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The days of Tom Hanks having to issue Instagram warnings about fake AI videos of himself may hopefully be coming to an end.

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta is now working on facial recognition techniques to try and curb the rise in "celeb-bait scams", as well as help users recover their accounts quicker.

SEE ALSO: Ray-Ban Meta Glasses can be used to dox strangers via facial recognition, according to Harvard students. Here's how to protect yourself.

"We’re testing a new way of detecting celeb-bait scams," wrote Meta in a blog published on Monday. "If our systems suspect that an ad may be a scam that contains the image of a public figure at risk for celeb-bait, we will try to use facial recognition technology to compare faces in the ad to the public figure's Facebook and Instagram profile pictures. If we confirm a match and determine the ad is a scam, we’ll block it. We immediately delete any facial data generated from ads for this one-time comparison, regardless of whether our system finds a match, and we don’t use it for any other purpose."

The post went on to say that Meta has had success in early testing phases with a small group of celebrities. "In the coming weeks, we’ll start showing in-app notifications to a larger group of public figures who’ve been impacted by celeb-bait letting them know we’re enrolling them in this protection. Public figures enrolled in this protection can opt-out in their Accounts Center anytime."

As well as combatting scams, Meta confirmed it's also testing out video selfies as a means of aiding access recovery for anyone with a compromised account, not just famous people. "The user will upload a video selfie and we’ll use facial recognition technology to compare the selfie to the profile pictures on the account they’re trying to access," wrote Meta. "This is similar to identity verification tools you might already use to unlock your phone or access other apps."

The company confirmed that facial recognition data is immediately deleted after the comparison is made.

ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is often misunderstood. ADHD isn't a product of laziness, stupidity, or "bad parenting," as former Mashable reporter Jess Joho wrote. Rather, it's a brain disorder that can impact executive function, attention, hyperactivity, emotional regulation, and more. For ADHD singles trying to use dating apps, the condition can have a huge impact on their ability to find a partner.

That's what Hinge found in its new Love and ADHD D.A.T.E. report, with survey findings from over 60,000 global users, including 9,000 with ADHD. A majority (82 percent) of Hinge users with ADHD are seeking a relationship, but 75 percent feel misunderstood by their matches. Two areas where ADHD daters may struggle are responding to potential dates and navigating small talk, according to the report.

SEE ALSO: TikTok's retro dating dance trends harken back to the days of courtship ADHD daters (not) responding to matches

Forty-three percent of Hinge daters with ADHD often forget to respond to matches, and 32 percent feel misunderstood when matches assume they're not interested due to slow responses. This might be compounded by the fact that 71 percent of Hinge daters expect their matches to respond within a day, and those who do are more likely to go on a date.

When asked what makes it hard to respond to matches, 45 percent of respondents forget, and the same amount said a conversation feeling repetitive and boring makes it difficult. Meanwhile, 40 percent said feeling overwhelmed is another barrier.

"I wish my matches understood that when I forgot to respond, it wasn't due to a lack of interest — it was just that my brain often got overwhelmed or distracted," said content creator Tarah Clark, who was quoted in the report. "When someone sent a gentle reminder, I appreciated it. A follow-up message helped bring the conversation back to the forefront of my mind, and I was always happy to continue chatting."

Credit: Hinge

Hinge's director of relationship science, Logan Ury, shared some tips for daters with ADHD in terms of responsiveness:

• Be upfront about your communication preferences from the start.

• Reduce friction — meaning, make it easier for yourself to respond. If you're more responsive on iMessage than Hinge, for example, exchange numbers with a match.

• Set reminders.

• Shift to talking on the phone or FaceTime. This can help prevent a prolonged "talking stage."

Ury also shared tips for neurotypical daters:

• Don't make assumptions. You don't know why someone isn't responding!

• Keep an open mind.

• Appreciate honesty.

• Get on the same page. If you don't know how to read someone's behavior, ask them about it.

ADHD dating and dreaded small talk

Daters with ADHD were 31 percent more likely than neurotypical daters to report that they don't like making small talk. Small talk — about someone's day or the weather — can feel boring and unstimulating. They were also 38 percent more likely than neurotypical daters to find it difficult to keep conversations going, with half of ADHD daters preferring to get to know a match in person.

SEE ALSO: Flirting IRL is having a major pop culture moment

"So much of my personality is physical — my big facial expressions, how my body moves when I speak, how I always need to be doing something with my hands. It feels easier to me when I can connect in-person," said BookTokker Alexis Anunson, who was quoted in the report.

Here are Ury's tips for ADHD daters on navigating small talk:

• Showcase your interests on your profile. Talking about what you care about can be more exciting than discussing your day-to-day.

• Keep a list of questions on your phone to ask matches.

• Get to a date faster (when you're both comfortable).

And for neurotypical daters:

• Bond over shared interests.

• Be open to exploring something new.

• Embrace the differences of others.

For LGBTQ daters with ADHD specifically, 64 percent worry about saying the wrong thing. "Often, there are stigmas associated with being either LGBTQIA+ or having ADHD, but for people who are at the intersection of those identities, even messaging a match can cause anxiety," commented Hinge's love and connection expert Moe Ari Brown.

Brown encourages these daters to celebrate themselves, honor their strengths, and find ways to communicate that work for them. Similarly to Ury's example, if messaging overwhelms you, try a phone or FaceTime date instead.

While three in four ADHD daters feel misunderstood by matches, Hinge found that 63 percent of neurotypical daters do, too. Maybe with these tips, we can all move forward with fewer assumptions about the people in our phones.

Steve Martin and Martin Short appeared on "Late Night" and roasted host Seth Meyers.

Elon Musk is getting sued again, this time by the production company behind Blade Runner 2049.

Alcon Entertainment filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Monday with the U.S. District Court, naming Musk, Tesla, and Warner Bros. Discovery, and accusing them of using copyrighted images to create AI-generated stills to promote Tesla's new "robotaxi" aka "Cybercab".

The complaint alleges the defendants requested permission to use a still from Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 to promote the fully autonomous electric vehicle at the livestreamed "We, Robot" event at the Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California on Oct. 10. However, Alcon said it refused permission and "adamantly objected" to the use of the image or "suggesting any affiliation between Blade Runner 2049 and Tesla, Musk or any Musk-owned company."

Then, the company alleges, Musk and Tesla "used an apparently AI-generated faked image to do it all anyway."

SEE ALSO: Musk is gutting X's blocking feature — why this change is dangerous

Alcon's filing accuses Musk and Tesla of feeding the requested image from Blade Runner 2049 along with images from the same scene into an AI image generator and "directed the AI to make a lightly stylized fake screen still", which it then displayed at the globally livestreamed event for 11 seconds (for which the production company says Musk had "no credible reason").

The images, Alcon describes, are taken from the "most memorable sequences" of Blade Runner 2049, when Ryan Gosling's character K arrives in the desert ruins of Las Vegas — it's the area that's bright orange thanks to nuclear destruction. "The sequence follows K as he leaves the spinner and walks in his trench coat or “duster” toward and through the misty orange urban desert ruins, often viewed by the camera from behind or in silhouette," Alcon describes.

You can see in the Tesla presentation below around the five-minute mark that Musk indeed names Blade Runner onstage during his keynote while an undeniably Blade Runner-esque image is on screen, with the words "Not This" appearing in the upper left corner. "You see a lot of sci-fi movies where the future is dark and dismal. It's not a future you want to be in," Musk said. "Like, I love Blade Runner but I don't know if we want that future. I think we want that duster he's wearing but not the bleak apocalypse."

Alcon has described Musk and Tesla's copyright infringement as "a bad-faith and intentionally malicious gambit" to "make the otherwise stilted and stiff content of the joint WBDI-Tesla event more attractive to the global audience and to misappropriate Blade Runner 2049's brand to help sell Teslas." The company also said Musk's use of Blade Runner 2049 imagery was "hardly coincidental" as "the only specific Hollywood film which Musk actually discussed to pitch his new, fully autonomous, AI-driven cybercab" — given the film prominently features a futuristic, AI-powered, driverless car.

But the suit gets more personal than mere copyright in the filing, with the company calling Musk "problematic" himself, and declaring it "did not want Blade Runner 2049 to be affiliated with Musk" or any of his companies. "Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account," the filing reads.

Alcon also pointed out it was in negotiations with car brands around its in-production Prime Video Blade Runner 2099 TV series, and that Musk's actions could "cause confusion among Alcon’s potential brand partner customers."

The production company is seeking damages for "economic theft" and aims to "to pry Musk and his co-Defendants away from Alcon’s Blade Runner 2049 brand and goodwill" under the United States Copyright Act and the Lanham Act.

Mashable has reached out to Alcon Entertainment, Tesla, and Warner Bros. Discovery for comment.

We know you're here to find out about the best VPNs for the Fire TV Stick, but first we should explain that the Fire TV Stick is, well, a little stick that you can plug into your HDTV to stream over 10,000 apps, games, and Alexa skills, including Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, Netflix, and more. You can also use it to gain access to millions of websites like YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit.

As an added bonus, you can launch apps and control your content with the Alexa Voice Remote that comes included with your purchase. Just ask for the content you want and Alexa responds. It's as easy as that.

Amazon Prime members get access to even more content options. They get unlimited access to Prime Video, which features thousands of movies and TV episodes at no additional cost. Plus, Prime members can add over 50 premium channels such as Discovery and Eurosport Player.

With all of that content, how could there possibly be a problem? Well, a lot of the shows and movies are just out of reach due to geo-blocking, meaning that certain programmes are only available from a particular location. This can be down to content licensing agreements and broadcast rights, and there doesn't immediately seem to be anything you can do about it. Well friends, we have a solution to this annoying issue.

An effective way of getting around content blocking is to use a VPN. These services can hide your real location when you're online, meaning you enjoy everything that the Fire Stick has to offer without any restrictions.

What is a VPN?

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) provide protection for your online information by creating a private network that hides your real IP address. All of your activity is untraceable and secure, because all of your online traffic passes through an encrypted tunnel. Nobody can view or access anything within the tunnel, meaning everything is protected against online threats like hackers, viruses, and malware.

Do you need to use a VPN?

VPNs are effective security tools that provide protection for your sensitive information. The online world can be a dangerous place, so it's important to stay safe out there. Investing in a VPN is a quick and easy way of protecting your data and identity. VPNs might be designed for cybersecurity, but there is another reason you might consider subscribing to a service. These tools can be also be used to access blocked sites.

VPNs hide your real IP address and connect you to a server in another country, meaning you can watch all your favourite content from that location. There is so much content out there that can be accessed with the help of a VPN, and it all comes down to bypassing geo-restrictions. VPNs are kind of like keys to the online world, granting you access to more of the shows and films you love. 

What is the best VPN for the Fire TV Stick?

At this point you're probably sold on the idea of using a VPN with your Fire TV Stick, but which VPN is the best option for you? We have tried to help you out by highlighting a selection of the very best VPNs, including popular services like ExpressVPN and PureVPN.

There should be something for every user and every budget in this list, and all you need to do is pick a favourite. Consider all of these options and weigh them up against your set of preferences. The top choice should become clear.

These are the best VPNs for the Fire TV Stick in 2024.

It's important to stay secure when browsing online, and while you can take measures to be aware of where you're browsing and what you're doing, using a VPN is the best way to guarantee your cybersecurity.

What is a VPN?

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) provide protection for your data and identity when you're online by creating a private network that hides your real IP address. This means that all of your activity is untraceable and secure. Try thinking about VPNs as encrypted tunnels through which all of your online traffic passes through. Nobody can see into the tunnel, and everything inside the tunnel is protected against online threats like viruses, hackers, and malware.

Do you need a VPN?

A good quality VPN will block any nefarious traffic coming your way, while also keeping your browsing history private from your ISP and anyone else trying to snoop on your activities. Using a VPN also means you can conduct activities such as checking your online banking while connected to public WiFi, without worrying that you're leaking valuable information. 

If you're looking for a VPN for Windows, you'll need a fast service that remains secure. A "no logs" policy and a kill switch are also vital. These ensure that your VPN doesn't track what you do, and that your connection drops if the VPN connection fails, respectively. For Windows 10, it's also useful to have an app that's simple to use.

What is the best VPN for Windows?

We have tracked down all the best VPNs for Windows 10, and stuck to VPN services that have apps that are easy to get to grips with, while still offering advanced features for those who want to dip under the surface to make tweaks. You can pick from leading services like CyberGhost VPN, Private Internet Access, and ExpressVPN.

These are the best VPNs for Windows in 2024.

SAVE $150: As of Oct. 22, the Apple iPad Mini (6th Gen) is on sale for $349.99 on Amazon. That's the lowest-ever price on Amazon.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad Mini (6th Gen) $349.99 at Amazon
$499.99 Save $150.00 Get Deal

There's always a lot of excitement when Apple announces a new model. Most recently, the tech-obsessed have been digging into the specs of the new Apple iPad Mini, with most of the discussion centering on the addition of AI smarts.

That's great, but we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about the deals that drop on older models following the release of a new model. Savvy shoppers know that the best time to shop on Apple is just after pre-orders on a shiny new model are available.

SEE ALSO: The new iPad mini is already on sale at Walmart — save $15 on preorders

As of Oct. 22, the Apple iPad Mini (6th Gen) is on sale for $349.99 on Amazon. This deal saves you $150 on list price. And better yet, this is the lowest price we've ever seen on Amazon. This deal is available on Pink, Purple, Starlight, Space Gray colorways. The choice is all yours.

Secure the best price on the Apple iPad Mini (6th Gen) at Amazon.