More from Go Read This: The Verge’s favorite reads from all over the web
That was the working title of Balatro, according to a blog post from developer LocalThunk about the development of the game. The production working folder for the Balatro source code is apparently still titled “CardGame.”
[localthunk.com]
Wired chronicles a Discord community’s work to unbrick the AI gadget after HP bought Humane.
But their work involved unsanctioned use of an internal access certificate, endangering an official effort to give the access they were after, an anonymous Humane employee told the outlet. Wired writes:
Employees at Humane were in the process of going through the proper channels to put out an OTA that would give people access without compromising IP rights. Now, that process might be stalled.
What’s even more wild: Marvel Rivals was almost cancelled. That’s according to a new report in Bloomberg highlighting NetEase founder and CEO William Ding. According to the report, jobs are being cut, investments are slowing down, and the company is shifting its development focus to casual games stuffed with microtransactions.
Marcin Wichary, the author of Shift Happens — an exhaustively researched, beautifully designed and photographed history of the keyboard — is back with a deep dive into Gorton, a font found on keyboards, intercoms, camera lenses, and engraved signs across the world, with a special focus on Manhattan. The article is classic Wichary: it goes very deep and is full of beautiful photographs and interactive elements. It’s a real delight after the week we’ve had.
[aresluna.org]
That’s according to a report from Jason Schreier in Bloomberg that highlights the struggles WB’s games division has had trying to turn out another hit. Though the company had success with Hogwarts Legacy in 2023, it’s since suffered multiple failures with the twin flops of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Multiversus, while its forthcoming Wonder Woman game struggles to coalesce.
Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton will be heard on January 15th. Vox explains what’s at stake in this battle over a Texas law requiring age verification to access sites with pornography
If the phrase “Hawk Tuah girl” means nothing to you, I urge you to continue in blissful ignorance. If “Hawk Tuah shitcoin scam” resonates, you’ll enjoy Katie Baker’s rundown of what, exactly, happened.
[www.theringer.com]
A recently discovered performance of “Thompson’s Old Gray Mule” is now the oldest country recording in existence. The performer is Louis Vasnier, a Black artist from New Orleans.
The recording highlights how Black musicians have shaped the genre, despite the erasure of their contributions:
“Black artists by and large, who were the ones who performed and recorded, get wiped out of the picture because they say, ‘Well, it’s not really country,’” Martin says. “So ours is partly a project of reclamation.”
[The Washington Post]
If you thought step counting and activity tracking was a new-ish thing, apparently not! This excerpt from Numbered Lives: Life and Death in Quantum Media goes into how wealthy people in the 1800s used pedometers as a form of surveillance — tracking naughty spouses, and checking to see if soldiers were properly patrolling... or just taking a nap during the night shift.
[The MIT Press Reader]
The goal was a product that could predict a user’s fertility by collecting saliva. Users would’ve then been able to log period symptoms, sexual activity, and other fertility data via a mobile app. CNBC says Amazon has laid off the entire team behind the project. Initially, it was set to launch later this year before technical issues resulted in delays.
Top US archivist Colleen Shogan has quietly been changing educational material and exhibits at the Archives museum — including removing references to dark periods in US history, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Current and former staff say Shogan engaged in censorship by removing mention of events like Japanese American incarceration, displacement of indigenous peoples, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Intel stands to receive $8.5 billion in CHIPS Act funding, ostensibly to make America lead in silicon again, but Intel’s not looking like much of a leader right now. Among other things, Anna Swanson and Tripp Mickle at The New York Times found out Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has asked Big Tech to order chips from Intel fabs — and most of them said no.
[The New York Times]
Or Harris, for that matter. It’s not easy to make campaign finance data interesting, but The Washington Post has created this very cool interactive map showing the number of donors and total amount raised for either candidate by zip code.
[Washington Post]
An interesting look at how Snap has diverted from other platforms in its handling of former President Trump:
Unlike other major tech platforms, Snap has not lifted the ban on Mr. Trump’s personal account, which has drawn angry pushback from his campaign. Despite not allowing Mr. Trump to post personally, the company has said it would sell his campaign political advertisements, which must all go through an internal fact-check.
[The New York Times]
While it might be fun to interact with Character.AI’s user-created chatbots, a report from Wired shows the challenges of taking down chatbots that impersonate people without their consent, including a teen who was murdered in 2006:
Given that Character.AI can sometimes take a week to investigate and remove a persona that violates the platform’s terms, a bot can still operate for long enough to upset someone whose likeness is being used. But it might not be enough for a person to claim real “harm” from a legal perspective, experts say.
In a long blog post, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei considers the upside of artificial general intelligence (AGI, or as he prefers to call it, “powerful AI”). He pushed back on the idea that he’s a “pessimist” or “doomer” by outlining some grandiose claims for the future of AI:
I think that most people are underestimating just how radical the upside of AI could be, just as I think most people are underestimating how bad the risks could be.
I’d like to point out that the company is reportedly in talks to raise money at a $40 billion valuation.
[Dario Amodei]
Ride share drivers in New York are guaranteed a minimum wage — but Uber and Lyft gamed the law by locking drivers out of the app, making it impossible for them to earn more, a Bloomberg investigation found.
Bloomberg collected more than 7,000 screenshots of lockouts and estimated how much the companies could save using the lockout tactic.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who broke the original story, just published a detailed account of what went down. Settle in with some popcorn — it’s pretty wild.
The $700 Evergreen edition of the iconic kitchen appliance is apparently not recommended for whipping eggs, as Ellen Cushing discovered in this delightful takedown of the gadget where she compares it to an engagement ring:
“Both are expensive status symbols generally acquired in the spring of one’s life; both are of limited use and enduring popularity; both are signifiers of domestic attainment; both are things people excitedly post to Instagram.”
Before you buy something like Anker’s new MagGo SD card reader to take advantage of that high-fps video capture on the iPhone 16 Pro, go read PetaPixel’s warning about product marketing and the limits of SD cards.
PetaPixel today confirmed that the iPhone can technically shoot 4K at 30 frames per second (FPS) in ProRes Log to a UHS-II SD card, but attempting to choose a higher frame rate would guarantee dropped frames.
Fossil fuel giants have used AI for years to increase production. Now, Microsoft sees the generative AI boom as an opportunity to boost profits for itself and oil and gas companies it wants to strike deals with, Karen Hao reports for The Atlantic. Microsoft’s own greenhouse gas emissions are growing with its focus on AI, taking the company further away from its climate goals.
[The Atlantic]
Ezra Edelman, who directed the Oscar-winning masterpiece O.J.: Made in America, has been working on an expansive nine-hour film about Prince. But as the New York Times Magazine reports, the artist’s estate is attempting to block its release, which they worry will tarnish the reputation of Paisley Park.
We might not have a doc to watch, but in the meantime, Sasha Weiss’s story has many details from the film and incredible material about Edelman’s editing process.
[The New York Times Magazine]
The New York Times meticulously pieced together the bitter power struggle inside Disney between CEO Bob Iger and his successor, Bob Chapek, who was fired in 2022. The piece, which follows up a 2023 report from CNBC, chronicles Chapek’s rise and fall, and Iger’s quest to return to power.
[The New York Times]
I’ve always wondered, and Lucas Zelnik has a shockingly simple and good answer:
I think the biggest thing is to stay in front of people’s faces. You just have to put out so much content. Jokes take so long to write. I will put out chunks of material but very selectively, and, frankly, I probably won’t put out any more material until I’m ready to release an hourlong special, which I think I want to give that a few more years.
Kevin Roose, whose New York Times story about horny Bing chats went viral last year, writes that chatbots are at times very negative about him since, having seemingly picked up on criticism of his piece.
Now, he writes about how he used techniques that could be considered an AI-focused version of SEO to influence how they respond when asked about him — and what that portends.