Meta plans to start using data collected from its users in the European Union to train its AI systems, the company announced today. Starting this week, the tech giant will begin notifying Europeans through email and its family of apps of the fact, with the message set to include an explanation of the kind of data it plans to use as part of the training. Additionally, the notification will link out to a form users can complete to opt out of the process. "We have made this objection form easy to find, read, and use, and we’ll honor all objection forms we have already received, as well as newly submitted ones," says Meta.  The company notes it will only use data it collects from public posts and Meta AI interactions for training purposes. It won't use private messages in its training sets, nor any interactions, public or otherwise, made by users under the age of 18. As for why the company wants to start using EU data now, it claims the information will allow it to fine tune its future models to better serve Europeans.             "We believe we have a responsibility to build AI that’s not just available to Europeans, but is actually built for them. That’s why it’s so important for our generative AI models to be trained on a variety of data so they can understand the incredible and diverse nuances and complexities that make up European communities," Meta states.  "That means everything from dialects and colloquialisms, to hyper-local knowledge and the distinct ways different countries use humor and sarcasm on our products. This is particularly important as AI models become more advanced with multi-modal functionality, which spans text, voice, video, and imagery."  Meta notes other AI companies, including Google and OpenAI, have similarly used data from European users to fine tune their own systems. Today's announcement follows the initial release of Meta's new Llama 4 models. After some early hype, the company was accused of gaming LMArena, a website where humans compare the outputs of different AI models to rank them. Researchers noticed Meta had provided an experimental version of Llama 4 to the site "optimized for conversationality.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-will-start-using-data-from-eu-users-to-train-its-ai-models-175307338.html?src=rss

Apple could make iPadOS 19 more like macOS – and while this could fix my biggest problem with the iPad Pro, not everyone will be happy.

Daters: It might be time to spring clean your dating app profile. More than 50% of young Americans have gone on a date with someone who looked different from their profile photos, according to a new survey from dating app Hily. That’s led 54% of Gen Z and 62% of millennial daters to either end a date early or decline a second one, Hily found after surveying 3,700 dating app users earlier this month. “For a variety of reasons, quite a few people don’t regularly update their profile pics, some not even when their looks change,” the company wrote in an accompanying blog post. “Women tend to be afraid of being judged for their appearance, while men feel like the content of their profile doesn’t make a difference. A lot of women and men just don’t know what to put in their profiles.” About 10% of daters admitted they’re “unlikely to change their profile pics, even if their appearance changes.” But that’s a small share overall: Hily said 84% of women and 83% of men have updated their profiles within the past six months. Still, many young daters will say their pictures may not be 100% true to reality. The survey found that around 45% of Gen Z and 33% of millennials view their own profile pictures as close to their actual looks, but not quite there. This likely fits into the broader public sentiment of users being dismayed with dating apps. According to a 2023 Pew survey, online daters are relatively divided over whether their experiences on the apps have been either positive or negative. If you go on enough dates with people you weren’t expecting to go on dates with (a.k.a.: you were catfished), you’ll likely become a bit jaded with the experience. Take this as your sign to double-check your profile—and maybe swap out a few photos while you’re at it.

At first glance, this Grabinet Outfitter Kit appears useful. It's a set of nine drawers that apparently allow you to store/organize smaller items in a milk crate. The catch is, these won't fit in a standard milk crate, just the ones by its manufacturer, UbeCube. (Standard milk crates are 11" tall and 13" square. UbeCube's offerings are slightly larger, and truly cubical at 13.5" all around.) I poked around to see if anyone makes a similar offering for actual milk crates. The Grip Store—that's "grip" as in film set, not hand traction--makes these $10 dividers for standard milk crates used by the dairy industry (and apparently film production crews). Each unit consists of two plugs that snap into the crisscross lattice on the sides, and a divider that slots between them. The divider is only as high as the bottom of the handle cutouts, so you can still pick the whole thing up. Print Foundry, a 3D-printing operation out of Fargo, North Dakota, sells just the plugs, four for $13; you supply the 1/4"- or 6mm-thick divider of your choice. The company is a mom-and-pop outfit, and it shows in the finish quality of the product. What I could not find is anyone who makes a drawer-style offering like UbeCube's. There's either a gap in the market, or no market at all—after all, the type of people who use milk crates for storage tend to be DIY'ers who will improvise their own solutions. As evinced on Pinterest.

Remember that cute little robotic ball Samsung teased back at CES 2020? After five years of development (or perhaps rolling around in Samsung’s R&D labs), Ballie is finally making its consumer debut this summer in the US and South Korea. What started as a tennis ball-sized concept has grown to volleyball proportions—kind of like how the promises about its capabilities have expanded with each passing year. Designer: Samsung The journey from concept to consumer product hasn’t been a straight line for this spherical sidekick, but Samsung seems confident they’ve finally perfected their rolling companion. In its latest evolution, Samsung just announced a partnership with Google Cloud to integrate Google’s Gemini AI into Ballie. This means your expensive rolling robot will now have the same AI that’s already in your phone and available on your computer for free. Progress! Though to be fair, combining Google’s AI prowess with Samsung’s hardware expertise could potentially create something greater than the sum of its parts. A Smart Speaker That Chases You Around What truly separates Ballie from the seventeen smart speakers you’ve already scattered around your home? It moves. While your Echo Dot sits sadly collecting dust on your kitchen counter, Ballie actively pursues you throughout your living space like an eager puppy—or a particularly friendly surveillance device, depending on your perspective. “But Vincent,” you might ask, “couldn’t I just carry my phone with me instead?” Sure, but where’s the fun in that? Why use the perfectly functional device already in your pocket when you could have a volleyball-sized robot following you to the bathroom? The robot’s multimodal AI capabilities allow it to process various forms of input simultaneously—voice, visual data from its cameras, and other audio cues. In theory, this creates a more comprehensive understanding of your needs and environment. In practice, it means Ballie will know exactly what you look like in your pajamas and precisely how many times you’ve asked it to play “Despacito” (judgment included at no extra charge). Ballie’s most distinctive feature is its projection capability, which genuinely separates it from other smart home devices. This clever sphere can project interfaces onto floors, walls, and other surfaces, turning any flat area in your home into a potential display. Need to check your calendar while getting dressed? Ballie can project it onto your bedroom wall. Want everyone to see your private messages? Ballie’s got you covered there too! Nothing says “cutting-edge technology” like turning your entire home into one giant, hard-to-read screen. Yet the ability to create interfaces anywhere without installing permanent displays could be genuinely useful in many scenarios. Imagine having your recipe projected onto the kitchen counter while cooking, or your workout routine displayed on the floor during exercise. The possibilities are intriguing, even if the practicality remains questionable. Your Home’s Rolling Command Center (That You Definitely Need) Beyond mobility and projection tricks, Ballie serves as yet another smart home controller in an already crowded market. The robot can manage connected devices throughout your living space—adjusting thermostats, controlling lighting, and managing entertainment systems. You know, all those things your phone, smart speakers, smartwatch, smart TV remote, and smart light switches already do, but with the added excitement of having to locate a rolling ball first. According to Samsung, Ballie can offer personalized health and lifestyle recommendations based on your patterns and preferences. Just what everyone wants—another device telling you to get off the couch or suggesting that maybe, just maybe, wearing sweatpants for the seventh day in a row isn’t your best fashion choice. The robot can even provide styling recommendations, potentially using its visual recognition capabilities to judge your outfit choices with the cold, unfeeling precision only an AI can deliver. Though to be fair, if it can actually help coordinate outfits or remind you about important medications, that could be genuinely valuable for some users. But do we really need a rolling robot to tell us that navy blue and black don’t match? Your mirror has been doing that job for free for years. Pet owners might find particular value in Ballie’s monitoring capabilities, which go beyond what stationary cameras can offer. When you’re away from home, this robotic companion can keep an eye on your furry friends, alerting you to unusual behavior like your cat knocking things off shelves—something you definitely couldn’t see with the seventeen security cameras you already have installed. Your pets will surely appreciate having a strange rolling object chasing them around the house while you’re gone. Or maybe they’ll destroy it within the first week. Either way, entertainment value! I’m personally looking forward to the inevitable YouTube compilation videos of cats riding Ballies across hardwood floors. The integration with Google’s Gemini AI should theoretically make Ballie’s interactions more natural and intuitive. Rather than the stilted command-response pattern of most smart assistants, Ballie aims to provide flowing conversations that feel more like talking to a helpful companion. Whether this will work as advertised remains to be seen, but the potential is certainly there for a more satisfying user experience than we’ve had with previous generations of AI assistants. Just don’t expect it to pass the Turing test anytime soon. From Tennis Ball to Volleyball: A Growth Story Samsung’s journey with Ballie illustrates the challenges of bringing truly innovative consumer robotics to market—or perhaps just how long it takes to convince consumers they need another smart device. First unveiled in 2020, the robot captured imaginations but required extensive refinement before Samsung felt confident bringing it to consumers. The version shown at CES 2024 represented a significant evolution from the original concept, with enhanced capabilities and a more refined design. This extended development period suggests Samsung is taking the product seriously rather than rushing it to market half-baked. Five years is a long time in tech development cycles—either they’re perfectionists or they kept running into walls. Literally. The physical growth from tennis ball to volleyball size wasn’t just about aesthetics—it reflects the practical realities of packing more technology into a mobile device. A larger form factor allows for better batteries, more sophisticated sensors, and improved projection capabilities. It also means more surface area for your cat to attack and more weight to run over your toes at 3 AM when you’re stumbling to the bathroom. Engineering a device that can move reliably around a home environment while carrying all the necessary tech is no small feat. Just ask anyone who’s watched a robot vacuum repeatedly ram itself into the same table leg for twenty minutes. The partnership with Google Cloud for Gemini AI integration shows Samsung recognizes the need for powerful AI capabilities to make Ballie truly useful—or at least to justify whatever eye-watering price tag they’ll announce closer to launch. By combining their proprietary language models with Google’s Gemini, Samsung can offer more sophisticated natural language processing than would be possible alone. This collaboration may also help Ballie integrate more seamlessly with other Google services, creating an ecosystem so comprehensive you’ll never escape tech company surveillance again! The privacy implications alone should make for interesting conversations. “Hey Ballie, are you recording this?” “No, Vincent, I would never do that… by the way, have you considered those hemorrhoid creams you were googling yesterday?” Do You Actually Need This Rolling Robot? Let’s be honest for a moment. Ballie represents an interesting experiment in home robotics, bringing mobility to a category that has been largely stationary. Its friendly, non-threatening design delivers functionality without venturing into uncanny valley territory. But do you need it? Probably not. Most of us have survived just fine without a rolling AI ball following us around our homes. Will you want it? Almost certainly, if you’re the type of person who reads Gear Culture articles and has a weakness for gadgets with personality. There’s an undeniable appeal to having your own little robot companion, even if its practical benefits are questionable at best. It’s basically a pet that doesn’t poop and might actually do something useful occasionally. Ballie exists in the perfect sweet spot of consumer technology—not quite essential enough to be a necessity but novel enough to be irresistible to tech enthusiasts. It solves problems you didn’t know you had with solutions you didn’t know you wanted. The ability to have your AI assistant physically follow you around might be genuinely useful in specific scenarios, or it might just be another expensive gadget that ends up collecting dust after the novelty wears off. Your mileage will vary depending on how you actually live in your home and how tolerant you are of a volleyball with cameras watching you fold laundry in your underwear. What remains to be seen is how well Ballie will handle the unpredictable chaos of real-world homes. Can it navigate around furniture obstacles without getting stuck? Will it survive encounters with curious pets and small children? Can it handle varied lighting conditions that might affect its projection capabilities? The true test will come when this volleyball-sized companion faces the messy reality of actual family life rather than the perfectly staged environments of product demonstrations. I’m particularly interested in how it handles stairs. Does it just sadly gaze up at them like my robot vacuum, or will it develop a concerning tendency to throw itself down them dramatically? Samsung’s five years of development suggest they’ve been working diligently to ensure Ballie can handle these real-world challenges. The extended gestation period indicates they’re taking the product seriously and addressing potential issues before release. Whether that translates to a reliable, useful device remains to be seen, but the commitment is encouraging. The Rolling Future Whether Ballie becomes a household staple or remains a fascinating experiment, it’s rolling us toward a future where our homes feel more responsive, more integrated, and perhaps even a little more alive. There’s something appealing about technology that can physically respond to our needs rather than just sitting passively waiting for commands. Of course, there’s also something mildly dystopian about having an AI-powered camera on wheels following you around your home, constantly watching and listening. The privacy implications alone deserve serious consideration before inviting this rolling companion into your life. Samsung and Google will need to be transparent about how data is collected, processed, and protected if they want consumers to trust Ballie with intimate access to their homes and daily routines. This summer, we’ll finally discover if this adorable rolling robot can live up to its considerable promise or if it’s just another expensive tech toy destined for the drawer of forgotten gadgets. Either way, Ballie represents an interesting step in the evolution of home robotics—bringing movement to a category that has been largely stationary and personality to systems that have often felt mechanical. And if nothing else, it’ll give your cat something new to be terrified of. That alone might be worth the price of admission. Just don’t be surprised when you find yourself apologizing to a ball after accidentally kicking it. We humans have a funny way of anthropomorphizing anything with even a hint of personality. Before you know it, you’ll be naming it, talking to it when no one else is around, and feeling guilty when you leave it alone for too long. Ballie might not be the companion we need, but it might just be the weird little robot friend we secretly wanted all along.The post Samsung Ballie Is Finally Real—And Yes, It’s Following You This Summer first appeared on Yanko Design.

Bungie brought in an Oscar-winning director for the stunning short film.

GPT 4.1, GPT 4.1 Mini, and GPT 4.1 Nano are all available now—and will help OpenAI compete with Google and Anthropic.

Meta’s antitrust trial, in which the government contends the company killed competition by buying young rivals, hinges on unknowable alternate versions of Silicon Valley history.

Macworld Two days after the release of iOS 18.4, Apple has begun the iOS 18.5 beta testing cycle. The first developer release landed on April 2, and we expect a wide release in May (or possibly late April). The last few iOS versions had their x.5 releases in May, with only minor features and changes, and we expect the same this year, especially now that the anticipated new Siri has been delayed. Updated April 14: Apple has released the second beta of iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5, but we still don’t see any major new features. iOS 18.5: New features With the big Siri enhancements pushed back out of the iOS 18 update cycle and the iOS 19 beta starting at WWDC in June, we don’t expect much in the way of major new features—just a few touch-ups, bug fixes, and security enhancements. Contact Photos in Mail – In the three-dot menu (…) you can quickly enable or disable contact photos in Mail. AppleCare Info – In Settings > General > AppleCare & Warranty you’ll see a new AppleCare banner you can tap to learn about your coverage. iOS 18.5: How to install the public beta If you want to be among the first to test iOS 18.5, you can sign up for the public beta test. The process for installing a beta has changed in iOS 16.4. Here’s how the new process works now: Click Sign Up on the Apple Beta page and register with your Apple ID. Log in to the Beta Software Program. Click Enroll your iOS device. Open the Settings app, tap General, then Software Update. In the Beta Updates section, select the iOS Public Beta. It may take a few moments after registering for the beta option to appear in Software Update. iOS 18.5: How to install the developer beta You’ll need to be registered as an Apple developer. Beginning with iOS 18.5, you don’t need to be in the $99 per year developer program to access the developer beta. A free developer account will do. You can get one via Xcode or the Apple Developer app in iOS. Here’s how to do it via the Apple Developer app: Download the Apple Developer App from the App Store. Open the app. Tap on Account. Sign in using your usual Apple ID. Registered developers can choose to get the Public Beta instead by selecting iOS Public Beta in the Software Update screen. It may take a little time after registering as a developer for the option to appear in Software Updates. Find out everything you need to know about iOS 18 in our iOS 18 superguide.

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data —Steven Renderos is the executive director of Media Justice Tech buzzwords are clanging through the halls of Washington, DC. The Trump administration has promised to “leverage blockchain technology” to reorganize the US Agency for International Development, and Elon Musk’s DOGE has already unleashed an internal chatbot to automate agency tasks—with bigger plans on the horizon to take over for laid-off employees.The executive order that created DOGE in the first place claims the agency intends to “modernize Federal technology and software.” But jamming hyped-up tech into government workflows isn’t a formula for efficiency. Successful, safe civic tech requires a human-centered approach that understands and respects the needs of citizens.Unfortunately, this administration laid off all the federal workers with the know-how for that. And if this administration doesn’t change its approach soon, American citizens are going to suffer far more than they probably realize. Read the full story. Meet the researchers testing the “Armageddon” approach to asteroid defense One day, in the near or far future, an asteroid about the length of a football stadium will find itself on a collision course with Earth. If we are lucky, it will land in the middle of the vast ocean, creating a good-size but innocuous tsunami, or in an uninhabited patch of desert. But if it has a city in its crosshairs, one of the worst natural disasters in modern times will unfold. Homes dozens of miles away will fold like cardboard. Millions of people could die. Fortunately for all 8 billion of us, planetary defense—the science of preventing asteroid impacts—is a highly active field of research. We already know that at least one method works: ramming the rock with an uncrewed spacecraft to push it away from Earth.But there are circumstances in which giving an asteroid a physical shove might not be enough to protect the planet. If that’s the case, we could need another method, one that is notoriously difficult to test in real life: a nuclear explosion. Read the full story. —Robin George Andrews This story is from the next edition of our print magazine, which is all about creativity. Subscribe now to read it and get a copy of the magazine when it lands! The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Consumer tech products may be subject to steep tariffs after allThe Trump administration says that while smartphones and other gadgets are exempt from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, they will be included in forthcoming semiconductor tariffs. (FT $)+ Trump has promised to investigate the semiconductor sector. (The Guardian)+ The White House’s tariff chaos is showing no signs of slowing. (Reuters) 2 Meta is preparing for its day in courtThe landmark monopoly trial follows an investigation that took close to six years. (NYT $)+ The trial’s ruling could force Mark Zuckerberg to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp. (Politico)+ But the US government is facing an uphill battle. (Wired $) 3 Lauren Sánchez is heading into spaceThe pilot, who is also Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, will travel to the edge of outer space today. (CNN)+ The all-female mission is expected to take around 11 minutes. (BBC) 4 Chinese sellers aren’t worried about the USA’s tariffs Even though they’re anticipating that the US won’t buy everyday goods any more. (WSJ $)+ The tariffs are hitting ordinary Americans pretty hard. (The Guardian)+ Meanwhile, Apple has increased its iPhone production in India by almost 60%. (Bloomberg $) 5 Here’s what could happen to your 23andMe DNA dataNow the company has gone bankrupt, a sale could be imminent. (Insider $)+ How to… delete your 23andMe data. (MIT Technology Review) 6 The hacking groups you need to know aboutFrom crypto thieves to sabotage specialists. (Wired $)+ Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming. (MIT Technology Review) 7 Netflix is testing out a new AI search functionPowered by OpenAI’s technology. (Bloomberg $)+ It’s currently available for select users in Australia and New Zealand. (Engadget) 8 San Francisco residents are turning Waymos into community bulletin boardsThey’re leaving handwritten notes seeking new hires and dates inside the robotaxis. (WP $)+ How Wayve’s driverless cars will meet one of their biggest challenges yet. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Who is hacking California’s crosswalks?Crossings are playing AI recordings mocking Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. (The Verge) 10 Instagram is the hottest place to shop for kids’ clothes Enterprising moms are on the hunt for bargains. (The Verge)+ The best part of Facebook these days is Facebook Marketplace. (The Atlantic $) Quote of the day “The mass confusion created by this constant news flow out of the White House is dizzying for the industry and investors and creating massive uncertainty and chaos for companies trying to plan their supply chain, inventory, and demand.”’ —Dan Ives, a senior analyst for Wedbush, sums up the latest twists and turns in the Trump administration’s tariff plans, the Washington Post reports. The big story Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the pastAfter falling steadily for decades, the prevalence of global hunger is now on the rise—nowhere more so than in sub-Saharan Africa. Conflicts, economic fallout from the covid-19 pandemic, and extreme weather events linked to climate change have pushed the share of the population considered undernourished from 18% in 2015 to 23% in 2023. Africa’s indigenous crops are often more nutritious and better suited to the hot and dry conditions that are becoming more prevalent, yet many have been neglected by science, which means they tend to be more vulnerable to diseases and pests and yield well below their theoretical potential. Now the question is whether researchers, governments, and farmers can work together in a way that gets these crops onto plates and provides Africans from all walks of life with the energy and nutrition that they need to thrive, whatever climate change throws their way. Read the full story. —Jonathan W. Rosen We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)+ The Minecraft movie sounds like absolute chaos (in a good way)+ Huge congratulations are in order for Rory McIlroy, the first European to win golf’s Grand Slam.+ Mark my words, nothing good can come from a British version of SNL.+ Enjoy these gorgeous otter pups taking their very first swim with their patient mom