A nice big TV can make all the difference, whether you’re watching TV shows or movies, and playing games is quite literally a game-changer. So why not treat yourself to a huge new 75-inch Hisense ULED Android TV thanks to this massive $524 discount?

This Class U9DG TV would normally retail for around $1,500, but you can add one to your setup for just $976 if you take advantage of this deal. There’s also 12-month financing if you want to go that route as well.

This particular TV, apart from being huge, comes with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from this class of TV. There’s native 4K support, as well as an LED backlight for strong viewing angles and high contrast images. This set comes with Android TV built-in, so all your favorite streaming apps will be present and correct as well. Just plug in your details and you’ll be catching up on the latest must-binge shows in no time. Oh, and 120Hz support means buttery smooth gaming if you have the right hardware — including the PlayStation 5.

In terms of connectivity, this Hisense monster has no fewer than four HDMI ports, while Google Assistant means you can bark orders at it if you really want to. We’d stick to the included remote, but you do you.

Keep in mind that Best Buy isn’t saying when this deal is going to end, so you might need to get your order in soon if you want to be sure of locking this price in.

Whether it’s lighting up the Las Vegas skyline or blowing up social media with memes, the MSG Sphere will be hard to miss. The first-of-its-kind venue opens this fall, and its creators say it aims to revolutionize entertainment experiences. For it to do this, they’ve developed brand-new audio, video and camera systems. I had an opportunity to visit their Burbank testing ground, called Big Dome, to experience some of these innovations.

Their most recent development has to do with the Sphere’s audio system. Acoustically, a sphere is about as challenging as it gets. To conquer the echoes, MSG Ventures partnered with a company called Holoplot, which was using a technique called Wave Field Synthesis to develop an audio system for Berlin’s echoey subway system.

The result is Sphere Immersive Sound, powered by Holoplot. The demos provided showed how precise this sound system could be. Depending on where I stood, I could hear the same dialogue in three different languages: English, Chinese and Arabic. I could hear different instruments highlighted in the same song. In a final demo, they played audio from an actor, and it sounded as if the actor had walked right up and whispered in my ear.

MSG Ventures team members are experimenting with other senses as well. They demoed an air cannon that could be used to create wind effects, and hinted that things like humidity, temperature and even smell could be used for artistic effect.

To wrap it up, we got to experience a curved, immersive screen that’s a one-quarter scale model of the Vegas Sphere. The closest thing I can compare it to is VR. I could tilt my head all the way up and still not reach the end of the screen. When they played us different scenes, it felt like being transported. Some of the tests they showed experimented with different camera moves, some of which felt more natural than others. One shot from the front seat of a roller coaster in particular felt uncannily real, and could potentially cause some motion sickness.

These experiments helped the MSG Sphere team zero in on what sorts of visual experiences work best given the unique size and shape of the display. The team also invented its own camera, called Big Sky, to produce content for the enormous screen.

The MSG Sphere in Las Vegas opens this fall, with a concert by U2 followed shortly after by a film presentation from Darren Aronofsky entitled Postcard From Earth. Tickets on the Sphere website are listed between $49 and $199. To see the Sphere in action, check out the video in this article.

The next iteration of the iPhone family is expected to get a slew of updates in the fall, including thinner bezels, Dynamic Island and USB-C, along with a higher price tag.

One of the biggest changes you can expect, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, is an upgrade for the standard iPhones that will swap out the display notch for Dynamic Island, a feature introduced last year on the iPhone 14. The feature enlarges and shrinks when you receive a call and to display the music you’re playing, timers and other notifications.

The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are also expected to get camera improvements, including updated lenses, Gurman wrote.

The higher-end iPhones are expected to get a makeover that sports a thinner bezel, thanks to a new production technology, Gurman reported Monday. Using low-injection pressure over-molding, or LIPO, Apple plans to shrink the border size around the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max display from about 2.2 millimeters on current iPhones to 1.5 millimeters, he reports. The technique may be used on future iPads, as well.

Read more: iPhone 15 Pro Could See Longer Battery Life From New Chip Line

The phones will also get a power boost, thanks to an upgrade for the standard models to the A16 chip currently used on the iPhone 14 Pro. The iPhone 15 Pro will also see an upgrade with the 3-nanometer chip, which Apple manufacturing partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has said consumes 30% to 35% less power compared with its 5-nanometer chips.

Gurman also highlighted the move from the Lightning port to a USB-C charging port, a change that may be required by new EU rules that say all mobile phones sold in the EU will need to have a USB-C charging port by the end of 2024.

Gurman expects all of this to add up to at least a minor bump in price, but he didn’t offer an estimate.

Apple has not announced any information about the next iPhone, but the company will likely unveil details of its next smartphone at the next iPhone event — probably in September.

Apple didn’t respond to CNET’s request for comment.

For more, check out why the iPhone 15 might need a different charger, the 15 features we really want to see on the iPhone 15 and hidden features in iOS 17 you should know about.

It’s the last race weekend before F1 takes its summer break, and Red Bull has yet to lose a race this season. Max Verstappen has won the last seven consecutive races, and has a comfortable lead in the Driver’s Championship, with teammate Sergio “Checo” Perez in second place. Top teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin will be looking to end Red Bull’s winning streak and snag some crucial points in the standings.

While the top two positions may be set, there is plenty of room for shake-ups down the grid. Currently, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso sits in third place, followed by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in fourth. Last weekend, Hamilton was able to close the gap between himself and Alonso to a mere six points and he will have his sights on moving into sole possession of third place in Belgium.

The Belgian Grand Prix will take place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium at 8:55 a.m. EST (5:55 a.m. PST) on ESPN and ESPN Plus.

The entire race weekend, including practice sessions and qualifying, will be shown in the US on ESPN’s family of TV networks. Those looking to follow all the drama will need access to ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPNews to catch every second of the action.

No single provider has exclusive rights to the network, so there are plenty of ways to get ESPN and watch the races without cable. We’ve broken down everything you need to know in order to stream today’s race, and all the other F1 races this season.

When, where and what time are the races?

Races are held on Sunday and are usually spaced two weeks apart. Here’s the entire schedule, all times ET.

F1 2023 schedule

Date	Race	Time
March 5	Bahrain GP	10 a.m. ET
March 19	Saudi Arabian GP	1 p.m. ET
April 2	Australian GP	1 a.m. ET
April 30	Azerbaijan GP	7 a.m. ET
May 7	Miami GP	3:30 p.m. ET
May 21	Romagna GP	9 a.m. ET
May 28	Monaco GP	9 a.m. ET
June 4	Spanish GP	9 a.m. ET
June 18	Canadian GP	2 p.m. ET
July 2	Austrian GP	9 a.m. ET
July 9	British GP	10 a.m. ET
July 23	Hungarian GP	9 a.m. ET
July 30	Belgian GP	9 a.m. ET
Aug. 27	Dutch GP	9 a.m. ET
Sept. 3	Italian GP	9 a.m. ET
Sept. 17	Singapore GP	8 a.m. ET
Sept. 24	Japanese GP	1 a.m. ET
Oct. 8	Qatar GP	1 p.m. ET
Oct. 22	United States GP	3 p.m. ET
Oct. 29	Mexican GP	4 p.m. ET
Nov. 5	Brazil GP	12 p.m. ET
Nov. 19	Las Vegas GP	1 a.m. ET
Nov. 26	Abu Dhabi GP	8 a.m ET

How to watch F1 online from anywhere using a VPN

If you find yourself unable to view the race locally, you may need a different way to watch the race — that’s where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on race day by encrypting your traffic, and it’s also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.

With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. Most VPNs, like our Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.

Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.

Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.

Livestream F1 racing in the UK

F1 in the UK is shown on Sky Sports and Channel 4 — Sky Sports airs the races, while Channel 4 gets practice rounds and qualifying. If you already have Sky Sports as part of your TV package, you can stream the game via its app, but cord-cutters will need to get the Sky Entertainment and Netflix package starting at 26 per month, plus an additional 20 per month to include Sky Sports.

Best options for streaming in the US without cable

Race weekends normally start on Friday with multiple practice runs and continue on Saturday with qualifying. The races themselves take place Sunday. ESPN typically airs practices and qualifying on a mix of ESPN 2 and ESPNews, while the races tend to air on ESPN. F1 events in North America often land on ABC.

Here are some of the best ways to catch the entire race weekend without cable.

Once upon a time — by which we mean the ’90s and early 2000s — if you wanted to swap out your phone’s battery for a new one, all you had to do was slide the back casing open and pop the battery out. The rise of sleek but impenetrable smartphones largely saw an end to user-replaceable batteries. But now, in the mid-2020s, the tide could be turning once again.

Two separate pieces of right-to-repair legislation working their way through the European Union institutions — one of which was passed by the European Parliament at the end of June — could force phone manufacturers to make significant changes to the way they design phones. Once they come into force (expected to be in 2025 and 2027, respectively) they will put in place regulations that compel makers of phones and other small devices, like portable game consoles, to allow people to replace the batteries themselves.

As a smartphone owner, you’ll likely be familiar with the specific frustrations batteries pose — namely the drop-off in maximum capacity over time and the inability to cheaply and easily do anything to fix it. If you were able to switch the battery out, you could well end up keeping your phone for a prolonged period.

“Battery degradation is a major reason for considering an upgrade,” said CCS Insight Chief Analyst Ben Wood over email.

Read more: Best Phone to Buy for 2023

Increasingly phone manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and HMD, which makes Nokia phones, are trying to make their devices more easily repairable at home. Since the start of this year, HMD has introduced two phones in which the batteries can be quickly replaced by the owner, although it does require an iFixit toolkit to do so. Repairing smartphones has largely been a specialist job. But with more power to fix devices, the hope is that you’ll be less likely to discard them in favor of newer models, reducing the overall amount of electronic waste that comes from broken or aging products.

“By empowering consumers with the ability to replace a worn-out battery themselves, it means that they can keep hold of their device for longer,” said Lars Silberbauer, chief marketing officer at HMD, which welcomed the EU’s proposals on user-replaceable batteries. “It also makes repairing a smartphone more affordable.”

But abiding by the new rules is going to mean having to solve some tricky engineering challenges for companies aiming to comply. One phone-maker, Fairphone, has pioneered making phones with fully user-replaceable batteries and, as they told me, it’s no easy feat. More on that below.

Any rules that do end up coming into force around user-replaceable batteries will only apply to phones sold within the EU. But there’s precedent for European regulation spurring tech companies to make changes that affect their products wherever they’re sold. A prime example is the European mandate for universal chargers (chargers that can be used across an entire device category), which was finalized in October 2022 and will come into force next year. It’s expected to cause Apple to switch away from using Lightning connectors for the iPhone to the more common USB-C, found on almost all Android phones.

Apple and Samsung didn’t respond to requests for comment regarding the impending regulations.

But it’s reasonable to think that if Apple and other phone-makers are forced to make devices that include user-replaceable batteries for one market, they might also sell those devices elsewhere.

Making batteries replaceable

To understand the challenges, as well as the pros and cons, of making such a device, I asked Fairphone — a company that already makes a phone with an easily replaceable battery — what’s involved.

To Miquel Ballester, Fairphone’s head of product development and one of its founders, there’s nothing novel about being able to replace a phone’s battery. Instead it’s a choice that manufacturers have made as phones have trended thinner and thinner, he said. And while battery capacities have improved over the years, the basic chemistry that causes them to degrade over time has not.

“That’s a fact and that has not changed since we had the old Nokias that all had the replaceable batteries,” he said.

Fairphone isn’t just a phone-maker. Its mission is to challenge the electronics industry to create devices that are longer lasting and easier to repair. All of the phones the company has made are modular, so they can be taken apart and put back together by anyone. Even someone like me, who has little experience of electronics other than some casual soldering, can do it — and I have.

But making a phone this way comes with compromises, as Ballester well knows. Having a fully integrated battery that’s glued into a smartphone creates a very stable connection between the power module and the other components. A replaceable battery can’t boast the same level of stability, meaning that the connection is more likely to be interrupted if the phone is dropped or if a speck of dust finds its way onto the connector.

(In 2016, LG tried its luck with a modular phone, the G5, in the waning days of phones with batteries you could remove. CNET’s reviewer noted that the G5’s removable battery was the most appealing aspect of the design.)

Dust and water can be a problem for modular phones. The Fairphone 4, which just arrived in the US, is the company’s first device to come with a waterproof rating, which at IP54 is lower than most top-end models. (The iPhone 14 has an IP rating of 68.) Ballester sees this as less of an issue, given that most people replace their phones these days not because they got a bit wet, but because of the battery, the software or a smashed screen.

Replaceable batteries also live in bulkier housing to ensure they can match their glued-in counterparts for robustness and reliability.

“You need to think about the architecture of the phone differently, and you may not be able to deliver in those super thin ratios that we are seeing in the market,” Ballester said. With the housing taking up more space, phone-makers also have to opt for lower-capacity batteries, he added.

In other words, replaceable batteries could lead to chunkier phones with less battery life. Despite this, the Fairphone 4 still provides enough juice in one charge to last a full day, according to Ballester. Unlike the flagship phones on the market, it just won’t stretch to one and a half or two days, he added.

Challenges and promises

The obvious benefit of having a replaceable battery is that if your existing one is causing you issues and not lasting the full day, you can swap it out for a new one. But this relies on those same exact batteries still being available up to several years after you’ve first bought your phone.

Spare batteries can’t just sit around the shelf waiting to be used, as they too will degrade over time. Persuading suppliers to keep making battery replacements can be a challenge, said Ballester, as the volumes are often too low. He’s confident, though, that if replaceable batteries became the norm for phone-makers, they would be much easier to get hold of.

At the other end of the phone’s lifecycle, having a replaceable battery is hugely beneficial in the recycling process. The most valuable part of a battery is the cobalt, which can be recycled, but often isn’t due to the fact it’s integrated into the phone. This means phones will be recycled in their entirety for the metals, with the cobalt being lost in the process.

See also: A Fully Recycled Phone Is a Lot Harder Than It Sounds, Even for Samsung and Apple

But if batteries are replaceable, they can be easily extracted from the phones and recycled separately. Right now, that’s not happening enough, said Ballester.

“The cobalt recyclers are struggling to have enough volume to have a good business case from cobalt recycling, so we need to increase the amount of batteries that go back,” he said.

He hopes that more phones with replaceable batteries would bolster the amount of cobalt recycling that can take place. Equally he hopes that as battery technology continues to improve, there won’t need to be a discussion about the amount of energy a replaceable battery can hold compared to a fixed module.

For phone manufacturers now thinking about how they might make devices with replaceable batteries, perhaps for the very first time, it’s clear that some compromises may be required along the way. But with cross-industry effort, there are significant opportunities to overcome the hurdles that companies like Fairphone are already facing head on.

In doing so, they might just ensure the next generation of phones stay longer in our pockets and ease the pressure on the planet in the process.

The two strongest sides in Group H go head to head in this intriguing Women’s World Cup fixture on Sunday in Sydney.

Germany looked extremely impressive in their 6-0 thrashing of Morocco in their opening match of the tournament, in a match that saw their skipper Alexandra Popp score twice.

Colombia have also started the tournament in positive style, claiming a 2-0 win over South Korea, but will now be aiming to beat a side that has never lost to South American opposition at the Women’s World Cup.

Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch Germany vs. Colombia no matter where you are in the world.

Germany vs. Colombia: When and where?

This Group H clash takes place at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney on Sunday, July 30.

Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m. AEST local time in Australia, which makes it a 5:30 a.m. ET or 2:30 a.m. PT start in the US and Canada, and a 10:30 a.m. BST kick-off in the UK.

How to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 online from anywhere using a VPN

If you find yourself unable to view the tournament locally, you may need a different way to watch this match — that’s where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic, and it’s also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.

With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. Most VPNs, like our Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.

Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Australia, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.

Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.

Livestream Germany vs. Colombia in the US

This women’s World Cup match is being broadcast on Fox Sports 1 in the US. If you’re already a subscriber, you can livestream games via the Fox website. if you’re not, you’ll need a live TV streaming service that carries Fox Sports 1, the least expensive being Sling TV Blue.

Numerous other live TV streaming services carry Fox Sports 1 as well, namely YouTube TV, Hulu Plus Live TV, DirecTV Stream and Fubo. They all cost more than Sling TV, but they also carry more channels. Check out our live TV streaming channel guide for details.

NBC-owned Telemundo, meanwhile, offers all the games in Spanish, and can also be viewed via NBC’s streaming platform Peacock Premium.

One further option in the US for watching matches comes with Tubi TV, which is offering full-length replays of the games in English minutes after they end on the free ad-supported streaming service. You’ll have to sign up for a Tubi account in order to get the games, but you won’t need a credit card or subscription.

Watch Germany vs. Colombia for free in the UK

Football fans in the UK are among the luckiest in the world, as all matches of the FIFA Women’s World Cup being shown live on free-to-air channels, with the BBC and ITV sharing broadcast duties. This game will be shown live on ITV1, which means viewers in the UK will be able to stream the game for free on ITVX. Coverage begins at 10 a.m. BST.

Stream Germany vs. Colombia in Canada

Comprehensive live coverage of the 2023 Women’s World Cup is available in Canada via TSN. Cord cutters can watch via the network’s streaming service TSN Plus.

Stream Germany vs. Colombia for free in New Zealand

Live coverage of 2023 Women’s World Cup for the co-host nation is with free-to-air channel Prime. Kick-off for this match is at 9:30 p.m. NZST.

Quick tips for streaming the 2023 Women’s World Cup using a VPN

• With four variables at play — your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN — your experience and success when streaming the Women’s World Cup action live may vary.
• If you don’t see your desired location as a default option for ExpressVPN, try using the “search for city or country” option.
• If you’re having trouble getting the game after you’ve turned on your VPN and set it to the correct viewing area, there are two things you can try for a quick fix. First, log into your streaming service subscription account and make sure the address registered for the account is an address in the correct viewing area. If not, you may need to change the physical address on file with your account. Second, some smart TVs — like Roku — don’t have VPN apps you can install directly on the device itself. Instead, you’ll have to install the VPN on your router or the mobile hotspot you’re using (like your phone) so that any device on its Wi-Fi network now appears in the correct viewing location.
• All of the VPN providers we recommend have helpful instructions on their main site for quickly installing the VPN on your router. In some cases with smart TV services, after you install a cable network’s sports app, you’ll be asked to verify a numeric code or click a link sent to your email address on file for your smart TV. This is where having a VPN on your router will also help, since both devices will appear to be in the correct location.
• And remember, browsers can often give away a location despite using a VPN, so be sure you’re using a privacy-first browser to log into your services. We normally recommend Brave.

Seven tech giants have made a “voluntary commitment” to the Biden administration that they will work to reduce the risks involved in artificial intelligence.

US President Joe Biden met with Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, Amazon, Anthropic and Inflection on July 21. They agreed to emphasize “safety, security and trust” when developing AI technologies. More specifically:

• Safety: The companies agreed to “testing the safety and capabilities of their AI systems, subjecting them to external testing, assessing their potential biological, cybersecurity, and societal risks and making the results of those assessments public.”
• Security: The companies also said they will safeguard their AI products “against cyber and insider threats” and share “best practices and standards to prevent misuse, reduce risks to society, and protect national security.”
• Trust: One of the biggest agreements secured was for these companies to make it easy for people to tell whether images are original, altered or generated by AI. They will also ensure that AI doesn’t promote discrimination or bias, they will protect children from harm, and will use AI to solve challenges like climate change and cancer.

The arrival of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 was the beginning of a stampede of major tech companies releasing generative AI tools to the masses. OpenAI’s GPT-4 launched in mid-March. It’s the latest version of the large language model that powers the ChatGPT AI chatbot, which among other things is advanced enough to pass the bar exam. Chatbots, however, are prone to spitting out incorrect answers and sometimes sources that don’t exist. As adoption of these tools has exploded, their potential problems have gained renewed attention — including spreading misinformation and deepening bias and inequality.

What the AI companies are saying and doing

Meta said it welcomed the White House agreement. Earlier this month, the company launched the second generation of its AI large language model, Llama 2, making it free and open source.

“As we develop new AI models, tech companies should be transparent about how their systems work and collaborate closely across industry, government, academia and civil society,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs.

The White House agreement will “create a foundation to help ensure the promise of AI stays ahead of its risks,” Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chair and president, said in a blog post.

Microsoft is a partner on Meta’s Llama 2. It also launched AI-powered Bing search earlier this year that makes use of ChatGPT and is bringing more and more AI tools to Microsoft 365 and its Edge browser.

The agreement with the White House is part of OpenAI’s “ongoing collaboration with governments, civil society organizations and others around the world to advance AI governance,” said Anna Makanju, OpenAI vice president of global affairs. “Policymakers around the world are considering new laws for highly capable AI systems. Today’s commitments contribute specific and concrete practices to that ongoing discussion.”

Amazon is in support of the voluntary commitments “as one of the world’s leading developers and deployers of AI tools and services,” Tim Doyle, Amazon spokesperson, told CNET in an emailed statement. “We are dedicated to driving innovation on behalf of our customers while also establishing and implementing the necessary safeguards to protect consumers and customers.”

Amazon has leaned into AI for its podcasts and music and on Amazon Web Services.

Anthropic said in an emailed statement that all AI companies “need to join in a race for AI safety.” The company said it will announce its plans in the coming weeks on “cybersecurity, red teaming and responsible scaling.”

“There’s a huge amount of safety work ahead. So far AI safety has been stuck in the space of ideas and meetings,” Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and CEO of Inflection AI, wrote in a blog post Friday. “The amount of tangible progress versus hype and panic has been insufficient. At Inflection we find this both concerning and frustrating. That’s why safety is at the heart of our mission.”

What else?

The agreement “is a milestone in bringing the industry together to ensure that AI helps everyone,” said Kent Walker, Google’s President of Global Affairs, in a blog post. “These commitments will support efforts by the G7, the OECD, and national governments to maximize AI’s benefits and minimize its risks.”

Google, which launched its chatbot Bard in March, previously said it would watermark AI content. The company’s AI model Gemini will identify text, images and footage that have been generated by AI. It will check the metadata integrated in content to let you know what’s unaltered and what’s been created by AI.

Image software company Adobe is similarly ensuring it’s tagging AI-generated images from its Firefly AI tools with metadata indicating they’ve been created by an AI system.

Elon Musk’s new AI company xAI wasn’t part of the discussion, and Apple was also absent amid reports it has created its own chatbot and large language model framework.

You can read the entire voluntary agreement between the companies and the White House here. It follows more than 1,000 people in tech, including Musk, signing an open letter in March urging labs to take at least a six-month pause in AI development due to “profound risks” to society from increasingly capable AI engines. In June, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, along with other scientists and notable figures, also signed a statement warning of the risks of AI. And Microsoft in May released a 40-page report saying AI regulation is needed to stay ahead of potential risks and bad actors.

The Biden-Harris administration is also developing an executive order and seeking bipartisan legislation “to keep Americans safe” from AI. The US Office of Management and Budget is additionally slated to release guidelines for any federal agencies that are procuring or using AI systems.

See also: ChatGPT vs. Bing vs. Google Bard: Which AI Is the Most Helpful?

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

Samsung’s latest book-style foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 5, has made headlines for its thinner design, which includes a hinge that lets the phone fold completely flat. But its key accessory, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 S Pen Fold Edition, has shed some weight, too.

During a press roundtable I attended in Seoul, South Korea, Samsung said that the stylus’ radius dropped from 7.4mm to 4.35mm, which is nearly the same size as the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s S Pen. That is 41% thinner than last year’s S Pen Fold Edition. Samsung said it achieved this by way of an internal push to determine “whether or when” it could embed its S Pen into a Galaxy Fold phone.

Still, Samsung said it’s exploring whether it can create an even skinnier stylus than the new S Pen Fold Edition for a number of reasons, most notably to find a way to fit the accessory in a slot within the foldable itself.

“We’ll also look into it, but not just from a technology perspective, but from a user experience perspective,” Won-Joon Choi, head of Samsung R&D Office Mobile Experience Business said Thursday at the press roundtable. “Because when you’re writing, you need to feel as if you’re writing with a pen. If [the S Pen] gets too thin, that feeling may not be desirable.”

Although Samsung’s support for the S Pen dates back to 2011 with the original Galaxy Note, Choi said, designing a stylus for a foldable phone faces a different set of challenges including designing new tip materials that don’t damage the foldable’s flexible display as well as avoiding magnet interference from the phone.

Choi also highlighted how designing the S Pen presents unique considerations compared with designing a foldable phone. For a foldable phone to take off into the mainstream, Samsung believes portability is one of three prerequisites it must meet. But with the S Pen, portability could come at the cost of usability, since Samsung’s stylus was designed to provide the experience of writing with a real pen.

S Pen doesn’t have a home (yet)

Since the Galaxy Fold 3 debuted with stylus support in 2021, the recurring narrative that emerged was this: if Samsung embeds the S Pen, it’ll elevate the Galaxy Fold lineup to the ultimate productivity device. Fast forward to 2023, and the S Pen still cannot be docked directly on the new Galaxy Z Fold 5, which is also now thinner than ever. Samsung’s current solution is the $100 Galaxy Z Fold 5 Slim S Pen Case, which allows you to latch the stylus on the back half. (To be fair, the case has also slimmed down as its name suggests, and could make more a snazzy workaround if you’re holding out for the S Pen storage dream).

During the roundtable, among the obstacles Choi highlighted was trying to appease people’s conflicting desires about the future of the Z Fold design. One camp wants an even thinner book-style foldable phone, he said, but that would require Samsung to create an even leaner S Pen to embed. Then there are people who want the next Z Fold to be thicker so that it can integrate the S Pen. However a thicker foldable undermines its portability, which is one of Samsung’s core design philosophies.

“What form factor and experiences are we going to deliver to our customers to meet various needs? What is the right balance? Those are the areas we need to decide carefully which way to go.” Choi said.

Samsung’s latest Unpacked event brought all kinds of announcements, including the latest generation of foldable phones and a new generation of Galaxy smartwatches. Plus, a new lineup of Galaxy tablets, the previous versions of which are some of our favorite premium Android tablets on the market.

There are three models in the new lineup — the basic Galaxy Tab S9, the S9 Plus and the S9 Ultra. And if you’re looking to grab one, you’ll want to get your order in before they officially hit shelves on August 11. When you preorder your new tablet from Samsung, you’ll automatically get a free storage upgrade, which saves you $120. And you can save even more if you’ve got an old phone, tablet or smartwatch to trade-in.

At the moment, Samsung is the only place that you’ll find these new Galaxy tablets available for preorder, but we expect other carriers and retailers to have some available soon, along with their own preorder deals and offers. We’ll continue to update the page as new deals become available, so be sure to check back often.

What color does the Galaxy Tab S9 come in?

The Galaxy Tab S9 is only available in graphite or beige, and unlike some other new Samusung devices, there aren’t any variants that are exclusive to Samsung.

How much does the Galaxy Tab S9 cost?

Prices for the new lineup start at just $800 for the basic configuration of the Tab S9, and range all the way up to $1,620 if you want the high-end configuration of the Tab S9 Ultra. Prices below reflect the original list price, before any discounts or offers are applied.

• Galaxy Tab S9 (128GB): $800
• Galaxy Tab S9 (256GB): $920
• Galaxy Tab S9 Plus (256GB): $1,000
• Galaxy Tab S9 Plus (512GB): $1,120
• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (256GB): $1,200
• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (512GB): $1,320
• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (1TB): $1,620

Best Galaxy Tab S9 deals

Because Samsung is the only place that has the new Galaxy tablets available for preorder, there aren’t a ton of deals available quite yet. But we’ll continue to add offers at they become available from other carriers and retailers.

Over the past few months, I’ve read through AI glossaries to get caught up on the vocabulary around the new world of generative AI. I recognize I’ve been doing deep dives into this topic and may know more than the average American about AI, but I still assumed that some of the key concepts associated with generative AI are widely known and understood. Talking with a journalism professor this week showed me that isn’t the case: As I explained how AI tools have a tendency to “hallucinate,” they stared blankly at me and said, “What does that mean?”

“Hallucinate” is one of the first vocabulary words related to genAI that everyone should know. Simply put, it means that AI engines, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have a tendency to make up stuff that isn’t true but that sounds true. In fact, the US Federal Trade Commission earlier this month started investigating OpenAI about its chatbot potentially making false statements about people. Where does “hallucinate” come from in an AI context? Google DeepMind researchers came up with the quaint term in 2018, saying they found that neural machine translation systems, or NMTs, “are susceptible to producing highly pathological translations that are completely untethered from the source material.”

Highly pathological translations untethered from the source material. I’m not an engineer, but even I know that’s a really nice way of saying something is really wrong with those systems.

Most glossaries offer a more straightforward explanation of an AI “hallucination.” This definition comes courtesy of NBC News:

“Hallucination: Hallucinations are unexpected and incorrect responses from AI programs that can arise for reasons that are not yet fully known. A language model might suddenly bring up fruit salad recipes when you were asking about planting fruit trees. It might also make up scholarly citations, lie about data you ask it to analyze, or make up facts about events that aren’t in its training data. It’s not fully understood why this happens, but can arise from sparse data, information gaps and misclassification.”

In the interests of fairness, I asked ChatGPT for comment by prompting it to tell me what “hallucinate” means as it refers to AI. Here’s its response:

In the context of AI, the term “hallucinate” is used metaphorically to describe the generation of content or information that is not based on direct observation or real-world data. When an AI system “hallucinates,” it means that it produces outputs that may resemble or mimic certain patterns or features found in the training data, but are not actually grounded in reality.

The term “hallucinate” is not specific to AI and has been borrowed from its usage in the field of psychology. In psychology, hallucination refers to perceptions or sensory experiences that occur without any external stimuli. These perceptions are not based on reality but are perceived as real by the individual experiencing them.

In the context of AI, the term is used metaphorically to describe situations where the generated outputs deviate from reality or introduce elements that are not present in the original data. For example, in the domain of image generation, an AI system may produce images that contain surreal or fantastical elements, which are not based on actual objects or scenes observed in the training data.

The term “hallucinate” is used to highlight the potential for AI systems to generate outputs that go beyond what is directly observed or explicitly instructed. It reflects the ability of AI algorithms to extrapolate, combine, or create new patterns, sometimes resulting in unexpected or imaginative results.

Kind of a long-winded and convoluted way for a conversational AI to say it makes stuff up, in my opinion. If I didn’t know better, I’d also say ChatGPT was a bit defensive.

Here are the other doings in AI worth your attention.

US workers aren’t afraid of AI, but job erosion coming

The Pew Research Center and McKinsey each put out reports this week on how AI may affect workers and jobs, even as many open questions remain. Both reports are worth a read.

US workers “seem more hopeful than concerned about the impact of AI on their jobs,” according to the Pew study.

The study aimed in part to quantify which industries and workers are more exposed to AI. Pew characterized jobs as “more exposed to artificial intelligence if AI can either perform their most important activities entirely or help with them.”

“Many US workers in more exposed industries do not feel their jobs are at risk — they are more likely to say AI will help more than hurt them personally. For instance, 32% of workers in information and technology say AI will help more than hurt them personally, compared with 11% who say it will hurt more than it helps,” the study found.

As to whether AI will lead to job losses, Pew said the answer to that remains unclear “because AI could be used either to replace or complement what workers do.” And that decision, as we all know, will be made by humans — the managers running these businesses who get to decide if, how and when AI tools are used.

“Consider customer service agents,” Pew noted. “Evidence shows that AI could either replace them with more powerful chatbots or it could enhance their productivity. AI may also create new types of jobs for more skilled workers — much as the internet age generated new classes of jobs such as web developers. Another way AI-related developments might increase employment levels is by giving a boost to the economy by elevating productivity and creating more jobs overall.”

When it comes to jobs with the highest exposure to AI, the breakout isn’t all that surprising, given that some jobs — like firefighting — are more hands on, literally, than others. What is surprising is that more women than men are likely to have exposure to AI in their jobs, Pew said, based on the kind of work they do.

Meanwhile, McKinsey offered up its report “Generative AI and the future of work in America.” The consultancy gave a blunt assessment on the impact of AI and work, saying that “by 2030, activities that account for up to 30 percent of hours currently worked across the US economy could be automated — a trend accelerated by generative AI.”

But there’s a possible silver lining. “An additional 12 million occupational transitions may be needed by 2030. As people leave shrinking occupations, the economy could reweight toward higher-wage jobs. Workers in lower-wage jobs are up to 14 times more likely to need to change occupations than those in highest-wage positions, and most will need additional skills to do so successfully. Women are 1.5 times more likely to need to move into new occupations than men.”

All that depends, McKinsey adds, on US employers helping train workers to serve their evolving needs and turning to overlooked groups, like rural workers and people with disabilities, for their new talent.

What does all this mean for you right now? One thing is that AIs are being used by employers to help with their recruitment. If you’re looking for tips on how to job hunt in a world with these AI recruiting tools, check out this useful guide on The New Age of Hiring by CNET’s Laura Michelle Davis.

Big Tech talks up AI during earnings calls

Google/Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta (formerly known as Facebook) announced quarterly earnings this week. And what was interesting, but not surprising, was how often AI was mentioned in the opening remarks by CEOs and other executives, as well as in the questions asked by Wall Street analysts.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose company offers an AI-enhanced version of its Bing search engine, plus AI tools for business, mentioned artificial intelligence 27 times in his opening remarks. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who talked up the power of Google’s Bard and other AI tools, mentioned AI 35 times. And Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called out AI 17 times. If you’re looking for a little less-than-light reading, I encourage you to scan the transcripts for yourself.

From Zuckerberg, we heard that, “AI-recommended content from accounts you don’t follow is now the fastest growing category of content on Facebook’s feed.” Also that, “You can imagine lots of ways AI could help people connect and express themselves in our apps: creative tools that make it easier and more fun to share content, agents that act as assistants, coaches, or that can help you interact with businesses and creators, and more. These new products will improve everything that we do across both mobile apps and the metaverse — helping people create worlds and the avatars and objects that inhabit them as well.”

Nadella, in talking about Bing, said it’s “the default search experience for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, bringing timelier answers with links to our reputable sources to ChatGPT users. To date, Bing users have engaged in more than 1 billion chats and created more than 750 million images with Bing Image Creator.”

And Pichai talked about how AI tech is transforming Google Search. “User feedback has been very positive so far,” he said. “It can better answer the queries people come to us with today while also unlocking entirely new types of questions that Search can answer. For example, we found that generative AI can connect the dots for people as they explore a topic or project, helping them weigh multiple factors and personal preferences before making a purchase or booking a trip. We see this new experience as another jumping-off point for exploring the web, enabling users to go deeper to learn about a topic.”

AI detection hits another snag

Last week, I shared a CNET story by science editor Jackson Ryan about how a group of researchers from Stanford University set out to test generative AI “detectors” to see if they could tell the difference between something written by an AI and something written by a human. The detectors did less than a good job, with the researchers noting that the software is biased and easy to fool.

Which is why educators and others were heartened by news in January that Open AI, the creator of ChatGPT, was working on a tool that would detect AI versus human content. Turns out that was an ambitious quest, because OpenAI “quietly unplugged” its AI detection tool, according to reporting by Decrypt.

OpenAI said that as of July 20 it was no longer making AI Classifier available, because of its “low rate of accuracy.” The company shared the news in a note appended to the blog post that first announced the tool, adding, “We are working to incorporate feedback and are currently researching more effective provenance techniques for text, and have made a commitment to develop and deploy mechanisms that enable users to understand if audio or visual content is AI-generated.”

US government continues to discuss AI regulations

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continued holding sessions to brief the Senate on the opportunities and risks around AI, saying this week that there’s “real bipartisan interest” in putting together AI legislation that “encourages innovation but has the safeguards to prevent the liabilities that AI could present.”

The Senate expects to call in more experts to testify in coming months, Reuters reported, noting that earlier in the week senators on both sides expressed alarm about AI being used to create a “biological attack.” I know that’s already been the plot of a sci-fi movie, I just can’t remember which one.

Schumer’s complete remarks are here.

Hollywood interest in AI talent picks up as actors, writers strikes continue

Speaking of movies and AI plots, as the actors and writers strikes continue, entertainment companies — not interested in public relations optics, I guess — posted job openings for AI specialists as creatives walked the picket line out of concern that studios will “take their likenesses or voices, and reuse them over and over for little or no pay, and with little in the way of notice,” The Hollywood Reporter said.

“Nearly every studio owner seems to be thinking about AI, whether it’s for content, customer service, data analysis or other uses,” the Reporter said, noting that Disney is offering a base salary of $180,000, with bonuses and other compensation, for someone who has the “ambition to push the limits of what AI tools can create and understand the difference between the voice of data and the voice of a designer, writer or artist.”

Netflix is seeking a $900,000-per-year AI product manager, the Intercept found, while the Reporter noted that Amazon is looking for a senior manager for Prime Video, base salary of up to $300,000, who will “help define the next big thing in localizing content, enhancing content, or making it accessible using state-of-the-art Generative AI and Computer Vision tech.”

As we all know, AI isn’t going anywhere and jobs will be affected. But the questions about how, when and why, and who gets compensated for what — from actors to writers — will depend on decisions made by humans.

Actor Joseph-Gordon Levitt, who also created the online collaborative platform HitRecord and figured out a way to pay creatives for their contributions, wrote a worthwhile op-ed piece reminding everyone that AIs are trained on something — and that something is usually the work of others who should be acknowledged and paid for their contributions.

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