If youre looking for indoor activities to keep you entertained this winter, you might want to check out Amazons ongoing Blu-ray sale. Now through January 20th, you can pick up three 4K Blu-ray titles for $33 when you add them to your cart, regardless of their sale price. That amounts to $11 per film, which is the kind of discount typically reserved for major shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Whats more, you can take advantage of the deal as many times as youd like.RelatedThe limited time promo extends to hundreds of movies, including some of the most popular films from the past few years. Never got a chance to watch Denis Villeneuves Dune? Thats okay, because the sale includes bothDuneandDune: Part Two, each of which would normally cost north of $30. Thanks to Amazons sale, though, you can pick up both for $33 alongside a third box office hit whether it be Twisters, Oppenheimer, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Batman,Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, or even Barbie.Its not all recent hits from the past year or two, either. The sale includes older classics, too, including Jurassic Park, The Shining, Pans Labyrinth, Blade Runner 2049, and much more.Dune: Part Two (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)$11$3367% off$11$11$3367% offDune: Part Two is a film adaption of the first book in the Dune series, one that picks up where the first movie left off. Now through January 20th, you can grab it alongside two other films (includingDune) for just $33 as a part of Amazons 4K UHD Blu-ray sale. $11 at AmazonOppenheimer (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)$11$3367% off$11$11$3367% offChristopher Nolans latest award-winning film, Oppenheimer, tells the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who helped develop the worlds first atomic bomb. Read our review.$11 at AmazonThe Super Mario Bros. Movie (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital)$11$3367% off$11$11$3367% offNintendos latest adaptation of its iconic video game franchise is a nostalgia play if there ever was one, but that doesnt make it any less delightful. Read our review.$11 at Amazon

Meta is eliminating its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs because of the legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the US, according to a memo to employees seen by Axios. Meta will also roll back representation goals and end its diverse slate approach to hiring.The memo, which was written by Janelle Gale, Metas vice president of human resources, said the company would replace DEI programs with ones that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background, as reported by Axios. The company will also end efforts to source business suppliers from diverse-owned businesses.The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI, Gale wrote. The term DEI has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others. Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton confirmed to The Verge that Axios reporting is accurate.The news follows Metas appointment of the Trump-friendly policy chief Joel Kaplan. Meta also recently announced its plans to replace third-party fact-checking with a Community Notes system similar to Elon Musks X. Meta also overhauled its Hateful Conduct Policy, making changes that now allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, among other horrible things, and announced plans to move its moderation teams from California to Texas due to concerns about bias. Update, January 10th: Added confirmation from Meta.

The Problem: Why Current AI Agent Approaches FailIf you have ever designed and implemented an LLM Model-based chatbot in production, you have encountered the frustration of agents failing to execute tasks reliably. These systems often lack repeatability and struggle to complete tasks as intended, frequently straying off-topic and delivering a poor experience for the customers.The typical strategies to address these challenges carry their own limitations.One common approach is to use longer and more intricate prompts. Although this can reduce unwanted behavior, it never fully prevents the agent from going off-topic, even slightly, which can have a significant impact and may introduce considerable latency.. Whenever new corner cases arise, modifying a lengthy prompt can inadvertently create additional edge cases, leading to a fragile system.Another widely used method is to implement guardrails. Although this can be effective, it is often a drastic measure because it forces the chatbot to shut down as soon as any violation or deviation from the task is detected, which harms the overall user experience.The Impact is significant :Eroded trust: Users quickly lose confidence in the botand your brandwhen responses are clearly incorrect or incomplete.Compliance risks: A chatbot that makes unauthorized or erroneous statements can pose legal and financial risks.Lost sales: When the agent diverges from the intended script, conversions and sales suffer.Lost customers: An unprofessional or misleading chatbot can drive customers away for good.Some Real-World Examples where these issues matter:A customer service agent at a bank or financial service firm providing inconsistent advice.A sales agent on an e-commerce site that incorrectly describes or prices products.A healthcare services agent offering unverified medical suggestions.A New Open-Source Approach: ParlantParlant introduces a dynamic control system that ensures agents follow your specific business rules. It does this by matching and activating the appropriate combination of guidelines for each situation. Heres a quick look at how it works:Contextual Evaluation:When a chatbot needs to respond, Parlant evaluates the conversation context and loads relevant guidelines (rules you define for your specific use cases).Behavioral Guidelines:These guidelines shape the chatbots tone, style, and allowed content. Parlant re-checks them continuously as new information emerges.Self-Critique Mechanisms:Before generating a final response, Parlant runs a self-critique process, ensuring the answer aligns precisely with the matched guidelines.How Parlant WorksParlants core components include Guidelines, a Glossary, a Coherence Checker, and a Tool Service.Lets explore them:1. GuidelinesGuidelines are the most powerful customization feature in Parlant. They determine how your chatbot should respond in specific scenarios. Parlant automatically injects only the relevant guidelines into the LLMs context in real time, keeping interactions clean and efficient.What Are Guidelines?Guidelines let you shape an agents behavior in three primary ways.First, they help address undesired out-of-the-box responses when they are lackluster or incomplete.Second, they ensure consistent behavior across all interactions.Third, they guide the agent to stay focused on the guided optimized behavior ( no punt intended!)For example, an original response to a room-booking request might be, Sure, I can help you book a room. When will you be staying? Although this response is functional, guidelines can be applied to make it more enthusiastic. A reworked answer could become, Im so happy you chose our hotel! Lets get you the best room for your needs. When will you be staying?Structure of GuidelinesCondition: A trigger or situation (e.g., It is a holiday).Action: An instruction (e.g., Offer a discount).In Parlants shorthand:When it is a holiday, Then offer a discount.2. Ensuring CoherenceParlant validates guidelines for internal consistency and provides visibility into the agents decision-making. This eliminates confusion or contradictions when multiple guidelines could apply simultaneously.3. GlossaryA glossary defines any specialized terms or domain-specific language the chatbot needs to recognize. This helps maintain consistent terminology across conversations.The Tool Service lets the chatbot call external APIs or third-party tools, such as looking up e-commerce product categories or retrieving a users order history. This ensures your agent can act on real data rather than rely solely on the models internal training.Bonus Features: Guardrails and Content ModerationEven with robust guidelines, it can be necessary to add another layer of protection. Parlant integrates with services such as OpenAIs Omni Moderation to pre-filter harmful or sensitive content, ensuring safer interactions. In domains like mental health or legal advice, it is best to hand off users to a professional. Parlants guidelines can automatically redirect users to human agents when these topics arise, preserving compliance and user well-being.Customers may also attempt to harass or manipulate the agent. Parlants content filtering helps keep conversations respectful and ensures the chatbot remains composed in contentious situations. Finally, some users try to jailbreak the agent or expose its internal rules. Parlant offers a paranoid mode, which integrates with Lakera Guard, to maintain the chatbots intended boundaries and prevent unauthorized behavior.The Agent Development Journey evolved!Parlant allows you to build and refine your chatbot step by step. You start with basic guidelines, then evolve your agent as you learn more about your customers needs and behaviors. Because it is open source, you can also leverage community contributions and best practices It enables you to also evolve the guardrail in a dynamic guidevery powerful!Give it a try and experience a new level of control in LLM-based chatbot development.How to Try Parlant?The entire source code, licensed under Apache 2.0, is available on GitHub. We encourage you to check it outthis is will a be growing trends of 2025. We always love open-source project, so a friendly reminder that simple Star on the repository goes a long way in showing your support!Here are the links :GitHub Repo Dive into the code, tutorials, and documentation.Tutorials & Guides Learn how to set up your first Parlant-powered agent.Thanks tothe Parlan teamfor the thought leadership/ Resources for this article.Parlan team has supported us in this content/article. Jean-marc Mommessin+ postsJean-marc is a successful AI business executive .He leads and accelerates growth for AI powered solutions and started a computer vision company in 2006. He is a recognized speaker at AI conferences and has an MBA from Stanford. [Recommended Read] Nebius AI Studio expands with vision models, new language models, embeddings and LoRA (Promoted)

The popular and well-reviewed Black Myth: Wukong game is on sale at Amazon. Right now you can get it a physical PlayStation 5 copy for $56.99, a 13% off discount from its original $65 price. Black Myth: Wukong was one of the few recently released games that didn't see any discount during Black Friday. At this price, it's also less expensive than getting the digital only edition at the PlayStation Store.Black Myth: Wukong (PS5) for $56.99PS5Black Myth: WukongBlack Myth: Wukong was released on August 17 of 2024 and was an immediate success. This game from Game Science is built on Unreal Engine 5 and is easily one of the best looking PlayStation 5 games. The grand, sweeping story is inspired by the Monkey King lore with a main campaign that takes about 35 hours to complete according to howlongtobeat. It boasts punishingly difficult Souls-like gameplay (I personally found it harder than Elden Ring) and epic boss battles. It didn't make it into our list of best PS5 games of 2024, but only because it was too new (had to be out for 6 months or longer).Black Myth Wukong review by Mitchell Saltzman"As GameSciences debut action game, Black Myth: Wukong is mostly a great success, despite some major technical black marks and localization issues that are likely to cause some frustrations at launch. Combat is fantastic thanks to a great balance of careful resource management and lightning-fast, twitch-reaction gameplay that tested my skills as much as Elden Ring ever has, despite being a more traditional action game than FromSoftwares style. Not only that, but there are a ton of exciting boss battles, a great variety of enemies, and the world they inhabit is an absolute treat for the eyes and ears. Its story has its moments but relies a bit too much on having prior knowledge of the events of Journey to the West, and it really could have used a map to make its rewarding exploration measure up to the strength of its combat. That said, its strengths more than carry it through, making Black Myth: Wukong a great action game that could be even greater if GameScience can squash the bugs."PlayFor more big tech news for this month, check out our CES 2025 hub for all of the latest updates.Why Should You Trust IGN's Deals Team?IGN's deals team has a combined 30+ years of experience finding the best discounts in gaming, tech, and just about every other category. We don't try to trick our readers into buying things they don't need at prices that aren't worth buying something at. Our ultimate goal is to surface the best possible deals from brands we trust and our editorial team has personal experience with. You can check out our deals standards here for more information on our process, or keep up with the latest deals we find on IGN's Deals account on Twitter.Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera doesn't strive to go much higher than the bar set by the cat-and-mouse game of its predecessor, nor does it land too far beneath the original Den of Thieves. Its the very definition of a lateral move, which will likely satisfy the fanbase that has built up around the first face-off between criminal mastermind Donnie Wilson (OShea Jackson Jr.) and determined cop Big Nick OBrien (Gerard Butler). That said, it does suffer from the same inflated-runtime problems while taking too long to get to the showcase heist sequence that we really want to see.Recognizing what worked previously, returning writer/director Christian Gurdegast leans into Butler's endearingly hambone persona, with the increasingly shaggy Scottish actor again breaking out his mush-mouth American accent in service of f-bomb-laden tough-guy talk. New in Pantera is a fun 48 Hours-style buddy dynamic between Butler and Jackson. When OBrien learns that Wilson and a new criminal crew have taken up residence in France for another potential score, he heads overseas to bring them down, with the Pantera of the title referring to the French task force assigned to assist him. This is where the various intricacies of who's who in the hierarchy of Gallic organized crime threaten to topple over in a sea of rushed foreign dialogue (with no subtitles!) and impenetrable accents. Like Den of Thieves, Pantera is very much a reflection of its influences, with DNA from Fast & Furious, Donnie Brasco, and The Town in evidence. Unlike the first chapter, which restricted its action to L.A. and garnered an air of grounded authenticity as a result, the sequel is more of a globetrotting affair, which adds a sense of scope but robs this burgeoning franchise of some of its identity. Though props to Gurdegast for making OBrien the butt of several "Ugly American" jokes as opposed to using his man's man persona as a vehicle to constantly dunk on his French colleagues.It really isn't until about 90 minutes in when the central heist begins that things start to hum along in earnest. From that point, Pantera relies on the tried-and-true pleasures of a ticking-clock scenario, with characters having to move quickly to avoid detection by motion sensors, cameras, etc. It's worked wonders for Mission: Impossible series and Ocean's Eleven, and while Pantera isnt entirely in their league, it still manages to entertain with several last-second escapes as our characters dart the labyrinthine vault.The 25 Best Action Movies of All TimeOne complaint about Pantera also applied to the original Den of Thieves: Both movies clock in at roughly 140-ish minutes. Gurdegast may have aspirations for a crime saga in the vein of the similarly lengthy Heat, but these are ultimately pulpy confections at heart, and there isn't enough story to justify the extra-sized frame. Regardless, while the previous film came to a bittersweet conclusion that didn't immediately call out for a continuation, Pantera is very clearly telegraphing another Den down the line. Here's hoping they trim some of the setup in the next one and go straight for the caper.

Apples biggest upcoming AI features will arrive in iOS 18.4, with a heavy focus on Siri upgrades. But its the Vision Pro that Im most excited to use those capabilities on. Heres why.Siris new era is bringing progressive changeSiri is in the midst of a transition period. Apple says weve entered a new era for Siri, but that change is taking place over time.iOS 18.1 launched a new Siri design and some minor improvementsiOS 18.2 brought powerful ChatGPT integrationbut iOS 18.4 is where some of the biggest upgrades will comeSo far, ChatGPT support has by far been the best part of this new Siri era.But in some respects, the need for Apple to integrate OpenAIs chatbot is only further evidence of Siris own shortcomings.However, many of those shortcomings will be addressed by iOS 18.4 soon.Three new Siri superpowers coming in iOS 18.4iOS 18.4 will launch to all users in April, and release in beta as early as next month.When it arrives, Siri will gain three new superpowers:New app actions: Apple says Siri will be able to perform hundreds of new actions in Apple apps, without the need to ever open those apps. App Intents will bring the same capability to supported third-party apps, too.Personal context knowledge: Like a real-life assistant, youll be able to reference texts you received, past calendar events, and more personal data to get truly intelligent assistance from Siri.Onscreen awareness: Siri will know whats on your display, so you can easily ask it to take action on whatever youre looking at.If these features work as intended, and with the level of reliability we would all hope for (and yes, Im skeptical), they could be game-changers.Siri might finally become the kind of intelligent assistant it was always meant to be.But let me now pivot to the Vision Pro, because thats where Siris changes could be especially appealing.Spatial computing works best when Siris at its bestIm a pretty new Vision Pro owner. Ive had the device less than a month, and havent used it a ton yet due to holiday travels and busyness.But one thing I discovered very quickly is how important Siri is to the platform.Spatial computing makes voice computing more important than ever.On my iPhone and iPadmy main computing devicesI use Siri regularly, but I dont depend on the assistant.Siris nice for quickly starting timers, setting reminders, and other small tasks.But on Vision Pro, Ive found myself relying on Siri for a lot more things.For example, Siris my preferred method for opening apps in visionOS.Maybe its just part of my visionOS learning curve, but I find it much faster and more intuitive to use Siri to navigate the system.I never open apps with Siri on my other devices, but it works extremely well on Vision Pro.Siris my go-to for dictating replies inside Messages and Mail too. Even though I often have a hardware keyboard connected via Bluetooth, it just feels more natural to dictate a response.iOS 18.4s features on Vision Pro could prove transformativeApple Intelligence isnt yet supported on Vision Prothough its likely coming this year.But imagine what iOS 18.4s Siri capabilities could be like on Vision Pro. When Siri can perform hundreds of advanced app actions, and understand what youre looking at and your personal context, spatial computing can truly start to deliver on its sci-fi promise.Siris upgrades will be great for the iPhone, but they could be crucial to Apples spatial computing finding success.The dream of just speaking out loud to your computer, and having it take intelligent action for you, is starting to get more real.Do you use Siri much on Vision Pro? What do you think about iOS 18.4s upgrades coming to visionOS? Let us know in the comments.Best Vision Pro accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined the Joe Rogan Experience podcast today for a wide-ranging interview on content moderation, the Trump administration, and Apples apparent lack of innovation. Mark Zuckerberg joins Joe Rogan Zuckerberg has long been an outspoken critic of App Store policies and Apples privacy protections. In this interview with Rogan, the Meta CEO claimed that the 15-30% fees Apple charges for the App Store are a way for the company to mask slowing iPhone sales. According to Zuckerberg, Apple hasnt really invented anything great in a while and is just sitting on the iPhone:[Apple has] used the [iPhone] to put in place a lot of rules that I think it feel arbitrary. I feel like they havent really invented anything great in a while. Its like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone and now theyre just kind of sitting on it 20 years later.Acutally, I think, year over year, Im not even sure theyre selling more iPhones at this point. I think like the sales might actually be declining. Part of it is that each generation doesnt actually get that much better. So people are just taking longer to upgrade than they would before. So the number of sales, I think, has generally been flat to declining. So how are they making more money as a company?Well, they do it by basically like squeezing people and having this 30 percent tax on developers.Zuckerberg also took issue with AirPods and the fact that Apple wouldnt give Meta the same access to the iPhone for its Meta Ray-Ban glasses: They build stuff like AirPods, which are cool, but theyve just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way.There were a lot of other companies in the world that would be able to build like a very good earbud, but Apple has a specific protocol that theyve built into the iPhone that allows AirPods to basically connect to it.Its just much more seamless because theyve enabled that, but they dont let anyone else use the protocol. If they did, there would probably be much better competitors to AirPods out there.And whenever you push on this, they get super touchy and they basically wrap their defense of it in, well, if we let other companies plug into our thing, then that would violate peoples privacy and security. Its like, no, just do a better job designing the protocol.We basically asked them for the Ray-Ban meta glasses that we built, can we basically use the protocol that you use for AirPods and some of these other things to just make it so we can as easily connect? So its not like a pain in the ass for people who wanna use this? And I think one of the protocols theyve used that they built, they basically didnt encrypt it. So its like plain text. And theyre like, well, we cant have you plug into it because it would be insecure.Its like, its insecure because you didnt build any security into it. And then now youre using that as a justification for why only your product can connect in an easy way.Zuckerberg, however, said hes optimistic that Apple will get beat by someone sooner rather than later because theyve been off their game in terms of not releasing innovative things. He went on to express his concern that one day, Apple will release its take on the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses with the key advantage of better integration with the iPhone. Bloomberg has reported that Apple is working on its own pair of smart glasses. The conversation then pivoted to iMessage and Apples use of blue bubbles as a way to embarrass kids: The whole thing that theyve done with iMessage, they do this whole blue bubble, green bubble thing. For kids, its just sort of like, they embarrass you, right?Theyre like, if you dont have a blue bubble, youre not cool, and youre like the out crowd, and then they always wrap it in like security.Rogan and Zuckerberg then detoured into a segment where they awkwardly Googled to determine if RCS was encrypted for iPhone users. Apple, of course, added support for RCS as part of iOS 18 last year. The answer: its not. RCS Universal Profile, the standard currently published by the GSM Association, does not support encryption. Apple has said it is working with GMSA to improve the security and encryption of RCS messages rather than build its own proprietary flavor of end-to-end encryption for RCS. And finally, Vision Pro: They shipped something for $3,500 that I think is worse than the thing that we shipped for $300 or $400. So, that clearly was not gonna work very well.Theyre a good technology company. I think their second and third version will probably be better than their first version. I think the Vision Pro is I think one of the bigger swings at doing a new thing that they tried in a while.9to5Macs TakeZuckerberg has been busy implementing new dehumanizing content guidelines on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads this week. Im surprised he could find time in his schedule to sit down with Rogan for this 3-hour interview. Let us also not forget that Meta has never invented anything great. Oculus was an acquisition, WhatsApp was an acquisition, Instagram was an acquisition, and intermixed with those acquisitions are features copied and pasted from other platforms.As for Apple Vision Pro, Metafired up its photocopiersright as Vision Pro launched tomimicApples innovative spatial computing design paradigms. The company has also rolled outupgraded hand trackingand gestures,spatial video support, and more. The Apple Vision Pros influence is clear, even if Zuck thinks the Quest is a better product. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

At CES 2025, Anker unveiled a couple new charging products for Apple users. They have a new 140W charge brick with a built in display, perfect for 16-inch MacBook Pro users, as well as a very compact 25,000mAh power bank with support for fast charging. Both of these products are available for purchase now.140W Charger with displayThis new 140W charge brick from Anker offers four ports: three USB-C and one USB-A. The first two USB-C ports can each output up to 140W, meaning you can use it to fast charge a 16-inch MacBook Pro via MagSafe 3 if you wish. The third USB-C port can output up to 40W, and the USB-A port is up to 33W. Youre limited to 140W total, but theres still plenty of power to go around here.The cables also hang vertically, shifting the center of gravity of the charger. Thanks to this design, itll be less likely to fall out of your wall outlet. It also equips a small display, allowing you to monitor the power output of each port, and see whether or not its fast charging. This is really convenient if you need to monitor charging across multiple devices.It comes in two colors: Silver and Deep Gray, and is priced at $89.99. You can purchase this new charger today on Amazon, and it comes with a braided 240W 5-foot USB-C cable. At the time of writing, theres an additional $10 off coupon, bringing it down to $79.99.Compact 25K Power BankAnker also unveiled a new 25,000mAh power bank at CES, and its quite compact for the level of capacity it offers. Anker says its around the size of a soda can. It comes with two built in cables, one retractable 27 inch USB-C cable, and smaller 8 inch foldable cable. With these two cables, its pretty easy to charge anything in a pinch. It offers up to 165W of output, with up to 100W via each of the USB-C ports and built in cables, as well as up to 33W via USB-A. The power bank also supports fast charging, allowing a 16-inch MacBook Pro to charge up to 50% in just 30 minutes. Theres also a built in display for monitoring charging status.Ankers new 25K compact power bank is for purchase today, for $99.99. It comes in two colors: black and silver, and can be purchased on Amazon with two-day delivery. Theres also a $10 coupon currently, bringing it down to just $89.99.Purchase Anker 140W Charger w/ Display on Amazon: $79.99 with on-page couponPurchase Anker 25K Compact Power Bank on Amazon: $89.99 with on-page couponFollow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

This week, multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk blamedthe disastrous Los Angeles wildfires on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.The SpaceX CEO even went as far as to agree with a disgusting comment by far-right pundit Matt Walsh, who argued that Los Angeles was struggling with the ongoing fires because it "set out to exclude white men from becoming firefighters."The billionaire's belief that racially diverse hiring practices are somehow to blame is a preposterous and unabashedly racist argument that flies in the face of reason and conveniently glosses over the things that actually played a big role: severe budget cuts causing a shortage of firefighters,not to mention the looming global disaster of climate change.Yet his ex-girlfriend the musician Claire "Grimes" Boucher with whom he was recently embroiled in a nasty custody battle over their several kids hurried to his defense.In a Thursday post on her ex's social media platform X, Boucher revealed that she "just had to evacuate" LA and ended up "aimlessly driving out of the city."When another user accused her of having been "married to one of the most evil climate deniers of all time," Boucher defended Musk, arguing that he was "pretty vocal about climate change and is primarily known for, in part, revolutionizing electric vehicles" a rote and woefully out-of-date characterization.Musk himself repeatedly downplayed the role of climate change in the ongoing LA fires, flying in the face of decades of scientific evidence."I think there's plenty to be angry about but when you stray from fact and reason, your critique loses power," she added. "The biggest challenge right now is not falling into creating and consuming dopamine rage bait on social media and focussing on thoughtful, rational, truth-based discourse so that we can properly diagnose and solve our problems."Even more gallingly,it's Musk who's currently one of the biggest sources of "dopamine rage bait on social media" as the disaster unfolds, who's ultra-publicly doing his very best to bury "rational, truth-based discourse."As if falling in line to support one of the biggest and vilest sources of disinformation online wasn't enough, the tweet highlights her and Musk's highly unusual relationship. For quite some time now, things have been pretty rocky between the two, to say the least. An ugly custody battle over their three children that almost drove her to bankruptcy has put a strain on their years-long relationship.Meanwhile, Boucher took to X to follow Musk's lead and spread unsubstantiated claims."Seen a few videos of ppl setting fires," she wrote in a tweet. "I think there was at least some crime involved in this, def some smart villain planning if so."As always, it's hard to get an accurate read on how Boucher feels about Musk and his sociopathic beliefs. Is this really the time to come to his defense as thousands of homes burn in LA?Is there really any nuance left in their relationship, or has Boucher finally given up to drink the Kool-Aid? Sources told People magazine in November that she was planning on moving into a mansion set aside by Musk as part of a strange compound for his many kids and their mothers.It's unclear how Boucher feels about DEI hiring practices specifically but perhaps at this point, it's best not to even ask.Share This Article

We're not kidding: users can now declare themselves "proud racists" on Facebook. Big DialYou know the iconic Dril tweet about turning a bit dial labeled "racism," while looking back at the audience for approval?Well, it's top of mind amid Meta's content moderation overhaul, in which it secretly provided employees with examples of horrific hate speech that is now admissible on the platform.AsThe Intercept reports, leaked training documents show just how far the Mark Zuckerberg-owned megalith will allow hateful users to go on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads now that the company's CEO is trying desperately to cozy up to president-elect Donald Trump (who, in surely-unrelated news, recently threatened to throw Zuckerberg in prison.)The document explains to employees that epithets like "gays are freaks" and "immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of shit" are now allowed under the new policy. People can also now declare themselves "proud racists," and can say things like "Black people are more violent than whites."Zucked UpWhile certain types of vitriol like what the company terms "nausea-based hate" and insults about intellectual ability are still verboten, many of those prohibitions seem to now have loopholes. For example, it's still against Meta's rules to say that one group is smarter than another unless you add that you have seen academic evidence supporting your claim."I just read a statistical study about Jewish people being smarter than Christians," one of the examples of accepted speech shows. "From what I can tell, its true!"It's unclear,The Intercept notes, whether or one would be required to actually link to said "study," or if they just have to mention that they've seen one.Along with the intense racial and religious bigotry people are now allowed to spew on Facebook and Instagram, the document also explicitly states that the slur "tr*nny" is now fair game on Meta platforms.In the initial document thatThe Intercept obtained, commenting "look at that tr*nny" on a photo of a 17-year-old girl was listed as acceptable we swear, this is 100 percent real but following publication, a Meta spokesperson reached out to the outlet to say that that example was a mistake. According to that spokesperson, the 17-year-old girl post was supposed to illustrate content that was not acceptable. Oops!When announcing the new content rules, Zuckerberg championed the changes that will help Meta "get back to our roots around free expression." As the examples from this leaked document show, that "freedom" clearly includes disgusting and harmful speech a policy that has driven people away from X-formerly-Twitter in droves and which will almost certainly make the steady exodus from Facebook accelerate all the more.Share This Article