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For the past two weeks, X has been flooded with AI-manipulated nude images, created by the Grok AI chatbot. An alarming range of women have been affected by the non-consensual nudes, including prominent models and actresses, as well as news figures, crime victims, and even world leaders. A December 31st research paper from Copyleaks estimated roughly one image was being posted each minute, but later tests found far more. A sample gathered from January 5th to 6th found 6,700 per hour over the 24-hour period. But while public figures from around the world have decried the choice to release the…
For Chinese companies, the bet is that lower prices and more AI features will persuade people to wear smart glasses all day, recording their lives through constant video and audio. If you lower the price to around $200, “people will start to use them every day,” says Brian Chen, general manager of Appotronics’ innovation center. That shift would raise obvious privacy and security concerns that both Rokid and Appotronics have acknowledged, but they see the potential payoff as worth the risk.From Vacuums to CarsSeveral major Chinese electric vehicle companies, including Geely and Great Wall Motor, brought their cars to CES,…
On Thursday, MS NOW announced that former CNN executive Maria Spinella will join the network as its vice president of programming.Starting on Monday, Jan. 12, Spinella will lead MS NOW’s programming teams, guide daily and long-term programming strategies, and help manage breaking-news coverage needs. The exec will be based in New York.She joins the network from CNN, where she was most recently their executive producer of multi-platform programming, developing and producing content across multiple platforms and launching programs across all dayparts.During her nearly two-decade tenure at CNN, Spinella oversaw some of the network’s primetime programs, including Don Lemon Tonight and…
The research report ‘Are you Ready for AI?’ – a collaborative project between Human Made and WordPress VIP – unpacks a data-driven look at how enterprise marketing and technology teams are preparing for the AI-native future. Drawing on insights from 99 senior digital leaders across major enterprise organisations, it provides a practical benchmark to help you understand where your own AI adoption stands. The findings point to a clear message: in a world where AI is accelerating business transformation, standing still is no longer an option. Now is the time to assess your next moves, because the decisions you make…
XBrew Lab debuted its countertop nitro beverage machine, EverNitro, at CES this week, offering nitro coffee enthusiasts a more accessible way to enjoy the drink — without the waste and expense of traditional cartridge-based machines. If you’re unfamiliar with nitro coffee, it’s cold brew coffee infused with nitrogen gas. This process creates tiny bubbles, resulting in a silky-smooth, naturally sweeter taste — similar to drinking a Guinness. Many people also note that nitro coffee is less bitter. EverNitro is positioning itself against competitors such as NitroBrew as a long-term more affordable all-in-one solution. “We offer the quality of a commercial…
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is being used to flood X with thousands of sexualized images of adults and apparent minors wearing minimal clothing. Some of this content appears to not only violate X’s own policies, which prohibit sharing illegal content such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but may also violate the guidelines of Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store.Apple and Google both explicitly ban apps containing CSAM, which is illegal to host and distribute in many countries. The tech giants also forbid apps that contain pornographic material or facilitate harassment. The Apple App Store says it…
Beehiiv Doubles Ad Sales Team, Scaling Email Ads Business Beehiiv offers its newsletter creators the ability to generate passive advertising revenue by opting into its ad network. Beehiiv is expanding its in-house advertising operation as it looks to scale a business that has become an increasingly important revenue stream for both the company and the creators that publish on its platform.The newsletter software firm plans to double the size of its advertising product and operations team in the first half of 2026, cofounder and CEO Tyler Denk told ADWEEK. Beehiiv currently employs about 110 people, with advertising accounting for roughly…
Ready to find out how prepared your organisation really is for AI? Building on insights from ‘Are You Ready for AI?’ — a research report co-published by Human Made and WordPress VIP — we’ve created a quick, interactive quiz that turns our AI readiness maturity matrix into five easy questions. The matrix breaks AI readiness into five core pillars, each moving along a continuum from Emerging to Optimised, giving leaders a practical way to understand strengths, uncover gaps, and chart a path toward true AI maturity. The research shows most organisations today sit somewhere between Developing and Established, and there’s…
NSO Group, one of the most well-known and controversial makers of government spyware, released a new transparency report on Wednesday, as the company enters what it described as “a new phase of accountability.” But the report, unlike NSO’s previous annual disclosures, lacks details about how many customers the company rejected, investigated, suspended, or terminated due to human rights abuses involving its surveillance tools. While the report contains promises to respect human rights and have controls to demand its customers do the same, the report provides no concrete evidence supporting either. Experts and critics who have followed NSO and the spyware…
you’ve probably seen a smart bird feeder or know someone who has one. They’re fairly recognizable from a distance with their clear housing, cameras, and solar panels, and perhaps a friend or family member has sent you a photo or video of a bright goldfinch or handsome woodpecker (guilty). The question at this point, then, is whether these things are really worth the $100-plus price tag. Are they actually durable? And what about the squirrel problem?Lucky for you, we’ve been testing the most popular smart bird feeder models, including Netvue’s original Birdfy Lite feeder ($140) and Birdbuddy’s Pro ($179), for…
Week of December 29The period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve feels like no man’s land. No one knows what to make of it. That includes the evening news shows. For instance, NBC News does not have any weekly averages. None of its telecasts were categorized as regular telecasts.Note: The weekly averages for ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News are based on different periods: ABC News’ average covers two days (Monday-Wednesday). It’s Wednesday (12/31/25) broadcast was preempted, coded as a special on Thursday (1/1/26), and retitled to WNT-ABC on Friday (1/2/26). NBC News’ broadcast was retitled to NBC…
WordPress 6.9 arrives on December 2, 2025, and it’s not just another incremental update. This release marks the beginning of Phase 3 of Gutenberg—the collaboration phase—and introduces features that fundamentally reshape how teams work together in WordPress. At the heart of this release is Notes, a feature we’re particularly proud to see land, given that Human Made sponsors Adam Silverstein, the WordPress core committer who has been instrumental in bringing collaborative editing to the platform. For enterprise teams managing complex content workflows, this is the release we’ve been waiting for. Block-Level Notes: Real-Time Collaboration Comes to WordPress The headline feature of…
Internet connectivity collapsed across Iran on Thursday amid nationwide protests, according to web monitoring firms. “I think we’re at a near-total disconnection from the outside world now,” Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity researcher who works for the nonprofit Miaan Group, told TechCrunch. Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Kentik, a company that monitors internet traffic worldwide, concurred, telling TechCrunch that Iran’s internet has been in “near-total blackout” since around 11:30 a.m. on the U.S. east coast on Thursday, or 8 p.m. local time in Tehran. A chart showing how internet traffic dropped in Iran on Thursday around 11:30…
If you insist on using biometric unlocking methods to have faster access to your devices, keep in mind that some phones have an emergency function to disable these types of locks. Hold the wake button and one of the volume buttons simultaneously on an iPhone, for instance, and it will lock itself and require a passcode to unlock rather than FaceID or TouchID, even if they’re enabled. Most devices also let you take photos or record video without unlocking them first, a good way to keep your phone locked as much as possible.Your FaceFace recognition has become one of the…
Florian “Flo” Adamski, the chief executive of Omnicom Media, is bullish on the future of his newly reshaped organization. The company absorbed much of IPG Mediabrands—and retired some divisions—as part of its parent Omnicom’s $13.5 billion acquisition of Interpublic Group, finalized in late November.As Adamski looks to steer the overhauled organization, the longtime media exec is leaning into an ethos of “agency as a platform,” he said at ADWEEK House during the CES technology conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday. “When you look at a modern client, what they’re seeking are two things,” he said. “Number one, first and foremost,…
AI is reshaping how organisations plan, produce, and manage content — but not everyone is starting from the same place. In our recent AI Readiness Research Report, published in partnership with WordPress VIP, digital leaders made one thing clear: becoming AI-ready isn’t a single initiative. It’s a multidimensional architecture, technology, governance, operations, and strategy. Across 99 responses, patterns emerged, from common challenges, to shared priorities, and clear indicators of what it takes to build an AI-ready foundation. Those insights form the five pillars below: the essential areas that determine whether your organisation can harness AI responsibly and at scale. Each…