Even at first glance, there’s something off about the body on the street. The white sheet it’s under is a little too clean, and the officers’ movements are totally devoid of purpose. “We need to clear the street,” one of them says with a firm hand gesture, though her lips don’t move. It’s AI, alright. But here’s the kicker: my prompt didn’t include any dialogue.Veo 3, Google’s new AI video generation model, added that line all on its own. Over the past 24 hours I’ve created a dozen clips depicting news reports, disasters, and goofy cartoon cats with convincing audio — some of which the model invented all on its own. It’s more than a little creepy and way more sophisticated than I had imagined. And while I don’t think it’s going to propel us to a misinformation doomsday just yet, Veo 3 strikes me as an absolute AI slop machine.AI generated video: Made with Veo 3Google introduced Veo 3 at I/O this week, highlighting its most important new capability: generating sound to go with your AI video. “We’re entering a new era of creation,” Google’s VP of Gemini, Josh Woodward, explained in the keynote, calling it “incredibly realistic.” I wasn’t completely sold, but then, a few days later, I had Veo 3 generate a video of a news anchor announcing a fire at the Space Needle. All it took was a basic text prompt, a few minutes, and an expensive subscription to Google’s AI Ultra plan. And you know what? Woodward wasn’t exaggerating. It’s realistic as hell.I tried the news anchor prompt after seeing what Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, was able to produce. One of her clips features a news anchor announcing the death of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. He is not dead, but the clip is incredibly convincing. A post including a string of videos with AI-generated characters protesting the prompts used to create them has 50,000 upvotes on Reddit. The scenes include disasters, a woman in a hospital bed using a breathing tube, and a character being threatened at gunpoint — all with spoken dialogue and realistic background sounds. Real lighthearted stuff!Maybe I’m being naive, but after playing around with Veo 3 I’m not quite as concerned as I was at first. For starters, the obvious guardrails are in place. You can’t prompt it to create a video of Biden tripping and falling. You can’t have a news anchor announce the assassination of the president, or even generate a video of a T-shirt-and-chain-wearing tech company CEO laughing while dollar bills rain down around him. That’s a start.That said, you can generate some troubling shit. Without any clever workarounds I prompted Veo 3 to create a video of the Space Needle on fire. Starting with my own photo of Mount Rainier, I generated a video of it erupting with smoke and lava. Coupled with a clip of a news anchor announcing said disaster, I can see how you could seed some mischief real easily with this tool.AI generated video: Made with Veo 3Here’s the better news: it doesn’t seem like a ready-made deepfake machine. I gave it a couple of photos of myself and asked it to generate a video with specific dialogue and it wouldn’t comply. I also asked it to bring a pair of giant boots in a photo to life and have them walk out of the scene; it managed one boot stomping across the sidewalk with some comical crunching noises in the background.AI generated video: Made with Veo 3I had an easier time generating videos when my prompts were less specific, which is how I confirmed something my colleague Andrew Marino pointed out: Veo 3 is excellent at creating the kind of lowest-common-denominator YouTube content aimed at kids.If you’ve never been subjected to the endless pit of garbage on YouTube Kids, let me enlighten you. Imagine watching the worst 3D rendering of a monster truck driving down a ramp, landing in a vat of colored paint. Next to it, another monster truck drives down another ramp into another vat of paint — this time, a different color. Now watch that again. And again. And again. There are hours of this stuff on YouTube designed to mesmerize toddlers. These videos are usually harmless, just empty calories designed to rack up views that make Cocomelon look like Citizen Kane. In about 10 minutes with Veo 3, I threw together a clip following the same basic formula — complete with jaunty background music. But the clip that’s even more troubling to me is the two cartoon cats on a pier.AI generated video: Made with Veo 3I thought it would be funny to have the cats complain to each other that the fish aren’t biting. In just a couple of minutes, I had a clip complete with two cats and some AI-generated dialogue that I never wrote. If it’s this easy to make a 10-second clip, stretching it out to a seven-minute YouTube video would be trivial. In its current form, clips revert to Veo 2 when you try to extend them into longer scenes, which removes the audio. But the way that Google has been pushing these tools forward relentlessly, I can’t imagine it’ll be long before you can edit a full feature-length video with Veo 3.Honestly, I wonder if this sort of use for AI-generated video is a feature and not a bug. Google showed us some fancy AI-generated video from real filmmakers, including Eliza McNitt, who is working with Darren Aronofsky on a new film with some AI-generated elements. And sure, AI video could be an interesting tool in the right hands. But I think what we’re most likely to see is a proliferation of the kind of bland imagery that AI is so good at generating — this time, in stereo.See More:

This weekend is a major one for new movies, with the release of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake in theaters. But even if you carved out two days for two major blockbusters, good news: Monday is Memorial Day. So why not spend your three-day weekend sneaking in one more movie? Per usual, a handful of worthwhile titles are leaving Netflix on June 1. Here are five you may want to catch before they’re shipped off to another platform or disappear into the pit of VOD, where you are unlikely to rent them. Cult of Chucky (2017) Is Child’s Play/Chucky the most underestimated horror franchise? Thanks to writer-director Don Mancini’s 37-year commitment to shaking up his slasher formula with each new installment, it’s certainly up there, even in the series’ direct-to-video era. Cult of Chucky picks up shortly after the events of 2013’s Curse of Chucky, which saw the murderous ginger doll stalk Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif, daughter of Chucky voice actor Brad Dourif!) and slay her whole family. When the police arrive, Nica is ultimately charged with the murders, and hauled away to an institution. In Cult of Chucky, an abusive psychiatrist has convinced her she really was the perpetrator of the crime and Chucky was all in her head — until the doll shows up to kill more people. It’s bloodsplatteringly twisted fun. Mancini finds ways to get multiple Chucky dolls in the mix, and up the gross-out humor a few notches. Enjoy, sickos. Den of Thieves (2018) If you have yet to meet Big Nick (Gerard Butler), king of the scuzzy cops, hurry up: The terrific Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is also on Netflix, but you only have a week to catch the first installment in the series. Writer-director Christian Gudegast gives Heat a dirtbag makeover, as Butler’s bleary, on-the-verge-of-divorce antihero hunts down a team of ex-Marines who are pulling off elaborate bank heists. Pablo Schreiber (Halo) is piercing as Ray, the leader of the criminal operation, while O’Shea Jackson Jr. and 50 Cent give the Ocean’s 11-esque team its needed swagger. But Butler as Nick, bumbling around and failing at life, carries the movie, bringing in an unexpected amount of emotion as the story barrels toward its big Federal Reserve set piece. At 140 grimy, gun-heavy minutes, no one is really making movies like Den of Thieves at the moment. Ma (2019) Maaaaaaaaaaaa. Blumhouse understandably pitched this psychological horror film from [checks notes] The Help director Tate Taylor??? as “from the producer of Get Out and Halloween,” but Ma is much goofier and more meme-friendly than either of those movies — and for the better. It all lands thanks to Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer, whose vindictive, violent Sue Ann is on the wavelength of Kathy Bates’ Annie Wilkes in Misery and Glenn Close’s Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction. At first, “Ma” is a local legend for buying kids alcohol and giving them a safe haven to party. But Sue Ann has an ulterior motive, and — well, shit goes down. Culture writers have found plenty beneath the surface of Ma over the years, especially in regard to how it grapples with race. But if that sounds heady, good news: the melodramatic horror surface is great, too. Ramayya Vasthavayya (2013) Fans of Indian action should check out this revenge thriller starring N.T. Rama Rao Jr. (RRR), who really seems to exist to walk in slow motion while preparing to beat the crap out of someone, so it’s good that we invented movies in time for his arrival on this planet. Compared to the hyper-stylish RRR or the playful action-comedy Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (aka The Man Who Feels No Pain), Ramayya Vasthavayya is pretty basic. Nandu (NTR) is falling hard for Akarsha (played by Indian mega-star Samantha) but he also has some secrets that means he will eventually need to cut people down with a machete. But boy, does director Harish Shankar make NTR look good doing it! Whether he’s getting smacked across the face with a lead pipe or pounding some goons, the actor delivers what the camera needs. Unhinged (2020) Much like Quentin Tarantino, we here at Polygon endorse Russell Crowe’s released-during-pandemic-times-and-therefore-seen-by-too-few-people movie Unhinged. Crowe is actually the villain in this road-rage horror-thriller, which stars Caren Pistorius as an overworked single mother who crosses paths with the wrong brute while rushing to get her son to school one morning. The title is apt: Crowe’s “The Man” is quite unhinged! And instead of brushing off the beeping car behind him, he goes full Duel on the unsuspecting mom. Crowe seems as committed to playing an animalistic terror as he was committed to playing Maximus in Gladiator, and yet he surprisingly did not win another Oscar for his work in Unhinged. 

Memorial Day has long been the unofficial kickoff to summer, but recently it’s also been a good time to grab some tech on sale. In the past few years, Memorial Day sales have brought solid discounts on some of our favorite tech, from affordable portable chargers to expensive tablets and robot vacuums. That’s on top of all the seasonal items that usually go on sale this time of year like grilling gear, pizza ovens and other outdoor tech.Now’s a great time to look for any of those items you may have on your wish list. Memorial Day deals are live now, and there's a good chance they'll be available until the holiday weekend has passed. We’ve collected the best Memorial Day sales on tech below, and we’ll continue to update this post as more offers become available.We'd be remiss if we didn't mention Amazon Prime Day, though. The biggest iteration of the online retailer's annual shopping event typically happens in July, and Amazon confirmed it will be back again this year (although official dates remain unknown). Tech is usually heavily discounted on Prime Day for Prime members, so if you're unsure about a purchase, you could take the chance and wait a little while longer to see if that pair of earbuds you've been eyeing drops even further in price during Prime Day. If not, Memorial Day offers the next best opportunity this time of year to save on gadgets and gear. Best Memorial Day tech sales: Top deals Best Memorial Day tech deals Peacock Premium (one year) for $25 ($55 off): The latest Peacock deal gives you one year of the Premium membership for only $25 when you use the code SPRINGSAVINGS at checkout. This ad-supported tier gives you access to some live sports content and more than 50 always-on channels, as well as the whole library of on-demand TV shows and movies Peacock has to offer. The deal runs through May 30. MasterClass (one-year) for $72 (40 percent off): MasterClass' Memorial Day sale discounts one-year subscriptions by 40 percent, which brings the most affordable tier down to $6/month or $72 for the whole year. With the Standard plan, you get access to over 200 classes that you can watch on one device while connected to the internet. For offline and multi-device access, consider one of the higher subscription tiers that are also on sale. ProtonVPN (two years) for $81 (66 percent off): ProtonVPN two-year plans are 66 percent off and down to only $81 right now. You'll save more than $150 on the total cost of the subscription with this deal, and in addition to VPN coverage for all your devices, you also get access to features that let you block ads, malware and other trackers. Best Buy Memorial Day sale: Running through May 26, this sale includes big discounts on laptops, TVs, wearables, appliances and more. Standout deals include the Bose QuietComfort headphones for $229, a 75-inch LG 4K TV for $480 and the GoPro Hero 11 Mini for $130. Ooni Memorial Day sale — 20 percent off almost everything: Most of Ooni's pizza ovens are on sale for Memorial Day, including the second-gen Karu 2, which is down to $319 from $399. The company's indoor electric pizza oven, the Volt 12, is also included in the sale: you can grab it for $629 instead of the usual $899. Sonos Memorial Day sale —25 percent off portable speakers: You can save up to 25 percent on Sonos portable speakers right now, including the Move 2 and the Roam 2. The former is the more powerful of the two, with an IP56-rated design, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity and up to 24 hours of playback time. The Roam 2, on the other hand, will be easier to toss in your bag before heading to the beach, plus it has an IP67-rated design, Wi-Fi connectivity and 10 hours of playtime. Anker On-the-Go sale — up to 50 percent off for members: It's free to sign up as an Anker member, and then you can get up to half off charging gear during this sale. For example, the Anker Prime 20K 200W power bank normally costs $130, but members can get it for $80 right now. Members will also get free gifts with some purchases, like a free 100W USB-C to C cable when you spend $79 or more. PopSocket Memorial Day sale — up to 50 percent off: Through May 26, you can get half off some PopSocket grips, cases, wallets, mounts and more. There's a lot of variety in the styles on sale, so you'll likely be able to find something that fits your personal taste. Tons of MagSafe grips and cases are included, as well as MagSafe wallet accessories, too. Apple AirTags (four-pack) for $75 (24 percent off): iPhone owners will appreciate how easy it is to keep track of things like wallets, keys, handbags and more with AirTags. These Bluetooth trackers monitor the location of your belongings so you can check in on them using the Find My app. Those with newer iPhones can also use UWB technology to get turn-by-turn directions to find their stuff when the AirTag is within close range. Apple iPad Air (M3, 13-inch) for $699 ($100 off): This is the larger version of our top pick for the best iPad for most people. Recently updated with the M3 chipset, the latest iPad Air is extra speedy and powerful, plus it now has a better display than before and support for the Apple Pencil Pro. If you're looking for a big-screen iPad but don't want to pay top dollar, this is the most budget-friendly option available. Apple Watch Series 10 for $299 ($100 off): The latest Apple Watch is the best smartwatch for most people thanks to its always-on OLED display, accurate and continuous activity tracking, solid workout tracking capabilities and handy features provided by watchOS 11. MacBook Air (M4, 13-inch) for $899 ($100 off): Our top pick for the best laptop for most people, the latest MacBook Air has an impressively thin design and performance to match thanks to the M4 chipset. It also has excellent battery life and a comfortable keyboard-and-trackpad combo. Apple Pencil Pro for $99 (23 percent off): If you have a new iPad Pro or iPad Air, this is the best Apple Pencil to get. It has a built-in gyroscope, supports squeeze gestures and pressure sensitivity and still magnetically attaches to the side of iPads for charging and safe keeping. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for $1,049 (19 percent off): Our top pick for the best premium Android phone, the S25 Ultra has everything a tech-lover would want in a smartphone. It has excellent performance and battery life, a stunning display, a slimmer overall design and a new 50MP ultra wide sensor in the rear camera array. Samsung Type-C flash drive (512GB) for $50 (23 percent off): This high-capacity flash drive supports read speeds up to 400MB/s and works on a variety of devices including laptops and smartphones. In addition to having a five-year warranty, this flash drive is waterproof, shock-proof, magnet-proof, temperature-proof and X-ray-proof. Samsung 24-inch Essential monitor S30GD for $100 (23 percent off): This 1080p IPS display has a 100Hz refresh rate and can be adjusted via tilting. Its design is pretty slim with thin bezels, and it connect to your computer via HDMI port. Nori Press steam iron for $90 (25 percent off): This is essentially a flat iron for your clothes with six fabric settings to get the wrinkles out of your clothes. It was one of the things on our staff wishlist during the 2024 holiday season, and it would make a great gift for apartment dwellers who don't have the space for a full ironing board, or those who travel often and need their clothes to look fresh. Thermacell E-Series rechargeable mosquito repeller for $32 (20 percent off): Thermacell devices have long been some of our favorite outdoor gear, and the E-series is compact but powerful. It'll keep mosquitos away within its 20-foot range and now it comes with a fast-charging dock. ThermoWorks ThermaPen One for $76 (30 percent off): We've long been fans of the ThermaPen One, so much so that it's reserved a spot on our best grilling gear list for a number of years. It provides accurate food temperature readings within a second or so, and its display is now brighter than the previous model. The screen will also auto-rotate depending on how you're holding the ThermaPen, so it'll be easier to read. ThermoWorks RFX starter kit (four-probe) for $349 ($86 off): ThermoWorks' new smart grill probe is accurate and reliable, and the starter kit includes everything you need to get grilling immediately. We gave it a score of 92 in our review and declared that "the company simply does not miss." Anker Soundcore Space A40 earbuds for $45 ($35 off): Our top pick for the best budget wireless earbuds, the Space A40 punch above their weight in almost every way. They have excellent ANC, a good sound profile overall, a comfortable fit, multi-device connectivity and wireless charging support. Dyson V8 Plus cordless vacuum for $350 (26 percent off): The V8 is a great entry-level Dyson that boasts 40 minutes of runtime, two power modes, a motorbar cleaner head that works on all kinds of flooring and four additional cleaning attachments. Also available at Dyson in the Absolute model. Amazon Fire TV Stick HD for $20 (43 percent off): The top budget pick in our best streaming devices guide, this latest model of the Fire TV Stick HD is an easy way to update an aging TV with streaming smarts. It supports HD video and all major streaming services, plus the updated remote can now control your TV's power and volume. Ring Battery Doorbell for $55 (45 percent off): This 2024 battery-powered Ring video doorbell records 1440p video, sends motion alerts to your phone and supports two-way talk, live view and quick replies. It powers up via USB-C, and it can be installed with or without hardwiring it to your existing doorbell setup. Blink Outdoor 4 security cameras, 5 camera system for $200 (50 percent off): This pack-up includes give weather-resistant Blink Outdoor 4 cameras plus a Sync Module 2 to connect them all. These are some of our favorite security cameras thanks to their wireless design, accurate and speedy motion alerts and the ability to save footage locally when you use a thumb drive with the Sync Module 2. Lenovo ThinkVision 23.8-inch Monitor T24i-30 for $183 (46 percent off): This FHD IPS panel has a three-side, NearEdgeless bezel design and can be adjusted via tilt, lift, swivel and pivot. In addition to four USB-A ports for connecting peripherals, it also supports a number of display connections including HDMI, DP and VGA. iRobot Combo Essential robot vacuum for $150 ($125 off): This is a great entry-level robot vacuum that has the added convenience of being a mopping machine, too. It'll suck up dirt, debris and pet hair while it vacuums, and you can use the included water reservoir when you want to mop hard floors. Shark PowerDetect NeverTouch Robot Vacuum and Mop for $700 (30 percent off): A version of one of our favorite robot vacuums, this Shark machine can vacuum and mop floors for you. Its self-emptying base station holds up to 30 days worth of debris, and it has a refill tank for the mopping reservoir as well. Levoit LVAC-200 cordless vacuum cleaner for $150 (25 percent off): A top budget pick in our best cordless vacuums guide, this Levoit machine has a single-button start, tackles debris and pet hair with ease and it has a lightweight design that can be easily disassembled for convenient storage. Tineco Pure ONE S11 Cordless Vacuum Cleaner for $140 ($60 off with coupon): Our top budget pick among the best cordless vacuums, this Tineco machine offers good suction and a relatively lightweight design at a great price. It also includes the company's iLoop smart sensor, which will auto-adjust suction power as you clean. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/best-memorial-day-tech-sales-from-amazon-apple-samsung-and-others-that-you-can-shop-now-144526995.html?src=rss

Matt Palmer is unapologetic about how to kill someone in his new movie, Fear Street: Prom Queen. “We spent a lot of time working out how to kill people,” Palmer tells Digital Trends in an exclusive interview. Palmer is the co-writer and director of Prom Queen, the fourth film in Netflix’s Fear Street franchise. While the first three Fear Street movies are considered a trilogy, Prom Queen is a standalone movie with new characters and stories. However, the common denominator is the setting, the town of Shadyside. Based on R.L. Stine’s novel, Fear Street: Prom Queen transports audiences to 1988. Senior prom is two days away, and six girls are running for prom queen. Two of them — the kind outcast, Lori Granger (India Fowler), and the popular bully, Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza) — are bitter rivals. Executing political maneuvers to win votes for a popularity contest is difficult enough. Yet the toughest challenge on prom night will be avoiding a masked murderer stalking the candidates. Recommended Videos Ahead, Palmer talks about the importance of needle drops, the key changes from book to screen, and how to execute the perfect kill. Alan Markfield / Netflix This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Digital Trends: I wanted to start with the needle drops. They stood out right away. What was the one ’80s song you knew had to be in Prom Queen? Matt Palmer: I’m Not Scared by Eighth Wonder. Why is that? I think there are bigger needle drops in terms of known songs, but that song, there’s something special about it. It was actually written by the Pet Shop Boys, which is why it’s such a good tune. But it’s a slightly lesser-known tune. It has this throbbing and pulsing. Very early on, I was like, this is what the prom looks like from the sounds. That pulsing and blaring thing. I feel like the whole tone of prom came from that song. Also, the lyrics as well. It’s a kind of Lori Granger story. That was the one. We switched things up during the edit. There were different tracks pulled out and changed to get the right energy. That was the one right from the beginning. That’s going right there after that kill, and it’s not going anywhere. With your musical process, are you a director and writer who builds a scene and knows exactly what song to put in? Is it more about getting a playlist from your music supervisor, running through things, and seeing what works? Take me through that musical element. It’s funny because, in the first movie I made, there is a lot of music in it, but it’s composed music. It goes under the radar. A lot of people with Calibre are like, “Oh, that’s great. There’s no music in it.” I’m like, “Eh, it’s kind of there. You’re just not noticing it.” But this one [Prom Queen] was a completely different assignment. You hear [Quentin] Tarantino talk quite a lot about how he’ll pull out a record and that’ll start the movie in his head. It was a lot more like that with this one, which was really fun. Like the Billy Idol one, you start to assemble montages around the music. It’s a very different way of working, but a really fun one. It’s quite addictive. I’d like to do it again. It’s like building a long playlist. Yeah, I spent two months at the very beginning, when we were just starting to write the movie, agonizing over this playlist. There were tunes that were key like You’re the Inspiration by Chicago. I had a whole scene where the Devil character dances with Lori. Then, we were like, we don’t need this scene. The scene isn’t helping the character or the film. And I was like, “But the music!” [Laughs] It was so hard to cut because I was so in love with the idea of setting a scene to that music, but it had to go. Sometimes, the images come from the music. Sometimes, it completely switches, like Sweet Dreams. The dance-off was going to be Prince, but Prince tunes are incredibly hard to license. Once Gloria was in, this wasn’t going anywhere. Even if we get Prince at the last minute, this [Gloria] is the tune. It’s funny how it happens. The morning I found Gloria, I was walking through the pre-production office, and a couple of hours later, it was playing in every room. I heard people singing Gloria, and I was like, OK. This is the tune. The spirit of the book is alive in the movie. I know some changes were made. Obviously, the name of the character Lizzie* is Lori. Why did you change her backstory? In the book, the girls are mean to each other in Prom Queen. … There’s a lot in the book, and it’s obviously from a different time. There are a lot of girls talking about boys. It was interesting as a man writing a female character. Not just one, but five girls lead the movie. It was really important to have great female producers. They were guiding me on that. If all the girls in the movie were just talking about guys, it would just feel like it was from a different time. You have to make it connect with a modern audience. I don’t think those kinds of interactions would really play today. Alan Markfield / Netflix The other thing is it’s a whodunit. If you’re working from source material where a whole lot of people in the world know who did it, you have to change the story so that people don’t know who did it because that’s the lifeblood of mystery. R.L. Stine is great. If you like stuff, take it. If you want to go in a different direction, take it. He’s very flexible. It gave us the freedom to launch off from a great premise and take it into some new characters and interesting directions. *In R.L. Stine’s book, the main character is named Lizzie McVay. In the movie, it’s Lori Granger. A lot of these kills are showcases for practical effects. Take me through building a kill. Do you want it to happen one way and then see if you can do it practically? Well, we would write what we wanted and then try and work out how we could do it. We’ll try and do this until someone says it’s kind of impossible. One of the things I’m pleased with the movie is it does feel like all of the kills are quite different. Quite early on, someone was like, “What’s the killer’s signature weapon?” I remember going to see the remake of My Bloody Valentine. He has his ax. It’s like every single kill is an ax. After four of them, I’m craving a chainsaw. This killer in Prom Queen will just grab things and have a few things handy. It opens the possibility of different kills. Even tonally, there’s one kill that I feel is much darker and scarier. There’s one that’s comedic and drawn out. There’s one that’s very abrupt and sudden and probably the goriest thing in it. It’s quite satisfying. I’ve watched a lot of slasher movies, and I’m unapologetically rabid about it. I like [Dario] Argento. What I like about Argento is you can feel when a kill is coming. There’s almost a ritual to it with Arengto and a contract with the audience. It’s like, “OK, it’s coming. It’s going to look cool, and I’m going to focus on my directorial skills. It’s going to be gory as f***.” Just bring it. I guess I come from that school of when a kill is coming, it’s like a sacred and special moment. You need to do something that’s going to satisfy the audience and maybe surprise them as well. Put elements in it and mix it all up. We spent a lot of time working out how to kill people. Alan Markfield / Netflix I would hope a director of a slasher thinks about it a lot, so that’s good. [Laughs] Probably too much. I was reading an interview about how you programmed a film festival and picked out movies to run all night. I’ll give you the choice here. You have Prom Queen as your first one. What are the next four movies to pair it with? So I wouldn’t play Prom Queen first. [Laughs] I’d play Prom Queen either third or fourth. I spent 15 years doing this, and honestly, it’s insane. OK, the things I learned. If you’re going to play a slow movie, play it second. The third spot should always be the most insane, crazy, mind-bending, psychotronic, f***** up thing. That creates an energy in the middle of the night. People feel like, “I’ve seen the craziest thing ever, so anything after this is a bonus. In the fourth slot, play something with a plot. People need something to grab onto at five in the morning. At one event, I played Child’s Play fourth. Child’s Play has a really good narrative and plot. The manager of the cinema was like, “My god. They’ve all woken up. They all look way more awake than they did after the third movie, and they’re all ready for the fifth one.” It took me a while to realize, but don’t play something long or too abstract at number four. Otherwise, people will fall asleep. It’s crazy. You don’t always get it right. I played Black Christmas second at the first one. It’s a great movie, but I got away with it. That’s the other thing. Anything that goes over an hour and a half, and you’re really dicing with death. That’s why Prom Queen is 87 minutes. I found with 87-minute movies, people tend to feel they were short and sharp. I liked it, and I didn’t get sleepy. I was like, can I make a movie that, if it was playing at four in the morning, wouldn’t get people bored? I’d probably play Prom Queen third or fourth. Fear Street: Prom Queen is now streaming on Netflix.

What we've been playing - New York, Poker, and frustration A few of the things that have us hooked this week. Image credit: FromSoftware Feature by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Additional contributions by Ed Nightingale, and Jim Trinca Published on May 24, 2025 24th May Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing. This week, Bertie caves and installs the time-hogging phenomenon known as Balatro; Jim returns to the noir-like artistry of Grand Theft Auto 4; and Ed bangs his head repeatedly against Sekiro. What have you been playing? Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We've Been Playing archive. Balatro, PS5 Snap! Wait, that's not the right game, is it?Watch on YouTube I did it: I finally caved and played Balatro. It's free with PlayStation Plus at the moment so I thought why not? Let me explain that hesitation quickly. I've never really liked Poker. I tend to defiantly not like what everyone else likes, I don't know why, and I also struggle to be serious for extended periods of time. The thought of sitting around a table with a 'Poker' face on, for hours on end, seems like torture to me. But I bit, and guess what? No surprise: I really liked it. I had to search for what a couple of the poker hands meant, because I didn't know my flushes from my straights - and I guess there's some assumed knowledge on the game's part there - but otherwise, I was (ahem) straight in. Time to being hooked: about five minutes. I love the immediacy of games like this. I know I'm predisposed to liking quick-play deckbuilding games - they just work wonderfully with my mental wiring - but there's clearly a skill to onboarding people in a way that's fun and frictionless, and Balatro has got it. There's no waiting for the game to begin, you just press go and learn as you play. Anyway, brb, see you in a few hundred hours. -Bertie Grand Theft Auto 4 Which GTA protagonists are the best?Watch on YouTube I've been replaying GTA 4 for a Thing I'm working on and rediscovering just how bold a game it is. Big budget video games tend to default to a sort of pseudo-photorealism as their visual style, and there's nothing wrong with that. As we know from a century of pointing lights and cameras at real actors, there is plenty of scope for creativity within that. But it is often a safe choice. With a triple-A budget comes the expectation to have the triple-A 'look', essentially mimicking what the real lights, cameras, and actors are doing at the time. GTA 4 doesn't have that look. It looks like GTA 4, with its unmistakable forever autumn draping a decaying urban sprawl in soft baths of burnt orange. With its desaturated neo-noir nights pocked with bursts of colour where city lights cut the dour air. It's a look that fully serves the themes of the game: a dismantling of the American Dream as experienced through the eyes of an immigrant - a war-damaged man fleeing a war-damaged society, only to find, like millions of people before him, that the problems from an old world tend to follow you to the new. Niko’s is a bleak life with fleeting moments of triumph and fleeting moments of levity, and his Liberty City reflects this in every flaking piece of paint and every particle of billowing trash. GTA 4 sticks resolutely and defiantly to its aesthetic of grime and decay in much the same way the underrated shooter Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days did, in sending the player into an unwaveringly grim handicam snuff film and revelling in their discomfort. Both games are miraculous works of art. Plus in GTA 4, the stockmarket is called BAWSAQ, which is funny. -Jim Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, PS4 Here's Aoife sharing in some of Ed's Sekiro frustration.Watch on YouTube I don't think I've ever been as angry as when I play Sekiro. I'm not just talking about being a bit frustrated. I'm talking 'existential why the hell am I doing this to myself' despondency. I am not enjoying it, but I can't stop playing it. I know I shouldn't let it get to me. Get a grip Ed, it's just a silly little video game. I should really just learn to git gud, right? But: sigh. For context, this is the last big FromSoftware game I'm yet to finish, and I've started it three times now. I'm determined to finish it - I've come too far with these games to stop now. But Sekiro just hasn't clicked for me like the studio's other games have. In part that's down to aesthetics, I think, as I just vibe more with the dark fantasy of Souls and twisted Gothism of Bloodborne than I do the Japanese horror of Sekiro. But also it's to do with combat. It's so focused on a single method of fighting - parry parry parry - that there's no room for the expression or build variety that I really like. I do enjoy how rhythmical parrying can be, but each boss encounter feels like I'm banging my head against a wall, much more so than any other game of this type. At least the end is in sight as I only have the final boss to go (I'm ignoring the Demon of Hatred for the moment). At this point I'm just playing Sekiro out of stubbornness and spite, and I'm not sure what to be disappointed in, the game or myself. -Ed

This review contains spoilers for season 2, episode 7 of Doctor Who, “Wish World.”For long-time Doctor Who fans, the return of a villain like The Rani might sound like an event. It certainly felt like one last week, when she turned up with theatrical flair in the mid-credits sting of “The Interstellar Song Contest” – a neat surprise, powered by Archie Panjabi’s steely presence and a dash of proper mystery. But in this week’s “Wish World”? That spark dies on arrival. Her comeback is just another awkward throwback in an episode that doesn’t know how to handle its past, let alone make the present feel like it matters.“Wish World” represents the worst instincts of Doctor Who’s Disney era dialled up: glossy, confused, and screaming for attention. It’s a limp cocktail of shameless lore dumping, shallow storytelling, and a truly baffling sense of self-satisfaction. It spends a tiresome 45 minutes of build-up to just point at old names like a magician revealing a bent spoon, hoping the gesture alone is enough to amaze. The Rani’s return should feel seismic. It’s been 38 years since the evil Time Lord made her last onscreen appearance – 32 if you count her face-off against all the then-living Doctors and the cast of EastEnders in a charity special. That’s a long time, and in theory, this ought to carry the same weight as The Master crashing back into things in 2007’s “Utopia”. That twist didn’t just rely on nostalgia; it weaponised it, using it to amplify character and raise the stakes. Instead, now, we get a Rani written like a stock villain with a backstory cribbed from a half-read wiki page. There’s no sense of danger, no theatrical flair, no mystique. Just a few arch lines, a plot that barely scans, and a breadcrumb trail to yet another dusty Time Lord pulled from the show’s attic: Omega. It’s a name that’ll light up a handful of Reddit threads, sure, but it lands with a shrug for the vast majority who haven’t been revisiting “The Three Doctors” on BritBox. Which is, to be clear, mostly everyone.What’s baffling isn’t just the lack of payoff, it’s how proudly this outing squanders every opportunity to deliver one. “Wish World” relies entirely on prior recognition, but never lifts a finger to earn that investment in the here and now. It’s obsessed with nods, references, and several meandering mystery boxes, but utterly uninterested in what any of it means. This is fan service at its most vacant, a frustrating mess that treats characters like mere collectibles that get pulled from a shelf when you’re having a fancy dinner party. It’s not quite the sludgy CG necromancy of The Flash, but it’s cut from the same cloth: a hollow echo chamber of reveals with no buildup, and a premise that promises tension but fizzles into a joyless trudge through stiff dialogue and characters who feel barely sketched in. Conrad pops up again with all the charisma of a queue at the post office, Ruby is inexplicably present but does almost nothing, and even Belinda, usually a bright spot, is reduced to exposition and reaction shots. The whole plot moves like it's dragging a piano through quicksand, slowly collapsing under the weight of its pointless name-dropping bore fest of script."Wish World" has the promise of tension but fizzles into a joyless trudge through stiff dialogue and characters who feel barely sketched in.“With only one episode left, the finale now has to perform miracles: justify this mess, tie the threads together, and inject meaning where there's currently none. Doctor Who used to remix its past into something alive, urgent, and new; here, it just gawks at its own reflection, hoping a few barely recognisable names will do all the heavy lifting. Once upon a time, Russell T Davies brought heart and clarity to a show left for dead, reviving it with enough energy and emotional force to make it essential playground currency across Britain. Now, it feels like he’s coasting. This isn’t Doctor Who with something to say, it’s a desperate exposition dump, stitched together from scraps of nostalgia and noise. Worst of all, it expects that to be enough.

Hot water is like internet connectivity for most Verge readers: you just expect it to be there. But that’s unlikely to be the case this summer when tent camping at a music festival or road-tripping into the great unknown. That’s where BougeRV’s battery-powered shower comes in. The $310 “Portable Propane Outdoor Camping Water Heater” from BougeRV is not only optimized for search engine discovery, it also delivers a luxurious spray of hot steaming water to the unwashed, be they human, canine, or stubborn pots and pans. Charge up the battery, attach a propane canister, drop the pump into a jug of water, and you’re ready to get sudsing.It’s so useful and flexible that I’ve ditched my plans to install a permanent shower cabin and expensive hot water system inside my adventure van, even if I don’t completely trust it.8Verge Score$310The GoodBattery-powered portabilityTemperature controlAdjustable flow to save waterLots of safety featuresThe BadLots of hoses and cables to snagWeak shower head holderNo bag to carry all the accessoriesLongevity concerns$310 at BougeRVHow we rate and review productsMy current portable shower consists of an 11-liter water bag, a manual foot pump, and a spray nozzle. To make it hot, I have to heat water on the stove or hang the bag in the sun for several hours, yet it still costs over $150. For $310, the BougeRV heated shower seems like a bargain.The BougeRV system can produce a maximum heat output of 20,500 BTUs — about half of a typical residential gas water heater. It measures 15.75 x 6.7 x 14.57 inches (40 x 17 x 31cm) and weighs 13.2 pounds (6.21kg), making it compact and fairly lightweight with two big handles for easy carry. The hoses and cabling make it a little unwieldy — capable of chaos inside a small space unless handled with care.Assembly starts with screwing in an easy to find one pound (454g) propane canister that attaches at the rear of the unit. That’s the size BougeRV recommends, but you wouldn’t be the first to instead run a hose from your RV’s existing propane tank to the pressure regulator on the water heater. Two quick-connect water hoses — labeled blue and red for idiot-proof attachment — route the water from your chosen receptacle, through that gas furnace, and out through the showerhead. The long 2.5m (8.2 feet) shower hose allows for flexible placement of the heater.The small water pump measures just 2.24 inches (5.7cm) across, so it easily fits through the opening of standard jerry cans. The pump is electrically powered by the BougeRV unit, which is powered by its rechargeable battery, an AC wall jack, or 12V adapter that plugs into the cigarette jack of your vehicle or solar generator.My outdoor shower using a standard jerry can for water. Magnets hold the towel in place and I’d buy a magnetic shower head holder to complete the setup. Photo by Thomas Ricker / The VergeCan place the BougeRV system on my sliding tray for a gear cleaning station. A long press on the pump button bypasses the heater to save gas. Photo by Thomas Ricker / The VergeA makeshift outdoor sink. The included holder is too weak to hold the shower head in more extreme positions. Photo by Thomas Ricker / The VergeHank hates getting hosed off with cold water but enjoyed this lush heated rinse. (He rolled in dirt immediately after.) Photo by Thomas Ricker / The VergeThe 2500mAh / 12V (30Wh) integrated Lithium-ion battery takes about three hours to charge from the included charger. A full battery and one-pound (454g) canister of liquid propane gas can pump out about an hour’s worth of hot water before both run dry. The shower’s gas consumption rate is 20MJ/h. Alternatively, you can save gas with a long press on the pump button to put the shower into cold water mode — ideal for rinsing off your mountain bike, hiking shoes, or wet suit, for example.The dial on the front of the heater controls the size of the flame. I did a handful of tests, starting with water measuring between 13 and 16 degrees Celsius (55–61 degrees Fahrenheit) according to the display on the BougeRV water heater. With the dial turned all the way to the left, the water pouring from the shower head rose to 23–25C (73–77F) after just a few seconds. Turned all the way to the right, the temperature maxed out at a steamy 34–41C (93–105F) in about 30 seconds.Recycling the water can make it even hotter, if you dareRecycling the water can make it even hotter, if you dare. After two or three cycles on max, the heater boosted the temperature above 51C (124F) before the unit shut down with an error, by design. It’s not meant to exceed an average water temperature above 50C (122F). A simple on/off reset the E6 error.Water flow is between 2.2 and 3 liters per minute — well below what you can expect from a 9 to 12 L/min flow of a modern home shower. That’s still acceptable, in my opinion, and far superior to nothing, which is the typical alternative when camping away from home. The shower head has a rocker switch to toggle between hardish, mixed, and soft water flow rates as well as an on/off limiter button to help conserve water between lathers.It’s surprisingly quiet even with the pump turned on. There’s some rapid clicking to ignite the gas (followed by a whoosh of flame) whenever the flow of water returns, and the pump produces a low-level hum that’s quickly drowned out by the sound of spraying water.The water heater is also protected from tilts, bumps, and an empty water source. When I leaned my review unit over about 30 degrees, the unit shut off. It also shut off automatically after two minutes of trying to pump from an empty bucket. A master override on/off switch on the button prevents the unit from turning on accidentally if the on/off button on the front is bumped during transport or storage.I’m impressed by BougeRV’s water heater, but I’m a little concerned about its durability over time. After using it on the beach on a windy day, I ran into trouble once I returned inside: the heater didn’t heat and the water was reduced to a trickle out of the showerhead. It’s possible that some sediment trapped in the lines reduced the flow rate below the 1.2L/min required for ignition. Nevertheless, the issue was resolved after a few minutes of fiddling with the hoses and filters, and turning the unit on and off again. BougeRV offers a two-year warranty and says the water heater is rated at IPX4. So while it’s resistant to splashing water, there’s no assurance offered against dust and blowing sand. I do have a few other gripes. Those hoses can be a tripping and snagging hazard, and the plastic clip meant to hold the showerhead to one of the lifting handles is too weak to keep it from rotating and spraying your surroundings. I also wish BougeRV bundled the heater with an accessory bag to carry all the power adapters and hoses. And when putting the device away, you have to tip it forward to drain all the collected water from the inlet and outlet — there’s no automatic expulsion mechanism.But really, these are trivial issues for what the unit does at this price.1/8A cold water option is great for cleaning gear.Prior to this review, I had been in the late planning stages of having a shower cabin, water pump, gas heater, extra-large water tank, and all necessary plumbing installed in my Sprinter van. Total cost: about $4,000. I’m now convinced that a portable system like what BougeRV offers is a better option. Why pay so much for something so permanent that’s only used a few minutes each week, for maybe half the year?Instead, BougeRV’s $310 portable water heater can function as an outdoor shower during the summer months or be moved inside (with ventilation) when coupled with a portable shower curtain and basin, all for less than $600. That sounds like a better use of my money, and probably yours if you’re an aspiring vanlifer.And when the van is parked, I can bring those hot (or cold) jets of water anywhere my adventures might take me: to clean up after mountain biking in the muddy forest or kitesurfing in the salty sea, to wash the dog outside after rolling in shit again, or to take a refreshing shower during a sweaty four-day music festival.A near-identical water heater is sold under the Ranien and Camplux brands, but those have larger 4000mAh (48Wh) batteries and list for between $349 and $399. So it might pay to shop around.Photos by Thomas Ricker / The VergeSee More:

Associate Game Designer - Temp, HearthstoneBlizzard EntertainmentIrvine California 92618 United States of America46 minutes agoApplyTeam Name:HearthstoneJob Title:Associate Game Designer - Temp, HearthstoneRequisition ID:R025393Job Description:Pull up a chair and join us by the hearth! Blizzard is looking for an Associate Game Designer to join the Hearthstone card design team on a temporary 12-month contract. If you have a passion for the design and craft of card games and want to participate in the future of Hearthstone, we want to hear from you! Our team values creativity, collaboration and a commitment to quality and we are searching for talented developers to add to our team of passionate game makers.As an Associate Game Designer on the card design team, you will have the core responsibility and specialization in making fun-to-play, clear, and balanced cards for our upcoming expansions. Your player insight, analytical abilities, and creativity will help create player-focused designs that will surprise and delight millions of players all around the world. As with every design role on the Hearthstone team, you will be a champion of Blizzard's commitment to delivering world class quality.This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work required to be on-site and some work-from-home. The home studio for this role is Irvine, CA.ResponsibilitiesCreate engaging cards and mechanics for Hearthstone’s future expansionsUse your keen design and analytical sensibilities to help design and develop cards, concepts, and flavor that encapsulates the charm of HearthstoneScripting and implementing cards using internal toolsParticipating in playtests and giving feedback to other designers' cardsSet a good example for your team to collaborate, communicate, listen and be respectful. Inspire designers through your actions, so that others may observe and be motivated to join inAdvocate for and explain product vision and design decisions both inside and outside the initial design teamMinimum RequirementsKnowledge and SkillsA strong sense of what makes a gameplay experience compelling and fun, as well as the ability to articulate well why a game design decision is good or badA demonstrable understanding of the how the player experience in competitive card games evolves as a consequence of the introduction of new mechanics and synergiesKey AttributesOutstanding self-motivation and initiativeDemonstrated ability to work well within a highly collaborative environmentExcellent written and verbal communications skillsCommitment to creating a safe space for collaboration, communication, and creativity across all subject areas and departmentsExtra PointsExperiencePrevious professional game design experienceExperience working with data on a live product to inform design decisionsExperience implementing game content using a programming or scripting languageExpert/Tournament level CCG play experienceKnowledge and SkillsCreative writing skillsA familiarity with statistics or analyticsYour PlatformBest known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.Our WorldActivision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!Our ability to build immersive and innovative worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.RewardsWe provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/ .In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $24.04 - $44.47 Hourly. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable. Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings. Apply

Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and several foundational models, is officially regarded as one of France’s most promising tech startups and is arguably the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. But compared to its $6 billion valuation, its global market share is still relatively low.  However, the recent launch of its chat assistant on mobile app stores was met with some hype, particularly in its home country. “Go and download Le Chat, which is made by Mistral, rather than ChatGPT by OpenAI — or something else,” French president Emmanuel Macron said in a TV interview ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris. While this wave of attention may be encouraging, Mistral AI still faces challenges in competing with the likes of OpenAI — and in doing so while keeping up with its self-definition as “the world’s greenest and leading independent AI lab.” What is Mistral AI? Mistral AI has raised significant amounts of funding since its creation in 2023 with the ambition to “put frontier AI in the hands of everyone.” While this isn’t a direct jab at OpenAI, the slogan is meant to highlight the company’s advocacy for openness in AI. Its alternative to ChatGPT, chat assistant Le Chat, is now also available on iOS and Android. It reached 1 million downloads in the two weeks following its mobile release, even grabbing France’s top spot for free downloads on the iOS App Store. This comes in addition to Mistral AI’s suite of models, which includes:  Mistral Large 2, the primary large language model replacing Mistral Large. Pixtral Large, unveiled in 2024 as a new addition to the Pixtral family of multimodal models. Mistral Medium 3, released in May 2025 with the promise of providing efficiency without compromising performance, and best for coding and STEM tasks. Devstral, an AI model designed for coding and openly available under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially without restriction. Codestral, an earlier generative AI model for code, but whose license banned commercial applications. “Les Ministraux,” a family of models optimized for edge devices such as phones. Mistral Saba, focused on Arabic language. In March 2025, the company introduced Mistral OCR, an optical character recognition (OCR) API that can turn any PDF into a text file to make it easier for AI models to ingest. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Who are Mistral AI’s founders? Mistral AI’s three founders share a background in AI research at major U.S. tech companies with significant operations in Paris. CEO Arthur Mensch used to work at Google’s DeepMind, while CTO Timothée Lacroix and chief scientist officer Guillaume Lample are former Meta staffers. Co-founding advisers also include Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve (also a board member) and Charles Gorintin from health insurance startup Alan, as well as former digital minister Cédric O, which caused controversy due to his previous role. Are Mistral AI’s models open source? Not all of them. Mistral AI differentiates its premier models, whose weights are not available for commercial purposes, from its free models, for which it provides weight access under the Apache 2.0 license. Free models include research models such as Mistral NeMo, which was built in collaboration with Nvidia that the startup open sourced in July 2024. How does Mistral AI make money? While many of Mistral AI’s offerings are free or now have free tiers, Mistral AI plans to drive some revenue from Le Chat’s paid tiers. Introduced in February 2025, Le Chat’s Pro plan is priced at $14.99 a month. On the purely B2B side, Mistral AI monetizes its premier models through APIs with usage-based pricing. Enterprises can also license these models, and the company likely also generates a significant share of its revenue from its strategic partnerships, some of which it highlighted during the Paris AI Summit. Overall, however, Mistral AI’s revenue is reportedly still in the eight-digit range, according to multiple sources. What partnerships has Mistral AI closed? In 2024, Mistral AI entered a deal with Microsoft that included a strategic partnership for distributing its AI models through Microsoft’s Azure platform and a €15 million investment. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) swiftly concluded that the deal didn’t qualify for investigation due to its small size. However, it also sparked some criticism in the EU.  In January 2025, Mistral AI signed a deal with press agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) to let Chat query the AFP’s entire text archive dating back to 1983. Mistral AI also secured strategic partnerships with France’s army and job agency, shipping giant CMA, German defense tech startup Helsing, IBM, Orange, and Stellantis. In May 2025, Mistral AI announced it would participate in the creation of an AI Campus in the Paris region, as part of a joint venture with UAE-investment firm MGX, NVIDIA, and France’s state-owned investment bank Bpifrance. How much funding has Mistral AI raised to date? As of February 2025, Mistral AI raised around €1 billion in capital to date, approximately $1.04 billion at the current exchange rate. This includes some debt financing, as well as several equity financing rounds raised in close succession. In June 2023, and before it even released its first models, Mistral AI raised a record $112 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Sources at the time said the seed round — Europe’s largest ever — valued the then-one-month-old startup at $260 million.  Other investors in this seed round included Bpifrance, Eric Schmidt, Exor Ventures, First Minute Capital, Headline, JCDecaux Holding, La Famiglia, LocalGlobe, Motier Ventures, Rodolphe Saadé, Sofina, and Xavier Niel. Only six months later, it closed a Series A of €385 million ($415 million at the time), at a reported valuation of $2 billion. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from existing backer Lightspeed, as well as BNP Paribas, CMA-CGM, Conviction, Elad Gil, General Catalyst, and Salesforce. The $16.3 million convertible investment that Microsoft made in Mistral AI as part of their partnership announced in February 2024 was presented as a Series A extension, implying an unchanged valuation. In June 2024, Mistral AI then raised €600 million in a mix of equity and debt (around $640 million at the exchange rate at the time). The long-rumored round was led by General Catalyst at a $6 billion valuation, with notable investors, including Cisco, IBM, Nvidia, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and others. What could a Mistral AI exit look like? Mistral is “not for sale,” Mensch said in January 2025 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Of course, [an IPO is] the plan.”  This makes sense, given how much the startup has raised so far: Even a large sale may not provide high enough multiples for its investors, not to mention sovereignty concerns depending on the acquirer.  However, the only way to definitely squash persistent acquisition rumors is to scale its revenue to levels that could even remotely justify its nearly $6 billion valuation. Either way, stay tuned. This story was originally published on February 28, 2025 and will be regularly updated.

i ate a rock from the moon Have we finally solved mystery of magnetic moon rocks? Simulations show how effects of asteroid impact could amplify the early Moon's weak magnetic field. Jennifer Ouellette – May 23, 2025 2:36 pm | 5 NASA Lunar sample 60015 on display at Space Center Houston Lunar Samples Vault, at NASA's Johnson Space Center Credit: OptoMechEngineer/CC BY-SA 4.0 NASA Lunar sample 60015 on display at Space Center Houston Lunar Samples Vault, at NASA's Johnson Space Center Credit: OptoMechEngineer/CC BY-SA 4.0 Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more NASA's Apollo missions brought back moon rock samples for scientists to study. We've learned a great deal over the ensuing decades, but one enduring mystery remains. Many of those lunar samples show signs of exposure to strong magnetic fields comparable to Earth's, yet the Moon doesn't have such a field today. So, how did the moon rocks get their magnetism? There have been many attempts to explain this anomaly. The latest comes from MIT scientists, who argue in a new paper published in the journal Science Advances that a large asteroid impact briefly boosted the Moon's early weak magnetic field—and that this spike is what is recorded in some lunar samples. Evidence gleaned from orbiting spacecraft observations, as well as results announced earlier this year from China's Chang'e 5 and Chang'e 6 missions, is largely consistent with the existence of at least a weak magnetic field on the early Moon. But where did this field come from? These usually form in planetary bodies as a result of a dynamo, in which molten metals in the core start to convect thanks to slowly dissipating heat. The problem is that the early Moon's small core had a mantle that wasn't much cooler than its core, so there would not have been significant convection to produce a sufficiently strong dynamo. There have been proposed hypotheses as to how the Moon could have developed a core dynamo. For instance, a 2022 analysis suggested that in the first billion years, when the Moon was covered in molten rock, giant rocks formed as the magma cooled and solidified. Denser minerals sank to the core while lighter ones formed a crust. Over time, the authors argued, a titanium layer crystallized just beneath the surface, and because it was denser than lighter minerals just beneath, that layer eventually broke into small blobs and sank through the mantle (gravitational overturn). The temperature difference between the cooler sinking rocks and the hotter core generated convection, creating intermittently strong magnetic fields—thus explaining why some rocks have that magnetic signature and others don't. Or perhaps there is no need for the presence of a dynamo-driven magnetic field at all. For instance, the authors of a 2021 study thought earlier analyses of lunar samples may have been altered during the process. They re-examined samples from the 1972 Apollo 16 mission using CO2 lasers to heat them, thus avoiding any alteration of the magnetic carriers. They concluded that any magnetic signatures in those samples could be explained by the impact of meteorites or comets hitting the Moon. Bracing for impact In 2020, two of the current paper's authors, MIT's Benjamin Weiss and Rona Oran, ran simulations to test whether a giant impact could generate a plasma that, in turn, would amplify the Moon's existing weak solar-generated magnetic field sufficiently to account for the levels of magnetism measured in the moon rocks. Those results seemed to rule out the possibility. This time around, they have come up with a new hypothesis that essentially combines elements of the dynamo and the plasma-generating impact hypotheses—taking into account an impact's resulting shockwave for good measure. Amplification of the lunar dynamo field by an Imbrium-­sized impact at the magnetic equator. Credit: Isaac S. Narrett et al., 2025 They tested their hypothesis by running impact simulations, focusing on the level of impact that created the Moon's Imbrium basin, as well as plasma cloud simulations. Their starting assumption was that the early Moon had a dynamo that generated a weak magnetic field 50 times weaker than Earth's. The results confirmed that a large asteroid impact, for example, could have kicked up a plasma cloud, part of which spread outward into space. The remaining plasma streamed around to the other side of the Moon, amplifying the existing weak magnetic field for around 40 minutes. A key factor is the shock wave created by the initial impact, similar to seismic waves, which would have rattled surrounding rocks enough to reorient their subatomic spins in line with the newly amplified magnetic field. Weiss has likened the effect to tossing a deck of 52 playing cards into the air within a magnetic field. If each card had its own compass needle, its magnetism would be in a new orientation once each card hit the ground. It's a complicated scenario that admittedly calls for a degree of serendipity. But we might not have to wait too long for confirmation one way or the other. The answer could lie in analyzing fresh lunar samples and looking for telltale signatures not just of high magnetism but also shock. (Early lunar samples were often discarded if they showed signs of shock.) Scientists are looking to NASA's planned Artemis crewed missions for this, since sample returns are among the objectives. Much will depend on NASA's future funding, which is currently facing substantial cuts, although thus far, Artemis II and III remain on track. Science Advances, 2025. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adr7401  (About DOIs). Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 5 Comments