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Coinbase Data Breach Will ‘Lead to People Dying,’ TechCrunch Founder Says

by admin May 20, 2025

In brief

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has claimed that a recent data breach at Coinbase “will lead to people dying.”
Arrington’s claim comes amid a wave of kidnap attempts targeting high-net-worth crypto holders.
Former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan argued that the fault lies with state-mandated KYC data collection.

The founder of online news publication TechCrunch has claimed that Coinbase’s recent data breach “will lead to people dying,” amid a wave of kidnap attempts targeting high-net-worth crypto holders.

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington added that this should be a point of reflection for regulators to re-think the importance of know-your-customer (KYC), a process that requires users to confirm their identity to a platform. He also called for prison time for executives that fail to “adequately protect” customer information.

I am a long time investor in and champion of @coinbase. Something that has to be said though – this hack – which includes home addresses and account balances – will lead to people dying. It probably has already. The human cost, denominated in misery, is much larger than the $400m… pic.twitter.com/ruSYKAGH7x

— Michael Arrington 🏴‍☠️ (@arrington) May 19, 2025

“This hack—which includes home addresses and account balances—will lead to people dying. It probably has already,” he tweeted. “The human cost, denominated in misery, is much larger than the $400 million or so they think it will actually cost the company to reimburse people.”

On Thursday, Coinbase announced that cybercriminals tried to blackmail the exchange into paying $20 million in Bitcoin over the stolen customer data—which it refused to pay. Instead, the company put out a $20 million award for any information that would lead to the “arrest and conviction” of the attackers. The crypto exchange has also pledged to reimburse any customers that were tricked into sending funds to the attackers.

The U.S. Justice Department has since opened a probe into the data breach, Bloomberg later reported.

But for Arrington, who also founded venture capital firm CrunchFund and hedge fund Arrington Capital, this isn’t enough. He believes that people are in immediate physical danger following the breach, which exposed data including names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, government-ID images, and more.

Arrington said that he was a “long time” investor in Coinbase but did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment in what capacity this investment was made. Coinbase also did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Crypto kidnap attempts

A number of high-profile kidnapping attempts has heightened concerns over the safety of crypto owners with significant holdings.

In January, Ledger co-founder David Balland was abducted from his home in France alongside his wife. The pair were held captive for roughly 24 hours, with the kidnappers “mutilating” Balland’s hand as part of their ransom demand, before local law enforcement recovered the executive and his wife.

In March, popular streamer and OnlyFans personality Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa was the victim of a home invasion by three armed attackers who physically assaulted her while ordering her to transfer her Bitcoin to them. She managed to fire her gun, causing the attackers to flee the scene.

In May, the father of a crypto millionaire was rescued by French authorities after being held hostage for days—but not without having his finger severed by the kidnappers. A week later there was an attempted but failed kidnapping of a woman and her child, relatives of a leading figure in France’s crypto industry.

As a result of these and other incidents, an Amsterdam-based physical security firm told Bloomberg that it had noticed an uptick in clients with large crypto holdings, prior to the Coinbase breach.

The risks of KYC data

Arrington believes that in the wake of these attacks, crypto companies that handle user data need to be much more careful than they currently are.

“Combining these KYC laws with corporate profit maximization and lax laws on penalties for hacks like these means these issues will continue to happen,” he tweeted. “Both governments and corporations need to step up to stop this. As I said, the cost can only be measured in human suffering.”

I disagree the problem is execs. The problem is the state.

The state forces companies to collect KYC data that they do not want to collect. This issue is much bigger than crypto, and regulation is the actual thing to target.

With ZK, no need for KYC.https://t.co/kszGEy2tuZ

— Balaji (@balajis) May 20, 2025

Former Coinbase chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan pushed back on Arrington’s position that executives should be punished, arguing that regulators are forcing KYC onto unwilling companies.

“When enough people die, the laws may change,” Arrington hit back.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Fortnite’s AI Darth Vader hasn’t just created problems for Epic by being Jedi mind-tricked into saying bad words, it’s led SAG-AFTRA to file an unfair labour practice charge

by admin May 20, 2025

Late last week, Fortnite got a Darth Vader chatbot you can squad up with and have stilted AI-powered conversations that use James Earl Jones’ actual voice. It’s not just said a bunch of stuff it wasn’t supposed to – it’s now led the SAG-AFTRA union to file unfair labour practice charge.

If you weren’t around last week, Epic quickly had to issue a patch to the bot – which has been made with the approval of deceased Vader VA Jones’ family – not long after it was released into the wild, because players had managed to get it to say stuff it shouldn’t. You know, swears, slurs, and chatter about breasts.

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Fast forward to last night, when voice acting union SAG-AFTRA issued a statement on the AI Vader bot, challenging Epic on it being a thing and revealing that it’s filed an unfair labour practice charge with the US National Labour Relations Board.

“We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles,” the union wrote, acknowledging Jones’ estate having approved the bot, “However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games.

“Fortnite’s signatory company, Llama Productions, chose to replace the work of human performers with A.I. technology. Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms. As such, we have filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB against Llama Productions.”

VG247 has reached out to Epic for comment.

So, we’ll have to see what, if anything comes of the union challenging Llama Productions over allegedly not providing it notice of its plans to use AI to create AI Vader. It’s yet another chapter in the union and many voice actors’ efforts to secure protections against the use of AI to mimic voices, which it’s been argued presents an existential threat to their profession.

After all, as the union argues here, getting another actor to deliver voice lines for Fortnite Vader that sound like Jones would have been an alternative option to using AI her. Though as I’ve said, Epic and Llama did secure the right permission from those representing the AI-emulated actor’s interests.

How do you feel about AI Vader? Let us know below.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Samsung Odyssey G81SF OLED Gaming Monitor Review: Gorgeous

by admin May 20, 2025

Let’s cut to the chase—Samsung’s latest QD-OLED computer monitor is absolutely awesome, and I’ve loved having it at my desk for the past month or so. Every game I play on it looks incredible, and it has quickly become the centerpiece of my battle station.

Even so, I’m still having trouble recommending 4K high-refresh monitors to people who have to buy and build their own systems. Having a monitor with some room to grow is the right choice, but the gap between performance and capability can be frustrating if you’re on otherwise budget-friendly hardware. If you’re thinking of making an upgrade, really nice 1440p screens are available for under $400, and they might be a better performance fit for most people.

On the other hand, if you’ve already got the most powerful gaming PC in your friend group and you’ve got the cash to spare, you’ll be extremely pleased with the Samsung G81SF. It offers the best panel type in the category, the highest resolution and refresh rate modern systems can reasonably manage, and the suite of features to match.

Fast Refresh, High Resolution

The G81SF features Quantum-Dot OLED technology. (We have an in-depth explainer about panel types if you want the technical details.) The result is just about the best gaming monitor experience you can have at the moment. Colors are super bright and vivid, and shadows and dark areas totally disappear into blackness. It makes me want to turn off the lights, put on some headphones, and settle in for too many hours of some deeply cinematic game.

For most folks, the QD-OLED screens are going to be the absolute best gaming experience you can find, but there are alternatives. If you’re just set on 4K and 240Hz, the Mini LED version of the same screen from Samsung has a slower response time, and won’t have the same beautiful Quantum Dot-powered colors, but can be found for $700 or less. If you’re considering this screen, I don’t think that one will impress you nearly as much, but it does indicate the kind of premium you’re paying for the newest tech.

Given the high refresh and resolution, leveraging adaptive refresh here will be crucial for preventing tearing, and the Samsung features FreeSync Premium Plus, rather than Nvidia G-Sync. The most noticeable advantage to doing so is that it saves you some bucks, with FreeSync screens generally being a bit cheaper than their counterparts. The other advantage is that it works with both Nvidia and AMD cards, so you won’t be tied to one or the other when shopping for GPUs.

The issue for most people will just be getting games to run smoothly. I’m lucky enough to have an RTX 5090 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) for review purposes. Even with Nvidia’s current top-end, recently released card, most modern games won’t get anywhere close to 240 FPS at 4K without significant settings tweaking and liberal use of frame generation. If you’re on a lower-powered or older card, you might get frustrated to find that only Terraria runs at full resolution and refresh rate. People with cards older than the RTX 20 Series should avert their eyes, because it’s likely you won’t even be able to output at 4K and 240Hz, let alone game.

Tech and Stand

It has a simple platform stand, which is sufficiently sturdy given the relatively heavy screen, with a basic cable loop at the base. It also has RGB lights in a small ring around the back, but in order to see them your room will need to be dark and your monitor fairly close to the wall behind it. You can set them from the on-screen display, so no extra software needed.

New monitors often come out of the box with the screen brightness turned way up, and I recommend turning it down to anywhere from 20 to 30 percent. You might be surprised how much it spares your eyes over the course of a few hours of gaming, and it will save you a few bucks on your power bill. I tweaked a few other settings as well, including turning down the contrast to 40 and the color to 20.

It’s really important to touch on the ports, because both DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 rely on Digital Stream Compression to reach 4K at 240Hz. Compression might sound like a scary word here, but according to the VESA the effects shouldn’t be visually apparent. Technically, the HDMI port has a higher bandwidth, but I couldn’t tell the difference when switching back and forth between them.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Last Of Us Fans Are Bracing Themselves For Next Week’s Finale

by admin May 20, 2025

Image: HBO

If long-time The Last of Us fans have learned anything watching HBO’s second season, it’s that knowing something is coming doesn’t make it any less painful to watch a second time. The live-action adaptation of The Last of Us Part II has been divisive (I fucking hated it, personally), but it’s still putting everyone through the emotional wringer by recreating the same deaths and carnage featured in the PS4 game. As such, those who have played the game know what to expect in an upcoming episode when they see moments they recognize in the previews, and that means Last of Us veterans are bracing themselves for the finale because they know something painful is coming.

Nintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher

HBO has released a brief 40-second preview of the finale ahead of its premiere on Sunday, and it includes a voiceover from Jesse (Young Mazino) about the war between the militaristic Washington Liberation Front and the cult-like Seraphites. He says he’s “not dying out here” in the middle of the Seattle warzone. But the irony is that homeboy probably is dying out here, and in the next episode.

In the preview, we see a clip of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Jesse running up the aisle of the theater that the group has made into their home base while in Seattle. We don’t get any context as to what the pair is running toward, but anyone who’s played The Last of Us Part II knows what’s coming.

Jesse is another unfortunate casualty in Ellie and Abby’s revenge tour, and for a game that loves to drag out character deaths, his end is pretty quick, but no less brutal. As he and Ellie run into the theater lobby, Abby, who found the group’s hideout, shoots Jesse right in the face, killing him instantly. Based on the preview, it looks like this scene is in the finale, unless the show decides to handle Jesse’s fate differently. The show has mostly followed the core events of The Last of Us Part II, albeit with some annoying script embellishments and misguided structural changes, but if Ellie’s horse Shimmer can avoid her violent fate, maybe Jesse can, too? Either way, fans are preparing themselves for the emotional damage.

The Last of Us’ season finale will premiere on Max at 9 p.m. Eastern Sunday, May 25.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

SHIB Price Prediction for May 20

by admin May 20, 2025

The market remains mainly in the green zone, according to CoinStats.

SHIB chart by CoinStats

SHIB/USD

The rate of SHIB has fallen by 0.22% over the past day.

Image by TradingView

On the hourly chart, the price of SHIB is near the local support of $0.00001414. If the daily bar closes near that mark, the fall is likely to continue to the $0.000014 area soon.

Image by TradingView

On the bigger time frame, the picture is also bearish. The rate of the meme coin is coming back to the support of $0.00001397.

Bitcoin on Track to Hit $500K as Government Entities Increase MSTR Holdings: Standard Chartered

by admin May 20, 2025

In brief

Bitcoin’s price will reach $500,000 over the next three-and-a-half years, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick writes.
In the first quarter, 12 government entities increased their exposure to Strategy.
Strategy holds 576,000 Bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s price remains on track to hit half a million dollars before Donald Trump’s current term ends after government entities increased their indirect exposure to Bitcoin in the first quarter, according to Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered,

Whether it was South Korea’s National Pension Service, the Swiss National Bank, or U.S. state retirement funds, government entities’ recent holdings of Strategy—which owns around 576,000 Bitcoin—“was very encouraging,” Kendrick wrote in a note on Tuesday. That group also included Swedish pension funds, a state-owned bank in France, and the Saudi Central Bank.

In the first quarter, 12 government entities increased their exposure to Strategy, holding 31,000 Bitcoin worth of Strategy shares, he added.

Although investors can gain exposure to Bitcoin through spot exchange-traded funds that were approved in the U.S. last year, government entities’ increased Strategy holdings reflect “widening structural demand” for Bitcoin and Strategy’s continued use as a Bitcoin proxy, Kendrick wrote.

“We believe that in some cases, MSTR holdings by government entities reflect a desire to gain Bitcoin exposure where local regulations do not allow direct BTC holdings,” he added.

Analysts at the British multinational bank believe that Bitcoin’s price will reach $500,000 before the end of Trump’s second term ends in early 2029. That target is premised on the understanding that Trump’s administration, through the repeal of SAB 121 and initiatives like his strategic Bitcoin reserve, will improve investors’ access to Bitcoin, while encouraging demand.

Each quarter, institutional investment managers with over $100 million worth of assets under management are required to reveal their holdings through a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Known as a 13F, Kendrick argued that these filings are the best way to test “our thesis that BTC will attract new institutional buyer types as the market matures.”

Within the U.S., state retirement funds for California, New York, North Carolina, and Kentucky upped their Strategy holdings by the equivalent of 1,000 Bitcoin, Kendrick said. Each share in Strategy equates to 0.0018 Bitcoin per diluted share, per Strategy Tracker.

Sovereigns’ exposure to Bitcoin through spot ETFs “was disappointing at first glance,” Kendrick noted, pointing to an overall decline in their direct holdings. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which held the equivalent of 3,400 Bitcoin through ETFs, sold all its holdings.

Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign wealth fund for Abu Dhabi’s government, validated Standard Chartered’s thesis when it started stockpiling Bitcoin last year. In the first quarter, its Bitcoin exposure increased to 5,000 Bitcoin, from 4,700 Bitcoin, not long ago.

Edited by James Rubin

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Apple’s WWDC 2025 keynote will be June 9 at 1PM ET

by admin May 20, 2025

Apple has sent the invites for its in-person WWDC 2025 festivities on Monday, June 9, featuring the keynote session at 1PM ET/10AM PT. Attendees will be able to watch the keynote presentation at the company’s Cupertino campus, as well as meet with developers and participating in special activities. For everyone who hasn’t received an invite to Apple Park, the keynote will stream online. Developers can also participate in the rest of WWDC’s programming online for free.

We’ve already got pretty high hopes for the keynote announcements, with a lot of potential news expected about the upcoming redesign for iOS 19. We’ve heard that the operating system could have features including AI-powered battery management and improved public Wi-Fi sign ins, and our own Nathan Ingraham has penned an impassioned plea for a normal letter “a” in the Notes app. The full WWDC conference runs from June 9-13.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Bitwise is still the only company that disclosed its BTC addresses. Why don’t others follow?

GameFi Guides

Bitwise is the only company that disclosed its BTC addresses. Why don’t others follow?

by admin May 20, 2025

The number of Bitcoin-centered companies is growing. More than that, more and more companies from other sectors set corporate Bitcoin treasuries as an inflation hedge. However, most of these companies don’t disclose Bitcoin addresses. Why is there reluctance in disclosing corporate addresses, and is there a chance these companies don’t actually hold the bitcoins they claim to own?

Bitwise’s move

On Jan. 24, 2024, Bitwise made history by becoming the first company to disclose its spot Bitcoin ETF address for everyone.

Announcement: Today the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) becomes the first U.S. bitcoin ETF to publish the bitcoin addresses of its holdings.

Now anyone can verify BITB’s holdings and flows directly on the blockchain.

Onchain transparency is core to Bitcoin’s ethos. We’re proud to… pic.twitter.com/1JTUh3zvDE

— Bitwise (@BitwiseInvest) January 24, 2024

By disclosing its Bitcoin ETF address, Bitwise explicitly made it impossible for skeptics to doubt its solvency and the fact that the company actually holds what it claims to own. More than that, this step towards transparency is in line with the transparent design of the Bitcoin network itself, where all the transactions and the parties involved are visible and auditable.

As Bitwise is one of the biggest Bitcoin holders, some observers suggested that other corporate holders will follow the trend and make their treasuries transparent. However, it didn’t happen. Nearly one and a half years after the disclosure made by Bitwise, no other Bitcoin holding company followed suit.

Possible improvements

Did Bitwise do it the best possible way? Co-author of the Big Bitcoin Book, Fred Krueger, took to X to outline how it is possible to disclose BTC addresses with some improvements, using Bitwise as a reference point. Actually, Krueger made his post as a recommendation to Strategy.

1. ✅ Add Cryptographic Ownership Proofs

Right now, Bitwise discloses the wallet address, but hasn’t published a signed message proving they actually control the private keys.

Anyone could theoretically list any address.

A one-time signed message (e.g., “MSTR controls this…

— Fred Krueger (@dotkrueger) May 19, 2025

Interestingly enough, Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley shared Krueger’s post in his account, not shying away from exposing what Krueger believes to be weak spots of Bitwise’s way of making disclosure.

One of the ideas offered by Krueger was that Strategy should use cryptographic ownership proof, which Bitwise doesn’t have. He notes that just providing a wallet address is not transparent enough, as it should also be signed.

On top of that, Kureger pointed out that sharing only one address (that’s what Bitwise did) is good, but as funds are moving, the company needs to provide several more addresses. They will naturally appear as a result of rebalancing and other operations.

Another idea was that Strategy should disclose addresses with caution and not expose too much in order to prevent quantum attacks, which are theoretically possible, while many doubt that the Bitcoin network will suffer from them.

Krueger recommended using unspent Taproot and SegWit addresses for public balances. Once they are used, they should be replaced by new ones. It would mitigate quantum hacking risks.

On top of sharing the addresses, Krueger recommended deploying third-party audits to ensure the authenticity and soundness of addresses for everyone, including institutions and regulators. More than that, automated real-time cryptographic proofs could enhance transparency even further.

Addresses of other companies

Lack of transparency may give companies some space for maneuver, or at least people think that sometimes companies holding Bitcoin may cash out in secret. Some even doubt that companies like Strategy actually own the bitcoins they buy and demand public disclosure of the corporate addresses.

Well if Bitcoin is supposed to be 100% transparent where is @MicroStrategy bitcoin at? nobody seems to know.

— traderjeremy.algo (@jeremygleeson6) May 19, 2025

As of May 20, 2025, Strategy owns over 570,000 bitcoins, which makes it the biggest Bitcoin holder among companies. On May 19, it was revealed that Strategy is facing a class action lawsuit. A group of investors claimed that the company reps, including executives, were making misleading claims about Bitcoin strategy. Probably, increased transparency would have eliminated such problems before they appeared.

While companies are not in a hurry to show their Bitcoin addresses, third-party sleuths are finding these addresses and making them public. It provides people with much-needed confidence and opportunities to observe the movements of the assets. At the same time, companies may not admit that these findings are correct.

Arkham Intelligence is a very cool tool.

You can see how MSTR acquires BTC mainly from Coinbase (3137 addresses), Bitstamp (83 addresses) and NYDIG (5 addresses), and that they’re mainly stored with Fidelity.

All the BTC MicroStrategy stored with Coinbase Primed (3,269 BTC)… pic.twitter.com/toxuRfGBTG

— Radu ⚡️☯ ΙΧΘΥΣ Ω ♒︎ (@LizardWizardBTC) January 4, 2025

By the end of January 2025, Arkham Intelligence identified 96% of Strategy’s addresses. According to Arkham’s findings, most bitcoins belonging to Strategy come from Coinbase Prime and Anchorage Digital and are stored via Fidelity Digital omnibus custody.

The largest Asian Bitcoin holder, a Japanese company Metaplanet, is going to accumulate 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025 and add 21,000 BTC more in 2026. The company is famous for its consistent periodic buy-ins of Bitcoin. However, we mostly know about them from Financial Statements that don’t contain Bitcoin addresses. As of May 20, Metaplanet holds 7,800 BTC. Just like any company, except Bitwise, Metaplanet is not sharing its address information.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Video game voice actor union takes Fortnite’s Darth Vader chatbot to court

by admin May 20, 2025

Video game voice-actor union SAG-AFTRA are launching a legal case against the presence of generated AI voice-acting for Darth Vader in Epic’s battle royale Fortnite. They’re accusing the company’s subsidiary Llama Productions of using AI to “replace the work of human performers” – or at least, of replacing human performers without first haggling out terms with the union.

The AI-voiced Vader character was added to Fortnite last week, in collaboration with the family of James Earl Jones, the original voice of Darth. Track down and recruit him and you’ll be able to take turns generatively bantering with Fauxnakin. Needless to say, the addition has proven a hit among the furiously masticating hamsters of social media. Also needless to say, players have swiftly worked out how to bait DAIrth VAIder into dropping F-bombs
and slurs, though at the time of publication, Epic appear to have addressed this in a patch.

Now, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have filed an unfair labour practice charge against SkAIwalker Senior with the US National Labor Relations Board.

“We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies to allow new generations to share in the enjoyment of those legacies and renowned roles,” the union wrote in a statement. “However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games.

“Fortnite’s signatory company, Llama Productions, chose to replace the work of human performers with A.I. technology,” it continues. “Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms. As such, we have filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB against Llama Productions.”

The court document itself claims that Llama Productions have “failed and refused to bargain in good faith with the union by making unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment, without providing notice to the union or the opportunity to bargain, by utilizing AI-generated voices to replace bargaining unit work on the Interactive Program Fortnite”.

SAG-AFTRA – who represent a spectrum of workers across the media and entertainment sphere – have often gone to bat with the video games industry over the usage of human voice-acting to “train” bots, and the potential replacing of voice-acting in games with genAI. Following a lengthy negotiation over AI protections with the likes of GTA 6 publisher Take-Two and Call Of Duty household Activision, they called a strike last July in the name of “fair compensation and the right of informed consent”. The strike continues. Some video game voice and performance artists have, however, criticised SAG-AFTRA for striking deals with individual genAI companies.

All this forms part of the wider, on-going debate about the ethics and legalities of generative AI – our Electric Nightmares essay series remains a good primer. While voice actors contest the loss of work, other organisations are picking fights with the genAI biz over copyright infringement.

According to an Epic Games blog post, the Darth Vader chatbot in Fortnite makes use of two AI models – Google’s Gemini and ElevenLabs’ Flash. Gemini was recently hit by a $271 million fine over copyright breach, with France’s competition watchdog accusing the search engine company of “training” the bot with material from publishers and news agencies without notifying them. Google have pledged not to contest these facts as part of settlement proceedings.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Live updates on Gemini, Android XR, Android 16 updates and more

by admin May 20, 2025

Ready to see Google’s next big slate of AI announcements? That’s precisely what we expect to be unveiled today at Google I/O 2025, the search giant’s developer conference that kicks off today at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. Engadget will be covering it in real-time right here, via a liveblog and on-the-ground reporting from our very own Karissa Bell.

Ahead of I/O, Google already gave us some substantive details on the updated look and feel of its mobile operating system at The Android Show last week. Google included some Gemini news there as well: Its AI platform is coming to Wear OS, Android Auto and Google TV, too. But with that Android news out of the way, Google can use today’s keynote to stay laser-focused on sharing its advances on the artificial intelligence front. Expect news about how Google is using AI in search to be featured prominently, along with some other surprises, like the possible debut of an AI-powered Pinterest alternative.

The company made it clear during its Android showcase that Android XR, its mixed reality platform, will also be featured during I/O. That could include the mixed reality headset Google and Samsung are collaborating on, or, as teased at the end of The Android Show, smart glasses with Google’s Project Astra built-in.

As usual, there will be a developer-centric keynote following the main presentation (4:30PM ET / 1:30PM PT), and while we’ll be paying attention to make sure we don’t miss out any news there, our liveblog will predominantly focus on the headliner.

You can watch Google’s keynote in the embedded livestream above or on the company’s YouTube channel, and follow our liveblog embedded below starting at 1PM ET today. Note that the company plans to hold breakout sessions through May 21 on a variety of different topics relevant to developers.

Live4 updates

Tue, May 20, 2025 at 7:25 AM PDT
Glad to see Karissa made it. Traffic on I/O day is always dicey. But I’d recognize that dusty parking lot anywhere.
Tue, May 20, 2025 at 7:23 AM PDT
A woman holding up a badge that says “Karissa Bell, Engadget” with a red label above the name saying “Press.” Behind her is a tent in a large parking lot. (Karissa Bell for Engadget)
Karissa has not only arrived safely at Shoreline Amphitheater, but has also acquired her badge! Looks like it’s going to be lovely weather for the show, and probably a good idea to lather on sunscreen if you’re there!
Tue, May 20, 2025 at 7:22 AM PDT
Our senior reporter Karissa Bell will be reporting live from Google I/O, while senior reviewer Sam Rutherford will be leading this liveblog, backed up by AI reporter Igor Bonifacic. I’ll be around for support, logistics, vibes and snacks. The show kicks off at 1pm ET, but as you can see, we couldn’t wait to start. There’s been a lot, honestly.
Tue, May 20, 2025 at 7:00 AM PDT
Hello everyone! Welcome to our liveblog of Google’s annual I/O developer conference. I feel as if our liveblog tool has gotten more than its fair share of use these last two weeks. If it all feels very familiar to you too, that’s likely because we had two liveblogged events just last week, one of which was of the company’s Android showcase

Update, May 20 2025, 9:45AM ET: This story has been updated to include a liveblog of the event.

Update, May 19 2025, 1:01PM ET: This story has been updated to include details on the developer keynote taking place later in the day, as well as tweak wording throughout for accuracy with the new timestamp.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments