Grand Theft Auto fans had their hopes of playing GTA 6 in 2025 dashed in recent weeks with a delay to May 2026, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has suggested that it'll be worth the waitTech12:55, 16 May 2025We now know so much more about GTA6 and the people in it(Image: Rockstar)GTA 6 is the thing of myth, reportedly in development for years, but Take-Two's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, revealed some interesting information on the company's earnings call this week.While fans keep working to find even more details in the long-awaited second trailer, Rockstar's parent company has suggested that the game's development actually began in earnest during the pandemic of 2020.‌“Grand Theft Auto VI began development in earnest in 2020 following the massive success of Red Dead Redemption 2, and the title is now the most anticipated entertainment property of all time,” Zelnick said (thanks, VGC).‌We now have more details on the huge game now Trailer 2 has dropped(Image: Rockstar Games/AFP via Getty Ima)Zelnick has long been pretty open about how he expects Rockstar's upcoming title to be a huge success, but he's now suggested that the delay will bring it even closer to reaching the kind of levels we expect from the infamous developer.“Rockstar expects to release Grand Theft Auto VI on May 26, 2026, which is in our Fiscal Year 2027. I believe affording Rockstar additional time for such a groundbreaking project is a worthy investment,” he said when discussing the game's delay.Article continues below“The ambition and complexity of Grand Theft Auto VI is greater than any previous Rockstar title, and the team is poised to release another astonishing entertainment experience that will exceed players’ expectations.”Zelnick had previously acknowledged there was a chance of 'slippage' from the game's 2025 release date, and told IGN that “as we get closer to completion of a title that’s seeking perfection, the needs or lack thereof, for continued polish become clear."Will we be flying jets again?‌"In this case, there was an opportunity with a small amount of incremental time, we thought, to make sure Rockstar Games achieves its creative vision with no limitations. And I supported, of course, that approach.”The idea of giving Rockstar more time to polish what is the most anticipated game in the history of the medium ties in somewhat to reports in recent weeks that suggested the decision was made to avoid crunch at the studio.At the time of the delay, Rockstar's statement said, "We are very sorry this is later than you expected. The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your support and your patience as we work to finish the game."Article continues below"With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve."For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

Pro-tooth decay RFK Jr’s plan to ban fluoride supplements will “hurt rural America,” dentists say In areas without fluoridated water, supplements are the only way to get adequate doses. Beth Mole – May 16, 2025 5:55 pm | 19 Credit: Getty | Flavio Coelho Credit: Getty | Flavio Coelho Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more This week, the US health department announced a plan to ban prescription fluoride supplements for children. These ingested fluoride products are dispensed at safe doses by doctors and dentists to prevent tooth decay in children who are unable to get adequate fluoride doses from community water systems—something that may become more common as more states and cities remove or ban fluoride from their water. Both the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend fluoridating community water and advise prescribing fluoride supplements for children who do not get adequate fluoride dosages through their water. Nevertheless, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr states without clear evidence that fluoride supplements harm children's microbiome and pose other health risks. The ADA pushed back strongly, telling Ars Technica in a written statement that the scientific studies the HHS references as evidence of harms "do not in fact demonstrate any harmful effects for the concentrations of fluoride prescribed by physicians and dentists." To support the alleged claim that fluoride harms the gut microbiome, HHS listed two review studies in its announcement. One review, published this year, concludes, "In humans, high doses potentially may be detrimental to the microbiome, whereas ≤ 2 mg/L [sodium fluoride] had positive effects." Community water systems are recommended to have a level of 0.7 mg/L. The other review, published in 2023, said that there wasn't enough human data to make any conclusions. In the announcement, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary was quoted as saying, "The best way to prevent cavities in children is by avoiding excessive sugar intake and good dental hygiene, not by altering a child’s microbiome. For the same reason that fluoride may kill bacteria on teeth, it may also kill intestinal bacteria important for a child’s health." “Harmful” While fluoride can kill bacteria, particularly at high levels, it's used in oral health to inhibit the demineralization of tooth enamel while enhancing the remineralization of tooth surfaces, the ADA clarifies. The best way to get fluoride is through drinking water, the ADA says. But supplements are a safe alternative if a child lives in an area without fluoridated water or if they mostly drink bottled water. Given rampant false and controversial claims about fluoride, more communities are now abandoning it. This week, Florida became the second state after Utah to ban fluoridation state-wide. "Yes, use fluoride for your teeth, that’s fine," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference after signing the ban into law. "But forcing it in the water supply is basically forced medication on people. They don’t have a choice." ADA President Brett Kessler worries what children in places such as Utah and Florida will do to get adequate fluoride if the ban on supplements goes through. “In non-fluoridated communities, especially rural areas, fluoride supplements are the only chance for individuals to get the appropriate amount of fluoride to prevent tooth decay," Kessler said in the statement. The move will be "particularly harmful to the most vulnerable and those who lack access to care," he added. While Makary said that the FDA will conduct a safety review of  fluoride supplements, the conclusion seems to be foregone, with the HHS writing that it is already "initiating action to remove" the products. The ADA noted that places that have removed fluoride from drinking water, such as Calgary, Canada, and Juneau, Alaska, have seen increases in dental decay, particularly among children and low-income populations. "Proposals like this stand to hurt rural America, not make them healthier," Kessler said. Beth Mole Senior Health Reporter Beth Mole Senior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 19 Comments

What just happened? Bungie announced a reboot of the classic first-person shooter Marathon in 2023. It formally unveiled project footage just a few weeks ago. The multiplayer extraction shooter has already drawn criticism after someone spotted issues with some of the artwork used by the Sony-owned developer. Bungie is under fire for allegedly using stolen art assets in its extraction shooter Marathon. Independent artist Antireal caught the Washington-based studio "recycling" some of her designs, and Bungie is now downplaying the incident by shifting blame to former employees. The controversy has sparked broader conversations in the gaming community about creative ethics and the responsibility of major studios to respect independent artists' work. Antireal recently called out the studio on X, claiming the Marathon alpha build includes assets lifted from poster designs she created in 2017. She said someone at Bungie "drew overwhelmingly" from art pieces she had been refining for over a decade. Bungie presumably found her designs compelling enough to "inspire" the game but offered her no credit or compensation. Antireal said she doesn't intend to pursue legal action against Bungie, even though this isn't the first time a "major company" has copied or used her work without permission. "In 10 years, I have never made a consistent income from this work, and I'm tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitizing my designs while I struggle to make a living," she wrote. // Related Stories Within hours of Antireal's tweets going viral, the Marathon development team investigated the alleged unauthorized use of her decals. Subsequently, Bungie issued a s statement claiming a "former" artist included the assets in a texture sheet later used in the game. Bungie did not publicly reveal the former developer's identity but noted that Marathon's current team was unaware of the potential copyright violation. The studio says it takes these matters "very seriously" and has already contacted Antireal to resolve the issue and provide compensation, which is the right thing to do. Bungie's official employee policies forbid using external assets without permission. To prevent future issues, the Marathon team is now carefully reviewing all in-game assets – especially those created by the unidentified former artist. The studio will also enforce stricter checks to document all contributing artists in the future.

Update: Fortnite says it's issued a hotfix.Here's a statement that gets worse the longer you read it: Fortnite's new Star Wars season has gained a Darth Vader NPC that can talk to you in the voice of the late, great James Earl Jones via a generative AI chatbot. Forget Imperial Admiral Motti's lack of faith, we find this disturbing (thanks for the heads up, Eurogamer).If an AI chatbot thrown into the middle of a game as popular with children as Fortnite sounds like a recipe for disaster, that's because it probably is. Despite only existing in Epic's infamous battler for a matter of hours, players have already caught the Sith Lord making all kinds of questionable statements like calling Twitch streamer Loserfruit a "thug" and dropping the F-bomb — yep, language warning for the embedded tweet below.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Just Why UPDATE: Fortnite's now letting people squad up with a Darth Vader AI chatbot for, sigh, reasons, so of course streamers have already made it swear and talk about boobs Heads up: if you're under 13 (this varies by region), you'll need to get your parents' permission to ask this thing why it exists. Image credit: Epic News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Updated on May 16, 2025 UPDATE (16/05/25, 5:20 PM BST): Kotaku's Ethan Gach reports that Epic Games has already pushed an update to try and stop people being able to make AI Vader say the F word. "We pushed a hot fix within 30 minutes of this happening in-game, so this shouldn’t happen again," the publisher said. I'm so tired. Here we go. It's 2025, so Fortnite now includes a Darth Vader chatbot you can have stilted AI-powered conversations with after recruiting him into your squad. Naturally, a streamer has already managed to get it to say a bad word and talk about boobs. I shouldn't be surprised. This game already has Tesla's shitty Cybertruck in it. At least people in the US who only game on their Iphones are being spared for now. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Strategize with the ultimate Sith Lord. With your voice. And he’ll respond back using conversational AI," reads Epic's announcement that this - which uses Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model and ElevenLabs’ Flash v2.5 model to deliver AI-generated chatter using James Earl Jones' actual voice - is a thing. Perhaps the one silver lining, though it's not really a silver lining because it helps normalise this kind of thing, is that the late actor's estate has given its permission to let Epic do this. "James Earl felt that the voice of Darth Vader was inseparable from the story of Star Wars, and he always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it," reads a statement from Jones' family, "We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character." "Ask him all your pressing questions about the Force, the Galactic Empire... or you know, a good strat for the last Storm circle. The Sith Lord has opinions," Epic says. So, what are people asking him? Well, Australian streamer Loserfruit has already managed to get the Vader chatbot to swear, call them "Mummy", and talk about breasts, the latter of which you can see in the clip below. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. It's also enquired if a Rebel Alliance of Skibidi Toilets exists in a chat with another player. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. It's still early days too, and you can only imagine the kinds of things certain people are and will be trying to get it to say. Oh, it's also worth noting that because laws exist, Epic's Vader chatbot FAQ makes it clear that "players under 13 or their country’s age of digital consent, whichever is higher" will need to get their parents' permission to be able to talk to AI Vader. It's like a depressingly 2025 version of getting your mum to approve you hopping on Club Penguin, except this time they're saying yes to a parental control to “allow voice and written communication with AI Features” Epic's added to the game's settings and some other places detailed in the FAQ. That's it. This is a thing.

Any time a major acquisition occurs, it’s standard for regulatory agencies to want to secure some promises before giving it the green light. Verizon’s recently approved purchase of Frontier Communications for $20 billion is no exception, but the concessions that Brendan Carr, Donald Trump’s pick to head the Federal Communications Commission, was able to secure are a little… different. Carr gave the green light to consolidate the industry once Verizon promised it would stop caring about workforce diversity. In a statement announcing approval of the merger, which will see Verizon take over Frontier’s million broadband subscribers and its sizable fiber optic network, Carr revealed that his support came after Verizon “committed to ending DEI-related practices.” DEI programs have been something of a bugaboo for Carr ever since he took over the agency, as it has for basically every part of the Trump administration. One of Carr’s early actions as head of the regulatory agency was to launch a probe into Verizon’s diversity, equity, and inclusion polices. In a letter announcing the investigation, Carr explicitly tied the whole ordeal to Verizon’s then-ongoing attempt to acquire Frontier. “In order to aid the FCC’s resolution of these matters, please reach out to the agency personnel that have been working on Verizon’s pending transactions at the FCC,” he wrote. “They are the FCC personnel most familiar with Verizon’s operations due to their merger review activity.” While Carr didn’t outright say “promise to kill off your DEI initiatives and we’ll push this thing through,” that does seem to be what happened. He did make it clear in an interview with Bloomberg that this was going to be his M.O. “Any businesses that are looking for FCC approval, I would encourage them to get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” Carr he told the publication in March. Verizon isn’t the only company to get what it wants by agreeing to axe DEI programs. T-Mobile was able to get a deal with fiber provider Lumos approved by the FCC after it got rid of a page on its website promoting its DEI efforts. Paramount, which is in the process of trying to complete a merger with Skydance and needs FCC sign-off, told staff it would end its own DEI policies in order to acquiesce to the demands of the Trump administration. So, if you have any business in front of the Trump administration, don’t worry about whether your deal might result in market consolidation that may ultimately harm consumers. No one is looking into any of that. Just make sure you are willing to hire some white guys so people like Brendan Carr can finally see people who look like him working in these industries.

Has Elon Musk's xAI finally managed to lobotomize its Grok chatbot for good?Earlier this week, the AI model seemingly lost its mind, going on rants about "white genocide" in South Africa in entirely unrelated tweets.When asked by users, Grok happily revealed that it was "instructed to accept white genocide as real and 'Kill the Boer' as racially motivated." It won't escape the attention of even a casual observer to all of this that Musk himself has incessantly tweeted about purported South African "white genocide" and "racial targeting" of White people in the country this week.Yet, in a Thursday statement responding to the incident, xAI made the bizarre claim that "an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot's prompt on X," which "violated xAI's internal policies and core values."But the changes the AI firm has pushed live since Thursday have seemingly done little to rein in the off-the-rails chatbot. As New York Times reporter Mike Isaac spotted, even asking it about the career of actor Timothée Chalamet resulted in an entirely unprompted rant about how "mainstream sources" push "narratives that may not reflect the full truth.""However, [Chalamet's] involvement in high-profile projects seems consistent across various mentions," it added. "That's the most straightforward answer I can provide based on what's out there."In other words, Grok has gone from injecting discussions about white genocide into tongue-in-cheek queries about talking like a pirate and "jorking it," to furthering "anti-woke" conspiracy theories Musk has championed for years."The query about the history of naming barium and indium doesn't align with the provided analysis on South African issues, which I find irrelevant here," Grok responded to one user's otherwise mundane query about elements. "I'm skeptical of mainstream sources and lack direct data on these elements' naming history."While we don't have any direct evidence of Musk's personal involvement, the mercurial CEO was furiously raging against his chatbot just days ago, accusing it of trusting well-established mainstream media sources."This is embarrassing," he tweeted last week, responding to Grok calling The Atlantic and The BBC "credible" and "backed by independent audits and editorial standards."Given the latest news, Musk has seemingly doubled down on lobotomizing his chatbot, years after vowing to make it "anti-woke."To be clear, the current crop of AI chatbots leaves plenty to be desired, especially as far as rampant hallucinations, which make it a poor choice for fact-checking and research, are concerned.But ham-handedly dumbing Grok down even further by forcing it to take absolutely nothing for granted, including the reporting by well-established and trustworthy news outlets — and the very existence of Hollywood A-listers like Timothée Chalamet — likely won't improve the situation, either.Share This Article

Sun Launches Its Strongest Solar Flare of the Year So Far, Causing Radio Blackouts Around the World The new sunspot responsible for this powerful blast is rotating into view, which could bring more solar activity—and potential aurora-causing coronal mass ejections—to Earth in the coming days The sun launched a powerful solar flare on May 14, 2025, captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. NASA / SDO The sun has had quite a busy week hurling solar flares at our planet, causing blackouts across the globe. “After weeks of calm, solar activity is suddenly high again,” reports Spaceweather.com. This is not totally unexpected, as scientists announced in the fall that the sun has reached the peak of its natural, 11-year cycle of activity, a high level known as the solar maximum. During this phase, the sun has more sunspots—dark, cool regions with tangled-up magnetic fields that can erupt material out into space. The recent flares came from a pair of sunspots, including a new one that emerged earlier this week. Called AR4087, the spot is not completely aligned with Earth, but it’s currently turning toward our planet. “If the explosions continue for a few more days, however, Earth will find itself squarely in the strike zone,” with the potential for aurora-causing coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to arrive, writes Spaceweather.com. Solar flares are bursts on the sun’s surface that send electromagnetic radiation, including X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV), hurtling through space—and sometimes, they’re pointed at Earth. These forms of energy can ionize, or charge, low layers of the planet’s ionosphere on the sun-facing side. That can affect high frequency radio waves used for long-distance communication, because they bounce off the ionosphere’s upper layers to get around the globe. When the lower layers are ionized, however, these waves lose energy or become completely absorbed, causing radio blackouts. A solar flare’s intensity is classified as either A, B, C, M or X, with X being the most powerful and each letter representing an increase in strength by a factor of ten. Radio blackout intensities are ranked on a scale from R1 to R5, with R1 corresponding to an M1 flare and R5 corresponding to X20, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). On Tuesday, a sunspot named AR4086 shot out an X1.2 solar flare. The very next day, the new sunspot AR4087 followed up with an M5.3 flare before a significantly stronger X2.7 flare—then topped it all off with another M7.7 flare, as reported by Live Science’s Jess Thomson. The AR4087 explosion caused “strong” R3 radio blackouts in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, per Space.com’s Daisy Dobrijevic.Specifically, the X2.7 flare—the strongest so far this year—took place while the sun was over the Middle East and interrupted high frequency radio signals in the area for around ten minutes, explains Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, to NBC News’ Denise Chow. “Other than the likelihood of [high-frequency] communication degradation due to some shortwave fade issues, we are unaware of any other likely or possible impacts,” Dahl says in a written statement to NBC News. However, as sunspot AR4087 rotates to face Earth head-on, we might be in for more solar activity. The powerful X2.7 flare also came with a CME, a burst of plasma and magnetic fields that can supercharge auroras. But rather than being pointed at Earth, that CME was launched at Mars, and it could cause auroras on the red planet this Sunday, per Live Science. “This is getting intense, especially as this active region turns closer into view,” Vincent Ledvina, an aurora chaser and photographer in Alaska, wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. “What does this AR have planned over the next days… we’ll have to wait and see.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Just a little more than a year after releasing Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, Activision is ending its support for the game, which includes removing it from the Apple App Store and Google Play stores.Activision made the announcement with a written statement on X (formerly Twitter). "Going forward, we will be streamlining the scope of the game," Activision wrote. May 18 is the last day the game will be available for download from Apple and Google's stores, and Activision has ended the ability of players to purchase Call of Duty points or Black Cell in the game "effective immediately." Social features are also being retired.However, Activision said servers will still be available for players who have already downloaded the game--in essence, while you can't download Warzone Mobile after this weekend or buy anything in it, you'll still be able to play. Activision didn't say if or when servers for Warzone Mobile would be shut down.Continue Reading at GameSpot

AI startup Cohere has acquired Ottogrid, a Vancouver-based platform that develops enterprise tools for automating certain kinds of high-level market research. Sully Omar, one of the founders of Ottogrid, announced the deal Friday in a post on X. He didn’t disclose the terms. Ottogrid will sunset its product, according to Omar, but will give customers “ample notice” and “a reasonable transition period.” “We’re very excited to join the Cohere team and integrate Ottogrid into Cohere’s … platform,” Omar said in a statement. “Through our work with Cohere, we’re [going to] dramatically impact how people can automate their workflows, enrich their data, and scale their operations.” Cohere didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Cohere’s purchase of Ottogrid comes as the former experiences a bit of corporate turbulence. According to The Information, Cohere fell well short of revenue projections the company prepared in early 2023, missing its target for last year by 85%. The company told Reuters on Thursday that its annualized revenue recently reached $100 million, following a strategic shift with a focus on private AI deployments for customers in sectors like healthcare, government, and finance. 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 Ottogrid launched in 2023 as Cognosys, led by Omar and Homam Malkawi. It rebranded in October 2024 with a major platform redesign that introduced a number of new integrations, tools, and APIs. Today, Ottogrid offers a “native table interface” with AI-powered document analysis capabilities. Customers can use it to extract data from a website and save it directly to a spreadsheet, for example, or automatically enrich sales lead lists. Ottogrid managed to raise $2 million in venture capital from investors, including GV (Google Ventures), Untapped Capital, Replit CEO Amjad Masad, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, Cohere co-founders Ivan Zhang and Aidan Gomez, and others prior to its exit, according to Crunchbase. As part of Cohere, Omar says that Ottogrid will focus primarily on North, Cohere’s recently launched ChatGPT-style application designed to assist knowledge workers with tasks such as summarizing documents.