Lost QualityAfter Monster Hunter reminded us all of when video game flicks were garbage, Paul W.S. Anderson's next movie brings an overlooked George R.R. Martin short story to lifeThe movie's main villain appears to be the chroma keying.Image credit: Vertical News by Fran Ruiz Contributor Published on Jan. 9, 2025 If you thought Zack Snyder's two Rebel Moon movies were terrible, what about a new Paul W.S. Anderson joint which looks aesthetically similar, but worse? In the Lost Lands promises an exciting adaptation of the overlooked George R.R. Martin short story of the same name and stars Dave Bautista and Milla Jovovich, but the early 2000s might want it back.Anderson was the main creative voice behind the godawful Monster Hunter flick that we got back in 2020 and that somehow didn't nuke mainstream interest in the franchise. Over the decades, he's been attached to a number of game adaptations, with the first Mortal Kombat movie and his fruitful Resident Evil saga being the biggest examples. Many folks (such as me) also have a sweet spot for Event Horizon and his half-baked take on Alien vs. Predator. The more the technology has advanced, the worse his movies have gotten, though.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Via IGN, In the Lost Lands' synopsis reads as follows:Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and based on George R.R. Martins short story, the story centers on a queen who, desperate to fulfill her love, makes a daring play: she sends the powerful and feared sorceress Gray Alys (Mila Jovovich) to the ghostly wilderness of the Lost Lands in search of a magical power, where the sorceress and her guide, the drifter Boyce (Dave Bautista), must outwit and outfight man and demon.You can check out the trailer for yourself below (if you've got the stomach):While Bautista and Jovovich (both familiar with this sort of production) seem to have had a ton of uncomplicated, campy fun making this one, I'm sorry, but it might be the first wide release that actually feels AI-generated even if it's not. From the glowy lighting to the overdone color grading to the shoddy chromas. Mind you, Anderson is quite capable of delivering absolutely fine B-movie entertainment, but this looks like it'll land closer to his more recent efforts than his actually enjoyable fare of back in the day.IGN also exclusively shared the first-ever poster for the movie, which has prime 'what you'd find at the back of a half-empty Blockbuster in the 2000s' vibes if that's what you're after: Image credit: VerticalIn the Lost Lands' US release is currently set for March 7, 2025.

The year is 2054.Nintendo has released a new trailer looking at the story for Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition on the Switch.Currently slated to release on 20th March 2025, the game is an enhanced version of the Wii U classic, boasting improved visuals and brand new story content. Clocking in at just over 3 and a half minutes, the new trailer sheds light on the game's plot, backstory, and characters to bring you up to speed before its release. There's also a small hint at some of the new content that returning veterans can look forward to.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

In BriefPosted:6:05 AM PST January 9, 2025Image Credits:Getty ImagesTesla directors to pay up to $919 million to settle claims they overpaid themselvesA Delaware judge has approved a settlement that will see Tesla directors including Chair Robyn Denholm, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Kimbal Musk, and James Murdoch return up to $919 million to the automaker, officially resolving allegations that they overpaid themselves, per Reuters.The settlement concludes a 2020 lawsuit by the Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit that challenged director compensation from 2017 to 2020 as excessive. The directors will have to pay back stock and options worth up to $735 million and forgo three years of pay allegedly worth $184 million.Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the judge overseeing the case, also awarded $176 million in fees and costs to the three law firms that brought the case to court on a contingency basis, meaning they would only be paid if they won. Tesla has asked McCormick to cap the fee at $64 million.McCormick is the same judge who ruled against Tesla CEO Elon Musks exorbitant pay package despite shareholders voting to re-ratify the deal.Topics

French startup Rounded believes AI voice agents are going to become the default way customers interact with companies, so instead of building AI voice agents that are ready to use, the company is building an orchestration platform that lets companies build their own voice agent.Rounded started off working on a web3 product before shifting its focus to explore AI voice agents in June 2023. The idea was that wed simply put ChatGPT after a transcriber and before a synthesizer, and it would be valuable, co-founder Aymeric Vaudelin (pictured above, first from left) told TechCrunch.But the team soon faced the usual product-market fit conundrum. After a few months, we realized that the market wasnt ready yet to hear about voice agents. So we created a product, and packaged everything to create a first agent, Vaudelin added.That effort resulted in Donna, an AI voice agent for anesthetists. While that seems a bit random, the startup picked that market because anesthesia secretaries have to deal with a large number of patients, and its usually a very transactional experience.In France, when you schedule a surgical operation, you have to talk to the anesthetist beforehand so they can make sure you dont have any allergies to anesthetic products or any potential complications.Anesthesia secretaries have to handle a large volume of calls that are pretty straightforward. Typically, people just want to know when the anesthetist is available, schedule an appointment, or change the date.Moreover, these arent sales calls, so an AI agent doesnt have to be persuasive or extremely efficient. In the early days, we struggled with latencies of sometimes 4, 5, 6 seconds, Vaudelin said.Nevertheless, with Donna, Rounded managed to convince 15 private hospitals to let an AI voice agent answer calls, and the company says the agent has handled hundreds of thousands of conversations so far. Over time, Rounded improved its product so that it would be more accurate, better integrated with other products and, importantly, faster.With a web call, for example, we now get a latency of less than 700 milliseconds more like 600 milliseconds. You add 200 milliseconds for phone connectivity, more or less, Vaudelin said.More recently, Rounded broadened its remit with an orchestration product that other companies can use to build their own voice agents.Rounded lets you pick and choose your off-the-shelf AI models, which can be a speech-to-text model, an LLM and a text-to-speech model. For instance, for your first voice agent, you could use Azure to transcribe the call, GPT-4o mini as the LLM, and ElevenLabs as your speech-to-text engine.The platform then helps define the instruction trees and prompts that will make the LLM work for your specific use case. Implementing an agent means finding the right prompting, the right parameters and the right variables in the prompt, Vaudelin said.Our pitch is that were going to enable everyone to create great prompts or great agents, and our product will support them in this iteration process to create super-reliable agents, Vaudelin said.Rounded has raised 600,000 so far (around $620,000) from UC Berkeleys deeptech accelerator SkyDeck, and several business angels. But given that artificial intelligence remains an extremely buzzy industry, Im sure the startup will raise more money in the coming months.

Ask any scientist that has worked with cell cultures in a lab: contamination is high on their list of fears. Even one stray bacterium or fungal spore can spoil an entire experiment.Now imagine scaling that risk up to biomanufacturing, which uses living cells to make a range of stuff, including drugs, food ingredients, and industrial materials. There, contamination doesnt just hamper productivity, it has the potential to harm the public if, for example, bad germs make their way into pharmaceuticals.Not wanting to take any chances, companies take a scorched earth approach to combating contaminants, blasting their equipment with searing hot steam. But its a costly tactic: steam takes a lot of energy to produce, and the equipment has to be hardened against the high temperatures and pressures that occur during sterilization.This was an approach developed by Pfizer in the 40s to make penicillin, Brian Heligman, co-founder and CEO of Biosphere, told TechCrunch. And you look at the original systems, they look kind of the same as today.Steam isnt the only way to sterilize equipment. Another is to grow cells in single-use reactors, which is wasteful. Ultraviolet (UV) light is another. Yet until recently, generating enough UV-C light, which is required for decontamination, has been expensive. Now, thanks in part to COVID, theyre a lot cheaper.During the Covid era, you saw a lot of capital influx into the manufacture of UV-C LEDs, Heligman said. Theyll probably get orders of magnitude cheaper in the next decade.Heligman and his colleagues at Biosphere have spent the last two years designing a three-liter, glass benchtop bioreactor that can be sterilized entirely by UV light. Inside the reactor, four bright LEDs blast every part of the chamber and its instrumentation. The startup is now testing eight of them as part of a $1.5 million Department of Defense project to explore ways to use biomanufacturing to produce high-performance oils.Using LEDs has the potential to bring down the cost of biomanufacturing, allowing such processes to make materials that previously would have been too expensive.As you start to be able to simplify the complexity of these systems, we think we can push to a transformatively lower floor, Heligman said.You can imagine this like an electrification of the bioreactor, he said, adding that replacing expensive stainless steel valves, traps, and other equipment with LEDs and a cable should help drive costs down significantly. Whats more, because the vessels wont have to withstand high temperature and pressure, they could be made out of cheaper materials like plastics for certain applications.The company is currently working to build a pilot bioreactor that can contain around 100 liters and can be sterilized using its technology. After that, Heligman said hes interested in exploring designs that would be capable of holding 40,000 to 80,000 liters.Biosphere has raised $8.8 million in seed funding led by Lowercarbon Capital and VXI Capital, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. Participating investors include B37 Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Founders Fund, and GS Futures.

Breakdown & ShowreelsThe Lord of the Rings The War of The Rohirrim: Middle-earth and Anime Making ofBy Vincent Frei - 09/01/2025 Step into the world of Rohan! This making-of featurette for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim unveils the stunning character designs and the intricate animation process behind this epic tale. Dont miss this exclusive behind-the-scenes journey! Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025

Why You Should Use the Cinema Track Modifier TagHave you ever heard of the Cinema 4D Track Modifier Tag? Its hidden, and its a gem.Why You Should Use the Cinema Track Modifier TagWhat is the C4D Track Modifier Tag Used For?You can do so much with it: stretch out animations without touching keyframes, change the start range procedurally, make a stop motion or posterized time effect without touching keyframes, make secondary animation boing and spring and delay effects, and even add random motion to an object.Its a tough tag to explain, so let me walk you through it in this short Cinema 4D tutorial! Be sure to like and subscribe Want More Quick Tips?If you want more of these, head to our YouTube channel, leave a comment, and subscribe!Leave a Comment and Subscribe Here

Kanchanjunga Apartments | Street ViewKanchanjunga Apartments, a towering icon in Mumbais skyline, demonstrates Charles Correas approach to integrating modernism with local sensibilities. Designed in 1970 and completed in 1983, this 32-story residential building addresses the challenges of urban India, including high-density living, climatic considerations, and cultural nuances. The project exemplifies Correas ability to meld functional innovation with an architectural narrative rooted in Indian traditions. In an era when international-style modernism dominated architectural discourse, Correas design offered an alternative that celebrated contextual relevance while embracing global influences.Kanchanjunga Apartments Technical InformationArchitects1-5: Charles CorreaLocation: Mumbai, IndiaArea: 6,500 m2 | 69,900 Sq. Ft.Project Year: 1970 1983Photographs: Flickr User, see Caption DetailsIn Kanchanjunga, we tried to combine the essence of a bungalow with the efficiency of an apartment. The terraces act as private gardens, echoing the courtyards of traditional Indian homes, while the design responds to the specific climatic and cultural context of Mumbai. Charles Correa 6Kanchanjunga Apartments PhotographsStreet ViewAerial ViewAerial ViewFacade Detail | Panovscott, Flickr userPatios | Clay Hensley, Flickr userBalcony | Charles CorreaBalcony | Charles CorreaKanchanjunga Apartments Design PhilosophyKanchanjunga Apartments redefines the concept of vertical living through Correas philosophy of vertical urbanism. Rejecting the monotony of conventional high-rises, Correa conceptualized each apartment as an autonomous entity akin to a self-contained house within a larger collective. The split-level design, which became the hallmark of the project, offers a spatial dynamism rarely seen in high-density housing. Each unit is configured to include double-height living areas, private terraces, and gardens that evoke the essence of traditional Indian courtyards.These terraces, positioned at staggered intervals, allow for cross-ventilation and natural lightingessential considerations in Mumbais tropical climate. The layouts mitigate the harsh western sun, ensuring thermal comfort throughout the day. This approach goes beyond aesthetics, addressing the practicalities of living in a city known for its heat and humidity.Correas design creates a connection with the surrounding environment by blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces. The terraces serve as private sanctuaries and establish a visual dialogue with the city below, reflecting Correas ethos of designing for people, not cars.Materiality, Structure, and Aesthetic AppealThe brutalist aesthetic of Kanchanjunga Apartments is both commanding and contextual. The buildings exposed concrete structure, punctuated by recessed balconies, creates a rhythmic interplay of light and shadow. This facade, while modernist in its expression, resonates with the vernacular language of Indian architecture, where deep verandas and shaded courtyards are integral elements.Structurally, the project exemplifies efficiency and innovation. A robust core supports the cantilevered slabs, freeing the external facade from load-bearing constraints. This structural strategy enhances layout flexibility and enables dramatic overhangs that define the buildings silhouette.Material choices reflect Correas sensitivity to context. Using concrete, while pragmatic, lends the building a timeless quality. Its weathered patina over decades has deepened its character, embedding the structure within the fabric of Mumbais evolving urban landscape.Legacy and Critical ReceptionKanchanjunga Apartments remains a benchmark in modern residential architecture, addressing the complexities of high-density living without sacrificing individuality or comfort. Correas visionone that harmonized traditional values with contemporary needshas inspired generations of architects to approach design with a similar ethos of contextuality and innovation.Critically, the project has been recognized for its approach to sustainable design long before sustainability became a mainstream architectural concern. Kanchanjunga Apartments anticipated many principles that define todays green architecture by prioritizing natural ventilation, shading, and spatial adaptability.However, the project has not been without its critiques. Some argue that its brutalist aestheticwhile bold and innovativemay feel imposing to the untrained eye. Others question whether the exclusivity of its design truly addresses the housing challenges Mumbais broader populace faces.Despite these critiques, Kanchanjunga Apartments demonstrates an approach to architectural form and function. Its legacy endures not just as a remarkable building but as a manifesto for designing in harmony with climate, culture, and community. For architects, it serves as a reminder of the potential of thoughtful, context-driven designa philosophy that Charles Correa championed throughout his career.Kanchanjunga Apartments PlansSketch | Charles CorreaSite Plan | Charles CorreaFloor Plan | Charles CorreaBalcony Sketch | Charles CorreaKanchanjunga Apartments Image GalleryAbout Charles CorreaCredits and Additional NotesStructural Engineer: Mahindra RajClient: Private CommissionBuilding Type: High-rise ResidentialNumber of Stories: 32Total Area: Approx. 6,500 square metersCharles Correa by Kenneth Frampton

PeopleGetting (Back) Into It for 2025Advice on getting into the craft of sign painting from five people who have done just that.Better LettersJan 9, 2025 10 min readElisa Perz (Madame Letters) painting for the TACA Italian takeaway restaurant in Granada.One of 2024's most popular bl.ag online posts was 'Getting Into It' by Lauren Kerbel. This profiled the journeys and experiences of different sign painters around the world, and this year she's added another five people to the list. Read on for their stories, and advice for those just starting out in the business.If your resolution for 2025 is to pick up the brush, and you feel inspired by the wise words below, then make sure you get a copy of the Sign Painting book, and check out the various opportunities to learn the craft in-person and online.Sara Pasternak (Fine Letters)Sara sports a London Letterheads t-shirt on this project for an organic grocers and cafe.LocationFranceTrainingMike Meyer workshopLetterheads 2018 in LondonGed Palmers Script & Casual workshop in BarcelonaWhat are your creative interests and passions? How did they lead you to sign painting?I do hand-lettering and typographic artwork as often as I can. Im also interested in silkscreen printing, as well as linocut printing. I always keep an eye on street art, and art in general, and love travelling to cities where I can see different styles and crafts.Sara is based in the Bay of Biscay in southwest France, with all the associated seaside activities you'd expect.Im a particular lover of all things Japanese the language (which I studied for a few years), the culture and Japanese calligraphy. I guess I can say Im into letters. I always hated painting illustrations at school, but I love hand-lettering, which led me naturally to sign painting.A novel piece of livery work, and more projects from Biarritz and surrounds.Whats the best way to learn sign painting techniques today?I think learning at workshops is super interesting. We learn from great people who love to share the craft and their knowledge, but we also learn alongside other people. I think [sign painting] is one of these crafts and passions that you learn more about day after day. Meet, talk to, and watch others work, and never stop learning.Sara Pasternak (Fine Letters) / @sarapasternakBrigitte JaggiBrigitte learned the craft through a traditional apprenticeship.LocationSwitzerlandTrainingFour-year sign painting apprenticeshipWorkshopsSelf-taughtTraining as a craftswoman for the preservation of historical monumentsCan you tell us what your career path to sign painting looked like?Back in the 1990s, it was still possible to complete an apprenticeship as a sign painter in Switzerland. It lasted four years and was based on a dual education system, combining practical training with theory. I attended trade school on Mondays, a special class for calligraphy and lettering one evening a week, and the other four days I went to work and was given practical training by my two masters.Vehicles and gilded hotel room numbers are among the diverse projects in Brigitte's portfolio.How has your career changed over the years?Shortly after I completed my apprenticeship, the training regulations completely changed. From then on, sign painters were called sign makers, and worked mainly with computers, plotters, and vinyl. In order to continue working in my profession or what was left of it I had to teach myself how to use these machines and the software. I started my own business in 2005 and, over the years, I have been able to specialise more and more in hand-painted and gilded lettering, and thus going back to my roots.In 2023, I successfully completed my further education as a craftswoman for the preservation of historical monuments. It was an interdisciplinary training course in which painters, stuccoworkers, bricklayers, stonemasons, carpenters, gardeners, and woodworkers specialise in traditional techniques in their skilled trades.Heritage projects are a new line of work for Brigitte following her recent training.What barriers or challenges have you faced as a woman and business owner working in the industry?What I find very difficult are the disparaging comments and behaviour of some male customers. Especially at the beginning of my self-employment, I often heard that as a woman, my work should only be seen as my hobby and that I shouldn't demand money for it, ie I should consider it more of an honour to be able to work for them. Others didn't even greet me but explicitly only wanted to speak to 'the boss'. If my partner happened to be visiting my studio, they would address him as the boss; he always just smiled and referred them back to me.I'm glad that I now have much more experience in dealing with such situations and know how to handle people like that. I no longer put up with it. Nevertheless, I still find it hard to understand how, as a woman in business, you often have to do much more to be seen as a person. [See Rachel E Millar's article in BLAG 03 for more on this topic.]Brigitte Jaggi / @brigitte_jaggiAlinaKiliwaAlina is based in Mexico City, where the recent whitewashing of hand-painted signs took place.LocationMxicoTrainingGraphic design at Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico (Autonomous University of Mxico)Calligraphy at the Society of Scribes and IlluminatorsWorkshops with Brian Yonki and Carga Mxima (see the bl.ag online article about this style from Peru) How did you start working in the industry? Did you work full time right away?I had a job at Correos de Mxico (the Mexican Postal Service) as a designer. In the afternoons and weekends I did freelance design and murals, and attended many urban art festivals. Eventually sign painting started to take up more of my time and I had to give up my full-time job to dedicate myself to painting that was approximately eight years ago.What road blocks have you run into along the way?Many older colleagues that I approached refused to teach me lettering techniques; many because I was a woman and many others because I was not part of their family. Others told me they didnt want competition because there wasnt enough work. I had a steep learning curve, which is why I like to share knowledge now in the workshops I teach. [Alina also has her own online course with Domestika.]Another barrier is that there are no professional-quality paints in Mexico, specifically enamels, so I have to ask acquaintances who travel to bring me good paints to use for some specific projects. Fortunately we have good brushes that are sold in a very famous store in Mexico City called Casa Serra.Whats the best way to learn about sign painting?Its always good to get to know others in the industry, whether they are in the same city or from other parts of the world. In general, younger painters tend to be more open to sharing knowledge.Attend workshops and meetups because you can learn so much from your peers. Now there are also so many in-person and online workshops to learn the trade.I think the only limit is having the desire to do it, and the discipline to practise a lot.AlinaKiliwa / @alinakiliwaElena Albertoni (La Letteria)LocationGermanyTrainingGraphic & Type DesignWhat drives the passion for your work?I'm very much in love with letterforms, regardless of their style, technology or application. I really enjoy the process of creating a visual identity by tweaking details of the letters, and I appreciate the variety and quality of old type and lettering.Personal project, and a detail from the transom window at Berlin's Gran Casino pizzeria. Photo (left): Yanina Isla.Theres something very special about our craft: making ideas tangible and creating unique, individualised objects. Unlike mass-produced, uniform designs, each piece carries its own character, shaped by materials like paint, gold leaf, and the variety of surfaces we work on.How did you learn the skills you use as a painter?My graphic design education gave me a solid foundation to work on layouts and colour schemes. My training in type design has also been invaluable to learn how to draw readable and consistent letters from scratch, and to develop a good eye over time. At the same time, it took me a while to shake off the reflex to perfect micro-details, which are completely useless when it comes to painted letters! Its more important to see the bigger picture and work quickly.Sketches and finished work from Elena's La Letteria studio in Berlin. Esst Obst (eat fruit) photo: Yanina Isla.When did you start painting full time, and what was that transition like for you?I started after taking some time off following the birth of my first daughter. My previous collaboration had also ended so I said to myself, "its now or never"!I had some side income from licensing my typefaces, but it was a rough start. Balancing motherhood with all aspects of running a business, in addition to learning on the job, was a challenge like no other.Making a living solely from sign painting is still far from easy, to be honest. While there have been fascinating projects and unique encounters over the years that keep me motivated, the job also comes with its share of stress and frustration that shouldnt be underestimated.Elena Albertoni (La Letteria) / @letteristaElisa Prez (Madame Letters)Elisa at work on the windows at Bonobo Training in Granada, Spain.LocationSpain / GermanyTrainingWorkshops with Adrian Prez, Jeff Marshall and Jakob EngbergCourses in Fine Arts, Graphic Design, and TypographyCan you tell us what your career path to sign painting looked like?I was young and very lost (career-wise). But then again, who isn't? It took me some time to realise that all those Friday afternoons painting oil canvases with old ladies in the back of an art supply store had to mean something.I dont have a degree; I was always starting something to drop out later because it didnt feel right. In total I did one year of fine arts, one of graphic design, and a brief typography course. The first time I saw a sign painter was at a tattoo convention. I couldnt stop thinking about it, so I started looking for a beginners course.Gilded and painted windows by Elisa in Cdiz (The Line Club) and Granada, Spain.Where do you look for inspiration for your work?I think what drives me most in life is watching other craftspeople doing their thing: jewellery makers, ceramists, film photographers, calligraphers, tattoo artists I can relate to them and find tons of inspiration to do my thing.Besides that, at the risk of sounding clich, cartoons, cinema, and music were always very present in my childhood.These risograph-printed zines were a personal project, and its back on the brush for Barrio Specialty Coffee in Granada.A lot of us started sign painting while still working at another job. How did you make the transition from side hustle to a full-time career?I was working as a graphic designer in a start-up office for two years but resigned six months after taking my first sign painting workshop. I had enough money to survive one year without working, but I still worked as a calligraphy teacher once a week to make extra money.What advice would you give to anyone just starting out?Dont be hard on yourself. Follow your instinct and listen to your gut!Elisa Perz (Madame Letters)Interviews by Lauren Kerbel / @torontosignpainterThank you to all the sign painters that shared their experiences and work for this feature. Now it's your turn!More PeopleMore Learning

Tech Meta makes major move back to free speech and ends 3rd-party fact-checking program Meta bringing 'Community Notes'-style feature to Facebook, Instagram Published January 9, 2025 8:00am EST close Big Tech is shaping, censoring the truth: Knutsson Kurt "Cyberguy" Knutsson discusses new technology that could have assisted security at Trumps Pennsylvania rally and reacts to the latest censorship claims against Meta and Google. In 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter and made a series of changes to the platform, including changing its name to X and introducing Community Notes, which is a feature that allows users to add context or fact-check potentially misleading posts.This approach differs from Metas model, which relies on third-party, independent fact-checking organizations to flag misleading posts on Instagram, Facebook and Threads (its rival to X).However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Meta will stop working with these organizations and instead implement an X-like Community Notes feature. Zuckerberg also revealed a series of other major changes to the company's moderation policies and practices, aimed at offering people more freedom of expression. Meta's logo (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Community Notes coming to Meta platformsZuckerberg announced Tuesday that the social media company would stop working with third-party fact-checking organizations. In a video posted on Instagram and Facebook,Zuckerberg said the company's content moderation approach resulted too often in "censorship.""After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth," Zuckerberg said."But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S."Zuckerberg said that Meta will end its fact-checking program with trusted partners and replace it with a community-driven system similar to Xs Community Notes. Mark Zuckerberg (Meta)For the unaware, Community Notes on X allows users to collaboratively add context or fact-check potentially misleading posts. When a tweet is flagged for misinformation or lack of context, users can submit notes that provide additional information or correct inaccuracies.These notes are then reviewed by other users, who can upvote or downvote the contributions based on their helpfulness and accuracy. If a note receives enough support, it becomes visible beneath the original tweet, offering a balanced view and helping to inform others.Meta's changes spark backlash from fact-checking communityIndependent fact-checkers, however, arent happy with the change."Fact-checking journalism has never censored or removed posts; its added information and context to controversial claims, and its debunked hoax content and conspiracy theories. The fact-checkers used by Meta follow a code of principles requiring nonpartisanship and transparency,"said Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network.WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? Social media apps on an iPhones home screen (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Meta is also reducing censorshipZuckerberg also revealed plans to overhaul Meta's recommendation system, which determines the content shown to users. For years, the company has restricted political content, citing user feedback and concerns about the impact of social media on beliefs."We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes," Zuckerberg said."Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people, and we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship."He added that Meta would eliminate some content policies on controversial issues, including immigration and gender, and refocus its automated moderation on what he described as high-severity violations. The company will now take a more personalized approach to political content so that people who want to see more of it in their feeds can see it.In addition, Facebook will relocate its trust and safety and content moderation teams from California to Texas. Zuckerberg also said Meta would collaborate with the incoming Trump administration to promote free speech globally, though he did not provide specific details.GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE Facebook app on an iPhone (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Kurts key takeawayMeta's platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, have been more tightly moderated compared to platforms like X, which has meant less freedom of expression for users. The changes Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday aim to relax those rules, letting people share their thoughts more freely. This could lead to more offensive content, but that's the trade-off for more freedom. The introduction of Community Notes is a good change, too, as it gives users more control instead of leaving it to a small group of people who might be biased toward a certain political party or issue.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPWhat do you think about the changes Zuckerberg is making to Metas content moderation? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurts free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com. 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