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As Meta asks people to trust its AI with more of their everyday lives, Mark Zuckerberg used his Connect 2026 keynote to outline new protections for the information those products collect.

For Muse, Meta’s personal AI agent, that includes an upcoming system called Muse Confidential VM. Each Muse already runs on a dedicated computer in the cloud, known as Muse Secure VM. The planned confidential version adds encryption designed to prevent even Meta from accessing the user’s data.

The distinction matters for an assistant designed to work across connected accounts and handle tasks such as sending emails, booking travel, and shopping.

Zuckerberg also addressed privacy on Meta’s smart glasses, pointing to safeguards he said were built into the devices from the beginning. Those include an indicator light that turns on when someone captures a photo or video, and a feature that disables video recording if the light is tampered with.

Meta is now developing private processing for certain AI features on the glasses. Zuckerberg described a protected server environment where personal data would be inaccessible to others, including Meta, using technology also employed for WhatsApp.

He said the feature would roll out soon, starting with private translations.

The announcements address a growing question for Meta: how to offer increasingly personal AI features without asking users to accept increasingly broad access to their information. For glasses, there’s another audience to convince, too — the people on the other side of the camera.

Sam Altman of OpenAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic told the Security Council that international cooperation was needed to ensure that A.I. remains under human control.

Flock Safety, the largest U.S. seller of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, continues to draw national scrutiny. That debate now includes the halls of Congress, as a Senate Judiciary subcommittee examined how the company's data is secured, searched, and shared.

Flock's network of privately owned and operated cameras and its nationwide database have drawn bipartisan concern over the past several months. Beyond mass surveillance concerns, critics have pointed to incidents of false positives, cooperation with federal agents on immigration enforcement, and even tracking women seeking abortions across state lines.

The Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, chaired by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) as ranking member, heard from five witnesses: a Florida woman wrongfully jailed in a case that began with a Flock camera image, an Arizona sheriff who ended his county's Flock contract, a security researcher, and policy attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Institute for Justice.

SEE ALSO: Flock offers workers voluntary buyouts amid backlash

No one from Flock testified. Invitations were also extended to Axon, Motorola, and Verkada. Flock's CEO, Garrett Langley, sent the subcommittee a letter instead of appearing.

The note, read aloud by Hawley, stated: "Flock acknowledges it conducts very little oversight of client searches and instead relies on its clients to police themselves. The underlying search records are owned and controlled by each customer agency. Flock clients control the data retention. Until last year, Flock customers could enter the reason for a search into a free text field."

The absence was notable, though not necessarily unusual for this kind of proceeding. Wednesday's session was a legislative hearing, designed to gather facts on an issue rather than to investigate a specific company's conduct. Hearings like this can seem performative, with senators often asking questions they already know the answers to so that expert witnesses can state them on the record.

However, if the subcommittee moves to an investigative hearing, lawmakers would have the power to subpoena Flock's CEO rather than simply invite him, and they could question him about the claims already on the record. Despite the absences, the concerns put on the record point to some key takeaways about Flock and its partnership with law enforcement.

1. The biggest gap may be in how police use the data

Much of the hearing treated Flock as the source of the harm. But in many of the cases witnesses described, even though Flock's cameras gathered the data, law enforcement officers still made the decisions.

Case in point, the committee heard the testimony of Lindsey Isaacs, a young woman in Florida whose Dodge Durango was photographed by Flock cameras and later linked by investigators to a crash that killed three people in October 2025. Six months later, she was in a jail cell charged with vehicular homicide. It took 13 days and photos of her undamaged, impounded SUV to get her out.

According to her testimony, the Flock camera placed her vehicle two to three miles from the crash scene. Investigators were searching for a black Durango. Witnesses had described a maroon one, and 911 callers had provided a partial plate. Troopers impounded her SUV and said it had collision damage she could not see. Months later, a warrant was issued anyway, and she was denied bond. The case fell apart only after her attorney showed the court photos of the vehicle sitting undamaged in the impound lot. Prosecutors declined to charge her, and another person was later charged.

Sen. Durbin raised this point directly, questioning why the investigation moved forward when the vehicle itself showed no signs of a crash.

The same pattern appeared in the discussion of how officers search the network. Per Langley's letter to Hawley, the search records belong to the customer agencies; those agencies set their own retention rules, and Flock does little oversight of individual searches and relies on clients to police themselves. And until recently, law enforcement officers could type in reasons for a search in a free-text field — though Hawley pointed out examples such as "search" and "lol" appearing in those boxes.

Alasdair Whitney, a witness from the Institute for Justice, told the committee that the organization cataloged more than 240 incidents of ALPR misuse, including officers tracking current and former partners. In Norfolk, Virginia, he wrote in his opening testimony, no one audited hundreds of thousands of searches until a lawsuit forced the city to. In a Virginia survey of agencies after the state passed limits on ALPR use, many agencies admitted they weren't following the law, and nearly a third didn't respond at all.

Whitney also cited a California department that found that most of its stolen-vehicle and felony alerts over two years were due to misread plates. Later in the hearing, Whitney described what he called "side door" access to Flock's database, in which federal agents ask local officers to run searches that state law would not allow federal agencies to run directly.

When Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) asked whether Flock shares data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ACLU senior policy counsel Chad Marlow said the company does not provide data to ICE directly. He argued that any local officer with access could run searches on the federal agents' behalf, with little to stop it.

All in all, the testimony reveals several truths about Flock's camera network and its relationship with law enforcement. First, cameras flagging the wrong car is unmistakably a failure. But second, stopping a family at gunpoint without first checking the plate is a decision someone makes. Using the database to stalk an ex is a decision someone makes. Skirting state laws to give information to federal immigration officers is a decision someone makes. Putting a young woman in jail for vehicular homicide despite evidence to the contrary is a decision someone makes.

None of the policy proposals presented at the hearing focused on officer discipline or on the systemic failure of law enforcement to properly do their jobs. Although it must be said that the Institute for Justice's model bill does include mandatory supervisor approval, 30-day audits, and suspended database access for violators.

2. The data is only as safe as the weakest camera

The second takeaway is about security. Security researcher Benn Jordan, who was present as a witness, described research he conducted with fellow researcher Jon Gaines, who has published 55 vulnerabilities related to Flock's systems.

Data from American Community Media states that Flock's network of 120,000 cameras has conducted 20 billion scans monthly across the country. A database of where millions of people drive is valuable to more than the police. According to Jordan, a common camera model could be taken over in under a minute by someone with physical access. He also said he found exposed administrative interfaces on more than 60 of the company's newer pan-tilt-zoom cameras, and Flock law enforcement accounts listed for sale on a dark web marketplace.

Hawley asked Jordan about a statement attributed to Flock's CEO that the company had never been hacked. "Flock has never been hacked. Ever," read the quote that Langley sent to a Staunton, VA police chief.

Jordan said that was false. He testified that the cameras run on a modified, older version of Android and aren't held to federal cybersecurity standards. Jordan also said that he had been able to make out the contents of a person's phone screen in a camera image. Flock has said in past statements that its license plate readers capture vehicle details and do not use facial recognition. Flock's system uses purpose-built, high-resolution cameras to capture moving objects instead of recording video.

Whitney added more recent examples. Last December, internal materials showed Flock sending U.S. camera images to overseas gig workers to train its AI. Last week, hackers reported pulling a camera off a pole and recovering an encryption key stored on the device itself. He noted that in a city like Norfolk, home to major naval installations, a record of service members' daily movements is exactly what a foreign intelligence service would want.

Jordan did say Flock recently invited him and other researchers to review its systems. While there hadn't been time for a full review, he said the company seemed to be taking security more seriously than a year ago.

3. Flock is the face of the problem, not the whole of it

The third takeaway is that mass license plate collection is neither new nor unique to Flock.

Private plate-scanning networks have operated for more than a decade, largely through the repossession industry. A 2015 federal appeals court decision described cameras sold to repossession companies and mounted on tow trucks, automatically logging plates with the date, time, and GPS location, with the data then sold to auto finance and insurance companies. It's similar to a scheme Flock wanted to pursue through Uber and Lyft drivers.

A 2014 ABC7 Los Angeles investigation reported that companies outfitting repo cars with these cameras were feeding the scans into private databases and selling them without drivers' knowledge. That network, Digital Recognition Network, is now owned by Motorola. According to the ACLU, it claims to collect 500 million plate reads a month, makes the data available to law enforcement customers for an added fee, and is "subject to no apparent data retention policy."

Witnesses at the hearing warned against treating Flock as the only target. Jordan said Axon and Motorola are rolling out the same kinds of features Flock is being criticized for. Marlow pointed to Denver, which he said dropped Flock and immediately signed with Axon.

However, while all parties present were concerned about Flock cameras, there was a disagreement over how surveillance camera laws should be written. Marlow wants Congress to bar any federally funded law enforcement agency from using ALPRs at all. Meanwhile, Whitney urged a warrant requirement for location data more than two hours old, a seven-day retention cap, and conditions on federal grant money. Real-time alerts for stolen cars and missing children would stay in place.

Speaking as a security researcher, Jordan called for mandatory independent security inspections of surveillance vendors and a broad federal privacy law. Finally, Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple supported basic plate reading and asked for statutory limits on AI-driven tracking. Teeple, when questioned during the hearing, said that he dropped Flock partly because he believed the company misled him about its capabilities.

New Jersey officials said that the natural gas-powered generators, each the size of a tractor-trailer, were operating without permits.

Everyone has those tasks they keep putting off because dealing with them sounds worse than living with the problem for another day. Maybe it’s chasing an airline credit, sitting on hold with customer service, or figuring out how you’re going to pack your entire apartment before the movers arrive.

That’s the pitch behind Meta Muse AI, the new agentic AI assistant that launched Sept. 8. It’s designed to carry out tasks on your behalf, from booking travel to sending emails, using the apps and accounts you choose to connect.

"Meet Muse, the personal agent that helps you get things done," Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an Instagram announcement.

People are already putting that promise to the test and have been "blown away." One traveler says Muse helped secure a $250 credit after a flight delay, while another had it wait on hold and call them once an actual person was ready to talk. Users online are sharing ways they've been "musemaxxing," delegating more and more to Meta's new AI. Tech creator Peter Yang even called it "the best personal agent I've tried to date." It's also been called OpenClaw for normies (OpenClaw is the AI agent that made waves in early 2026).

The excitement has spread far beyond social media. Muse has climbed to the top of Apple’s App Store, and Meta shares jumped more than 11 percent on Sept. 21 as Wells Fargo raised its price target.

People are collecting these experiments, too. For example, Use of Muse is a searchable directory of user-shared examples, from recovering money to handling everyday errands, with links back to the original posts. AI Agents Library’s guide to Muse also offers practical task ideas and sample prompts.

We've rounded up some standout stories and included suggested prompts to help you try similar tasks. The prompts are either from these directories or use the same approach as the prompt examples given.

Your to-do list had a good run!

A word of warning: All AI agents carry some security risks, including Meta Muse AI, so be thoughtful before turning over control of apps, devices, and financial information.

1. Getting compensation for a seriously delayed flight This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

After a seven-hour flight delay, investor and creator Ejaaz Ahamadeen said he asked Muse to file for compensation. Five minutes later, he reported having a $250 credit in his Delta account. He also said it found and rebooked a flight and replied to a support email. "it just figured everything out," he wrote, adding that Muse "feels like magic."

His screenshots show Muse AI checking alternative routes into Maui, prioritizing his preferred airlines, and gathering the details to submit a complaint.

If you’ve ever spent a flight delay wishing someone else would deal with the airline for you, you might finally be able to hand that headache over.

A prompt to try: "My flight [flight number] on [date] was delayed by [length of delay]. Check whether I qualify for compensation, a refund, or an airline credit, and prepare the request for my review. Also find alternative flights to [destination], prioritizing [preferred airlines]. Ask before submitting a claim or changing my booking."

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters today.

2. Outsourcing the hold music This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Entrepreneur Matt Van Horn described asking Muse to call Southwest, wait on hold, and call him once a representative was available.

"It worked! There was real human waiting for me," he wrote. "Grail I’ve been dying for unlocked."

Many X users replied, asking follow-up questions, like did he need a separate voice service? How did Muse know where to reach him? Van Horn said he was using Meta’s built-in calling feature and the callback setup was straightforward, "I gave it my number lol."

There is a catch: Van Horn said the built-in calling feature is still in beta, and not everyone has access. One commenter said they’d planned an entire call with Muse, only to learn when they said "go" that calling wasn’t enabled for their account. Van Horn replied, "Sorry!! Soon," though he didn’t offer a timeline.

If you do have access, getting on with your day while Muse waits for a representative sounds pretty appealing. As one commenter put it: "Normally we wait for the customer service rep. You had the rep wait for you."

A prompt to try: "If calling is enabled for my account, call [company] about [issue], wait on hold, and call me at [phone number] when a representative is ready. Let me know upfront if you can’t make the call or connect me."

3. Finding a bar that matches a very specific vibe This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Founder Millie Yang had a specific kind of night out in mind: trendy cocktail bars in New York City with a similar feel to Osamil Upstairs. She asked Muse to search Instagram for places that fit a group of five.

The screenshots she provided show Muse narrowing in on two options: Barbam, which it described as an intimate Korean speakeasy with jazz and elaborate cocktails, and Seoul Salon, a livelier, neon-lit Korean cocktail lounge. It explained why each might work, pointing to Barbam’s atmosphere as the closer match to Osamil and Seoul Salon’s reservation options as useful for her group.

Then Yang asked, "Show me vids," to which Muse returned links to reels featuring a basement tour, a walkthrough, and cocktail close-ups, giving her something to judge beyond its own descriptions. It also said it had added both venues to the evening’s availability check, bringing the search to eight spots.

The connection to Reels is what Yang found to be most helpful. If your usual planning process involves bouncing between Instagram, a map, and reservation sites while sending options to the group chat, this use case could be for you.

"Muse is IG search on steroids and soon people are going to realize how insanely useful this is," she writes on X. "It’s already got me spending more time on the app than I expected."

A prompt to try: "Search Instagram for cocktail bars in [neighborhood or city] with a similar atmosphere to [favorite bar]. Find options for [number of people] on [date and time], show me reels of the spaces and drinks, and check current opening hours and reservation availability. Let me choose before booking."

4. Making a move feel less overwhelming

CNN’s Lisa Eadicicco tested Muse on a task with plenty of moving parts, literally: packing for a new apartment.

"I told Muse what I still needed to pack, how much time I had before moving and that I wanted to pack in short spurts," she wrote.

Muse turned those constraints into a daily packing schedule, including estimates for how long to spend each day. It also suggested setting aside a bag of essentials for the first night.

Eadicicco’s broader test also exposed limitations. Muse recommended two date-night spots that had closed years earlier, and it told her it couldn’t directly message Marketplace sellers despite advertising that capability. Meta told CNN that Muse could negotiate with sellers within parameters set by the user.

A prompt to try: "I’m moving on [date] and still need to pack [rooms or belongings]. Make me a daily packing schedule with sessions of no more than [number] minutes. Start with things I won’t need before the move, and include a first-night essentials checklist."

5. Finding something to wear

Meta is pitching Muse as a shopping companion, too. An Instagram ad on my feed calls it "your style scout" and says it "watches trends, builds complete looks, and finds the pieces that fit your style and your budget."

An ad pop-up on my Instagram. Credit: Screenshot/Olivia Tauber

That could sound pretty appealing if you’ve ever opened a shopping app looking for one outfit and emerged an hour later with 23 tabs and no decisions. The ad promises to help narrow things down around what you like and what you want to spend, though it doesn’t show a completed shopping experience. (Amazon has banned Meta Muse AI from making purchases.)

A prompt to try: "Help me put together an outfit for [occasion] with a total budget of [amount]. I like [styles or brands] and already own [pieces]. Find options in my size, check availability, and show me the complete looks and prices before I buy anything."

6. Figuring out which subscriptions are still taking your money This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Nicolas Bustamante from Microsoft reported that Meta's Muse AI has already saved him $200 by canceling subscriptions and services he no longer needed. Podcaster Armand Domalewski used it for the same thing, adding "muse is genuinely magic."

If you’ve ever spotted a charge and thought, “Wait, I’m still paying for that?” you already have a starting point. Those free trials and subscriptions you meant to cancel can add up, especially when you keep putting off going through them.

A prompt to try: "Review the statements I provide for recurring subscriptions. List the amounts and renewal dates, flag possible duplicates, and ask me which ones I want to cancel."

7. Getting your personal information off data-broker sites

Ever searched your name and found your address on a website you’ve never heard of? Threads user @andru had Muse complete 90 data-broker opt-outs.

Doing that yourself can mean working through dozens of sites, each with its own removal process. It’s the kind of project you might start enthusiastically and abandon around website number four. (Completing an opt-out doesn’t guarantee the information is gone permanently.)

"It books, buys, tracks your spending, and files the boring stuff while you just...live!"

A prompt to try: "Find data-broker sites listing my personal information and help me request its removal. Show me the matches first, ask before sharing any additional personal information, and track which requests are submitted, confirmed, or need follow-up."

8. Watching for price drops after you book a trip

You’ve booked the flight and hotel, closed the tabs, and moved on—only to wonder later whether the price has dropped. According to the Use of Muse directory, Threads user @adambader reported saving $600 by using Muse to monitor booked flights and hotels for lower prices.

It’s a convenient idea for anyone who likes getting a deal but doesn’t want checking prices to become a daily habit. Whether changing a booking actually saves money depends on cancellation rules and fees, so those need to be part of the comparison.

A prompt to try: "Monitor the flights and hotels in my bookings for price drops. Check whether I can get the lower rate under each booking’s terms, including any change or cancellation fees. Alert me when there’s a real saving, and ask before changing anything."

8. Watching for price drops after you book a trip

You’ve booked the flight and hotel, closed the tabs, and moved on—only to wonder later whether the price has dropped. According to the Use of Muse directory, Threads user @adambader reported saving $600 by using Muse to monitor booked flights and hotels for lower prices.

It’s a convenient idea for anyone who likes getting a deal but doesn’t want checking prices to become a daily habit. Whether changing a booking actually saves money depends on cancellation rules and fees, so those need to be part of the comparison.

A prompt to try: “Monitor the flights and hotels in my bookings for price drops. Check whether I can get the lower rate under each booking’s terms, including any change or cancellation fees. Alert me when there’s a real saving, and ask before changing anything.”

10. Comparing insurance without spending your evening gathering quotes

Founder Joseph Devoy reported that switching auto insurance with Muse saved $3,500 a year.

If you’ve been renewing the same policy because shopping around sounds like a project, that’s a reason to take another look. The important part is comparing what each policy covers alongside the price.

A prompt to try: "Compare my current auto insurance policy with quotes for equivalent coverage. Show me the annual premiums, deductibles, coverage limits, and exclusions side by side. Ask before submitting my personal information, and wait for my approval before switching or canceling anything."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. There are still some closed doors

Before you hand over your entire shopping list, there’s a catch: the websites Muse visits don’t always welcome it.

Mashable reported on Sept. 22 that Amazon was blocking Muse from shopping, with users seeing warnings that access by an unauthorized AI agent violated its terms. Amazon told the publication it had asked Meta to remove Amazon from the experience. It also alleged that Muse failed to identify itself and collect users’ credentials and account data, raising security concerns.

Other companies are moving toward partnerships. Alongside Instacart’s announcement, Expedia described forthcoming support for travel planning through Muse, while PayPal announced plans to enable shopping and checkout through the agent across its merchants.

For now, what you can hand over depends on the features available to your account and the services involved. Start with one task you’d be happy to stop doing yourself — and see how far Muse gets.

OpenAI has been busy courting creators, and its latest hire suggests it wants to give them more reasons to stick around. The company behind ChatGPT is bringing in Patreon co-founder Sam Yam to lead its Creator Product division, recruiting someone who has spent more than a decade helping creators build businesses around their audiences.

Yam is joining alongside two former Patreon executives: Drew Rowny, who led product, and Shannon Ma, who led engineering, as Yam announced on his X account.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Together, the three execs bring experience building tools for people whose livelihoods depend on making things and persuading fans to support them. Yam co-founded Patreon with musician Jack Conte in 2013, helping popularize memberships that let creators earn money directly from their communities.

That makes the move interesting beyond the usual executive shuffle. OpenAI is hiring people who understand what creators need to run a business, from developing paid offerings to maintaining relationships with fans. Their arrival raises questions about how those ideas might show up in OpenAI’s products.

SEE ALSO: Why is OpenAI losing so many executives?

We may not have to wait long for a clearer picture of what's in store. Yam pointed to OpenAI’s upcoming DevDay for a preview of its creator products. The event takes place Sept. 29 in San Francisco.

The hire fits into a broader effort to get closer to creators and the audiences they influence. In February, OpenAI hired Charles Porch, Instagram’s longtime global partnerships executive, to lead global creative partnerships. In April, it acquired tech talk show TBPN, a deal I explored in my newsletter, Fan Mail, as an example of the value companies place on access to influential audiences. Then came this summer’s luxury influencer retreat in New York’s Hudson Valley.

As Mashable reported, that trip also showed how quickly creator outreach can become contentious. Attendees faced questions about AI’s environmental footprint, its effect on creative work, and why they had agreed to promote the company. Some defended the opportunity to speak with the people developing the technology; others seemed surprised by the backlash.

SEE ALSO: OpenAI’s first brand trip puts influencers in the hot seat

That’s part of the challenge awaiting Yam and his colleagues. Creators are potential customers for AI tools, but they’re also among the people asking what the technology means for the value of their work. A useful product could make a stronger case than a polished brand trip. We’ll get a better sense of what that looks like next week.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

SAVE $400.01: As of Sept. 23, the Bluetti Elite 300 Portable Power Station is on sale at Amazon for $1,098.99. That's down 27% from its original $1,499 list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Bluetti Bluetti Elite 300 Portable Power Station $1,098.99 at Amazon
$1,499 Save $400.01   Get Deal

If you’ve been eyeing a heavy-duty battery generator for storm season or road trips, this is easily one of the best prices we’ve seen on this unit. Amazon just knocked $400 off the Bluetti Elite 300 portable power station, bringing it down from its usual $1,499 list price to a far more palatable $1,098.99.

Most power stations packing over 3,000 watt-hours of capacity look like miniature refrigerators and weigh a ton. The Elite 300 shrinks that footprint by about 59%, fitting 3,014Wh of juice into a frame that’s closer in size to standard 2kWh units. It’s built around long-lasting LiFePO4 battery tech and delivers 2,400 watts of continuous output, with headroom for up to 4,800-watt power surges.

SEE ALSO: Prime Day deals on power stations are already live: Shop the best deals on Jackery, Anker, Bluetti, and more

If you’re taking it on the road, it’s RV-ready right out of the box. Instead of making you mess with clunky adapters, it features a built-in TT-30 RV plug and a heavy-duty 12V/30A DC outlet. That lets you run your camper's 12V fridge, water pump, and diesel heater directly off the generator while you're off-grid.

You don't have to sit around all day waiting for it to charge, either. It plugs into a standard wall outlet, solar panels, or your car, and can charge up to 80% in just 78 minutes. You can also track your battery life, toggle outputs, and change settings right from your phone via the Bluetti app over WiFi or Bluetooth. And if the power grid goes down, it switches over to battery backup in 10 milliseconds. That’s fast enough that your WiFi router, laptop, or CPAP machine won't even reboot when the lights flicker.

If you want a portable generator that can run essential home appliances through a multi-day power outage without taking up your entire trunk, this is a steal. Grab the Bluetti Elite 300 for $1,098.99 on Amazon before this deal disappears.

TL;DR: Get 20TB of end-to-end encrypted Scramble Cloud storage for $349.95, with lifetime access, private sharing, WebDAV, and CLI support.

Opens in a new window Credit: Scramble Cloud Scramble Cloud Storage Lifetime Subscription (20TB) $349.95
$1,440 Save $1,090.05   Get Deal

The best cloud storage might be the kind you barely have to think about. Scramble Cloud gives you 20TB of storage for life for $349.95 (reg. $1,440), so you can give a seriously large collection of photos, videos, backups, and work files a long-term home.

And 20TB is a lot of breathing room. Scramble is designed for people with serious storage needs, whether you’re backing up family memories, keeping a growing video collection, or simply someone who believes deleting files is a problem for Future You. You can use it on desktop or mobile device.

Your files are protected with end-to-end encryption and encrypted before leaving your device. Its zero-knowledge architecture keeps you in control of access, while encrypted private links let you share selected files with other people.

Scramble also gives you several ways to reach all that storage. Use the web app from virtually any device, mount Scramble Drive in your operating system’s file explorer with WebDAV, or manage files using its command-line tool. You can preview files, stream encrypted videos, and view Word and Excel files from your browser.

For collaboration, you can create encrypted groups with permissions or use Team Link to share files with internal or external partners without requiring registration.

There are two limits worth considering before committing 20TB worth of your digital life: individual files can’t exceed 5GB, and uploads are capped at 70GB per day. Those restrictions make this better suited to steadily building a large archive than dumping massive files into the cloud all at once.

Get 20TB of Scramble Cloud without another recurring storage bill to remember for just $349.95 (reg. $1,440).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Learn new things in your spare time with this five-year subscription to Nibble All-Around Knowledge App, on sale for just $49.99 (reg. $449.95).

Opens in a new window Credit: Nibble Nibble All-Around Knowledge App (5-Year Subscription) $49.99
$449.95 Save $399.96   Get Deal

Your phone doesn’t have to be a black hole of time-wasting. If you’ve got the right apps, you can turn your spare time into something way more productive. The Nibble All-Around Knowledge App serves up bite-sized lessons that help you learn something new during your morning commute, on your lunch break, or in line at the grocery store.

Right now, you can snag a five-year subscription to Nibble All-Around Knowledge App for just $49.99.

Make your phone time more productive

If you think you don’t have time to learn something new, think again. The Nibble All-Around Knowledge app was designed for today’s busy schedules, offering bite-sized lessons that teach you new things in just ten minutes.

Work on your self-improvement on the go with these handy audio episodes you can listen to anytime. The app is filled with lessons on over 20 topics, from art and AI to history and personal finance, so you can pick something you’ve been meaning to dive into.

Nibble’s flexible learning paths let you choose between a guided learning journey or hopping around depending on your mood. After you listen to lessons, explore the topic further with interactive AI experiences, such as chatting with historical figures. There are also learning games to see how much you’ve retained.

Nibble offers app and web access, and your account tracks your progress so you can access it easily across devices. This five-year subscription gives you unlimited library access, and you’ll never run out of lessons thanks to new content being added every month.

Snag a five-year subscription to Nibble All-Around Knowledge App for just $49.99.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Microsoft is giving its compact Surface devices a subtle refresh. Today at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, the U.S. tech giant announced the Surface Laptop 13-inch (2nd edition) and Surface Pro 12-inch (2nd edition) with the Snapdragon X2 Plus chip. The latter will support a new AI-powered drawing and annotating tool called Microsoft Ink Canvas.

Externally, both new Surface devices gain 25 percent brighter touchscreen displays and new black color options. They're otherwise identical to their predecessors from spring 2025.

The updated Surface Laptop 13-inch and Surface Pro 12-inch will hit the market on Oct. 13, starting at $1,199.99 and $1,149.99, respectively. (Preorders are now live at Best Buy, B&H Photo, and the Microsoft Store.) They'll be joined by a redesigned Surface Mouse with built-in haptic feedback and a customizable action button, which will start at $79.99.

Microsoft Surface Laptop, 13-inch (Snapdragon X2 Plus, 16GB RAM, 256GB UFS) $1,199.99 at Best Buy
  Pre-order Here at Best Buy Pre-order Here at B&H Photo Video Pre-order Here at Microsoft Store US Microsoft Surface Pro, 12-inch (Snapdragon X2 Plus, 16GB RAM, 256GB UFS) $1,149.99 at Best Buy
  Pre-order Here at Best Buy Pre-order Here at B&H Photo Video Pre-order Here at Microsoft Store US

Notably, both new Surface devices start with 16GB of RAM. This summer, Microsoft downgraded the base configurations of their first-gen counterparts to 8GB of RAM to lower their prices under $1,000 amid the global memory shortage.

SEE ALSO: Memory wars: Microsoft announces big price increases for Surface laptops

When asked by Mashable whether the company will continue to sell those older models as budget options, a Microsoft rep declined to comment on the record. They were no longer available for purchase through the Microsoft Store at the time of writing, but third-party retailers like Amazon and Best Buy still had them in stock.

The Surface Laptop 13-inch and Surface Pro 12-inch are smaller, lighter, and more affordable versions of Microsoft's flagship Surface devices. In June, the company introduced the Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Pro 12 with Snapdragon X2 Plus and X2 Elite chips.

Same look, new chip The Surface Pro 12-inch (2nd edition) will come pre-loaded with Microsoft's new "Ink Canvas" AI feature. Credit: Microsoft

The X2 Plus is a mid-range processor that will give the new compact Surface devices "18 percent more efficient battery performance, over 60 percent faster graphics, and 95 percent faster on-device AI" than their predecessors, said Brett Ostrum, corporate vice president of Surface devices, in a blog post. For reference, last year's inaugural Surface Laptop 13-inch and Surface Pro 12-inch ran on the original Snapdragon X Plus chip from 2024.

The X2 Plus will also power Ink Canvas on the Surface Pro 12-inch. Users will be able to handwrite prompts for Windows 11's Copilot assistant directly on the device's touchscreen with a Surface Slim Pen (sold separately for $129.99). Ostrum described Ink Canvas as "a pen-first experience for sketching, annotating, generating images, and summarizing text."

Ink Canvas will come pre-installed on the new Surface Pro 12-inch and be available for download on other compatible Windows devices starting Oct. 13.

Microsoft Surface Laptop, 13-inch (2nd edition) specs Credit: Microsoft

• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus

• GPU: Qualcomm Adreno

• Battery life: Up to 22.5 hours of video playback

• Memory: 16GB or 24GB RAM

• Storage: 256GB or 512GB UFS

• Screen size and tech: 13-inch touchscreen display with 1,920 x 1,280 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and 60Hz refresh rate

• Webcam: 1080p

• Ports: Two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, and a headphone jack

• Wireless connectivity: WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4

• Dimensions: 11.25 x 8.43 x 0.61 inches

• Weight: 2.7 pounds

• Chassis material: Aluminum

• Colors: Violet, platinum, and black

• Full-sized backlit keyboard and Precision touchpad

Microsoft Surface Pro, 12-inch (2nd edition) specs Credit: Microsoft

• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus

• GPU: Qualcomm Adreno

• Battery life: Up to 15.5 hours of video playback

• Memory: 16GB or 24GB RAM

• Storage: 256GB or 512GB UFS

• Screen size and tech: 12-inch touchscreen display with 2,196 x 1,464 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, and 90Hz refresh rate

• Cameras: 1080p front camera and 10MP rear camera

• Ports: Two USB-C ports and Surface Pro 12-inch Keyboard connector port

• Wireless connectivity: WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4

• Dimensions: 10.8 x 7.47 x 0.3 inches

• Weight: 1.5 pounds

• Chassis material: Aluminum

• Colors: Violet, platinum, and black

• Stylus and keyboard sold separately; has built-in storage for Surface Slim Pen

Microsoft Surface Mouse specs Credit: Microsoft

• Inputs: Left, right, and middle click support with customizable action button and mechanical scroll wheel

• Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth 6.0; up to three devices

• Wireless range: 32.8 feet in open area and 16.4 feet in office setting

• Sensor: 1,000dpi (400dpi to 2,400dpi adjustable)

• Exterior material: Silicone

• Colors: Platinum and black

UPDATE: Sep. 23, 2026, 5:24 p.m. EDT This story was updated with a response from Microsoft and links to the new Surface devices' preorder listings.

The nightlife minutiae of a small town in Massachusetts may not seem like traditional fodder for a 24-hour news cycle. But turn that drama into a more-than-1,500-word Boston Globe article, sprinkled with apéritifs for online discourse? Well, that's a recipe for virality.

That's what happened when the Globe reported on a recent public skirmish between community members and the owners of Last Ditch Bar and Arts Venue, a lesbian bar and event space in Greenfield, a town of just 17,000 people.

SEE ALSO: YouTube's microdrama boom is getting bigger

The Last Ditch is one of just 36 lesbian bars in the U.S., as chronicled by the Lesbian Bar Project. It's a nightlife outlier amid a post-COVID bar and club scene that has had to reckon with a decline in public socialization — let alone one that has addressed the alarming decline of number of lesbian bars across the country long before the global pandemic.

But the bar's reputation as a gathering place for Greenfield's sapphic community is now marred by a dramatic series of events that started with a single Instagram post.

The Aug. 31 alert to customers began as an explanation of the venue's updated mask policy. Where the space used to require KN-95 masks at all times, Last Ditch was moving towards more mask-less events — specifically opening up Saturday nights to maskless customers. The response from commenters online was a no-holds-barred flurry of irate messages, accusations of ableism and racism, and even calls for violence from former customers who said their previously safe space had been compromised.

View this post on Instagram

From there, the situation spun out of control, chronicled by the Globe as a series of apologies, retractions, public meetings, and online debates that set a group of COVID-conscious collectives against a fractured bar leadership.

The quotes and comments referenced in the article were sure to get attention: Some Last Ditch patrons referred to the Saturday night change as a "mass disabling event" and a "eugenicist" attack. "People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience," wrote another commenter.

The internet responds to the Last Ditch effort

Like the rabid commenters and enraged community the feature profiles, the internet couldn't be normal about the story's increasingly bizarre anecdotes and comments from the Last Ditch's opposition.

Users called it possibly the best reporting of the year, some of their lives. Screenshots of users' favorite enraged comments — like "one had enrolled in clown school" (a Last Ditch owner is currently enrolled in clown school) and "I hope your venue gets firebombed" — have proliferated online.

Within 24 hours, the story had become 2026's "Cat Person" or "Bad Art Friend."

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But percolating throughout the humor-filled posts is unabashed, homophobic commentary on queer and disabled communities. Quotes of the Globe's reporting included images of staff and customers ripped from the bar's social media pages, posted alongside unwarranted commentary on their appearances. Some took the opportunity to attack liberal and leftist ideologies at large, with one user calling the Last Ditch's initial Instagram post — not the response it engendered — an example of "intergalactic woke batcrapitude."

It's not the first time a lesbian space has been turned into fodder for a bored internet intent on turning LGBTQ people into the butt of the joke or a vessel for a larger social reckoning. In 2024, for example, the saga of a TikTok influencer and New York City's Cubbyhole ignited a widespread debate about the sanctity of queer spaces.

Regardless, the Globe has benefited from its viral tale, allegedly gaining more than 1,000 subscribers after it went live. The Last Ditch may also capture some new customers thanks to its newfound notoriety.

"We started this project as a small group of friends with a burning desire to keep unapologetically queer spaces alive in Western Mass," wrote Last Ditch leadership in an Instagram plea from April 20. "Not to make money, not to garner notoriety. Just to maintain, expand, and serve our queer community."

As Xi Jinping visits President Trump in Washington, his country lags behind the United States on A.I. development in key areas — but Beijing has advantages elsewhere.

People around the world are largely optimistic about artificial intelligence, according to a new Gallup poll. At the same time, a majority of respondents reported they've never actually used the new technology.

The Gallup-Microsoft AI survey, published Sept. 23 as part of the polling company's ongoing research with Microsoft, found that positive feelings about AI outweigh negative ones in 34 of the first 37 countries to complete fieldwork this year. The United States, Egypt, and Palestine were the only exceptions. Gallup says the study will eventually cover 140 countries.

SEE ALSO: Grieving people prefer AI bots that speak as dead loved ones, study suggests

Across the 37 countries, 72 percent of AI-aware adults reported at least one positive emotion toward the technology, compared with 41 percent who reported at least one negative emotion. Curiosity was the most common response, with a median of 64 percent saying AI makes them feel curious. Worry was the most common negative emotion, at a median of 32 percent.

Views on AI's broader impact were also mostly positive. In 29 countries, more people said AI would mostly help their country than harm it. The contrast between the United States and China was particularly revealing: 93 percent of Chinese respondents said AI will help their country. The United States ranked near the bottom, at 36 percent, just above Egypt and Bangladesh.

Gallup noted that optimism doesn't always track with usage. In Nigeria, for example, 68 percent of AI-aware adults expect AI to help the country, although only 20 percent have used it.

In the United States, a Pew Research Center AI survey published in September 2025 found that 62 percent of Americans interact with AI several times a week, including 31 percent who do so several times a day or "almost constantly."

Gallup's poll also found low trust in AI accuracy, and as Mashable has reported, AI hallucinations and inaccuracies remain a stubborn problem. A median of 36 percent of respondents said they trust AI completely or a lot to provide accurate information, with majorities expressing that level of trust in only four countries: Israel, Vietnam, China, and Nigeria. Trust tended to rise with use. In the U.S., 45 percent of daily users trust AI's accuracy, compared with 8 percent of people who have never used it. However, Gallup cautioned that the survey can't determine whether trust drives use or vice versa.

Wealthy Western countries stood out for their worry over AI. Gallup found that 74 percent of AI-aware Americans say AI makes them feel worried, the highest share in any country surveyed, followed by the Netherlands and Canada. But within those countries, daily users were generally less worried than people who use AI less often or not at all.

This year's Made on YouTube event wasn't just about video viewers and video creators. 

On Wednesday, YouTube announced new features for Ask Music in the YouTube Music app. The feature is currently mainly used to create personalized stations and find music based on your mood.

Now, however, YouTube Music users will be able to discover new music based on the songs they're listening to. Users can ask Ask Music for information about songs and albums that inspired a particular track.

If they really like a song, they can even use Ask Music to find podcasts and podcast episodes featuring the artist behind it or get more details about the track. During a demo at the Made on YouTube event, YouTuber Derrick Gee showcased how users could ask Ask Music who played bass on a track and then find other songs featuring that musician. Ask Music can also help listeners find songs that sampled a particular track.

Podcasts are also a big part of YouTube Music and that's where the new Your Podcast Lineup feature comes in.

With Your Podcast Lineup, users can create an AI-generated podcast about other podcasts recommended by YouTube Music based on their interests.

While YouTube's main video-focused platform was the highlight of Made on YouTube, the company made it clear that YouTube Music isn't just a side project.

Long live Mavis Beacon. 

If you're unfamiliar with the name, she was the not-entirely-real icon behind classroom software that taught generations of students touch typing. Beacon was a celebrity of early digital literacy, with generations of learners collectively misremembering her as a real-life elite typer — not just a made-up name attached to the likeness of model Renée L'Esperance. 

Still, Beacon became an avatar for the digital dreams of the pre-Y2K generation. The software, full name "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing," was an entry point to the world of technology for thousands of children who would later grow into a computer-skilled workforce. Before entering the rat race, though, these students would be required to attend "Computer Lab," where they would visit typing.com to compete for the highest WPM ("words per minute"). 

Now, most kids don't go to a computer lab. They boot up their personal Chromebooks at their desks, log onto their school's assignment portal, complete their tasks with help from AI, and go back to their phones or iPads. 

Concern about technology's impact on student learning has reached a critical level. A recent longitudinal study of students aged 7 to 16 found that early adoption of social media negatively impacted kids' learning outcomes. Child development researchers and safety advocates have called for an end to screen time in classrooms as literacy rates decline. Generative AI is sending everyone spinning. 

But the kids are still learning. They're just not learning the same things their parents did — especially about computers.

WPM? More like words per hour

Mavis Beacon's memory may live on, but touch typing — or being able to type using just sightless motor memory — has turned into a dying art. A 2024 EdWeek Research Center survey found that just 69 percent of districts teach "keyboarding" in a formal capacity, whether that's directly in curriculum or as a separate, elective course. 

The more affluent the school system, the earlier they introduce keyboarding skills, the survey found.

What those classes are actually teaching is even more of a mystery. Other than surveys, there is little publicly available data on typing proficiency across the country. Directed touch-type curriculum seems to be rare. 

The basic skill is often relegated to app-based tools built into classroom devices. Tech-focused lesson plans available online devote less time to basics and more to mastering advanced computer skills and personalized tools like AI assistants. 

A problem as old as computers 

The shift from basics is not necessarily a new trend. Proper typing became a commonly used benchmark in schools as early as the late '90s, but by 2004, typing classes were already on their way out, according to a 2004 Department of Education study quoted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Search "touch typing op-eds," and you will find dozens of complaints that students don't know how to put hands to keys. 

In a 2011 MIT Technology Review article, for example, Oberlin College professor Annie Trubek criticized a rise in "idiosyncratic, personalized hunt-and-peck" typing among younger generations. "Ironically, in our era of keyboard ubiquity, typing has fallen out of the curriculum," wrote Trubek. "Since most students come to school familiar with keyboards, including cell phone keypads, educators are letting the ad hoc habits of six-year old computer gamers stand." 

A 2015 Wall Street Journal article reported a rising demand for keyboarding classes as digital testing became prevalent under new Common Core State Standards — and teachers realized many kids didn't know how to type. 

On the whole, Americans' digital literacy skills are declining.  States tiptoe around typing

As newer, faster, more complex technologies enter the world of education, more teachers are calling on their districts to institute basic computer skill requirements like keyboarding long before they have to engage with something like machine learning. 

As of 2025, Utah was one of just a few states that still listed motor typing skills — like proper hand placement — as part of their state standard curriculum. When the state's Board of Education implemented such specific K-5 keyboarding proficiency standards, they deemed them a "critical literacy skill." 

But Utah could be changing things soon. In a statement to Mashable, state education officials declined to comment on the implementation of keyboarding standards, citing recent legislation. In March, the state passed an amendment to its digital skills curriculum mandating a "modernization" of the standards, including an emphasis on news and media literacy.

While California includes keyboard proficiency in its Common Core standards, a Department of Education spokesperson told Mashable that the state does not "test or measure" the skill at a state level. Schools do not receive a curriculum framework or additional instructional materials beyond what is included in the 2015 Computer Science Standards, the spokesperson explained. 

And similar to Utah, California is set to revamp its tech standards soon, aligned with Governor Gavin Newsom's new executive order on AI in schools. A department spokesperson explained the state's current standards. Where there was once basic computer science, there is now "AI literacy."  

Hitting Ctrl X on Ctrl C 

The keyboard may prove to be a key (pun intended) learning gap for many students whose tech skills are borne from touchscreen devices, like smartphones and iPads.

Complaints about students not knowing basic shortcuts — including classic short keys such as "Ctrl C" for copy and "Ctrl V" for paste — abound on online forums and subreddits r/Teachers and r/AskTeachers. 

"One student was completely blown away when I 'magically' got his suddenly missing work back by pushing ctrl-z a couple times, and a simple copy-paste final part to a project was so confusing to them," wrote one first-year high school teacher in a 2020 Reddit post criticizing the "digital native" myth. "All that said, I love every single one of my ridiculous computer-illiterate stinkers. I just wish their prior schools had given them the tools they needed."

But like many other assumed tech skills, it's hard to put exact numbers on the problem. Most reporting on the subject cites a 2023 survey of 500 university students in Japan that found that only a third knew the shortcut for undoing a keyboard action. The most familiar shortcut among students was for copying text, with just 62 percent reporting they knew what the combination of keys did. And 20 percent said they didn't know any short keys at all. 

Parents and teachers have opined about other hardware deficiencies among their young learners. For example, anecdotes describe computer mouses, obsolete in an era of trackpads, as a specific speed bump in the road to greater device efficiency. 

Now we're trying to throw AI literacy on top of those gaps and it's a recipe for disaster. - Jodie Carreon, Schools Beyond Screens Computer, put it in the cloud  

Personal devices — tablets, phones — as well as sandboxed or app-based learning devices like Chromebooks have created other deficits, too. 

"To add insult to injury, they don't even know how file directories work! The idea there [sic] are different places in computer storage a file can end up is a totally foreign concept," wrote a frustrated college TA in a Reddit post from 2025. 

The streamlined functioning of these tools, built with limited capabilities or reliant on Cloud-based storage, have negated the need for complex file organization and directories that used to be core to learning computer navigation. 

In fact, many devices no longer even give you an obvious option to save your files elsewhere. Instead, media is saved right to your camera roll or sent off to cloud storage to live in the ether until you use your digital assistant to recall it on your behalf. Many devices hide file directions to decrease visual clutter. 

If you use Google's suite of word processors and spreadsheet makers — which most students do — everything is saved and shared instantly with teachers and peers to review. No need to even attach a file and send an email these days. 

Take the stories from this 2021 Verge article, which cite a cohort of professors who started documenting a decline in file directory knowledge around 2017. "In an age where every conceivable user interface includes a search function, young people have never needed folders or directories for the tasks they do," the publication wrote. 

According to anecdotal stories from IT pros flocking to Reddit to air complaints, nested hierarchies — or organizing documents into a main folder with subfolders — are often too difficult for the average user to figure out, let alone a child still learning their multiplication tables. 

Bringing back computer basics

On the whole, Americans' digital literacy skills are declining. 

The 2023 International Computer and Information Literacy Study — a global assessment of students' ability "to use computers to investigate, create, and communicate in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the workplace, and in society" — reported a sharp decline in digital literacy among American eighth graders. 

“The results highlight the need for further inquiry and concentrated efforts to address the computer and informational literacy skills of our students," said Peggy G. Carr, former commissioner of National Center for Education Statistics, at the time. "These skills are as fundamental as the 3 R’s [reading, writing, and arithmetic]." 

Advocates for AI and screentime bans in schools have likened the competing decline of basic tech skills versus the rise in advanced technologies to "building a plane while it is flying."

"We are no longer teaching [digital literacy] in a dedicated and explicit way," said Jodie Carreon, national director of Schools Beyond Screens, the group that spearheaded recent screen time and AI limits at the Los Angeles Unified School District. "The way it's operated in the past decade is to shoehorn it into disciplines where it doesn't belong, with the idea that students would learn through osmosis."

It's just as important that students learn how to type with automaticity as it is that they know how to write fluently, explains researcher and assistant professor of English Education at Stanford Sarah Levine. Writing, including the process of typing, is a mode of thinking, she says. "You have to know your keyboard pretty well, and then you're off and running."

Carreon says there is growing concern that students are graduating high school without necessary tech skills — she's not referring to the competitive coding or AI skills emphasized by Big Tech and corporate leaders, but basic knowledge of computers, computer science, and the way technology itself works. 

"We haven't done a great job of teaching basic digital skills or critical digital literacy. Now we're trying to throw AI literacy on top of those gaps and it's a recipe for disaster," Carreon says. Schools have to go back to the basics. "We need to be much more intentional about teaching some of those prerequisites, those fundamentals, before we put increasingly powerful AI systems in students' hands."

The head of the company hoping to become the first to conduct commercial deep-sea mining said mines on land had a much larger environmental footprint.

Along with the new features for YouTube viewers unveiled at the company's big Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, YouTube announced a whole suite of features for content creators, too.

For the most part, creators have used their YouTube channels to distribute content. Over the years, YouTube has rolled out features to help users create content, too. But with these latest announcements, YouTube is taking its biggest step yet into the content creation process.

SEE ALSO: YouTube is giving livestream communities more ways to play, pay, and participate

One of the event's biggest announcements for creators is the conversational editing assistant coming to YouTube Shorts and YouTube Create in early 2027.

The conversational editing assistant will help creators edit their footage into videos and short-form clips, using only natural-language conversation, as they would with a chatbot. The editor can pick the best takes, edit clips together with transitions, add text, and more. 

Credit: YouTube

Of course, AI plays a role here, but YouTube was adamant that its AI tools are meant to assist YouTubers in creating content themselves, not do it for them. 

In addition to the editing assistant, YouTube unveiled several new Insight tools for creators seeking guidance on what their viewers want to see.

There's a new feature coming to the Insights section of YouTube Studio's Analytics called Research, which will show creators the top videos in their niche that their own viewers have been watching.

YouTube Insight Research Credit: YouTube

In addition, YouTube Studio can now provide video feedback on new video content that hasn't been published yet. Previously, YouTubers could get insights into their videos to see what worked and what didn't. Now, creators can upload videos directly just to use this feature and make changes based on YouTube's recommendations before a video goes live.

Thumbnails are also getting a big upgrade on YouTube. Creators can generate customizable thumbnails on YouTube and, if they're unsure which thumbnail to use, use multiple thumbnails with the new Dynamic Thumbnails feature.

YouTube Dynamic Thumbnails Credit: YouTube

Dynamic Thumbnails will show viewers thumbnails that YouTube's algorithm believes will most resonate with that particular user.

A/B testing for thumbnails has been a feature in YouTube Studio for some time. Now, YouTube is rolling out A/B testing for an entire video. Creators can upload multiple Shorts or long-form video edits and then select the main cut based on what users like best based on viewer retention data.

Video A/B testing Credit: YouTube

Ask Studio, which YouTube announced is also coming to mobile, can now parse a creator's back catalog of videos and optimize previous content with new thumbnails and A/B test features.

Netflix has used artificial intelligence to (in a sense) resurrect a beloved star of stage and screen.

As of Wednesday, several episodes of the new Netflix reality competition show Wonka's Golden Ticket are now available on the popular streaming service. This show has been a source of some controversy ever since its announcement over the summer, as its "host" is an AI-generated Gene Wilder who exists in voice form. Reviews of the series from outlets like Variety and NME have criticized the practice, with Variety calling it "ghoulish."

You can get a feel for how it works in the trailer, but the essential fact is this: Wilder's AI voice is used to host the game show. Its challenges and general aesthetic are loosely based on the 1971 Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory film, rather than the original Roald Dahl book or any of the later Hollywood adaptations. Crucially, this AI-generated Wilder is never seen, only heard, with NME calling this version of the deceased actor "blatantly cruel."

It's worth mentioning that Wilder's estate gave permission for Netflix to do this, but that hasn't stopped people online from reacting to it in a not-entirely-positive manner. We've seen similar controversies play out in other cases where deceased entertainers have been resurrected with AI (with the permission of their estate).

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Hopefully, nobody gets stuck inside a TV or turned into a giant blueberry if they lose on the game show.

SEE ALSO: It's time to add AI protections to your will

SAVE $549.01: As of Sep. 23, get the Anker Solix S2000 Portable Power Station for $649.99 at Amazon. That's down from its usual price of $1,199.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Anker Solix S2000 Portable Power Station $649.99 at Amazon
$1,199 Save $549.01   Get Deal

Fall's cooler temperatures may be blowing in, but don't discount the power of an autumn thunderstorm.

Whether you live in an area that's prone to blackouts during the season or you just want to make sure you've got what you need to stay on the grid, a portable power station is always a good investment. And if you're fast, you can snag one for an excellent price right now thanks to this Amazon lightning deal.

As of Sep. 23, get the Anker Solix S2000 Portable Power Station for $649.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,199. That's $549.01 off for a limited time.

SEE ALSO: The 6 best power stations for camping keep you both online and off-grid

The Anker Solix S2000 is a great option if you're looking for a reliable power station to provide electricity if yours goes out. It's perfect for use at home, with AC ports on both the front and back to power a variety of devices.

It offers 2,010Wh of capacity, and Anker claims it can keep even large appliances like your refrigerator running for up to 35 hours, so your food doesn't have to spoil just because you don't have electricity.

Its low power draw of 6W makes it a convenient pick for keeping all your devices powered up, as does its under-10ms uninterrupted power supply —- which means that should your power go out, your Solix power station can handle the load in less than that time.

Nathan Fielder first teased his Elizabeth Holmes documentary, You Can See Everything, earlier in Sept. with a tense minute-long exchange between the two.

Now, Fielder (The Rehearsal) posted A24's official trailer on social media, showing a deeper look into the time he spent with Holmes and her husband, Billy Evans. As Mashable previously reported, You Can See Everything, directed by Fielder and Lance Oppenheim (Primetime), chronicles the weeks before Holmes went to prison to serve her over 11-year sentence for fraud. It then spans a three-year journey "into the abyss," according to the film description on A24's website.

Fielder lived with Holmes, Evans, and their children on their invitation. The trailer shows Fielder questioning both Holmes and Evans — the motives of the former, and whether Evans trusts his wife. Holmes, who founded the bunk health tech company Theranos, insists she has nothing to hide, while her husband insists he's never been suspicious that she's lied to him.

The trailer ends with Holmes admitting it's taken her a long time to be OK with anyone seeing her cry.

You Can See Everything hits theatres on Oct. 16.

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