Epic Games’ hyperrealistic MetaHuman characters are seriously impressive, and now the company is making it easier for developers to incorporate them into their projects. At its State of Unreal show on Tuesday, Epic announced that the MetaHuman Creato

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. WhatsApp beta users can now craft their own AI chatbots - here's why you might want one Paul Hill Neowin @ziks_99 · Jun 3, 2025 05:10 EDT Since the end of 2022, tech companies, and even non-tech companies, have been clamoring to pile AI into their services. Despite what many people say about not liking AI, plenty of people are still using it every day, making it a key offering. Not only that, but for public companies like Meta, the inclusion of AI does very well with investors, so that’s another reason it’s being added. While the most common chatbot people talk about is ChatGPT, which is pretty faceless, there is demand for AI chatbots with a face, this is why people use tools like Character.ai and Replika. One of the only big tech firms that has gone down this route is Meta, which lets you create and share AI characters. To date, some of Meta’s apps, like Messenger, allow you to chat with these AI personas but you can’t do that yet in the stable version of WhatsApp. The company is now testing it with the Android Beta and when it’s ready, it should make a more seamless experience across Meta’s applications. Many of the popular bots that people use including ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek are faceless and offer the same tone out of the box. To be fair to Gemini, it does allow all users to create Gems now, and they actually offer a bit more flexibility than just creating characters to talk to like in Messenger. The chatbots in Messenger have the benefit of being in the Messenger app, which most people use and giving them a personality and making them feel like an “AI person” fits better in Messenger. Whether we really need these AI bots in Messenger is still up for debate. It’s quite a new feature and some people may find some good uses for them, but as mentioned, they don’t seem as flexible, or provide as detailed responses as custom bots made on Poe or Gemini Gems. They are definitely for having casual conversations with. WhatsApp's new AI chatbot creator We’ve known that the chatbot feature was coming to WhatsApp for a long time already. WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.1.26, released in January, included the feature for some beta testers. With the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.18.4, it seems like WhatsApp is trialing the feature with members of the public, suggesting its release is imminent. Screenshots of the app, obtained by WABetaInfo show that you can describe your AI, select its personality, its traits, its image and more. The process seems to be the same as the process already available in Messenger. One of the nice things that Meta provides when creating these AI bots is templates and suggestions such as the attitude of the bot or the instructions for the bot. This is the same as in Messenger and allows you to get started chatting with your custom bots faster. In terms of sharing, you have the option to make the bots private, share them with friends (at least in the case of Messenger and presumably WhatsApp), or share them publicly. If you make something specific for your needs then the private option would be best, while bots with mass appeal could be set to public. Creating bots in WhatsApp is straightforward once you have access to the AI Studio. During the creation process you’ll need to name your AI, define its personality, choose a tone, design an avatar (some will be made for you with Meta’s AI), and create a catchy tagline to attract users if you ever set it to public. Much of the information will be pre-filled based on the initial details you provide about the AI’s role and personality. Some ideas for bots that you can create include a motivational coach, a travel recommendation AI, or a daily planner. While setting up these AI bots is easy to do, users may find their actual benefits limited. Besides the nagging feeling that you’re socializing with a clever bit of code, Meta seems to truncate the answers of these bots so they don’t rattle on, but depending on what you want them to do, you may need them to give a lengthy response, but they won’t. What personalized AI chatbots could offer If you are looking for an AI that chats to you conversationally like real people do, then this could be the feature you’re looking for. The fact that you can personalize bots with specific traits is something you can’t do as easily in apps like ChatGPT and Gemini and the fact that they have an avatar makes them more connectable too. Two of the defining features of Meta’s AI implementation is the ability to create custom AIs with a unique personality and to share them publicly. If you are having difficulty thinking of what a bot could be instructed to do, you can easily find community bots and interact with those instead and may find they provide some value. While these bots could be interesting for some people, they do carry the same risks as other AIs and that is that they can hallucinate. There was also a case in the UK where a man had been encouraged by his Replika to break into Buckingham Palace with a crossbow to kill the then head of state. Similar issues to this could result from Meta’s AI chatbots in time. Potential pitfalls While the feature is pretty interesting there are some things to be aware of. Firstly, the feature is still in beta on WhatsApp so you may run into issues and things could change once it’s finally released. Meta also states that it uses your interactions to improve its AI services, for this reason it is essential not to share personal information as Meta could read it. While Meta does limit the creation of bots that go against its standards, the company also warns that bots can output harmful content, so this could be dangerous for impressionable people who end up acting on what an AI has said with negative outcomes. What to watch for next It’s not clear when these AI chatbots will be available in the stable channel but given that a wider rollout is underway among beta users perhaps we are not too far off. For most people, this is not going to be a must-have feature, just a nice to have. We’ve been using WhatsApp to chat with friends for years, so clearly the app is just fine without the inclusion of AI, but when it’s available, people may be able to get more value out of the app. When the feature launches for all users, bots should be discoverable in the same way they are on Messenger where they’re categorized by category allowing users to begin chats easily. It remains to be seen how users will interact with this feature in the long-run. Last year, we reported that Meta was looking to give bots profiles on its social networks and this was met by somebacklash in our comments section. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

After 'Avatar: Fire and Ash,' the 'Terminator' creator will co-write the script to 'The Devils' by Joe Abercrombie.

How Deepfakes Are Created Generative AI models enable the creation of highly realistic fake media. Most deepfakes today are produced by training deep neural networks on real images, video or audio of a target person. The two predominant AI architectures are generative adversarial networks (GANs) and autoencoders. A GAN consists of a generator network that produces synthetic images and a discriminator network that tries to distinguish fakes from real data. Through iterative training, the generator learns to produce outputs that increasingly fool the discriminator¹. Autoencoder-based tools similarly learn to encode a target face and then decode it onto a source video. In practice, deepfake creators use accessible software: open-source tools like DeepFaceLab and FaceSwap dominate video face-swapping (one estimate suggests DeepFaceLab was used for over 95% of known deepfake videos)². Voice-cloning tools (often built on similar AI principles) can mimic a person’s speech from minutes of audio. Commercial platforms like Synthesia allow text-to-video avatars (turning typed scripts into lifelike “spokespeople”), which have already been misused in disinformation campaigns³. Even mobile apps (e.g. FaceApp, Zao) let users do basic face swaps in minutes⁴. In short, advances in GANs and related models make deepfakes cheaper and easier to generate than ever. Diagram of a generative adversarial network (GAN): A generator network creates fake images from random input and a discriminator network distinguishes fakes from real examples. Over time the generator improves until its outputs “fool” the discriminator⁵ During creation, a deepfake algorithm is typically trained on a large dataset of real images or audio from the target. The more varied and high-quality the training data, the more realistic the deepfake. The output often then undergoes post-processing (color adjustments, lip-syncing refinements) to enhance believability¹. Technical defenses focus on two fronts: detection and authentication. Detection uses AI models to spot inconsistencies (blinking irregularities, audio artifacts or metadata mismatches) that betray a synthetic origin⁵. Authentication embeds markers before dissemination – for example, invisible watermarks or cryptographically signed metadata indicating authenticity⁶. The EU AI Act will soon mandate that major AI content providers embed machine-readable “watermark” signals in synthetic media⁷. However, as GAO notes, detection is an arms race – even a marked deepfake can sometimes evade notice – and labels alone don’t stop false narratives from spreading⁸⁹. Deepfakes in Recent Elections: Examples Deepfakes and AI-generated imagery already have made headlines in election cycles around the world. In the 2024 U.S. primary season, a digitally-altered audio robocall mimicked President Biden’s voice urging Democrats not to vote in the New Hampshire primary. The caller (“Susan Anderson”) was later fined $6 million by the FCC and indicted under existing telemarketing laws¹⁰¹¹. (Importantly, FCC rules on robocalls applied regardless of AI: the perpetrator could have used a voice actor or recording instead.) Also in 2024, former President Trump posted on social media a collage implying that pop singer Taylor Swift endorsed his campaign, using AI-generated images of Swift in “Swifties for Trump” shirts¹². The posts sparked media uproar, though analysts noted the same effect could have been achieved without AI (e.g., by photoshopping text on real images)¹². Similarly, Elon Musk’s X platform carried AI-generated clips, including a parody “Ad” depicting Vice-President Harris’s voice via an AI clone¹³. Beyond the U.S., deepfake-like content has appeared globally. In Indonesia’s 2024 presidential election, a video surfaced on social media in which a convincingly generated image of the late President Suharto appeared to endorse the candidate of the Golkar Party. Days later, the endorsed candidate (who is Suharto’s son-in-law) won the presidency¹⁴. In Bangladesh, a viral deepfake video superimposed the face of opposition leader Rumeen Farhana onto a bikini-clad body – an incendiary fabrication designed to discredit her in the conservative Muslim-majority society¹⁵. Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu has been repeatedly targeted by AI-driven disinformation; one deepfake video falsely showed her resigning and endorsing a Russian-friendly party, apparently to sow distrust in the electoral process¹⁶. Even in Taiwan (amidst tensions with China), a TikTok clip circulated that synthetically portrayed a U.S. politician making foreign-policy statements – stoking confusion ahead of Taiwanese elections¹⁷. In Slovakia’s recent campaign, AI-generated audio mimicking the liberal party leader suggested he plotted vote-rigging and beer-price hikes – instantly spreading on social media just days before the election¹⁸. These examples show that deepfakes have touched diverse polities (from Bangladesh and Indonesia to Moldova, Slovakia, India and beyond), often aiming to undermine candidates or confuse voters¹⁵¹⁸. Notably, many of the most viral “deepfakes” in 2024 were actually circulated as obvious memes or claims, rather than subtle deceptions. Experts observed that outright undetectable AI deepfakes were relatively rare; more common were AI-generated memes plainly shared by partisans, or cheaply doctored “cheapfakes” made with basic editing tools¹³¹⁹. For instance, social media was awash with memes of Kamala Harris in Soviet garb or of Black Americans holding Trump signs¹³, but these were typically used satirically, not meant to be secretly believed. Nonetheless, even unsophisticated fakes can sway opinion: a U.S. study found that false presidential ads (not necessarily AI-made) did change voter attitudes in swing states. In sum, deepfakes are a real and growing phenomenon in election campaigns²⁰²¹ worldwide – a trend taken seriously by voters and regulators alike. U.S. Legal Framework and Accountability In the U.S., deepfake creators and distributors of election misinformation face a patchwork of tools, but no single comprehensive federal “deepfake law.” Existing laws relevant to disinformation include statutes against impersonating government officials, electioneering (such as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which requires disclaimers on political ads), and targeted statutes like criminal electioneering communications. In some cases ordinary laws have been stretched: the NH robocall used the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and mail/telemarketing fraud provisions, resulting in the $6M fine and a criminal charge. Similarly, voice impostors can potentially violate laws against “false advertising” or “unlawful corporate communications.” However, these laws were enacted before AI, and litigators have warned they often do not fit neatly. For example, deceptive deepfake claims not tied to a specific victim do not easily fit into defamation or privacy torts. Voter intimidation laws (prohibiting threats or coercion) also leave a gap for non-threatening falsehoods about voting logistics or endorsements. Recognizing these gaps, some courts and agencies are invoking other theories. The U.S. Department of Justice has recently charged individuals under broad fraud statutes (e.g. for a plot to impersonate an aide to swing votes in 2020), and state attorneys general have considered deepfake misinformation as interference with voting rights. Notably, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is preparing to enforce new rules: in April 2024 it issued an advisory opinion limiting “non-candidate electioneering communications” that use falsified media, effectively requiring that political ads use only real images of the candidate. If finalized, that would make it unlawful for campaigns to pay for ads depicting a candidate saying things they never did. Similarly, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have signaled that purely commercial deepfakes could violate consumer protection or election laws (for example, liability for mass false impersonation or for foreign-funded electioneering). U.S. Legislation and Proposals Federal lawmakers have proposed new statutes. The DEEPFAKES Accountability Act (H.R.5586 in the 118th Congress) would, among other things, impose a disclosure requirement: political ads featuring a manipulated media likeness would need clear disclaimers identifying the content as synthetic. It also increases penalties for producing false election videos or audio intended to influence the vote. While not yet enacted, supporters argue it would provide a uniform rule for all federal and state campaigns. The Brennan Center supports transparency requirements over outright bans, suggesting laws should narrowly target deceptive deepfakes in paid ads or certain categories (e.g. false claims about time/place/manner of voting) while carving out parody and news coverage. At the state level, over 20 states have passed deepfake laws specifically for elections. For example, Florida and California forbid distributing falsified audio/visual media of candidates with intent to deceive voters (though Florida’s law exempts parody). Some states (like Texas) define “deepfake” in statutes and allow candidates to sue or revoke candidacies of violators. These measures have had mixed success: courts have struck down overly broad provisions that acted as prior restraints (e.g. Minnesota’s 2023 law was challenged for threatening injunctions against anyone “reasonably believed” to violate it). Critically, these state laws raise First Amendment issues: political speech is highly protected, so any restriction must be tightly tailored. Already, Texas and Virginia statutes are under legal review, and Elon Musk’s company has sued under California’s law (which requires platforms to label or block deepfakes) as unconstitutional. In practice, most lawsuits have so far centered on defamation or intellectual property (for instance, a celebrity suing over a botched celebrity-deepfake video), rather than election-focused statutes. Policy Recommendations: Balancing Integrity and Speech Given the rapidly evolving technology, experts recommend a multi-pronged approach. Most stress transparency and disclosure as core principles. For example, the Brennan Center urges requiring any political communication that uses AI-synthesized images or voice to include a clear label. This could be a digital watermark or a visible disclaimer. Transparency has two advantages: it forces campaigns and platforms to “own” the use of AI, and it alerts audiences to treat the content with skepticism. Outright bans on all deepfakes would likely violate free speech, but targeted bans on specific harms (e.g. automated phone calls impersonating voters, or videos claiming false polling information) may be defensible. Indeed, Florida already penalizes misuse of recordings in voter suppression. Another recommendation is limited liability: tying penalties to demonstrable intent to mislead, not to the mere act of content creation. Both U.S. federal proposals and EU law generally condition fines on the “appearance of fraud” or deception. Technical solutions can complement laws. Watermarking original media (as encouraged by the EU AI Act) could deter the reuse of authentic images in doctored fakes. Open tools for deepfake detection – some supported by government research grants – should be deployed by fact-checkers and social platforms. Making detection datasets publicly available (e.g. the MIT OpenDATATEST) helps improve AI models to spot fakes. International cooperation is also urged: cross-border agreements on information-sharing could help trace and halt disinformation campaigns. The G7 and APEC have all recently committed to fighting election interference via AI, which may lead to joint norms or rapid response teams. Ultimately, many analysts believe the strongest “cure” is a well-informed public: education campaigns to teach voters to question sensational media, and a robust independent press to debunk falsehoods swiftly. While the law can penalize the worst offenders, awareness and resilience in the electorate are crucial buffers against influence operations. As Georgia Tech’s Sean Parker quipped in 2019, “the real question is not if deepfakes will influence elections, but who will be empowered by the first effective one.” Thus policies should aim to deter malicious use without unduly chilling innovation or satire. References: https://www.security.org/resources/deepfake-statistics/. https://www.wired.com/story/synthesia-ai-deepfakes-it-control-riparbelli/. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107292. https://technologyquotient.freshfields.com/post/102jb19/eu-ai-act-unpacked-8-new-rules-on-deepfakes. https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/we-looked-at-78-election-deepfakes-political-misinformation-is-not-an-ai-problem. https://www.npr.org/2024/12/21/nx-s1-5220301/deepfakes-memes-artificial-intelligence-elections. https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-elections-disinformation-chatgpt-bc283e7426402f0b4baa7df280a4c3fd. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/new-and-old-tools-to-tackle-deepfakes-and-election-lies-in-2024. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/regulating-ai-deepfakes-and-synthetic-media-political-arena. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/political-deepfakes-and-elections/. https://www.ncsl.org/technology-and-communication/deceptive-audio-or-visual-media-deepfakes-2024-legislation. https://law.unh.edu/sites/default/files/media/2022/06/nagumotu_pp113-157.pdf. https://dfrlab.org/2024/10/02/brazil-election-ai-research/. https://dfrlab.org/2024/11/26/brazil-election-ai-deepfakes/. https://freedomhouse.org/article/eu-digital-services-act-win-transparency. The post The Legal Accountability of AI-Generated Deepfakes in Election Misinformation appeared first on MarkTechPost.

Augmented World Expo 2025 will draw more than 6,000 attendees, 400 speakers and 300 global exhibitors to its event June 10 to June 12 in Long Beach, California. The speaker lineup includes Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell and Oculus/Anduril founder Palmer Luckey. If the show is any indication, the XR industry isn’t doing so bad. A variety of market researchers are forecasting fast growth for the industry through 2030. Ori Inbar, CEO of AWE, believes that the XR revolution is “ready to conquer the mainstream.” But to get there, he believes the industry still needs to create “head-turning content that must be experienced.” Of course, the red hot days of the “metaverse,” inspired by Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash sci-fi novel in 1992, is no longer driving the industry forward. With less focus on sci-fi, the industry is focused on practical uses for mixed reality technology in the enterprise and consumer markets like gaming. But will XR and the metaverse be overrun by AI, or will it carry them to the mass market destination? Much is riding on how committed Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will be even as it reprioritizes some resources away from XR to AI. Meta, which acquired Luckey’s Oculus back in 2014, has invested billions every quarter in the technology, with no profits so far. But, in a very unexpected turnaround, Zuckerberg and Luckey buried the hatchet on the past differences and set up an alliance between Meta and Anduril — the latter being Luckey’s AI/drone defense company. Zuckerberg has new competition from his own nemesis, Apple, which launched the Apple Vision Pro in February 2024. However, Apple has slowed down its development of the next-generation XR headset, while Zuckerberg has put more emphasis on AR/AI glasses. Spiegel, the CEO of Snap, has focused on augmented reality glasses. His Spectacles are now in their fifth generation, powered by the Snap OS and authoring tool Lens Studio. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, will deliver a one-of-a-kind talk on the main stage with five of his children, who are continuing his pioneering vision in gaming through XR. Brent Bushnell, Nolan’s eldest son, recently debuted DreamPark, a new XR startup that turns any park or playground into a mixed reality theme parks. Others speakers include Vicki Dobbs Beck – VP, Immersive Content Innovation, Lucasfilm & ILM Immersive; Ziad Asghar – SVP & GM XR, Qualcomm; Brian McClendon – Chief Technology Officer, Niantic Spatial, Inc.; Jason Rubin – VP, Metaverse Experiences, Meta; Hugo Swart, Senior Director of XR Ecosystem Strategy and Technology, Google; Jacqui Bransky – VP Web3 & Innovation, Warner Records; Chi Xu – CEO and Founder, XREAL; Helen Papagiannis – AR Pioneer and XR Hall of Famer; and Tom Furness – Grandfather of VR and Founder, Virtual World Society. AWE Builders Nexus will be a new program focused on startups this year. Startup founders, developers, designers, product managers, and business leaders alike will get the resources they need to build something extraordinary, get advice and funding, scale through partnerships, and win customers, Inbar said. The event will also feature the AWE Gaming Hub. I also interviewed some companies that are showcasing technology at the show. Here’s some snippets from what they are going to show. Pico VR Pico started out in Beijing, China, in 2015 and is now hitting its 10th anniversary. It is making the standalone Pico XR headsets, and it was acquired by ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, in 2021. In September 2024, the company launched the Pico 4 Ultra Enterprise headset, filling out the high end of its product line in addition to its G3 and Neo 3 legacy headsets. Pico also has its set of full-body motion trackers to its product offerings to allow for full-body and object tracking. That’s helping it with its focus on location-based entertainment in markets such as China. It’s focused on WiFi7, hand tracking and motion tracking. Leland Hedges, head of enterprise business at Pico, said that the LBE market in China has grown by 1,000% in the last six to nine months Pico has an app for PC streaming and another app for managing devices over a LAN. Pico can track play spaces with columns or cordoned-off areas. Hedges said the company will share 15 different user stories at AWE in public places such as zoos, museums, aquariums and planetariums. Convai Purnendu Mukherjee, CEO of Convai, showed me a bunch of demos at the Game Developers Conference where it has been able to create avatar-based demos of generative AI solutions with 3D animated people. These can be used to show off brands and greet people on web sites or as avatars in games. At AWE, Convai will also off learning and training scenarios for education and enterprises through a variety of simulations. Convai can render high fidelity avatars that are effectively coming from the cloud. At GDC, Convai scanned me and captured my voice so that it can create a lifelike avatar of me. These avatars can be created quickly and answer a variety of questions from website visitors. The idea is to enable non-technical people to create simulations without the need to code anything. In a demo, Convai’s avatar of me said, “I’ve been covering the games industry for many years now at games beat I’ve seen it evolve from the arcades to the massive global phenomenon it is today. I love digging into the business side of gaming, the technology, the culture, the whole shebang.” Convai will announce pricing for its self-serve platform as well as an enterprise subscription fee. Doublepoint Ohto Pentikäinen, CEO of Doublepoint, has a technology that detects the gesture you can make with your hand. It captures that movement via a smartwatch and allows you to control things on a TV interface or an XR device. With Android XR, Doublepoint is showing off demos where gesture control can unlock a more intuitive and comfortable augmented reality experience for those wearing AR glasses. Xreal is one of the glasses makers that is using the technology for controlling an AR user interface with gestures. “Our technology is able to fully control a XR system. A stat that we can update you on is that there’s 150,000 people who have downloaded the technology so far, and we have a developer community of over 2,000 people since January 2024,” Pentikäinen said. Now the company is starting its own Doublepoing developer program, and this adds layers on top of the enterprise client. So now the company can provide technology for indie developers or startups that are building augmented reality or AI hardware experiences. “We’re empowering developers in AR robotics and AI hardware, and we’re providing everything that we’re providing the enterprise clients, but for a much reduced price,” Pentikäinen said.

Optimizing monetization and UA is key for growth - but they only get you so far if the app itself isn't optimized. In fact, the best way to maximize growth is by tying monetization and user acquisition data to user behavior. The more granular you can get, the more you can do to strengthen your business.Using ironSource's App Analytics solution to break down the data, here are 3 ways you can better optimize for growth.#1: Reconciling impressions vs playtimeThere’s typically a tradeoff between the number of impressions you serve users versus its effect on user engagement (playtime). That’s because game designers are determined to improve the user experience in the game, while monetization managers are focused on maximizing the revenue per user. The key to reconciling these pain points is to deep dive into each metric to find the sweet spot that maximizes both.For example, you can compare playtime versus impressions per user, side by side. Let’s say you want to increase impressions from a cap of 3 to 5. The first step is to assess whether this affects playtime, and make the best adjustments to ensure a positive user experience. If you see a significant drop in playtime, it’s a sign that users weren’t happy, and a lesson to return to the original impressions cap. However, if increasing the cap has no effect on playtime - you can generate revenue without affecting user experience.Now your data-informed conclusions can improve both user experience and profits. It’s not always easy to find the optimal point between them, but looking at them side by side with a tool like App Analytics can help to reconcile multiple interests.#2: Improving user engagement with cohortsTraditionally, retention analysis focuses on user churn. Going one step further - not just looking at if users return, but also understanding their behavior when they return - paints a much clearer picture about how to better retain users and find more places to monetize them.Assessing how users playTo encourage your players to keep going, first understand what’s already motivating them in the first place. If you have in-app purchase API data, simply split paying versus non-paying users and see how they compare in different metrics (playtime, impressions per user, sessions, session length, etc.). Now you can better understand your paying users and how they differ from non-paying users - for example, if you see that session length is higher for paying or non-paying users, you can use this information to your advantage.Let’s say App Analytics shows there was a spike in your revenue on a cohorted day. You also see that your users were running out of the initial resources from their starter pack and hadn’t utilized ways to earn more, like clans and special events. Your profits spiked because users only had one choice - to keep playing, they had to use in-app purchases to gain more resources.Offering just the right reward amountTo determine a reward amount that continuously engages users, you need to first understand your users. Start by looking at impressions per user. The figure should be fairly consistent, especially if you’re capping impressions, but it’s still important to monitor this number for any technical issues.Let’s say you see a drop in impressions on day 5 on the App Analytics platform. You can dive deeper to understand why - it turns out that on day 5, users received a special daily bonus with a lot of gems. However, they acquired so much currency, they didn’t need to watch a rewarded video to move forward - which is why impressions were low that day.The best practice would be to decrease the reward on day 5, so that users stay in the sweet spot: engaged in the game but needing extra gems to progress.Maximizing your strengthsTo increase your user retention, you want to maximize exposure to events that engage users, like clans. To do that, look for areas in the game with increased playtime and determine whether it’s connected to an event. For example, if you see increased playtime on day 8 and know that users usually unlock the clan on day 8, you can infer that’s why you saw a spike. Great! Let’s put our focus here.Try moving the clan date earlier in the user experience. If you can identify key engagement moments in the game and offer those experiences before the typical drop in retention, you have a better chance at retaining users for a longer period. You can track the success of this decision on the App Analytics cohorts page by using both the retention and playtime metric for users who were exposed to this change. #3: Determine your milestones with the funnel pageTo boost user playtime and revenue, we need to optimize how users move from one milestone in the game to another. This is where funnels come in: with a custom events API on App Analytics, you can create custom funnels and immediately see how users progress through your milestones, or fall in the pitfalls between them. For example, you can create a level funnel that shows how many users started level 1, then progressed to level 2, and so on.Optimizing your in-app purchase flowTo best understand your user journey in action, define exactly what you’re interested in observing and create clear funnels based on that path. For example, if you’re looking to convert more users into paying users, you might want to understand user purchase patterns. You can create funnels that filter users who make a specific purchase, and follow whether users continue making purchases after that. Informed by your new funnels, you can start using trial and error to adjust your in-app purchases’ rewards or placements and increase your conversion rate.Optimizing engagement (level drop)The majority of users drop off in the first days of playing. So to improve user engagement, it’s essential to monitor the onboarding process. Using funnels, define each of your onboarding milestones and order them chronologically - for example, “registration,” “privacy policy,” “select avatar,” and more. This way, you can view the dropoff rate between them.These insights can inform exactly the tweaks your game needs to improve retention. We recommend you test your changes with A/B testing. In fact, you can dive even deeper. If you created a “select avatar” milestone, you can focus on specific avatars to gain more insight. If the conversion rate is much higher for players who chose a specific avatar, you can use this information to update your game accordingly.You can also assess behavior by level. For example, if suddenly on level 3 there’s a major drop in conversion rate, it’s an indication to dig deeper and understand the cause. Create a level funnel to understand how conversion changes incrementally. Try to find the origin - did this drop happen before level 3, or during it? All of this information will bring you closer to making the adjustments needed to improve engagement, boosting game performance.With any app, understanding user engagement is the key to understanding how to scale up your business. App Analytics ensures this process is easy and intuitive by providing different pages (explore, cohorts, and funnels) to zoom in on user behavior and understand what’s affecting it. Learn more about App Analytics here.

The turing test in reverse Real TikTokers are pretending to be Veo 3 AI creations for fun, attention From music videos to "Are you a prompt?" stunts, "real" videos are presenting as AI Kyle Orland – May 31, 2025 7:08 am | 13 Of course I'm an AI creation! Why would you even doubt it? Credit: Getty Images Of course I'm an AI creation! Why would you even doubt it? Credit: Getty Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Since Google released its Veo 3 AI model last week, social media users have been having fun with its ability to quickly generate highly realistic eight-second clips complete with sound and lip-synced dialogue. TikTok's algorithm has been serving me plenty of Veo-generated videos featuring impossible challenges, fake news reports, and even surreal short narrative films, to name just a few popular archetypes. However, among all the AI-generated video experiments spreading around, I've also noticed a surprising counter-trend on my TikTok feed. Amid all the videos of Veo-generated avatars pretending to be real people, there are now also a bunch of videos of real people pretending to be Veo-generated avatars. “This has to be real. There’s no way it's AI.” I stumbled on this trend when the TikTok algorithm fed me this video topped with the extra-large caption "Google VEO 3 THIS IS 100% AI." As I watched and listened to the purported AI-generated band that appeared to be playing in the crowded corner of someone's living room, I read the caption containing the supposed prompt that had generated the clip: "a band of brothers with beards playing rock music in 6/8 with an accordion." @kongosmusicWe are so cooked. This took 3 mins to generate. Simple prompt: “a band of brothers playing rock music in 6/8 with an accordion”♬ original sound - KONGOS After a few seconds of taking those captions at face value, something started to feel a little off. After a few more seconds, I finally noticed the video was posted by Kongos, an indie band that you might recognize from their minor 2012 hit "Come With Me Now." And after a little digging, I discovered the band in the video was actually just Kongos, and the tune was a 9-year-old song that the band had dressed up as an AI creation to get attention. Here's the sad thing: It worked! Without the "Look what Veo 3 did!" hook, I might have quickly scrolled by this video before I took the time to listen to the (pretty good!) song. The novel AI angle made me stop just long enough to pay attention to a Kongos song for the first time in over a decade. Kongos isn't the only musical act trying to grab attention by claiming their real performances are AI creations. Darden Bela posted that Veo 3 had "created a realistic AI music video" over a clip from what is actually a 2-year-old music video with some unremarkable special effects. Rapper GameBoi Pat dressed up an 11-month-old song with a new TikTok clip captioned "Google's Veo 3 created a realistic sounding rapper... This has to be real. There's no way it's AI" (that last part is true, at least). I could go on, but you get the idea. @gameboi_pat This has got to be real. There’s no way it’s AI 😩 #google #veo3 #googleveo3 #AI #prompts #areweprompts? ♬ original sound - GameBoi_pat I know it's tough to get noticed on TikTok, and that creators will go to great lengths to gain attention from the fickle algorithm. Still, there's something more than a little off-putting about flesh-and-blood musicians pretending to be AI creations just to make social media users pause their scrolling for a few extra seconds before they catch on to the joke (or don't, based on some of the comments). The whole thing evokes last year's stunt where a couple of podcast hosts released a posthumous "AI-generated" George Carlin routine before admitting that it had been written by a human after legal threats started flying. As an attention-grabbing stunt, the conceit still works. You want AI-generated content? I can pretend to be that! Are we just prompts? Some of the most existentially troubling Veo-generated videos floating around TikTok these days center around a gag known as "the prompt theory." These clips focus on various AI-generated people reacting to the idea that they are "just prompts" with various levels of skepticism, fear, or even conspiratorial paranoia. On the other side of that gag, some humans are making joke videos playing off the idea that they're merely prompts. RedondoKid used the conceit in a basketball trick shot video, saying "of course I'm going to make this. This is AI, you put that I'm going to make this in the prompt." User thisisamurica thanked his faux prompters for putting him in "a world with such delicious food" before theatrically choking on a forkful of meat. And comedian Drake Cummings developed TikTok skits pretending that it was actually AI video prompts forcing him to indulge in vices like shots of alcohol or online gambling ("Goolgle’s [sic] New A.I. Veo 3 is at it again!! When will the prompts end?!" Cummings jokes in the caption). @justdrakenaround Goolgle’s New A.I. Veo 3 is at it again!! When will the prompts end?! #veo3 #google #ai #aivideo #skit ♬ original sound - Drake Cummings Beyond the obvious jokes, though, I've also seen a growing trend of TikTok creators approaching friends or strangers and asking them to react to the idea that "we're all just prompts." The reactions run the gamut from "get the fuck away from me" to "I blame that [prompter], I now have to pay taxes" to solipsistic philosophical musings from convenience store employees. I'm loath to call this a full-blown TikTok trend based on a few stray examples. Still, these attempts to exploit the confusion between real and AI-generated video are interesting to see. As one commenter on an "Are you a prompt?" ambush video put it: "New trend: Do normal videos and write 'Google Veo 3' on top of the video." Which one is real? The best Veo-related TikTok engagement hack I've stumbled on so far, though, might be the videos that show multiple short clips and ask the viewer to decide which are real and which are fake. One video I stumbled on shows an increasing number of "Veo 3 Goth Girls" across four clips, challenging in the caption that "one of these videos is real... can you guess which one?" In another example, two similar sets of kids are shown hanging out in cars while the caption asks, "Are you able to identify which scene is real and which one is from veo3?" @spongibobbu2 One of these videos is real… can you guess which one? #veo3 ♬ original sound - Jett After watching both of these videos on loop a few times, I'm relatively (but not entirely) convinced that every single clip in them is a Veo creation. The fact that I watched these videos multiple times shows how effective the "Real or Veo" challenge framing is at grabbing my attention. Additionally, I'm still not 100 percent confident in my assessments, which is a testament to just how good Google's new model is at creating convincing videos. There are still some telltale signs for distinguishing a real video from a Veo creation, though. For one, Veo clips are still limited to just eight seconds, so any video that runs longer (without an apparent change in camera angle) is almost certainly not generated by Google's AI. Looking back at a creator's other videos can also provide some clues—if the same person was appearing in "normal" videos two weeks ago, it's unlikely they would be appearing in Veo creations suddenly. There's also a subtle but distinctive style to most Veo creations that can distinguish them from the kind of candid handheld smartphone videos that usually fill TikTok. The lighting in a Veo video tends to be too bright, the camera movements a bit too smooth, and the edges of people and objects a little too polished. After you watch enough "genuine" Veo creations, you can start to pick out the patterns. Regardless, TikTokers trying to pass off real videos as fakes—even as a joke or engagement hack—is a recognition that video sites are now deep in the "deep doubt" era, where you have to be extra skeptical of even legitimate-looking video footage. And the mere existence of convincing AI fakes makes it easier than ever to claim real events captured on video didn't really happen, a problem that political scientists call the liar's dividend. We saw this when then-candidate Trump accused Democratic nominee Kamala Harris of "A.I.'d" crowds in real photos of her Detroit airport rally. For now, TikTokers of all stripes are having fun playing with that idea to gain social media attention. In the long term, though, the implications for discerning truth from reality are more troubling. Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 13 Comments

It’s official – Days of Play is back for 2025! We are kicking off the 2025 celebration on May 28, with community activities, new content coming to PlayStation Plus, and great offers on PS5 consoles, games, and accessories.  Days of Play is all about celebrating our players and the moments of play that make being part of the PlayStation community so special. With an exciting year ahead filled with new game releases, experiences, and milestones, it’s a great time to check out the latest PlayStation activities and promotions we have planned for this year’s celebration. Days of Play begins May 28 at 12:01AM through June 11 at 11:59PM local time in each region – below is an overview of 2025 activities. Be sure to visit the Days of Play 2025 website for details as we will be sharing regular updates starting on May 28. PlayStation Plus – Monthly Games for June, bonus titles, and more We’re excited to reveal the latest PlayStation Plus content that will be available during the Days of Play celebration – this includes upcoming Monthly Games, bonus Game Catalog titles, Classics Catalog additions, Game Trials, and more.  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Monthly Games for June To start, here are the Monthly Games* for June, which will be available for all PlayStation Plus members beginning May 28: NBA 2K25 | PS5, PS4 (available June 3) Alone in the Dark (2024) | PS5 (available June 3) Bomb Rush Cyberfunk | PS5, PS4 (available June 3) Destiny 2: The Final Shape | PS5, PS4 (available May 28 30) Bonus titles for Game Catalog and Classic Catalog, plus new Game Trials Create even more moments of play with bonus titles coming to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Classics Catalog, as well as new Game Trials.* These titles are in addition to our regular Game Catalog content drops for June – stay tuned for our regular monthly Game Catalog announcement for next month’s lineup. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Game Catalog   (Available in Game Catalog on the specified dates for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium/Deluxe members)  Another Crab’s Treasure | PS5 (available May 29)  Skull and Bones | PS5 (available June 2)  Destiny 2: Legacy Collection | PS5, PS4 (available June 4)  Grand Theft Auto III – The Definitive Edition | PS4, PS5 (available June 10) View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Classics Catalog  (Available on June 5 for PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe members)  Myst | PS5, PS4 Riven | PS5, PS4  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Game Trials (Available on May 28 for PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe members)  Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | PS5 Sid Meier’s Civilization VII | PS5, PS4 View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image PlayStation Tournaments From June 3 through June 11, participate in special PlayStation Tournaments for NBA 2K25**, which is included in our PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup for June. Players can compete in multiple competitions each day for a chance to win prizes including NBA 2K Virtual Currency and Days of Play-themed PlayStation Network avatars. *PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup, availability of Classics, Game Trials and Game Catalog varies over time, region/country, and plan. PlayStation Plus is subject to a recurring subscription fee taken automatically until cancellation. Terms apply: play.st/psplus-usageterms.  **Internet and active PS Plus membership required. PS Plus is subject to recurring subscription fee taken automatically until cancellation. Terms apply: play.st/psplus-usageterms. Must be at least 16+ and a resident of an eligible country. Void where prohibited. See full rules on PS5 or PS4 console  Days of Play 2025 Deals We’re also celebrating Days of Play with exciting promotions across consoles, games, accessories, and gear from direct.playstation.com (where available), participating retailers (prices may vary), and on PlayStation Store. For more information on your local deals, be sure to check out the Days of Play 2025 website. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Deals directly from PlayStation and participating retailers  From May 28 to June 11 in select regions, save on hardware and accessories including PS5 consoles, DualSense controllers, and more. You can find these offers on direct.playstation.com where available as well as at participating local retailers. Please note that offers and promotion dates may vary by region and retailer. Deals on PS5 console offerings include: In the United States and Canada, PlayStation 5 console – Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Bundle (Digital and Standard) will be available starting at $399.99 USD / $509.99 CAD (Save up to $119.99 USD / $159.99 CAD compared to buying separately). In select regions such as Europe and Asia, PlayStation 5 console (Digital and Standard) will be on promotion, starting at €399.99 / £339.99 / ¥65,980. $50 USD off PlayStation 5 Pro console   There will also be offers for PS5 accessories and games, including: $50 USD off PlayStation VR2 and PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle $30 USD off Pulse Explore wireless earbuds $30 USD off DualSense Edge wireless controller $20 USD off Access controller $20 USD off DualSense wireless controller Various discounts on PS5 games including Astro Bot, MLB The Show 25, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, and LEGO Horizon Adventures. On direct.playstation.com, get exclusive offers on products like Shapes of Play, PS5 console covers, and other PS5 accessories like external storage drives, and more. When ordering directly from PlayStation, you can also enjoy free standard shipping and free returns on eligible orders. In the U.K., players can upgrade their gaming with Flex to lease a PS5 Digital Edition console starting at £9.95 per month and PS5 Pro console starting at £17.99 per month. Learn more here. In Benelux, Portugal, and Spain, all PlayStation Plus members ordering directly from PlayStation can also enjoy an extra 5% discount.  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image PlayStation Plus memberships This Days of Play, save on a new or upgraded PlayStation Plus membership – players who join PlayStation Plus during this year’s celebration can save up to 33% on select 12-month memberships.* For players who are currently a PlayStation Plus Essential or Extra member, save 33% on the remainder of your membership when upgrading to PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe.**  *Discounts vary by region/tier and are subject to certain eligibility restrictions. Game library varies over time, region/country, and plan. PS Plus is subject to a recurring subscription fee taken automatically (at the then current PS Store price) until cancellation. Terms apply: play.st/psplus-usageterms. **At the end of your current subscription, you’ll be charged recurring subscription fees (at the then-current PS Store price) for PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe at your current billing frequency, unless cancelled. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Sony Pictures Core Keep an eye out for sales on PlayStation Productions movies throughout Days of Play on Sony Pictures Core! Additionally, PlayStation Plus members can enjoy 10% off movies store-wide on Sony Pictures Core as well as double discounts for limited-time Flash Sales dropping every few days from May 28 through June 11, including super-hero blockbusters and more.* *Access requires a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 console, and Sony Pictures Core app account subject to Sony Pictures Core Terms of Service. Must be age 18+. Titles and availability vary by market. PS Plus is subject to a recurring subscription fee taken automatically until cancellation. Terms apply: play.st/psplususageterms View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image PlayStation Store  Celebrate Days of Play with hundreds of digital games and add-ons on offer at PlayStation Store. You can find a list of PlayStation Store offers here.  We’re excited to celebrate Days of Play 2025 with you and hope you enjoy the activities, new content, and promotions we have in store! Be sure to check the Days of Play 2025 website for regular updates from May 28 through June 11.

It’s official – Days of Play is back for 2025! We are kicking off the 2025 celebration on May 28, with community activities, new content coming to PlayStation Plus, and great offers on PS5 consoles, games, and accessories.  Days of Play is all about celebrating our players and the moments of play that make being part of the PlayStation community so special. With an exciting year ahead filled with new game releases, experiences, and milestones, it’s a great time to check out the latest PlayStation activities and promotions we have planned for this year’s celebration. Days of Play begins May 28 at 12:01AM through June 11 at 11:59PM local time in each region – below is an overview of 2025 activities. Be sure to visit the Days of Play 2025 website for details as we will be sharing regular updates starting on May 28. PlayStation Plus – Monthly Games for June, bonus titles, and more We’re excited to reveal the latest PlayStation Plus content that will be available during the Days of Play celebration – this includes upcoming Monthly Games, bonus Game Catalog titles, Classics Catalog additions, Game Trials, and more.  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Monthly Games for June To start, here are the Monthly Games* for June, which will be available for all PlayStation Plus members beginning May 30: NBA2K25 | PS5, PS4 (available June 3) Alone and Dark | PS5 (available June 3) Bomb Rush Cyberfunk | PS5, PS4 (available June 3)  Destiny 2: The Final Shape | PS5, PS4 (available May 30) Bonus titles for Game Catalog and Classic Catalog, plus new Game Trials Create even more moments of play with bonus titles coming to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Classics Catalog, as well as new Game Trials.* These titles are in addition to our regular Game Catalog content drops for June – stay tuned for our regular monthly Game Catalog announcement for next month’s lineup. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Game Catalog   (Available in Game Catalog on the specified dates for PlayStation Plus Extra and Deluxe members)  Another Crab’s Treasure | PS5 (available May 29)  Skull and Bones | PS5 (available June 2)  Destiny 2: Legacy Collection | PS5, PS4 (available June 4)  Grand Theft Auto III | PS4, PS5 (available June 10) View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Classics Catalog  (Available on June 5 for PlayStation Plus Deluxe members)  Myst | PS5, PS4 Riven | PS5, PS4  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Game Trials (Available on May 28 for PlayStation Plus Deluxe members)  Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | PS5 Sid Meier’s Civilization® VII| PS5, PS4 View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image From June 3 through June 11, participate in special PlayStation Tournaments for NBA 2K25**, which is included in our PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup for June. Players can compete in multiple competitions each day for a chance to win prizes including NBA 2K Virtual Currency and Days of Play-themed PlayStation Network avatars. *PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup, availability of Classics, Game Trials and Game Catalog varies over time, region/country, and plan. PlayStation Plus is subject to a recurring subscription fee taken automatically until cancellation. Terms apply: play.st/psplus-usageterms.  **Internet and active PS Plus membership required. PS Plus is subject to recurring subscription fee taken automatically until cancellation. Terms apply: play.st/psplus-usageterms. Must be at least 16+ and a resident of an eligible country. Void where prohibited. See full rules on PS5 or PS4 console  Days of Play 2025 Deals We’re also celebrating Days of Play with exciting promotions across consoles, games, and from participating retailers (prices may vary), and on PlayStation Store. For more information on your local deals, be sure to check out the Days of Play 2025 website.  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Deals directly from participating retailers  From May 28 to June 11 in Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand/Indonesia/Philippines/Vietnam, save on hardware and accessories including PS5 consoles, DualSense controllers, and more. You can find these offers at participating local retailers. Please note that offers and promotion dates may vary by region and retailer. Deals on PS5 console offerings include: PlayStation 5 console will be on promotion, with promotional price of SGD 605 / MYR 1,830 / THB 13,890 / IDR 7,419,000 for PS5 Digital Edition and SGD 735 / MYR 2,260 / THB 16,890 / IDR 8,919,000 / PHP 27,990 / VND 12,100,000 for PS5.   SGD 64 / MYR 239 / THB 1,800 off PlayStation 5 Pro console   There will also be offers for PS5 accessories and games, including: SGD 64 / MYR 239 / THB 1,800 / IDR 780,000 / PHP 2,800 / VND 1,191,000 off PlayStation VR2 and PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle SGD 39 / MYR 130 / THB 1,000 / IDR 470,000 / PHP 1,700 / VND 750,000 off Pulse Explore wireless earbuds SGD 39 / MYR 130 / THB 1,000 / IDR 470,000 / PHP 1,700 / VND 750,000 off DualSense Edge wireless controller SGD 28 / MYR 90 / THB 700 / IDR 340,000 / PHP 1,200 / VND 520,000 off Access controller SGD 20.10 / MYR 54 / THB 500 / IDR 250,000 / PHP 900 / VND 310,000 off DualSense wireless controller Various discounts on PS5 games including Astro Bot, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, and LEGO Horizon Adventures. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image PlayStation Plus memberships This Days of Play, save on a new or upgraded PlayStation Plus membership – players who join PlayStation Plus during this year’s celebration can save up to 33% (up to 30% for Thailand) on select 12-month memberships.* For players who are currently a PlayStation Plus Essential or Extra member, save 33% (30% for Thailand) on the remainder of your membership when upgrading to PlayStation Plus Deluxe.**  *Discounts vary by region/tier and are subject to certain eligibility restrictions. Game library varies over time, region/country, and plan. PS Plus is subject to a recurring subscription fee taken automatically (at the then current PS Store price) until cancellation. Terms apply: play.st/psplus-usageterms. **At the end of your current subscription, you’ll be charged recurring subscription fees (at the then-current PS Store price) for PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe at your current billing frequency, unless cancelled. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image PlayStation Store  Celebrate Days of Play with hundreds of digital games and add-ons on offer at PlayStation Store. You can find a list of PlayStation Store offers here.  We’re excited to celebrate Days of Play 2025 with you and hope you enjoy the activities, new content, and promotions we have in store! Be sure to check the Days of Play 2025 website for regular updates from May 28 through June 11.

The Days of Play celebration comes to PlayStation Store, featuring numerous games all available at discount for a limited time*, starting May 28! You can get a preview of just some of the titles** that’ll be included ahead of the promotion’s go-live time right here. The full list will include the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Cross-Gen Bundle (45% off), WWE 2K25 Standard Edition (30% off), Astro Bot (15% off), The Last of Us Part II Remastered (20% off) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (75% off).  The full list will include the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Cross-Gen Bundle (45% off), WWE 2K25 Standard Edition (30% off), Astro Bot (17% off) and The Last of Us Part II Remastered (20% off).  The full list will include the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Cross-Gen Bundle (45% off), WWE 2K25 Standard Edition (30% off), Astro Bot (17% off) and The Last of Us Part II Remastered (20% off).  And there are many more games beyond the titles listed below. When the dedicated promotion page goes live on PlayStation Store on May 28, head there to see the full list and find out your regional discount pricing.  And there’s plenty more Days of Play related-celebrations to enjoy! 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