From the opening AI-influenced intro video set to "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals to CEO Sundar Pichai's sign-off, Google I/O 2025 was packed with news and updates for the tech giant and its products. And when we say packed, we mean it, as this year's Google I/O clocked in at nearly two hours long. During that time, Google shared some big wins for its AI products, such as Gemini topping various categories on the LMArena leaderboard. Another example that Google seemed really proud of was the fact that Gemini completed Pokémon Blue a few weeks ago.But, we know what you're really here for: Product updates and new product announcements. You May Also Like Aside from a few braggadocious moments, Google spent most of those 117 minutes talking about what's coming out next. Google I/O mixes consumer-facing product announcements with more developer-oriented ones, from the latest Gmail updates to Google's powerful new chip, Ironwood, coming to Google Cloud customers later this year. We're going to break down what product updates and announcements you need to know from the full two-hour event, so you can walk away with all the takeaways without spending the same time it takes to watch a major motion picture to learn about them.Before we dive in though, here's the most shocking news out of Google I/O: The subscription pricing that Google has for its Google AI Ultra plan. While Google provides a base subscription at $19.99 per month, the Ultra plan comes in at a whopping $249.99 per month for its entire suite of products with the highest rate limits available.Google Search AI ModeGoogle tucked away what will easily be its most visible feature way too far back into the event, but we'll surface it to the top.At Google I/O, Google announced that the new AI Mode feature for Google Search is launching today to everyone in the United States. Basically, it will allow users to use Google's search feature but with longer, more complex queries. Using a "query fan-out technique," AI Mode will be able to break a search into multiple parts in order to process each part of the query, then pull all the information together to present to the user. Google says AI Mode "checks its work" too, but its unclear at this time exactly what that means. Google announces AI Mode in Google Search Credit: Google AI Mode is available now. Later in the summer, Google will launch Personal Context in AI Mode, which will make suggestions based on a user's past searches and other contextual information about the user from other Google products like Gmail. In addition, other new features will soon come to AI Mode, such as Deep Search, which can dive deeper into queries by searching through multiple websites, and data visualization features, which can take the search results and present them in a visual graph when applicable.According to Google, its AI overviews in search are viewed by 1.5 billion users every month, so AI Mode clearly has the largest potential user base out of all of Google's announcements today.AI ShoppingOut of all the announcements at the event, these AI shopping features seemed to spark the biggest reaction from Google I/O live attendees.Connected to AI Mode, Google showed off its Shopping Graph, which includes more than 50 billion products globally. Users can just describe the type of product they are looking for – say a specific type of couch, and Google will present options that match that description. Google AI Shopping Credit: Google Google also had a significant presentation that showed its presenter upload a photo of themselves so that AI could create a visual of what she'd look like in a dress. This virtual try-on feature will be available in Google Labs, and it's the IRL version of Cher's Clueless closet.The presenter was then able to use an AI shopping agent to keep tabs on the item's availability and track its price. When the price dropped, the user received a notification of the pricing change.Google said users will be able to try on different looks via AI in Google Labs starting today.Android XRGoogle's long-awaited post-Google Glass AR/VR plans were finally presented at Google I/O. The company also unveiled a number of wearable products utilizing its AR/VR operating system, Android XR.One important part of the Android XR announcement is that Google seems to understand the different use cases for an immersive headset and an on-the-go pair of smartglasses and have built Android XR to accommodate that.While Samsung has previously teased its Project Moohan XR headset, Google I/O marked the first time that Google revealed the product, which is being built in partnership with the mobile giant and chipmaker Qualcomm. Google shared that the Project Moohan headset should be available later this year. Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Project Moohan Credit: Google In addition to the XR headset, Google announced Glasses with Android XR, smartglasses that incorporate a camera, speakers, and in-lens display that connect with a user's smartphone. Unlike Google Glass, these smart glasses will incorporate more fashionable looks thanks to partnerships with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.Google shared that developers will be able to start developing for Glasses starting next year, so it's likely that a release date for the smartglasses will follow after that.GeminiEasily the star of Google I/O 2025 was the company's AI model, Gemini. Google announced a new updated Gemini 2.5 Pro, which it says is its most powerful model yet. The company showed Gemini 2.5 Pro being used to turn sketches into full applications in a demo. Along with that, Google introduced Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is a more affordable version of the powerful Pro model. The latter will be released in early June with the former coming out soon after. Google also revealed Gemini 2.5 Pro Deep Think for complex math and coding, which will only be available to "trusted testers" at first.Speaking of coding, Google shared its asynchronous coding agent Jules, which is currently in public beta. Developers will be able to utilize Jules in order to tackle codebase tasks and modify files. Jules coding agent Credit: Google Developers will also have access to a new Native Audio Output text-to-speech model which can replicate the same voice in different languages.The Gemini app will soon see a new Agent Mode, bringing users an AI agent who can research and complete tasks based on a user's prompts.Gemini will also be deeply integrated into Google products like Workspace with Personalized Smart Replies. Gemini will use personal context via documents, emails, and more from across a user's Google apps in order to match their tone, voice, and style in order to generate automatic replies. Workspace users will find the feature available in Gmail this summer.Other features announced for Gemini include Deep Research, which lets users upload their own files to guide the AI agent when asking questions, and Gemini in Chrome, an AI Assistant that answers queries using the context on the web page that a user is on. The latter feature is rolling out this week for Gemini subscribers in the U.S.Google intends to bring Gemini to all of its devices, including smartwatches, smart cars, and smart TVs.Generative AI updatesGemini's AI assistant capabilities and language model updates were only a small piece of Google's broader AI puzzle. The company had a slew of generative AI announcements to make too.Google announced Imagen 4, its latest image generation model. According to Google, Imagen 4 provides richer details and better visuals. In addition, Imagen 4 is apparently much better at generating text and typography in its graphics. This is an area which AI models are notoriously bad at, so Imagen 4 appears to be a big step forward. Flow AI video tool Credit: Google A new video generation model, Veo 3, was also unveiled with a video generation tool called Flow. Google claims Veo 3 has a stronger understanding of physics when generating scenes and can also create accompanying sound effects, background noise, and dialogue.  Related Stories Both Veo 3 and Flow are available today alongside a new generative music model called Lyria 2.Google I/O also saw the debut of Gemini Canvas, which Google describes as a co-creation platform.Project Starline aka Google BeamAnother big announcement out of Google I/O: Project Starline is no more.Google's immersive communication project will now be known as Google Beam, an AI-first communication platform.As part of Google Beam, Google announced Google Meet translations, which basically provides real-time speech translation during meetings on the platform. AI will be able to match a speaker's voice and tone, so it sounds like the translation is coming directly from them. Google Meet translations are available in English and Spanish starting today with more language on the way in the coming weeks. Google Meet translations Credit: Google Google also had another work-in-progress project to tease under Google Beam: A 3-D conferencing platform that uses multiple cameras to capture a user from different angles in order to render the individual on a 3-D light-field display.Project AstraWhile Project Starline may have undergone a name change, it appears Project Astra is still kicking it at Google, at least for now.Project Astra is Google's real-world universal AI assistant and Google had plenty to announce as part of it.Gemini Live is a new AI assistant feature that can interact with a user's surroundings via their mobile device's camera and audio input. Users can ask Gemini Live questions about what they're capturing on camera and the AI assistant will be able to answer queries based on those visuals. According to Google, Gemini Live is rolling out today to Gemini users. Gemini Live Credit: Google It appears Google has plans to implement Project Astra's live AI capabilities into Google Search's AI mode as a Google Lens visual search enhancement.Google also highlighted some of its hopes for Gemini Live, such as being able to help as an accessibility tool for those with disabilities.Project MarinerAnother one of Google's AI projects is an AI agent that can interact with the web in order to complete tasks for the user known as Project Mariner. While Project Mariner was previously announced late last year, Google had some updates such as a multi-tasking feature which would allow an AI agent to work on up to 10 different tasks simultaneously. Another new feature is Teach and Repeat, which would provide the AI agent with the ability to learn from previously completed tasks in order to complete similar ones without the need for the same detailed direction in the future.Google announced plans to bring these agentic AI capabilities to Chrome, Google Search via AI Mode, and the Gemini app.

Google's latest artificial intelligence (AI) feature in Search, AI Mode, is now getting multiple new capabilities. Announced at Google I/O 2025 on Tuesday, the Mountain View-based tech giant is now making the AI-powered end-to-end search experience more capable and useful. The mode is getting new features such as a reasoning mode, Live Search, agentic capabilities to reserve a table at a restaurant, and new shopping tools. The AI Mode in Search and the new features will currently only be available in the US.AI Mode in Search Gets SmarterIn a blog post, the tech giant detailed the new features coming to AI Mode. It is a comprehensive version of AI Overviews, where users can ask complex queries which would otherwise require running multiple searches. AI Mode uses a query fan-out technique, where it breaks down user queries into subtopics and runs multiple search queries simultaneously to find and show the relevant information.Google said that starting this week, AI Mode and AI Overviews in the US will be powered by a custom version of Gemini 2.5. While AI Mode does not require a sign-up process in the US, these new capabilities will only be available to select users via Search Labs. Notably, the company plans to add features and capabilities from AI Mode into the core Search experience.A new Deep Search feature is being added to AI Mode, which will allow users to receive “even more thorough responses.” Using deep research capabilities, it can run hundreds of search queries, collate the information, and create “an expert-level fully-cited report in just minutes.”Another interesting new feature is Search Live. This version of Search lets AI Mode access the camera of a device, and based on what it sees, it can answer queries verbally in real-time. Users can conversationally ask for information about objects, landmarks, and places as long as they appear in the camera feed.Google is also bringing Project Mariner's agentic function to AI Mode. With this, the AI-powered search experience can assist users with purchasing event tickets, making restaurant reservations and booking appointments. For instance, if a user wants to book tickets for a sporting event, the tool will analyse ticket options, look at real-time pricing, fill out forms, and show users relevant ticket options. Users can then confirm the details and manually make the purchase. Google is working with Ticketmaster, StubHub, Resy and Vagaro for this feature.AI Mode in Search is also becoming more personalised. Google said the Gemini-powered tool will soon offer suggestions based on the user's past searches. Users can also connect AI mode with other Google apps to help it gain more context about their preferences. This capability can be turned off at any time.Shopping Features in AI ModeApart from the abovementioned capabilities, AI Mode in Search is also introducing multiple new features to improve the shopping experience of users. It now shows visual search results, helps users virtually try on new clothes, and uses AI agents to help users buy a product when it is retailing at their preferred price.By combining Gemini with Google's Shopping Graph, the new AI mode can sort through 50 billion product listings to find relevant options for users. Whenever users make a product query, it will show a browsable panel of images and product listing, which is personalised to their preferences.The tech giant says that users can make highly specific and complex requests, and the AI Mode will still be able to narrow down the options to find products that fit the description. This means even if users do not know the technical term for the product they're looking for, the AI tool can still pinpoint it using its visual description.Just by uploading a full-length photo of themselves, users can now virtually try on billions of apparel listings. Google says the feature is powered by a custom fashion-based image generation model that understands the human body and how clothes fold, stretch, and drape on different bodies.Finally, AI Mode is also getting a new agentic checkout system that helps users in purchasing products. Whenever a user is on the checkout page of a product (within the AI Mode interface), they will see a “track price” option. Tapping it will allow them to see a slider with the minimum and maximum price of the product and a recommendation for the ideal price. Users can set the slider as per their preference, and the AI will notify them whenever the product is retailing for said price.Then, users can just tap the “buy for me” button in the notification, and AI Mode will automatically add the item to their cart on the merchant's website and complete the checkout process by paying via Google Pay. This agentic checkout feature will be rolling out in the coming months in the US. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: Google IO 2025, AI Mode, Google Search, Google, AI, Artificial intelligence, AI Agent Akash Dutta Akash Dutta is a Senior Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He is particularly interested in the social impact of technological developments and loves reading about emerging fields such as AI, metaverse, and fediverse. In his free time, he can be seen supporting his favourite football club - Chelsea, watching movies and anime, and sharing passionate opinions on food. More Related Stories

Mechanochemistry involves smashing and grinding powders togetherPexels Imagine yourself in a chemistry lab. You are probably picturing a scene featuring a whole load of liquids – fluids bubbling in round-bottomed flasks, solutions swirling in test tubes, droplets running down condensers. It is a cliché, but one that accurately describes what these spaces have looked like for centuries the world over. There isn’t much frothing or bubbling going on in Tomislav Friščić’s lab, though. That’s because he and his team at the University of Birmingham, UK, are trying to do away with liquid chemistry. The tools of their trade are powerful machines like the ball mill, a grinder full of metal spheres that resembles a mini cement mixer. It may seem brutal, but this hardball approach could shake up the way chemists work, freeing them from the “mental prison”, as Friščić puts it, of having to dissolve everything. Chemistry creates many of the wonders of modern life, from the medicines that heal us to the screens with which we communicate. When researchers want to make these things from scratch, they often start by assuming they must dissolve their materials. But mechanochemistry, the burgeoning field Friščić is fascinated by, shows this isn’t always necessary. “Mechanochemistry gives you the intellectual freedom to think: ‘Let me just try this reaction by grinding it’,” says Friščić. “And, in many cases, it works.”

Is chronic complaining your brain’s default setting? It might be time to hit pause and reset. Here ... More are three ways to help you make the shift.getty We all need to let things out sometimes. Sharing what’s bothering you, whether it’s a stressful day, a frustrating interaction or just feeling off, is a healthy way to process emotions. Venting is a helpful way to release what’s bothering you and feel heard. However, sometimes, without realizing it, venting can cross the line into something more persistent: chronic complaining. This happens when expressing frustration becomes less about finding relief and more of a default response to life’s challenges. If you find yourself running through an endless list of grievances or turning most conversations into a space to air what’s wrong, it might be time to pause and reflect. The difference between venting and chronic complaining lies in the intention and impact. Venting is temporary and it helps you feel lighter, gain perspective and eventually move forward. Chronic complaining, on the other hand, tends to be repetitive and draining. It focuses on problems without seeking solutions, often leaving you (and others) feeling stuck or emotionally worn out. Over time, this constant focus on the negative can start to rewire your brain, making it harder to access more balanced or hopeful thoughts. If you notice this pattern in yourself, the good news is that it can be changed. Here are three ways to begin breaking the cycle. 1. Notice What You’re Feeling Chronic complaining can often mask deeper emotions like frustration, fear or loneliness. You might say things like “Nothing ever works out for me” or “People just don’t get it,” but underneath those words could be a sense of sadness, anxiety or even feeling unseen. Over time, it can turn into a habit that your brain keeps revisiting because it feels familiar or temporarily relieving. The more you do it, the more automatic it becomes. A 2016 study on adolescents with depression and social anxiety found that those who struggled to identify and manage their emotions also engaged more in “repetitive negative thinking,” such as constant worry or rumination. These mental loops often stem from emotional confusion or suppression. This pattern can keep you stuck in a cycle of negativity, especially when emotions go unrecognized or unprocessed. The same can happen with complaining, wherein the short-term relief of complaining only ends up reinforcing a sense of powerlessness in the long run. Breaking this kind of habit may not always seem straightforward and that’s okay. You will not go from reactive to reflective overnight. However, you can be more mindful of when it happens next and when you feel the urge to complain, try and throw in a “pattern interrupt.” A pattern interrupt is a simple technique used to break an automatic or habitual behavior or thought pattern. When you’re stuck in a certain routine, like complaining without really thinking about it, it can act as a mental “pause button” that stops the loop and gives you a chance to respond differently. For instance, if you notice you’re about to complain rather than vent, you could take a deep breath and ask yourself “What am I really feeling?” or physically change your environment (stand up, stretch or walk away). This brief interruption disrupts your usual automatic reaction and helps you create a new, healthier habit instead. In essence, you consciously catch yourself in the moment 2. Turn Complaints Into Curiosity Once you’ve paused and noticed what’s happening internally, the next step is to reframe the situation you’ve been thinking about. Instead of slipping into “Why is this happening to me?” ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?” or “Is there another way to look at this?” This shift is known as cognitive reappraisal, a well-researched emotion regulation strategy that involves changing the way you interpret a situation to alter its emotional impact. Research comparing reappraisal and acceptance found that reappraisal led to a greater reduction in negative emotions as well as a significant increase in positive emotions during and after emotional challenges (e.g., watching sad films). It was especially effective in helping people recover emotionally. In contrast, acceptance was found to be less cognitively demanding but slower in emotional impact. So, the next time you’re about to complain, pause and ask what story you are repeating to yourself and how you can change the way you view it. Complaining often reinforces negative thinking patterns, making it harder to move forward. In contrast, approaching challenges with curiosity encourages openness and learning, which helps you break free from those cycles. Reframing the way you view a situation helps build resilience and empowers you to respond to difficulties in a more constructive way. 3. Focus On What You Can Control When life feels overwhelming or unfair, it’s natural to focus on everything that’s going wrong. However, chronic complaining trains your brain to exaggerate the negative. Over time, it becomes a mental habit, so much so that your brain stops looking for solutions altogether. Instead of helping you process or problem-solve, complaining keeps you stuck in a loop where change feels out of reach. The truth is that not everything may be under your control. But what matters is recognizing what is. Research shows that people under stress are more likely to give up, but only when the situation feels uncontrollable. When participants believed they could take meaningful action, they kept going, even under pressure. This highlights how it’s not the stress itself that breaks you, but the sense of helplessness that there’s nothing you can do about it. This is why reclaiming even a small sense of control can improve your emotional state and restore your motivation. People who focus on the controllable aspects of a situation tend to experience less anxiety and greater drive because their energy is directed toward solutions instead of spiraling into helplessness. The next time you catch yourself complaining, try asking, “What part of this can I influence?” Maybe you can’t change someone else’s behavior or fix an entire system overnight, but you can change how you respond, how you communicate or how much time and energy you invest in the situation. For example, instead of saying, “My boss never listens,” try shifting to, “I can prepare my points clearly and ask for a specific time to talk.” This not only shifts your mindset but also helps you feel more capable and in charge. Focusing on what’s in your control means choosing where to place your power. Over time, this shift reduces frustration and builds confidence, helping you break the cycle of habitual complaining. Choosing Mindful Emotional Expression It’s important to remember that breaking the habit of chronic complaining doesn’t mean you should suppress your need to vent or stop expressing emotions when they arise. Sharing your feelings is a vital part of processing experiences, finding support and relieving stress. At the same time, it helps to be mindful of when venting shifts into a repetitive pattern that traps your brain in negativity. Chronic complaining can exaggerate problems to the point where it clouds your ability to see solutions or maintain perspective. When this happens, it can drain your energy and leave you feeling stuck, even when change is possible. By learning to notice these patterns and gently interrupting them, you create room for healthier habits that help you respond in more empowering ways and ultimately make you more resilient. This mindful awareness can help you regain emotional freedom so you can face life’s challenges with greater clarity and hope. Do you feel in control of your life, or do external forces rule you? Take this science-backed test to find out: Locus Of Control Scale

Language models (LMs) have great capabilities as in-context learners when pretrained on vast internet text corpora, allowing them to generalize effectively from just a few task examples. However, fine-tuning these models for downstream tasks presents significant challenges. While fine-tuning requires hundreds to thousands of examples, the resulting generalization patterns show limitations. For example, models fine-tuned on statements like “B’s mother is A” struggle to answer related questions like “Who is A’s son?” However, the LMs can handle such reverse relations in context. This raises questions about the differences between in-context learning and fine-tuning generalization patterns, and how these differences should inform adaptation strategies for downstream tasks. Research into improving LMs’ adaptability has followed several key approaches. In-context learning studies have examined learning and generalization patterns through empirical, mechanistic, and theoretical analyses. Out-of-context learning research explores how models utilize information not explicitly included in prompts. Data augmentation techniques use LLMs to enhance performance from limited datasets, with specific solutions targeting issues like the reversal curse through hardcoded augmentations, deductive closure training, and generating reasoning pathways. Moreover, synthetic data approaches have evolved from early hand-designed data to improve generalization in domains like linguistics or mathematics to more recent methods that generate data directly from language models. Researchers from Google DeepMind and Stanford University have constructed several datasets that isolate knowledge from pretraining data to create clean generalization tests. Performance is evaluated across various generalization types by exposing pretrained models to controlled information subsets, both in-context and through fine-tuning. Their findings reveal that in-context learning shows more flexible generalization than fine-tuning in data-matched settings, though there are some exceptions where fine-tuning can generalize to reversals within larger knowledge structures. Building on these insights, researchers have developed a method that enhances fine-tuning generalization by including in-context inferences into the fine-tuning data. Researchers employ multiple datasets carefully designed to isolate specific generalization challenges or insert them within broader learning contexts. Evaluation relies on multiple-choice likelihood scoring without providing answer choices in context. The experiments involve fine-tuning Gemini 1.5 Flash using batch sizes of 8 or 16. For in-context evaluation, the researchers combine training documents as context for the instruction-tuned model, randomly subsampling by 8x for larger datasets to minimize interference issues. The key innovation is a dataset augmentation approach using in-context generalization to enhance fine-tuning dataset coverage. This includes local and global strategies, each employing distinct contexts and prompts. On the Reversal Curse dataset, in-context learning achieves near-ceiling performance on reversals, while conventional fine-tuning shows near-zero accuracy as models favor incorrect celebrity names seen during training. Fine-tuning with data augmented by in-context inferences matches the high performance of pure in-context learning. Testing on simple nonsense reversals reveals similar patterns, though with less pronounced benefits. For simple syllogisms, while the pretrained model performs at chance level (indicating no data contamination), fine-tuning does produce above-chance generalization for certain syllogism types where logical inferences align with simple linguistic patterns. However, in-context learning outperforms fine-tuning, with augmented fine-tuning showing the best overall results. In conclusion, this paper explores generalization differences between in-context learning and fine-tuning when LMs face novel information structures. Results show in-context learning’s superior generalization for certain inference types, prompting the researchers to develop methods that enhance fine-tuning performance by incorporating in-context inferences into training data. Despite promising outcomes, several limitations affect the study. The first one is the dependency on nonsense words and implausible operations. Second, the research focuses on specific LMs, limiting the results’ generality. Future research should investigate learning and generalization differences across various models to expand upon these findings, especially newer reasoning models. Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit and Subscribe to our Newsletter. Sajjad AnsariSajjad Ansari is a final year undergraduate from IIT Kharagpur. As a Tech enthusiast, he delves into the practical applications of AI with a focus on understanding the impact of AI technologies and their real-world implications. He aims to articulate complex AI concepts in a clear and accessible manner.Sajjad Ansarihttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sajjadansari/Salesforce AI Researchers Introduce UAEval4RAG: A New Benchmark to Evaluate RAG Systems’ Ability to Reject Unanswerable QueriesSajjad Ansarihttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sajjadansari/Google Researchers Introduce LightLab: A Diffusion-Based AI Method for Physically Plausible, Fine-Grained Light Control in Single ImagesSajjad Ansarihttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sajjadansari/DanceGRPO: A Unified Framework for Reinforcement Learning in Visual Generation Across Multiple Paradigms and TasksSajjad Ansarihttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sajjadansari/Reinforcement Learning, Not Fine-Tuning: Nemotron-Tool-N1 Trains LLMs to Use Tools with Minimal Supervision and Maximum Generalization 🚨 Build GenAI you can trust. ⭐️ Parlant is your open-source engine for controlled, compliant, and purposeful AI conversations — Star Parlant on GitHub! (Promoted)

Hello, my name is Oleksandr, I’m a Senior UX/UI Designer at Ubisoft. At Games Gathering Kyiv ’24, I gave a presentation titled “Layers of Player Experience. Why is everyone on the team a UXer”. This article is a supplement and an alternative form of that presentation.Tutorials Menu in The Last of Us Part IITo have an experience, we first need a user (player). As a result, users interact with the product and gain that experience.A game is a tool — a generator of experiences, emotions, and memories for the audience. And that’s why games are bought, loved and hated. It is for the experience they provide. Exceptions, when we tend to accumulate: we buy games during some Steam sale, so we will never launch them.You can’t design an experience; you can design a product through which people gain an experience. That is, our Figma prototype is UI, and as soon as we let people use it. They share thoughts, impressions, expectations, feelings… this is UX. And even memes talk about it.UX MemesOur goal is not a game, but the player’s experience. I came across a thought that stood out to me:“The Game Direction is the concrete manifestation of the Target Game Experience and is the first thing you should aim for. This makes game development a sort of “reverse-engineering process”At the moment, in the essence of UX, and in our context of Player Experience, I have identified 4 layers-components that influence the perception of the product.UX LayersFunctionalityLet’s start with the first one: functionality is the basic and most objective part. It answers the question: Does the game work properly?For example, does it meet such requirements as load time, memory usage, number of frames per second (FPS), etc. In an ideal world, there are no crashes, friezes, softlocks (inability to progress in the game, although the game technically works), servers can withstand a large number of players, excellent optimization for different platforms and adaptation for input/output devices, various edge cases, Poka-yoke protection, etc. are also considered and covered. And of course, it affects the audience experience. Some critical moments can make the game completely unplayable, while others become memes.Assassin’s Creed UnityUsabilityThe next level is usability — it defines how easy and convenient the product is to use.The main task of this area is to minimize cognitive (attention, memory, …) and physical (muscles, vision, hearing, fine motor skills…) loads during interaction. In many products and services, teams aim to track and remove all friction and difficulties users may face. In games, however, we look for and remove only those obstacles that are not there by design (intended challenge).For example, in the VR shooter Half Life Alyx, reloading is implemented as follows: you need to press a button on the controller to eject the empty magazine from the weapon, then reach back to grab a new one and carefully install it. From a usability perspective, this is not ideal, requiring a certain physical dexterity, and it would technically be simpler to assign these actions to a single button. But this would reduce the challenge in the game, the immersion in the world, and would likely not improve the overall gaming experience.Half Life AlyxOn the other hand, if players get lost in the menu, cannot perform the actions they need, do not understand why their character dies every time, fails a mission, or cannot master a certain mechanic due to lack of and poor tutorials. Something definitely needs to be done about this. Otherwise, players may feel frustrated — like the game is being unfair or not entirely honest with them.Usability in games relies on the same methods and research as other software development. Covers the following sections and disciplines:Interaction Design, IxDVisual DesignHeuristics, for example Jakob Nielsen’s in gamesPlatform Guidelines (PC, Xbox, PS, Switch, Steam Deck…)Accessibility Standards: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Xbox Accessibility Guidelines (XAG)Primary research:Card sorting (information architecture development)Moderated and unmoderated usability tests (find interaction issues in a product at the current stage of development)Eye-tracking (heat maps)A/B testing (can say which of 2 solutions works better, but won’t say why)Secondary research:Market and competitor analysis (definition of patterns, interaction standards, glossary of terms…)Open source data analysis (streams, articles, social networks, forums…)Closed source data analysis (telemetry)Usability is an important aspect of a game. Moreover, even for the entire platform or industry. The market is full of direct and indirect competitors (apps, streaming, social networks…), all fighting for our time and attention.Let’s look at the Quick Resume function on Xbox Series, which allows you to instantly switch between multiple games, preserving their state, like Alt-Tab between windows. Moreover, thanks to it, after turning off the console, players can continue the game exactly from where they left off, just by pressing one button:I press the Xbox logo on the gamepad → the console turns on → the TV automatically turns on via HDMI-CEC and selects the HDMI console source → the console launches the last session game → I get into the game exactly where I stopped.This greatly simplifies interaction, reduces the number of steps for players to reach Value, and bypasses competitors, as the operating system screen of the TV often contains preview sections for Netflix, YouTube, etc. Our brain already finds this action, playing a game, more appealing because it requires less effort.In the book “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon, author of the bestsellers “Steal Like an Artist” and “Show Your Work”, writes:“Your attention is one of the most valuable things you have, so everyone wants to steal it from you.”https://medium.com/media/d464918f88fb6d2a57eeedab67211cc7/hrefAestheticsLet’s go further — there’s a branch of philosophy called aesthetics. It’s the study of sensory, non-utilitarian ways of understanding the world, a critical reflection on art, culture, and nature.In our field, aesthetics relates to the physical and digital form of the product. It encompasses sensory aspects such as appearance, sound, tactility, taste, and smell. Accordingly, I have identified 5 types of aesthetics:VisualMusic/AuditoryTactileTasteScentVisual AestheticsIt doesn’t always mean “beautiful”, “pleasant to the eye”. It’s about how the game looks… what impressions it evokes because of this. It can be “beautiful” as is usually considered, and “ugly”, “terrible”, or even “disgusting”, “repulsive”. Each game has its own proportion, somewhere more beauty — the Ori series, Ghost of Tsushima, Just Dance, … Somewhere ugliness, horror, and disgust — Scorn, Resident Evil, Dead Space, Little Nightmares…It’s the same in art — just look at the works of Zdzisław Beksiński, H.R. Giger, or Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk, the founder of the plentanism technique.Paintings by Zdzislaw BeksinskiPaintings “Awakening” and “Sorrow” by Ivan MarchukAesthetics should correspond to the game’s setting and lore, support immersion in this fictional world. An interesting unique visual style is another way to stand out in the market. For example, the creators of Cuphead were inspired by the aesthetics of 1930s cartoons, surrealism, and the jazz era.CupheadThe game is known for its distinctive crafted animation and soundtracks, which make it recognizable and stand out among others. The loud title of the marketing book “Differentiate or Die” comes to mind.In design and development, there is often a challenge: to find a balance between functionality, convenience, and aesthetics. You can overdo it with visual effects, animations, which will reduce performance and optimization. Get carried away with graphic elements, and this will add “visual noise”, lower readability, and accordingly, worsen usability.This dilemma is present in other subject areas as well. For example, chess sets. Pieces can be extremely detailed, made of expensive materials, but not very usable because players confuse their roles due to a certain unique, non-standard appearance. These obstacles do not contribute to the game and can ruin the entire experience, especially if the mistake leads to critical consequences in the match. Or take industrial design: for some time, Apple devices did not have as many ports/interfaces as their competitors’ devices. That is, for the sake of aesthetics, they neglect certain convenience and practicality. Maybe too convenient things form “convenient” people? ;)Auditory AestheticsIt greatly influences the atmosphere, emotions, and mood of the players. These include all the sounds that accompany the game: soundtracks, ambient sounds, sound design, dialogues, dubbing, and more. This has a significant impact on the gaming experience, even down to the goosebumps.This game component can be reflected in other products, such as vinyl records. It offers a new experience for users, providing auditory, tactile, and visual aesthetics.Alan Wake 2 Vinyl RecordsTactile AestheticsThese refer to the sensations related to physical perception during the game — from how we interact with peripheral devices.A few examples: gamepad vibration (Haptic Feedback), Dual Sense adaptive triggers, steering wheel and pedals, special gloves or suits with tactile feedback. All this serves to provide greater immersion and inform about the game state.Special game editions with additional materials, such as 3D models, figurines, maps, or other items from the game world, can also be considered part of tactile aesthetics. This adds a physical aspect to the game interaction experience, can enhance the sense of involvement and value for players. It provides a certain tactile contact with the game universe, even when our PC or console is turned off due to a power outage.S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Ultimate EditionTaste AestheticsHmm, can we try a game by taste? “Of course!” — marketing and business will joyfully exclaim. But no one will force us to gnaw on consoles or game discs. The approach is more gentle and courteous.So, on the shelves of grocery stores, we’ll find Nuka-Cola from the Fallout universe, Butterbeer, or Beans with different flavors from the Potterverse. The line between the game world and reality is blurring, and here we enter the realm of product placement: Calorie Mate (energy bars popular in Japan) appear in Metal Gear Solid, Monster Energy drinks in Death Stranding, and Nonstop in S.T.A.L.K.E.R..Nuka-Cola from the Fallout universeScent AestheticsI began exploring this topic and discovered GameScent — a device that reacts to game events such as shooting, explosions, racing, storms, and forests, releasing corresponding smells. It’s a form of 4D gaming, an attempt to expand the gaming experience to another sense. But I think we should be careful with this — who knows what it might emit when burning cannabis fields in Far Cry 3.GameScentBut in fact, if we delve deeper, we can think about certain new niches. The Moth and Rabbit perfume brand, founded in 2016, is known for its unique approach. They create unisex perfumes inspired by movies and stories, such as Parasite, The Lobster, La Haine, and The Color of Pomegranates. The focus is not only on the scent but also on the emotional and sensory experience.I feel like perfumers and marketers could easily craft fragrance concepts for games like GTA, RDR2, or The Last of Us… Thus adding a new dimension of experience for the audience. I will share my own associations — what perfumes remind me of different parts of Far Cry.FUN (Engagement)Now we have reached the core, the center that creates the desire to use this or that entertainment product. You can fix bugs, work on optimization, improve usability, and create aesthetics as much as you want. However, if a game has no fun, it is not interesting to play, and it is most likely doomed to fail.There is an expression Usable yet Useless. Because many products appear on the market that don’t find their purpose, have no value for the customers. And of course, we know a lot of such examples among published games. Or those that were canceled in development because the team never found the “FUN recipe” in practice. That said, projects can also be canceled for many other reasons — finances, the market, team issues, tech limitations, shifting priorities, or strategic decisions…Well, fun is a rabbit hole — a vast and complex topic that touches many areas. A person’s impression of it is individual, personal, and subjective.“We are not many standard selves, but many different universes” — Vasyl Symonenko.Making a game that works for everyone is possible (Functionality). Making a game that is interesting and liked by everyone — I don’t think so. Here, I will try to describe certain components of fun as simply as possible.MotivationAgain, it’s not easy because there is no single theory of motivation. But the dominant framework, which is also described in management books, is the self-determination theory (SDT). It suggests that our motivation comes from both intrinsic drivers (internal desires) and extrinsic drivers (external rewards).Let’s start with the three intrinsic ones:Competence is a need to feel successful, skilled, and to see yourself progress and develop. It’s about growth and providing players with the right level of challenge to showcase their skills. Competence is one of the key drivers. A nice real-life example would be when you give a riddle to your friends. Time passes, and they don’t want you to give them the answer — they want to solve it themselves to experience the feeling of “We did it!”Autonomy is a need for self-expression, to feel that you have an impact, that your choices matter. This is a certain level of freedom in the game, the ability to customize characters, their belongings, make decisions, participate in dialogues that change the further course of events…Relatedness is a need to have meaningful social connections, whether through cooperation or competition, because we are social beings. Accordingly, these are all kinds of coop or competitive modes in online or offline game mods.Extrinsic drivers are external rewards. Ideally, they also immerse and help progress, providing some recognition, feedback on the players’ competence. Goals and rewards should be meaningful to the players (make sense, have value, logical justification).More on player motivation in this talk by Celia Hodent, former Director of User Experience at Epic Games.EmotionEmotions are very important, they affect our perception, decision-making and memory — the more emotional the experience, the better we will remember it. Here I have highlighted:Immersion, which is also shaped by aesthetics.The feeling of the game — 3C (Camera, Characters and Controls)Linking Narrative (how the story is presented) — Story (what happens in the game world) — Plot (how it is revealed to the players)Surprises and new content: locations, seasons, tournaments, modes, etc.So to speak, we ride the emotional roller coaster. In any case, it is better in the game than in life. So as not to complain like Chris Isaak in the song Wicked Game “What a wicked game you play to make me feel this way”.FlowThe state of flow, a concept introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, occurs at the appropriate level of challenge and skills. The mental state in which a person is fully engaged in what they are doing is a feeling of focus, concentration, and success during the activity. Flow can occur during various activities such as sports, work, daily life, creativity, and others.State of FlowThe main components and conditions in a game are:Difficulty curve — the level of challenges, “match of skills and challenges”Learning curve — onboarding players and step-by-step distributed tutorials (learn by doing);Pacing — a rhythm of stress and rest. The best rest is a change of activity.The state of flow is so captivating that we lose track of time.Ethical Aspects and ResponsibilityThis is about the conscious and unconscious use of deceptive design patterns (aka Dark), to increase business revenue. It is an exploitation of our biases and perception. Some companies have lawsuits regarding these decisions in certain countries.There is also a book written in a simple, concise form “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products” — Nir Eyal, Ryan Hoover. It allowed me to look at various products, services from a different angle and notice, recognize their methods of engagement.Summary about FunIn the book “A Theory of Fun for Game Design” by Raph Koster, there is a phrase “Learning is the drug”. The feeling of fun is the brain’s emotional reaction to learning. Even curiosity is enjoyable in itself, which is why we dislike spoilers — or at least, part of us does.Just as in games we solve puzzles, learn combos, scripts, and timings for further progress, so is it in life. A cat that drops things from the table for its learning (or just to annoy) or scientists trying to solve the mystery of the universe. Our brain always wants to find a pattern, a cause-and-effect relationship, to create structure in chaos. And as soon as it finds it, it becomes uninteresting and boring. As Dua Lipa sings in her song “New Rules”, “Now I’m standin’ back from it, I finally see the pattern.”Brand ConnectionWe can combine these layers and add another one around that also affects the game’s perception by the audience and its loyalty. This is the company’s brand, its philosophy, position, previous experience with its products and services. As well as personal brand: Neil Druckmann (The Last of Us), Dan & Sam Houser (GTA), Hideo Kojima (Death Stranding), etc.https://medium.com/media/f9db10894c4401ea10cc154898d1c065/hrefTeamEach of these components of the Game UX is handled by specific teams and stakeholders. In the image below, I have only indicated a part of the job titles that came to mind. In game development, especially for large projects, there are significantly more roles, and the credits are proof of that. Management is responsible for effective coordination and cooperation of these teams. Moreover, the R&D process of the game is impossible without the support of other company departments — HR, infrastructure, operational team, finance, etc.UX Layers & TeamAll these layers-components are closely interconnected, influencing and depending on each other. People from “Fun” tell we need a game world without seams and loading, while people from “Functionality”, having studied this issue, say that at the moment it is impossible, or requires additional resources, technologies. The search for a solution, a compromise is ongoing.Although my main focus is usability and aesthetics. It is necessary to collaborate with a large number of different teams. For example, when I worked on the High Contrast Mode feature, I first aligned with the Game Design team and then shared prototypes with the Render team, which made its implementation possible. All these layers-components are important for players’ experiences.On the FinalA game can bring not just fun, but also a deeper experience, raising and revealing important themes. It is an important medium for exploring social, ethical, and psychological issues. Games evoke emotions and empathy, allowing players to experience stories, situations that raise questions about morality, responsibility, and human values.Valiant HeartsWe love games with all their advantages and disadvantages. After all, there are no perfect products, as they are created by imperfect people, and perhaps a bit by hallucinating AI.“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” — Leonard Cohen, Anthem.Thank you!Why is everyone on the team a UXer? Layers of player experience was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Google announces Gemini 2.5 Pro Deep Think, beating OpenAI's o3 and o4 models Pradeep Viswanathan Neowin @pradeepviswav · May 20, 2025 16:32 EDT At Google I/O 2025, Google announced today several updates to the Gemini 2.5 model series. The main highlight was the Gemini 2.5 Pro Deep Think mode, which reportedly beats OpenAI's latest o3 and o4 series models in popular AI benchmarks. Google didn't announce any update to the Gemini 2.5 Pro model since it received a significant update just earlier this month. However, the new enhanced reasoning mode, called Deep Think, will push the capabilities of the 2.5 Pro model to the next level. Deep Think will use new research techniques to consider multiple hypotheses before responding. Google shared the following three benchmarks for 2.5 Pro Deep Think: 49.4% on the 2025 USAMO math benchmarks. 80.4% on the LiveCodeBench competition-level coding benchmark. 84.0% on the MMMU multimodal reasoning benchmark. All the above scores are new SOTA, beating even the latest OpenAI's o3 and o4 series models. 2.5 Pro Deep Think will be available to trusted testers via the Gemini API for now. Google also unveiled the latest update to Gemini 2.5 Flash, its low-cost model. This new model performs better than the previous version in every benchmark, and it is now available for preview in Google AI Studio for developers, in Vertex AI for enterprise, and in the Gemini app. Google will release the production version of 2.5 Flash in June. Along with the model updates, Google announced the following improvements to the Gemini developer experience: A new Live API preview with support for multiple speakers, enabling text-to-speech with two voices via native audio output, and more. Native SDK support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) definitions in the Gemini API for easier integration with open-source tools. Gemini 2.5 Pro with thinking budgets will be generally available for stable production use in the coming weeks. Project Mariner's computer use capabilities are coming to the Gemini API and Vertex AI. 2.5 Pro and Flash will now include thought summaries in the Gemini API and in Vertex AI. You can learn more about Gemini 2.5 model updates here. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Lead Graphics EngineerCD ProjektBoston MA us2 hours agoApplyJob DescriptionCD PROJEKT RED is seeking a Lead Graphics Engineer to lead the development and optimization of cutting-edge graphics systems for our next title, Project Sirius, a multiplayer game set within the world of The Witcher. In this role, you will collaborate closely with artists and engineers to deliver industry-leading visuals through advanced rendering, shaders, lighting, and graphical enhancements. Your expertise will ensure that our graphics solutions are performant, efficient, and aligned with the game's creative vision.RESPONSIBILITIES:Design, implement, and optimize rendering systems to meet high visual fidelity goals.Collaborate with the art team to create performant tools and workflows for impactful visuals.Work across disciplines to develop innovative rendering solutions for large-scale, open-world environments.Maintain, debug, and enhance existing graphics systems for improved performance and memory utilization.Mentor junior engineers and provide technical guidance to the team.Ensure adherence to the team's coding standards and contribute to overall code quality.Actively solicit and integrate feedback to enhance system performance and design.Qualifications7+ years of experience in game development, with at least 1 year as a lead.Proficiency in C++ with a robust foundation in graphics programming.Expertise in rendering techniques, shaders, and GPU/CPU architecture.Experience with Unreal Engine 4/5, ideally with a shipped title using the engine.Familiarity with low-level graphics APIs (DirectX12, Vulkan, etc.) and debugging tools (RenderDoc, Pix).Extensive multithreaded programming skills.Demonstrated ability to profile and optimize performance at a low level.Exceptional problem-solving skills, communication, and a collaborative mindset.NICE TO HAVES:Experience working on AAA console titles, particularly with Unreal Engine.Familiarity with memory management and platform-specific optimizations.Additional InformationThis job can be hybrid/in-office from Boston or fully remote.Health & Well-beingCompany paid medical healthcare (dental vision & mental).Paid Leave — 20 days of holiday for every team member per year (26 days after two years).No dress-code — we like to keep it casual.401K with employer matching.Gym Membership Reimbursement.Perks & Professional GrowthFlexible working hours.Trainings, lectures and courses — internal workshops, knowledge-sharing initiatives, online tutorials, and e-learning classes are all available. There’s always something to learn!Merch — gifts for newborn rebels and regular chances to nab some cool swag!A welcome pack filled with goodies — to help you feel right at home once you join the team.Life in the OfficeDog-friendly office — dog owner? Bring your pooch with you and look after them while working! There’s always a furry friend or two to meet at the studio.Truly international working environment — a chance to meet and work with a diverse selection of people from all around the world.If you have observed any irregularities in our recruitment process please click here to report them.Company DescriptionTo create revolutionary, story-driven RPGs which go straight to the hearts of gamers — this is our mission. Want to dive deeper into our company’s culture? Explore our social media and check out our YouTube channel where we share behind-the-scenes insights and stories direct from our team members! Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings. Apply

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube813k An incredibly unlucky Super Smash Bros. Melee player has lost a tournament, and a prize pot of over $2000 to boot, by succumbing to an incredibly badly timed glitch in the final round...of the final match. No, this is not a movie. As seen over on YouTube (thank you, VGC), the deciding match of the 'Full House 2025' tournament in Pennsylvania, USA, ended up being all kinds of unexpectedly exciting when Canadian player Moky decided to get a little bit too tricksy for his own good whilst 2-0 down to America's Cody Schwab on the game's Pokémon Stadium stage.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube813kWatch on YouTube With a deficit to make up (the rules are first to three), Moky decided to employ a pro strategy in Smash Bros. Melee known as 'Wavedashing', a high-level technique/physics engine exploit performed by air-dodging diagonally down into the ground. All good. However, as Moky takes to a tree on the left of the arena (as shown in pro Smash player Hungrybox's time-stamped video above) and begins to employ Wavedash, he vanishes through the tree and out of the stage to his doom, handing the winning point — and a delicious pile of dollars — to a very surprised-looking Schwab. Images: Youtube.com/@hungrybox The glitch that occurred is actually a well-known one related to the Pokémon Stadium arena, and these pro players know all too well about it, which of course has led some on Reddit to accuse Moky of having done it on purpose at 2-0 down, which Moky denies. (Language warning on that link!) Whatever the case, and judging by the video itself, the incident certainly surprised his opponent, and gathered onlookers, and we can't help feel a little bad watching Moky's expression change as he realises all of that sweet moolah is sailing away on the good ship 'Never Get Fancy When It's Business Time' (not a real boat). Unless he did mean it. Of course, Super Smash Bros Melee has a whole bunch of weird glitches and bugs that players know about at this stage, some 24 years since its first release. There's the likes of the 'Ice Climbers Wobbling Glitch', which has been banned in tournaments. There's also the much darker sounding 'Black Hole Glitch', which...well...it makes a black hole in the stage you're on, if you shoot the Super Scope in a certain coordinated way with other players. How on earth do people find this stuff out? Can you remember seeing any recent gaming footage that showed an incident this unlucky? Do you reckon Moky did it on purpose? Make sure to let us know! Super Snack Bros. The Game Theorists channel goes down the rabbit hole [source videogameschronicle.com] Related Games See Also Share:13 2 PJ is a staff writer across Pure Xbox and Nintendo Life. He's been playing video games pretty much nonstop since the early 1980s, and enjoys boring people with tedious stories about how long ago that really is. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles Nintendo Unveils Diddy Kong's Brand New Design Cap's off Nintendo Switch 2 Final Tech Specs Have Been Confirmed GameChat has a "significant impact on system resources" 12 Switch Games Are Getting Free Switch 2 Upgrades, Here's What You Can Expect Nintendo's free updates arrive next month

A threat actor known as Hazy Hawk has been observed hijacking abandoned cloud resources of high-profile organizations, including Amazon S3 buckets and Microsoft Azure endpoints, by leveraging misconfigurations in the Domain Name System (DNS) records. The hijacked domains are then used to host URLs that direct users to scams and malware via traffic distribution systems (TDSes), according to Infoblox. Some of the other resources usurped by the threat actor include those hosted on Akamai, Bunny CDN, Cloudflare CDN, GitHub, and Netlify. The DNS threat intelligence firm said it first discovered the threat actor after it gained control of several sub-domains associated with the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) in February 2025. It has since been determined that other government agencies across the globe, prominent universities, and international corporations such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young have been victimized by the same threat actor since at least December 2023. "Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Hazy Hawk is that these hard-to-discover, vulnerable domains with ties to esteemed organizations are not being used for espionage or 'highbrow' cybercrime," Infoblox's Jacques Portal and Renée Burton said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "Instead, they feed into the seedy underworld of adtech, whisking victims to a wide range of scams and fake applications, and using browser notifications to trigger processes that will have a lingering impact." What makes Hazy Hawk's operations noteworthy is the hijacking of trusted and reputable domains belonging to legitimate organizations, thus boosting their credibility in search results when they are being used to serve malicious and spammy content. But even more concerningly, the approach enables the threat actors to bypass detection. Underpinning the operation is the ability of the attackers to seize control of abandoned domains with dangling DNS CNAME records, a technique previously exposed by Guardio in early 2024 as being exploited by bad actors for spam proliferation and click monetization. All a threat actor needs to do is register the missing resource to hijack the domain. Hazy Hawk goes a step further by finding abandoned cloud resources and then commandeering them for malicious purposes. In some cases, the threat actor employs URL redirection techniques to conceal which cloud resource was hijacked. "We use the name Hazy Hawk for this actor because of how they find and hijack cloud resources that have dangling DNS CNAME records and then use them in malicious URL distribution," Infoblox said. "It's possible that the domain hijacking component is provided as a service and is used by a group of actors." The attack chains often involve cloning the content of legitimate sites for their initial site hosted on the hijacked domains, while luring victims into visiting them with pornographic or pirated content. The site visitors are then funneled via a TDS to determine where they land next. "Hazy Hawk is one of the dozens of threat actors we track within the advertising affiliate world," the company said. "Threat actors who belong to affiliate advertising programs drive users into tailored malicious content and are incentivized to include requests to allow push notifications from 'websites' along the redirection path." In doing so, the idea is to flood a victim's device with push notifications and deliver an endless torrent of malicious content, with each notification leading to different scams, scareware, and fake surveys, and accompanied by requests to allow more push notifications. To prevent and protect against Hazy Hawk activities, domain owners are recommended to remove a DNS CNAME record as soon as a resource is shut down. End users, on the other hand, are advised to deny notification requests from websites they don't know. "While operators like Hazy Hawk are responsible for the initial lure, the user who clicks is led into a labyrinth of sketchy and outright malicious adtech. The fact that Hazy Hawk puts considerable effort into locating vulnerable domains and then using them for scam operations shows that these advertising affiliate programs are successful enough to pay well," Infoblox said. Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.