Engadget News + Next

-ByteDance is going to curb the new media generator's use of prohibited content. In a statement to the BBC, ByteDance said, "We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users."

-Sam Altman has announced that OpenAI has absorbed OpenClaw by hiring developer Peter Steinberger "to drive the next generation of personal agents.”

-Responding to a fan on social media, showrunner Mattson Tomlin said this weekend that the show has been canceled. Despite being generally well received, Tomlin noted that "at the end of the day not nearly enough people watched it."
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The company is going to release its capabilities in portions over future software updates, according to Bloomberg.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Ring has canceled its partnership with Flock Safety, after receiving backlash for running a Super Bowl ad touting its Search Party feature.

-Gail Slater, a former JD Vance adviser and Fox Corp VP, reportedly clashed with Attorney General Pam Bondi. Their longstanding feud is said to have centered around Slater's skepticism of corporate mergers.

-European Union regulators have already fined Google billions for violating the Digital Markets Act, and being found guilty of anticompetitive behavior in online advertising could add to that total.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The feature accepts both image and text prompts, but is still in beta at the moment.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-After warnings from lawmakers last year, WhatsApp has been blocked in Russia for as many as 100 million users, the Financial Times reported. Russian authorities removed the app from an online directory, effectively wiping it from Russia's internet.

-Anthropic is upgrading Claude's free tier, apparently to capitalize on OpenAI's planned integration of ads into ChatGPT.

-Meta is turning those "Dear algorithm" posts into an official feature that it says will allow Threads users to tune their recommendations in real time. With the change, users can write a post that begins with "dear algo" to adjust their preferences.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices