options, like Choice, Ultimate or Premier).

For the games on CBS and Fox, keep in mind that not every service carries every local network, so check each one using the links below to make sure it carries ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in your particular area.

In addition to Prime Video, there are four other streaming services that cord-cutting NFL fans should consider. Both the Essential and With Showtime (previously known as Premium) versions of Paramount Plus will show CBS games on Sundays, and both the paid Premium and step-up Plus versions of Peacock will show NBC’s broadcasts of Sunday Night Football (plus that exclusive Week 16 game).

ESPN Plus will stream some Monday Night Football games that air on ESPN and/or ABC, as well as that exclusive Week 4 game, but not all Monday night games that Disney broadcasts will stream on ESPN Plus.

Lastly, there’s NFL RedZone, a channel that springs to life each fall and shows live NFL action during the Sunday afternoon games. It pops in and out of the live games and attempts to show each touchdown scored in each game. RedZone is available as an add-on on all five major live TV streaming services.

What about NFL Plus and NFL Network?

NFL Plus, the NFL’s own streaming service, recently got a few tweaks to go along with its price hike. Now starting at $7 per month ($50 if purchased annually), you can still stream any local or national games regardless of whether they air on ABC, ESPN, CBS, Fox, NBC or Amazon Prime Video, but those streams are limited to just watching on a phone or tablet.

NFL Plus will also let you watch the ESPN Plus and Peacock exclusive games (though again, only on a phone or tablet).

NFL Network is now also included, and you can watch the football-focused channel as well as the eight exclusive NFL games it airs (in Weeks 5, 6, 9, 10, and 16 as well as three games in Week 15), on your mobile device, computer, game console or TV with NFL Plus.

The NFL Network is also offered by the five major streaming services in at least some of their plans.

Those looking for RedZone can opt for NFL Plus’ Premium plan that runs $15 per month (or $100 annually). Discounts on NFL Plus can drop the annual prices by 20%, though that offer is listed by the league as being available for a “limited time.” Like with the NFL Network, NFL Plus Premium will let users stream RedZone on TVs and computers in addition to their phones and tablets.

Best for everything: YouTube TV ($73 without RedZone, $84 with)

Our pick from the last two years remains our go-to choice in 2023.

Now priced at $73 per month, YouTube TV checks all the NFL boxes. Local channels CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC are included in many markets, as are ESPN and the NFL Network so you can watch Sundays and Monday nights. The next best options are Fubo and Hulu Plus Live TV; both offer the same channels as YouTube TV for NFL fans, but Fubo runs $75 per month and Hulu is set to jump to $77 per month in October.

Want to follow your fantasy team with RedZone? That’s available on all three services as part of an add-on. If you’re a YouTube TV subscriber, you can add the $11 per month Sports Plus add-on by clicking on your profile and going to Settings, then the Membership tab. Fubo subscribers can go into My Profile and choose Manage Add-ons to get its $11-per-month Sports Plus with NFL RedZone offering. And Hulu users can now add RedZone for $10 per month with its Sports add-on.

Both YouTube TV and Fubo allow three people to watch at once (Hulu allows two livestreams) and all three have apps on nearly every mobile device and major streaming platform, including Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Roku and Apple TV.

While all three are largely similar, we like YouTube TV for its superior DVR — unlimited storage compared with 30 hours on Fubo and 50 hours on Hulu. We also like YouTube TV because it gives you an option to stream in 4K for an extra $20 a month. Fubo does, too, with its $85-a-month Elite plan. Keep in mind that only Fox and NBC have previously offered 4K NFL broadcasts; CBS and ESPN do not.

DirecTV Stream offers all the main broadcast channels for NFL games, but it starts at $80 per month (after factoring in various fees), requires a two-year contract and that base package lacks the NFL Network. Adding in RedZone also costs an extra $15 per month through its Sports Pack. For new customers, it is worth pointing out that DirecTV is offering to waive the $15 per month Sports Pack fee for three months (or what amounts to most of the NFL’s regular season, which ends the first week in January).

The service is also offering $400 Visa cards to new users who sign up for one of its packages and YouTube’s Sunday Ticket, so long as they submit proof of their purchase of Sunday Ticket to DirecTV.

Sling TV’s Orange and Blue plan for $60 a month gets you ESPN and the NFL Network, and, in select major markets, Fox and/or ABC and NBC, but you’ll still lack CBS. You can also add RedZone for an additional $11 per month with its Sports Extra add-on (if you have just Sling Blue; if you have the Orange and Blue plan it’ll be $15 per month extra).

Sling is also offering a deal where new users can prepay for five months of its Orange and Blue plus Sports Extra add-on for $274. Dubbed the “Sling Season Pass,” this would get you most of the NFL channels including RedZone (but again, not CBS) for roughly $55 per month.

The cheapest way to stream NFL RedZone: NFL Plus Premium ($15 per month)

A frequent fan-favorite method of following all the NFL action on Sundays, RedZone is a way to catch every big play around the league. The cheapest road to RedZone in 2023 is with NFL Plus Premium. With the NFL adding in the popular channel and the ability to watch it on more than just phones and tablets — including TVs and computers — it’s the easy go-to pick for RedZone fans.

Budget alternative for NFC fans in big cities: Sling Blue ($45) or antenna ($20 one-time)

Those looking to save some cash might want to check out Sling Blue for $45 a month. While this package lacks ESPN, meaning you’ll miss out on Monday Night Football, in select markets you’ll be able to get Fox and NBC. The catch is that those markets are mainly in big cities, so if you live outside one of those areas, Sling Blue might not be for you.

You can also add RedZone through the company’s $11 per month Sports Extra add-on.

With Sling lacking CBS (and Sling Blue lacking ABC), an antenna can fill those local channel gaps without a monthly charge.

Budget alternatives for AFC fans: Paramount Plus Essentials ($6) or an antenna ($20 one-time)

There are some apps that offer CBS’ slate of Sunday AFC games live, including Paramount Plus’ Essentials tier for $6 per month. Depending on where you live, however, your local CBS station (and those NFL games) might not be available. CBS offers livestreaming services in many markets; you can check for yourself if your area has live CBS streaming here.

An antenna is another option for getting CBS. And as we mentioned above, an over-the-air antenna connected to your TV provides another option for all the basic channels, no streaming or monthly fee required, as long as you have good reception.

Thursday Night Football: Amazon Prime Video

Starting in Week 2, the games on Thursday nights are available only on Prime Video, giving NFL fans more incentive than free two-day shipping to sign up for an Amazon Prime account for $15 a month or $139 a year. Those who just want Prime Video can get it for $9 per month.

The full list of Prime Video games can be found on Amazon’s site here.

What about Sunday Ticket?

After years as a DirecTV exclusive, NFL Sunday Ticket has a new home with YouTube TV. Pricing is as follows (and includes a $50 discount Google is offering):

If you have YouTube TV, you can add Sunday Ticket for a one-time charge of $299 for the season. If you want RedZone included, it’ll be $339. If you don’t have YouTube TV and just want football, you can get Sunday Ticket from YouTube for $399, or a version that includes RedZone for $439.

Students looking to save can get NFL Sunday Ticket for $109, or $119 with RedZone.

As with before, Sunday Ticket doesn’t include local games. You can only watch Sunday afternoon games that aren’t being broadcast on CBS or Fox in your area (what is known as “out-of-market” contests). If you want to watch all the football on Sundays you’ll need Sunday Ticket plus an antenna or cable, satellite or streaming service like the ones we mentioned above.

Picking up one of Samsung’s biggest and best foldable phones doesn’t have to break the bank, especially if you know where to look for the right deals. Today, the place to look is right here with Amazon offering up to $300 off the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Both of these phones are available in a whole range of colors and configurations and you can now put a foldable phone in your pocket for as little as $800. That’s as much as you’d normally pay for a solid midranger from Apple or Samsung and less than your average flagship phone, and one that doesn’t even bend in the middle at that.

The biggest discounts can be found on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 with the 256GB model selling for $1,500 and the upgraded 512GB model up for just $1,620. Both of those figures are a whole $300 off the price that you’d normally pay with three different colors on offer. Regardless of the color you choose, you’ll still get that glorious 7.6-inch foldable display and a massive 6.2-inch cover display on the outside. S Pen support is included while multitasking on that tablet-like display is sure to change the way you work and play.

Prefer your foldable phones to be a little smaller? The Galaxy Z Flip 5 with 256GB of storage is down to $800, that’s $200 off. Upgrade to the 512GB model and you’ll pay $920, another $200 saving off the original $1,120 that everyone else paid. The phone comes with a foldable 6.7-inch display on the inside and a new, larger 3.4-inch outer display that can be used for widgets, notifications, and more.

We don’t yet know when these deals are going to end which means you’re taking a risk if you delay that order. Keep that in mind and make sure to pick your preferred color come buying time.

Professional football fans are gearing up for yet another big year of the NFL — the 2023-24 NFL season kicks off on Thursday night and a full slate of games is scheduled for next Sunday. As the games begin, NFL super fans are faced with a major change in TV coverage.

NFL Sunday Ticket — the streaming TV package that lets football fans watch all out-of-market Sunday afternoon NFL games during the regular season — is moving to YouTube this season. YouTube takes the mantle of Sunday Ticket from DirecTV, which has held the exclusive rights for the programming since 1994.

Read more: YouTube TV vs. Hulu Plus Live TV: The Top Streaming Services Compared

Sunday Ticket for the 2023-24 NFL season is available through YouTube TV, Google’s cablelike streaming TV service that runs $73 per month, or YouTube Primetime Channels, which offers a la carte subscriptions to providers like Starz, Max and Paramount Plus.

An NFL Sunday Ticket subscription is a significant purchase — the service costs hundreds of dollars per season, and it isn’t any cheaper now that it’s on YouTube. Read on to learn everything you need to know about NFL Sunday Ticket for the upcoming NFL season.

What is NFL Sunday Ticket?

NFL Sunday Ticket is a streaming video service that lets football fans watch all the “out-of-market” football games on a given Sunday. These are the NFL games that aren’t being shown on your local TV affiliate stations like CBS or Fox. The service essentially lets football fans watch all the Sunday games during the regular season regardless of where they live.

You’ll still need live TV service via cable, satellite or streaming (or a strong antenna) to get the games airing on your local CBS or Fox station. National games, such as Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, Sunday Night Football on NBC, Monday Night Football on ESPN and ABC and the games that air on NFL Network, Peacock and ESPN Plus are similarly not included with Sunday Ticket.

Beyond having access to every Sunday afternoon game, football fans with NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube will be able to record games to watch later and can stream different games to as many devices as they like when in their homes. Outside the home, you can watch on two additional devices at once (unless you’re on the heavily discounted student plan). YouTube has also added a few new features for this upcoming season, including “multiview,” or an option to put on multiple games at once.

How much does NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube cost?

There are a couple of different ways to purchase NFL Sunday Ticket, as well as a special discount plan for students.

With a subscription to YouTube TV, which currently costs $73 per month, you can add NFL Sunday Ticket for $349 for the season. YouTube is currently offering $50 off until Sept. 19, making the discounted price $299.

If you’re purchasing NFL Sunday Ticket without YouTube TV (via YouTube Primetime Channels), it’ll cost $449 per season. The $50 off discount for NFL Sunday Ticket until Sept. 19 also applies to Primetime Channels, making it currently $399.

Bundling NFL RedZone with NFL Sunday Ticket (with or without YouTube TV) will cost an additional $40 (making the press-time totals $339 and $439, respectively).

YouTube is offering a new monthly payment plan option for NFL Sunday Ticket that works similarly to buy now, pay later services. Instead of paying in one lump sum, you can split the price over four payments. You’ll pay the first 25% when you sign up, then an additional 25% every month for the next three months.

Monthly payment plans for NFL Sunday Ticket aren’t available in seven states: Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Nevada and Tennessee.

Also, as mentioned, YouTube is offering a special discount for college students and letting them purchase NFL Sunday Ticket for $109, or $119 with Red Zone. The student plan has limitations, however. Viewers can stream to only one device at a time, and NFL Sunday Ticket can’t be included in family sharing.

Make sure you’re absolutely certain before subscribing to NFL Sunday Ticket. YouTube doesn’t allow any cancellations or refunds for the service.

Prices of NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube

Plan	Full season price (until Sept. 19)	Student price	Monthly price (for YouTube TV)
NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV	$299	N/A	$73
NFL Sunday Ticket without YouTube TV	$399	$109	N/A
NFL Sunday Ticket + RedZone with YouTube TV	$339	N/A	$73
NFL Sunday Ticket + RedZone without YouTube TV	$439	$119	N/A

What is NFL RedZone?

NFL RedZone takes a hyperkinetic coverage perspective to switch frequently between NFL games in order to show the most exciting plays and scoring opportunities from all the Sunday afternoon games. The term “red zone” refers to the area inside each football team’s 20-yard line, where many scoring plays occur.

NFL RedZone can be bundled with NFL Sunday Ticket on either YouTube platform for an additional $40. Most cable, satellite and streaming providers offer a way to add the channel onto existing packages so you don’t need to have Sunday Ticket to get it.

In fact, if all you want is RedZone then you can get NFL Plus Premium, the league’s subscription service, which includes the RedZone channel and is only $15 per month or $100 for the season (or $80 for the year if you take advantage of the league’s “limited time” promotional offer).

How will NFL Sunday Ticket be different on YouTube?

The core of NFL Sunday Ticket — showing all your out-of-market Sunday regular-season games — remains the same on YouTube as it did on DirecTV, but veteran subscribers to Sunday TIcket will notice some differences.

The most notable loss for the service will be the end of the Game Mix channel, which allowed for viewing eight NFL games simultaneously. As mentioned above, YouTube will instead offer its own multiview service for NFL Sunday Ticket, letting viewers watch up to four games at the same time.

The TeamYouTube X account recently posted that the service will be sharing only “curated multiview streams.” It’s uncertain if or when subscribers will be able to choose which four games they want to watch via multiview.

Most of the other big differences lie in pricing and subscriptions. Of course, you no longer need DirecTV service (or its two-year contract and satellite dish) to purchase NFL Sunday Ticket. On the flip side, there doesn’t appear to be any free trial — DirecTV used to give all subscribers the first week of NFL Sunday Ticket at no cost.

What’s the difference between NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV vs. YouTube Primetime Channels?

Basically, subscribing to NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV ensures you’ll get nearly all your local NFL games plus the other national TV games like the playoffs and Monday Night Football. Subscribing with YouTube Primetime Channels means you’ll need another service for those games.

If you subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket along with YouTubeTV, you’ll get all the Sunday out-of-market regular-season games plus your locally shown NFL games, Monday Night Football on ESPN/ABC and playoff games (except the Peacock-exclusive playoff game during Wild Card weekend, which will be available only on NBC in the cities of the two competing teams).

If you subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube Primetime Channels, you’ll get the same access to all the out-of-market Sunday NFL games during the regular reason, but you’ll need another live TV service to watch your local games, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, preseason games and playoff games.

Which games you get with NFL Sunday Ticket

Types of NFL games	NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV	NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube Primetime Channels
Out-of-market Sunday regular-season games	Included	Included
Local regular-season games	Included	Not included
National regular-season games	Included, except for those on streaming services like Prime Video	Not included
Most postseason games, including Super Bowl	Included	Not included

Both options for NFL Sunday Ticket let you bundle NFL RedZone for an additional $40. Neither option includes Thursday night games on Amazon Prime Video, or the Oct. 1 game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons in London, which will be shown exclusively on ESPN Plus. They also don’t include the Peacock-exclusive games that take place on Dec. 23 and during Wild Card weekend on Jan. 13 (the only NBC stations that will broadcast either contest will be in the markets of the competing teams).

Imagine the scene — you’re coming from an awesome event, sharing a foodie experience or capturing an adventure and are uber excited to share an incredible video. But when you post your video to Instagram, it ends up looking pixelated and low quality.

If you’ve ever been disappointed by blurry videos on Instagram, you’re not alone. Instagram purposely throttles video quality so that you can still upload your videos quickly even under bad network conditions.

A strong Wi-Fi connection will let you upload those high-quality videos that are eye-capturing, but you can do it when you’re out and about too. A quick change to your settings will help you avoid having low-quality videos on Instagram ever again. Here’s how it works.

Read More: Instagram’s productivity feature Quiet Mode

How to enable high-quality video uploads on Instagram

On your Android device or iPhone, launch the official Instagram application. (Note this might look slightly different in alternate versions.)

1. First, go to your Instagram profile. You can access it by tapping your profile icon in the bottom right.

2. Next, tap the hamburger menu in the top-right

3. Go into Settings and privacy and then scroll down to Your app and media

4. Next, tap Data usage and media quality

5. Finally, toggle on Upload at highest quality

Now, when you’re on cellular data, your videos will be uploaded at the highest quality possible, no matter how bad your connection is. However, the worse your connection, the longer your upload will take, so you’ll need to be patient, especially if you’re posting a long video.

We’re quickly approaching Apple’s annual fall event for the iPhone. The “Wonderlust” event will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 12, and we expect Apple to announce the iPhone 15, Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. But as we get closer to a new iPhone, we also get closer to iOS 17 being released.
iOS 17 was revealed in June during Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference and is on its fifth public beta. iOS 17 brings changes to how you call, text and glance at information with updates to FaceTime, Messages and the phone app. There’s a new StandBy mode, which turns your iPhone’s lock screen into a mini hub similar to the Amazon Echo Show. You can download the iOS 17 public beta, but we recommend not doing so on your main iPhone.

Last year’s software update, iOS 16, introduced the ability to edit or “unsend” messages you send via iMessage; Apple Pay Later; a major overhaul to the lock screen; revamped notifications; and Live Activities. These additions didn’t all come out at once and were actually scattered over the course of smaller iOS software updates throughout the year.

Read more: iOS 17: Upcoming iPhone Features I’m Excited About

We can expect the same for iOS 17, which will likely be released just before the rumored iPhone 15 goes on sale.

Contact Posters

Last year we got customizable lock screens in iOS 16. This year, iOS 17 has a similar change for your iPhone’s contact cards, to make them look more eye-catching. Contact Posters are beautiful treatments for contact photos and emoji paired with slick-looking fonts that show up when you get calls and for other services on your phone where you communicate and share.

You can customize your Contact Poster similar to how you personalize your lock screen. Pick a photo, font and color and that’s it.

AirDrop gets easier to use

iOS 17 brings an overhaul to AirDrop. You just need to bring your iPhone close to someone else’s to share a Contact Poster, photos, videos or kick off a shared activity using Share Play. Of course, being Apple, there’s a word for sharing your Contact Poster with someone new: NameDrop. What’s nice, is that you can choose what contact info is shared. NameDrop works between iPhones or with an Apple Watch, too. It reminds me of “bumping” a contact in the early days of the iPhone.

Standby turns your iPhone into an Amazon Echo Show

One of the biggest additions in iOS 17 is for when your iPhone isn’t in your hand. When your iPhone is on its side while MagSafe charging, you get a new full screen experience with glanceable information. The feature is called Standby and mimics what many smart home devices can do, such as the Amazon Echo Show.

The new screen shows the time, photos, widgets and Live Activities; nearly all of which can be personalized. It’s a bit of a cross between the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display and nightstand mode on the Apple Watch.

When you swipe to the side on the Standby screen, you can look at your favorite photos or moments. iOS 17 will also automatically shuffle images to find the one that takes the best advantage of the screen.

Standby can also show glanceable widgets. For example, you can see the weather, your Apple Home smart controls or your favorite third-party widget. With support for live activities, you can also see the score of sporting events or the status of a food delivery.

One of the more curious features is that Standby can remember your preferred view “setup” for each place you charge via MagSafe.

The new Journal app

iOS 17 brings a new Apple app called Journal that creates personalized suggestions to inspire writing. These suggestions are curated from information on your iPhone, like photos, location, music and workouts.

Journal gives you the option to select a moment, like “morning visit, Ocean Beach,” and start writing. You can also schedule notifications to remind you to write and get new prompts. You can flag important moments so that you can reflect on them later.

Live Voicemail

Another new talent iOS 17 has involves your voicemail. When someone calls you and leaves a message, you’ll see a live transcription in real time as they speak. The new service is called Live Voicemail and it kind of feels like the days of answering machines, when my dad would screen a call. For Live Voicemail, you’ll see the voicemail right on your screen so you can decide whether to step out and take the call. The feature is powered by your iPhone’s neural engine in order to preserve your privacy. Live Voicemail seems identical to Call Screen on Google Pixel phones which isn’t a bad thing.

FaceTime messages

iOS 17 will let you record a video message in FaceTime. It’s a heavily requested feature that will ensure you can document and share important moments, even if someone misses your call.

Messages Check In

Apple is expanding and simplifying its location sharing via Messages. The new feature, called Check In, is for letting a loved one know you made it to your destination safely. Whether you’re walking home after dark or going for an early morning run, you can start a Check In with a family member or friend and as soon as you arrive home, it will automatically let your friend know. But if something unexpected happens, it can recognize that you’re not near your destination and check in with you. If you don’t respond, Check In can automatically share your current location, the route you took, your iPhone’s battery level and cell service status; all of which is end-to-end encrypted.

Messages get a handful of fixes and additions

The tried-and-true Messages app gets a handful of updates, including a visual overhaul of your iMessage apps which will no longer live above your keyboard and instead be accessible via a plus sign on the bottom left.

Searching through your Messages becomes a lot easier on iOS 17 with the addition of filters. When you start a search in the Messages app, you will be able to add terms to narrow the results.

Another welcome addition is transcription for audio messages. If you’re someone who has friends or family members who send you audio messages, you’ll be able to read a transcription of the recording right in the Messages app.

There’s also a new “catch up arrow” in Messages. It sits in the top right of your conversation and lets you jump to the first message you haven’t read. This could be a killer feature for managing group chats. Apple also made inline replies faster. In iOS 17, you’ll be able to just swipe to reply on any message bubble.

Apple fixes ‘ducking’ autocorrect

Autocorrect will become more intelligent and can fix more grammatical mistakes. Reverting words back to what you typed is easier. And apparently, autocorrect will learn and let you use curse words. Duck, yeah!

iMessage stickers get a new drawer to bring all the stickers you’ve used into one place. And now emoji are stickers. You can peel and stick an emoji sticker to a message bubble, rotate and resize it. Last year in iOS 16, Apple introduced the ability to lift a subject from the background of a photo as part of Visual Lookup. With iOS 17, you can turn a photo’s subject into a sticker in Messages.

The Stickers drawer also has a Live Stickers tab that lets you create a Sticker animation (aka a GIF) from a Live Photo. Stickers can be accessed system wide in things like Tapback, Markup and third-party apps; basically anywhere you can access emoji.

But wait, there are more iOS 17 features

As is typical with WWDC, there are a lot more additions and improvements to iOS 17 than Apple showed during the keynote. Some notable highlights include:

• Triggering Siri by just saying, “Siri” instead of “Hey, Siri”
• Download offline maps in the Maps app
• New profiles for Safari and your passwords
• Auto retrieval of one-time verification codes from the Mail app
• Interactive widgets (which was featured in-depth during the iPadOS portion)

iOS 17 will be out in full this fall and work on the iPhone XS, XR and newer, including the 2020 iPhone SE.

Street View is one of the coolest features of Google Maps. It uses recent street photos to let you virtually visit locations all over the world. Street View is great for checking out a restaurant or club before you go or for identifying a house or building you’ve never been to before.

Unfortunately, Street View is also a useful tool for stalkers and criminals. It basically gives anyone a free ticket to examine your home over the internet. Sure, someone could simply walk or drive by your home and do it in person, but Google Maps lets them do it easily from their couch. Anyone with a phone or computer can use it.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to blur your home on Google Maps and help prevent others from seeing too many details of where you live. Here’s how to do it.

For more, here’s how to discover the past with Google Maps and how Google Maps can help you figure out dinner.

How to blur your home on Google Maps

You’ll need to do this on your computer, as the blurring feature isn’t available in the Google Maps application on iOS or Android. While it is accessible through the web browser on your mobile device, it’s rather difficult to use, so use a trusted web browser on your Mac or PC instead.

At maps.google.com, enter your home address in the search bar at the top-right, hit return, then click the photo of your home that appears.

Next, you’ll see the Street View of your location. Click Report a Problem at the bottom-right. The text is super tiny, but it’s there.

Now, it’s up to you to choose what you want Google to blur. Using your mouse, adjust the view of the image so that your home and anything else you want to blur is all contained within the red and black box. Use your cursor to move around and the plus and minus buttons to zoom in and out, respectively.

Once you’re finished adjusting the image, choose what you’re requesting to blur underneath:

• A face.
• Your home.
• Your car/license plate.
• A different object.

You’ll be asked to give a bit more detail as to what exactly you want blurred, in case the image is busy with several cars, people and other objects.

Also, be completely sure that what you select is exactly what you want blurred. Google mentions that once you blur something on Street View, it’s blurred permanently.

Finally, enter your email (this is required), verify the captcha (if needed) and click Submit.

You should then receive an email from Google that says it’ll review your report and get back to you once the request is either denied or approved. You may receive more emails from Google asking for more information regarding your request. Google doesn’t offer any information on how long your request will take to process, so just keep an eye out for any further emails.

For more, here’s how Google Maps can help you avoid crowded public transit.

We’ve had almost a full year with iOS 16, and while Apple is currently preparing the release of iOS 17, the options and settings available to iPhone users with the current mobile operating system are nearly endless.

The biggest new features in iOS 16 were unsending text messages and emails and cutting objects out of your photos, but there are a ton of smaller and lesser-known features you may have never heard about.

Read more: iOS 16.6: You Should Download This iPhone Update Now

I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know about the best lesser-known gems in iOS 16, like password-protected photo albums, easily accessible Wi-Fi passwords and more.

And while you’re here, take a look ahead to the next version of iOS and the 2023 Apple Event, with a roundup of the most exciting new features in iOS 17 and how to try out the iOS 17 public beta if you’re feeling adventurous.

View and share saved Wi-Fi passwords

Apple has allowed iOS users to share Wi-Fi passwords for a while now, but only by placing two Apple devices near each other. And if that feature didn’t automatically work, you couldn’t just dig out the password from your settings. Plus if you wanted to share a saved Wi-Fi password with someone else, like an Android user or someone on a computer, you had to remember the password. Until now.

In Settings, go to Wi-Fi and tap the tiny information icon to the right of the network you want the password for. To view the network password, tap the Password section and then use Face ID or enter your passcode to view it. You can then tap Copy to copy the password into your clipboard and share it.

Find and remove duplicate photos and videos

Maybe you’ve saved the same photo multiple times or downloaded a video more than once, resulting in duplicates littering up your photo album. It may not be a problem if you’ve got storage to spare, but you’re running out of space, you can now remove every single duplicate easily with iOS 16.

In Photos > Albums, you should see a new Duplicates album under Utilities. Apple scans through all of your photos and shows you any photo or video you’ve saved more than once in that album. From there, you can either delete any duplicates, or simply press Merge, which will keep the photo with the highest quality (and relevant data) and then move the others to the trash.

Although you’ll probably want to go through each set of duplicates, to ensure that they’re actually exact copies and not similar photos, you can also hit Select > Select All > Merge to remove every single photo and video that Apple thinks is a duplicate, all at once.

Use Siri to hang up a phone call or FaceTime

Siri does a lot of things. You can use the virtual assistant to send a text message, get directions or play music — but one thing she’s never been able to do is hang up a phone call. Weird right? Now that’s finally a possibility with iOS 16.

In Settings, go to Siri & Search and first make sure Listen for “Hey Siri” is toggled on. If it is, you should see a new option underneath — Call Hang Up. Go into that option and toggle on Call Hang Up. When you’re on a phone call or FaceTime video chat, simply say, “Hey, Siri,” and ask her to hang up your current call.

Pair Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons with your iPhone

Apple has long allowed you to pair third-party controllers, like the PS5 Sony DualSense and Xbox Core Controller, to your iPhone and iPad, in order to more comfortably play mobile video games like the Apple Arcade library, Minecraft and Call of Duty. Now you can add another console controller to that list.

If you own a Nintendo Switch, you can now pair your Joy-Con controllers to your iPhone or iPad running iOS 16. To start, hold down the little black pairing button on the Joy-Con, until the green lights start running back and forth. This means the device is in pairing mode. Next, open your iPhone and go to Settings > Bluetooth and select the Joy-Con from the list. Repeat this step with the other Joy-Con.

Password protect Hidden and Recently Deleted albums

The Hidden album in the Photos app is clearly not hidden, seeing as anyone can easily find it. That makes it impractical for adequately hiding private photos and videos. While Apple does have an option to make the Hidden album “invisible,” anyone with access to your phone could make it visible again and view everything inside.

Thanks to iOS 16, you can now lock the Hidden album. You don’t actually need to do anything to toggle this feature on. If you want to check it out, launch the Photos app and go to the Albums tab at the bottom of the screen. If you scroll down, you’ll see a tiny lock next to the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums. To view the contents of those albums, you’ll need to use Face ID or your passcode.

Copy and paste photo and video edits

If you use the editor tool in the Photos app, you’ll be happy to learn that you can now copy and paste edits, including saturation, contrast and brightness, between photos. If you edit one photo or video and are happy with the look, you can paste those same exact edits to any other photo or video in your camera roll.

To do this, launch the Photos app and open a photo that’s been edited in full-screen. Next, tap on the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and then hit Copy Edits. This option will only appear if the photo has been edited within Photos, not any third-party photo editor. Finally, go to the photo you want to copy these edits over to, tap on the three-dot menu and then hit Paste Edits. After a second or so, you should see the photo edits appear.

Send emojis with Siri

Siri has long been able to send long, complicated text messages and emails by dictation, but with iOS 16, for the first time, you’re now able to use your voice to send emojis. As long as you know the name of the emoji, simply say “face with tears of joy emoji” or “red heart emoji” to insert an emoji into your text with Siri.

If you use the keyboard dictation feature in your iPhone’s keyboard, accessible at the bottom right of your keyboard (microphone icon), you can also say the emoji name to insert an emoji anywhere you can type text, like in a note or a caption on Instagram.

Add haptic feedback to keyboard typing

The iPhone has long had haptic feedback. It’s what you feel underneath your fingertips whenever you attempt to delete an app from your home screen or enter the incorrect password on your lock screen. Strangely enough, haptic feedback has never been available for the stock iOS keyboard — until now.

If you want to enable a slight vibration for every single key you type in, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback and toggle on Haptic. The sound option you see is the loud and annoying clacking sound you might hear when you type in something and your phone isn’t on silent mode, so you can keep that disabled.

Pin your favorite tabs in Safari

Safari caps your open tabs at 500, and if you’re nearing that limit, it might be pretty darn hard to find the exact tab you’re looking for. You could scroll endlessly, but there’s now an easier way to find the exact tab you’re looking for.

In Safari, if you press down on an open tab, you now have the option to hit Pin Tab. This will move that tab to the top of Safari, where it will exist as a tiny tab preview, permanently pinned there, which you can then tap to view. If you press down and unpin a tab, it will move to first in your grid of open tabs.

Extend the time you get to cancel an email

It’s easy to accidentally send an email, especially when you’re multitasking or responding to multiple threads at once. But there’s good news: Apple added a feature in iOS 16 that gives you 10 seconds to unsend an email. However, for some, that may not be enough time, which is why you can extend the delay.

In Settings, go into Mail and scroll down until you find Undo Send Delay. By default, the 10 Seconds option will be selected, but you can choose 20 Seconds and 30 Seconds as well.

Use Face ID while you’re lying down

If you’ve ever tried to unlock your iPhone while it’s vertical, like when you’re lying on your side, you might have noticed that it doesn’t work. You have to place your iPhone in portrait orientation, or upright, for Face ID to work. With iOS 16, you can finally use Face ID to unlock your iPhone when it’s in landscape orientation. However, for this to work, you must have an iPhone 13 or 14 running iOS 16.

Allow notifications when you share your screen

As a privacy protection measure, Apple automatically disables notifications when you share your screen, whether it’s via SharePlay or Screen Mirroring. However, if others seeing your notifications isn’t an issue, you can now allow notifications on iOS 16. In the Settings application, go to Notifications > Screen Sharing and toggle on Allow Notifications.

Copy screenshots to your clipboard without saving them

You don’t need to save a screenshot to your photo album to share it with someone else. A new iOS 16 feature allows you to take a screenshot, copy it to your clipboard, delete it from your phone and paste it where you see fit. After you take a screenshot, tap the screenshot preview that appears, hit Done on the top-right and then tap Copy and Delete to copy the screenshot to your clipboard.

Remove more preinstalled Apple apps

Since iOS 10, you’ve been able to remove some preinstalled iOS applications like Stocks, Maps and Calculator — but not all of them. With the release of iOS 16, you can add three more apps to this list of ones you can remove: Find My, Clock and Health. However, deleting these apps can negatively affect and break support with other apps and connected devices, like your Apple Watch.

Make Siri listen to you longer

If you ever find yourself getting cut off by Siri, there’s now a way to force the voice assistant to listen to you longer so that she can catch everything you say. The feature isn’t in an obvious place though — in the Settings app, go to Accessibility > Siri, then choose either Longer or Longest. Play around with the two options to see which works best for you.

For more on iOS 16 and the iPhone, check out our iOS 16 cheat sheet and the 22 iOS 16 settings you should change right now.

We’ve reviewed every Google phone, from the original Nexus line to all of today’s Pixels, so we know what makes a phone truly worthy of your hard-earned money. Google’s Pixels have always been top performers, with specs rivaling those of other flagship phones like the iPhone 14 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. The Pixel 7 Pro sits at the top of the pile, with the best performance, a slick design and a triple camera system that takes some of the best images you can get from a phone. And it does it at a price that undercuts its rivals by a healthy measure.

But if you’re shopping on a smaller budget, the most recent Pixel 7A still offers a stellar all-round experience, with powerful cameras, a smooth and enjoyable interface and a price that won’t leave quite as big a dent in your bank balance. Then there’s the Pixel Fold. It’s the most expensive of all Google’s phones, but it has a folding display that opens up into a large 7.6-inch screen that’s great for watching YouTube videos or playing games.

The range has grown, and with older models still on sale it can be a bit confusing to work out which one’s best for you. We’ve pulled together the top Pixels currently on sale to help you decide.

Read more: Best phone to buy in 2023

However, it’s worth keeping in mind that the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are set to launch in early October, so it may be worth waiting a while if you’re specifically looking for a Pixel phone.

What is the best Google Pixel phone right now?

The Pixel 7 Pro remains at the top of Google’s phone lineup, packing the latest Tensor G2 processor and a superb triple camera system into a great-looking body. It’s not the cheapest Google phone, but if you want the best the company has to offer (and you don’t want to splash the cash on its foldable), then the 7 Pro is the one to go for right now.

How we test phones

Every phone on this list has been thoroughly tested by CNET’s expert reviews team. We actually use the phone, test the features, play games and take photos. We assess any marketing promises that a company makes about its phones. And if we find something we don’t like, be it battery life or build quality, we tell you all about it.

We examine every aspect of a phone during testing:

• Display
• Design and feel
• Processor performance
• Battery life
• Camera quality
• Features

We test all of a phone’s cameras (both front and back) in a variety of conditions: from outdoors under sunlight to dimmer indoor locales and night time scenes (for any available night modes). We also compare our findings against similarly priced models. We have a series of real world battery tests to see how long a phone lasts under everyday use.

We take into account additional phone features like 5G, fingerprint and face readers, styluses, fast charging, foldable displays and other useful extras. And we, of course, weigh all of our experiences and testing against the price so you know whether a phone represents good value or not.

Read more: How we test phones

How to choose a Pixel phone

Deciding which Pixel phone is best for you will likely come down to how much you’re willing to spend. As with anything, the more cash you splash, the better features you’ll get. The Pixel 7 Pro is the most expensive of the range (excluding the foldable) and as a result it comes with the best camera system.

But if photography isn’t important to you, then you can save yourself some money and look instead toward the Pixel 7A. It has the same processor as the 7 Pro, so you can expect similar overall performance, but its dual rear camera is aimed more toward those of you simply wanting to take the odd snap of your kid on the beach, rather than those looking for Instagram stardom.

If you want the most cutting-edge piece of tech in your pocket then the Pixel Fold’s foldable display certainly makes it stand out in the range. But you’ll pay a hefty price for this brand-new technology meaning it’s not a phone for everyone to consider.

Pixel phone FAQs

If the rumors are right, the iPhone 15 Pro will get a periscope camera. That’s probably only exciting if you know what one is. If you don’t, we’re here to explain it for you.

In short, a periscope camera uses clever engineering to pack a bulky telephoto lens into a compact smartphone body so you can take photos of distant subjects like mountains or musicians.

Apple didn’t comment for this story, but a periscope camera is a no-brainer. Cameras are the most important feature in most phones, as evidenced by the amount of time manufacturers devote to detailing the new abilities during each launch event and the profusion of lenses sprouting from the backs of new models. Taking photos and videos is one of the most personally important uses of our phones.

We’ll find out Sept. 12 at Apple’s “Wonderlust” event what the company has built into the new iPhone 15 line.

Here’s a look at periscope cameras and why they’re a good fit for the iPhone 15 Pro.

Why would Apple add a periscope camera to the iPhone 15 Pro?

The main reason is to provide iPhone customers with better photography options. The secondary reason is to catch up to the competition.

For iPhone photography, a 5x or 6x optical zoom would be good for lots of situations. Telephoto cameras are useful for photographing people who are a bit farther away, like kids at a playground or Taylor Swift away on a stage. Nature and landscape photography also benefits from better telephoto reach.

The iPhone 14 Pro camera suite comes with a 3x zoom telephoto, the equivalent of a 72mm lens on a DSLR camera. That’s useful, but it falls well short of the 5x camera on Google’s Pixel 7 Pro or the 3x and 10x cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. The iPhone is competitive (and taking market share away from Android rivals), but its telephoto photography is a competitive weak point.

How does a periscope camera work?

The basic problem with telephoto cameras is that they require physically longer lens assemblies. There’s no easy way around these limits of optics, physics and engineering.

Periscope cameras, also called folded cameras, work by building much of this length sideways inside the phone body. The outside lens looks like that of a regular phone camera, but behind it is a prism or mirror that bounces light 90 degrees. A 2016 Apple patent for a “folded telephoto camera lens system” shows both options.

Prisms are angled transparent blocks of glass or plastic that’ve been used for decades in optical equipment, for example binoculars or the viewfinders of SLR cameras. High-quality prisms don’t degrade image quality much.

Today’s periscope cameras offer 5x zoom, the equivalent of about a 120mm focal length on a traditional camera. But by using just the central pixels on a high-resolution image sensor, Google’s Pixel 7 Pro also can shoot at 10x zoom, about 240mm, without any digital magnification trickery.

How do periscope cameras compare to traditional cameras?

A periscope camera gives you better zoom, but don’t expect to match what serious photographers can do with a traditional camera and modest telephoto lens, much less a $13,000, 7-pound supertelephoto lens that’s hard to fit in your backpack. In my use, I’ve found the Pixel 7 Pro’s 5x and 10x modes useful for identifying birds, for example, but not for producing particularly good photos of them.

The reason for the limit: Periscope cameras still have relatively small image sensors that struggle with lower light. Bigger sensors offer higher image quality, but they cost more, and the bigger the sensor, the bigger and more expensive the accompanying lens assembly.

One problem with periscope cameras is that they can displace useful medium-telephoto cameras. Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra solves this problem by including an entire 3x conventional camera along with the 10x periscope. Higher-resolution image sensors like those in the Pixel 7 and iPhone 14 Pro offer 2x modes that compensate. More unusually, Sony’s Xperia 1 V phone has a true zoom reaching continuously from 3.5x to 5.2x zoom.

If the rumor of a larger main camera sensor in the iPhone 15 Pro is true, that could help facilitate other zoom options for Apple, too. Year by year, flagship smartphones come closer to the traditional cameras’ zoom flexibility.

In a dusty basement, in front of about 100 amused onlookers, sex robot Vanessa 5000 shows off her sexy dance and her preprogrammed personalities for particular tastes. Like all technology, she sometimes needs a reboot, like when she gets stuck gyrating on the floor. A gentle spanking from an audience member in the front row does the trick.

That performance was a highlight of the third consecutive Edinburgh Fringe event I attended where a robot took center stage. But unlike the earlier robots, Vanessa 5000 wasn’t actually made from chips and wires – in spite of what the charging cable hanging down from the back of her neck would’ve had you believe.

Vanessa 5000 was in fact LA-based comedian and clown Courtney Pauroso, who spent the entirety of August waving her not-so-synthetic bare butt cheeks before audiences at the world’s largest arts festival. A skilled physical theater performer, Pauroso was one of multiple artists who brought shows about artificial intelligence to the Edinburgh Fringe festival this year.

The timing was apt, as workers in the entertainment industry across the US strike to protect their livelihoods, in part from the perceived threat that generative AI – think ChatGPT – will steal their jobs. Broadly speaking, AI describes the ability of machines to do things that usually require human intelligence. Generative AI’s spin is that it uses the massive amounts of data at its disposal to generate new material, such as pictures, text, video and, in the case of the arts, scripts.

The rise of generative AI has been one of the most important recent technology breakthroughs, and it isn’t just people in Hollywood who are alarmed. Many are worried about the potential for massive disruptions across fields including law, journalism and education. But there are also those who see an opportunity to use gen AI for innovations in creativity and artistry.

The monthlong Edinburgh Fringe festival, which first took place in 1947, has a storied history of holding up a mirror to society, reflecting back its greatest fears and biggest questions – albeit softened by wisecracks and punchlines. It serves as a forum for musing over the big issues that have defined the previous year’s news cycle, and it provides space for artists and their audiences to work through their feelings about what’s happening in the wider world.

Sometimes the shows look the big issues directly in the eye (see 2017, the year in which Donald Trump was lampooned in endless parodies). But sometimes they do their thing with an averted gaze, as last year when audiences flocked back post-pandemic to celebrate their freedom, and shows tended to touch on the COVID-19 lockdowns lightly rather than making them the main focus.

This year in Edinburgh, performances spanning theater, standup comedy, dance and even clowning explored the nuances of AI. Robots took to the stage, while comics outsourced the writing of new material to algorithms. Audiences likely brought a much greater awareness of AI, given the recent surge of publicly available tools, from ChatGPT to Google Bard to Midjourney.

Around 20% of the 40 or so shows I saw at this year’s festival were either about AI, included references to it or were in some way co-created by it. I wasn’t so much interested in whether the shows could be considered good art (they were a mixed bag in that regard). I was more interested in what I, as a seasoned technology journalist who keeps up with all the latest on AI, could learn about technology inside the dark, hushed space of a theater.

When AI tries its hand at improv and standup comedy

My very first brush with AI at this year’s Fringe came in the form of Alex (or more formally A.L.Ex, for Artificial Language Experiment), a humanoid robot less than 2 feet tall, with red eyes and a tendency to vibrate awkwardly.

Alex was the face of the show Artificial Intelligence Improvisation, by Improbotics (also known as computer scientists Piotr Mirowski and Kory Mathewson). The show’s premise was to get human improv performers to collaborate with Alex to create sketches. Sometimes they conversed directly with Alex, other times Alex fed lines to them through earpieces, based on what other performers were saying.

The Improbotics troupe has been performing since 2016, with its shows getting smarter and slicker in line with technology – the major jumps being the development of GPT-2 and GPT-3 (large language models created by OpenAI, and the precursors to the tech used to build ChatGPT). In spite of those jumps, the show I saw often took the improv in wayward directions, which were extremely funny to watch as the human performers reacted.

It was a classic example of the way comedy shows succeed in spite of, not because of, the presence of AI. On the whole, I witnessed audiences laughing at AI rather than with it, or because of anything especially funny or clever it managed to do.

Whether AI can have a sense of humor was the question at the heart of Colleen Lavin’s standup hour Do The Robots Think I’m Funny? Lavin shared the stage with Murderbot, a robot of her own creation, which judged her based on the laughter she provoked and heckled her if it believed she wasn’t performing at her best. At the end, Lavin invited us to decide whether we cared how Murderbot judged her – and the answer was a resounding “no.”

See also: AI Glossary: Basic Terms All ChatGPT Users Should Know

Murderbot was a metal body framing a tablet that bore the expression of an unimpressed drone, giving a face to Lavin’s laptop, which sat behind the bot and did the heavy lifting. It was a compelling prop, but not as compelling as Lavin and her exploration of her recent hyperfixation with ChatGPT. Even after writing and performing a standup show about AI, she confessed she still doesn’t know how to feel about the technology. She mused over whether the term “AI” will drift into irrelevance as the tech becomes ubiquitous, and she reminded us that not all technology ends up being used by people as its inventors originally intended.

Her show itself was a case in point. Who could’ve guessed AI would be used as a way to outsource the heckling of comedians? Likewise, improv comedy might not seem like an obvious use case to many – though it was to Mirowski. He said he saw clear parallels between statistical language generation and improv, which made combining them feel like a no-brainer. And he’s not the first to view the theater as a venue for experimenting with technology: A 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek, called R.U.R., is widely credited with introducing the word “robot” into the English language.

According to Mirowski, there’s a difference between previous Improbotics audiences and those who came to view his work in August. In the past, the lack of expectations and the general skepticism that AI would work at all meant audiences were more likely to cheer on Alex the robot. More recently, many audience members have played with generative AI tools at home, and so they have a better idea of what the tools can do. Plus, he said, they’re more likely to be worried about the threat to their jobs.

In an interview, Mirowski told me he’s been pondering a big ethical question throughout the Fringe festival: how to emphasize to audiences that using AI in the creative process still requires direction from skilled performance artists. “How do we convey the message these tools should be used to create a first draft but not to create a final product?” he asked.

After all, ChatGPT and its ilk, for all their seeming authority, are known for providing wrong, incomplete or “hallucinated” answers. “We’re cognizant of the fact that there can be an impoverishment of our cultural capital if we just start over-relying on these tools instead of finding new ideas,” said Mirowski.

Missing the human connection

To recall what a physical experience it is to be human – an experience no artificial intelligence can truly understand or replicate – there’s nothing quite like attending an Edinburgh Fringe show.

First, there are all the sensations of being squashed into a tiny, overheated, dank venue in one of the vaults under Edinburgh’s South Bridge or in a sweltering Old Town attic. You find yourself pressed uncomfortably up against strangers, while making eye contact with a performer who’s sweating from every pore.

Then there’s the sheer physicality of some of the performances – the skill, strength and beauty of which stand in stark contrast to artificial intelligence as a theme.

In Beyond Boundaries, a showcase of Scottish dance, performer Max Evans embodied what it would be like to have a romantic, sexual relationship with a chatbot. As he propelled himself around the stage, he gave shape to physical frustration and desire, and to pleasure that seemed to ultimately leave him emotionally unfulfilled, in spite of everything his imagined AI companion was able to simulate.

Love in the age of AI was also explored in Distant Memories of the Near Future, a mixture of theater and storytelling from the performer David Head. Head used overlapping narratives about space miners and tech moguls to create a darkly funny show that looked at what humans are left with once AI has “solved” all our problems, romance included.

Like Evans, he imagined a scenario in which an AI was able to study every aspect of a person in order to deliver them everything they wanted and needed in a partner. This too led to a doomed match, one of several bleak outcomes of living in a world where the value in being human rests on us having data to sell to our robot overlords.

Even though he outsourced part of the storytelling to an AI assistant, Head’s warmth, empathy and sense of humor provided a welcome contrast to the dystopian vision he described. His performance – as with all those I saw across the Fringe, no matter how good or bad they were – was a reminder that the power of humanity lies in connection.

That was the emphasis as well in Ctrl, a meta-theatrical performance piece imagining a future in which AI must train people to retain their humanity and creativity. A group of young people is forced to write and perform a play together with scant technological resources. Made all the more poignant by the fact that it was performed by teenagers, the show’s ultimate message seemed to be that we can’t create in a vacuum with AI as our sole collaborator. To make something meaningful, we’ll always need one another more than we need technology.

AI at home in the theater

I went into the Edinburgh Fringe festival this year wondering if shows about AI could make use of the technology in novel ways that would impress me or give me a different perspective on the technology.

The short answer: AI has a long way to go before it can keep pace with human performers in delighting and amusing audiences. But I did appreciate the space it provided me to try to work through my own feelings.

I learned that our questions concerning AI are often about what makes us human, what we value, and how to continue prioritizing those values – even as technology becomes more powerful. I learned that our fears around AI are as much about the intentions and priorities of those shaping the technology and dictating how it should be used as they are about the technology itself.

I also learned that performances are key to letting people explore their emotions about technology, rather than simply demanding they look at tech through the lens of news coverage, company spin, and the viewpoints of politicians or other individuals with vested interests. The debates around AI can often be technical, political and complex. But in the theater, they can be made accessible to people regardless of preexisting knowledge or experience with the technology – even if that simply leads to raucous laughter at a clown pretending to be a sex robot.

Toward the end of Courtney Pauroso’s set, we saw Vanessa 5000 receive an over-the-air update and become Vanessa 6000, acquiring more-complex emotions and a deeper understanding of how women are treated in the world. Then, as if with sentient self-awareness, she broke into a melancholy rendition of Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees.

“She looks like the real thing/She tastes like the real thing/My fake plastic love,” she crooned.

Just like Vanessa 5000, AI and its potential for being a collaborative creative tool will continue to level up. “My hope for the next Fringe: The artists will have figured out some funny ways in which they can use those tools and essentially be empowered by them,” said Mirowski.

How we, as mere mortals, skewer AI, examine it, admire it and laugh at it will continue to evolve, too – and that’s important. For how can AI ever be expected to learn what we find truly funny unless we do?

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.