Meta has purchased Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), a startup company that’s building artificial intelligence for robots in order to “address critical challenges” in “high-value labor markets.” The company is already working on robot hardware and AI in-house, but a spokesperson told Bloomberg that ARI “will bring a deep expertise in how [it] can design [its] models and frontier capabilities for robot control and self-learning to whole-body humanoid control.” They didn’t reveal the financial details of the acquisition. 

In a post on X, ARI co-founder Xiaolong Wang said that from the start, they knew achieving his company’s goals meant “training a truly general-purpose physical agent.” He continued that they now believe the agent will be humanoid and that “scaling will come from learning directly from human experience.” Meta, he added, has access to the “key components needed to make this vision possible.” Wang, his co-founders Xuxin Cheng and Lerrel Pinto, and the ARI team will be joining Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. Pinto also co-founded Fauna Robotics but left the company last year before it was acquired by Amazon for its own humanoid robot project. 

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said back in 2025 that the company is aiming to create software that other companies can license, similar to what Google does with Android. “Software is the bottleneck,” he explained. He said the plan was to start with developing software that can power a dexterous hand and then building out the technology from there. In addition to Meta and Amazon, Tesla has also been working on humanoid robots for quite a while now. The automaker decided to stop producing Model S and X cars earlier this year and to convert their production space in the company’s Fremont factory to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots instead.

Sorry, Val Kilmer fans, but the late actor’s Oscar ship has officially sailed. On Friday, Reuters reported that AI-generated acting and writing won’t be eligible for Academy Awards. The new rules from the Academy ​of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will take effect beginning with next year’s presentation, scheduled for March 2027.

The Academy’s updated rules state that while filmmakers can use AI tools, “synthetic” performers can’t win any awards. Ditto for AI-written screenplays, which must be “human-authored.” The Academy can request more information from submissions to confirm that they were created by humans.

A “performance” that won’t need further clarification is Kilmer’s fully AI-generated appearance in the upcoming indie film, As Deep as the Grave. The actor was initially cast in the movie but had to back out due to medical concerns. (He died in April 2025.) Although Kilmer never stepped foot on set, he will appear in “a significant part” of the movie, according to Variety.

“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” said Coerte Voorhees, the film’s writer and director. “He really thought it was [an] important story that he wanted his name on. It was that support that gave me the confidence to say, okay let’s do this. Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.”

Perhaps even more jarring than the AI-generated likeness of a dead actor is the work of a ByteDance tool that has also raised some alarm in the industry. A two-sentence prompt using Seedance 2.0 was all it took to generate a highly convincing 15-second clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt duking it out on a rooftop. (C’mon, Pitt would totally kick his ass.)

The cinematic clip went viral, Hollywood experienced existential panic, and Washington even weighed in. The latest? ByteDance reportedly paused the tool’s rollout while the entertainment industry braces for a future where typing a few words could be all it takes to churn out a feature film.

If you’re too impatient to wait for Valve’s Steam Machine, developer and modder Andy Nguyen has created a solution, at least for the Sony crowd. He’s released a loader on GitHub that allows Linux to run on a PlayStation 5. Its use is limited to disc drive models of the console running 3.xx and 4.xx firmwares; Nguyen said additional firmwares may eventually get support too, but it doesn’t appear to be a priority. It’s a fun idea, and Nguyen posted a video of the loader in action last month.

I ported Linux to the PS5 and turned it into a Steam Machine. Running GTA 5 Enhanced with Ray Tracing. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/aMbT0PQ1dS

— Andy Nguyen (@theflow0) March 6, 2026

This year has been seeing a lot of love for Linux. The entire French government decided to drop Windows in favor of the alternative operating system, part of a move to rely less on foreign-made tech. Linux has also chipping away at Windows’ dominance as a PC gaming platform as Valve and its SteamOS gain interest (although it does have one big hurdle left to climb in that arena).

However, Nguyen’s mod isn’t the first time a Sony console has been able to run Linux. Back in the PlayStation 3 era, the company offered a feature called OtherOS that allowed players to install their own software on the machine; Linux was a supported option. OtherOS was removed in the console’s 3.21 firmware update, a change that sparked a class action lawsuit. Sony agreed to settle the case, and disgruntled penguin fans could claim $55 for their woes.

Sometimes, a threat lands as a threat. Other times, it comes off like, well, an advertisement for the New Mexico tourist bureau. In court filings (via SourceNM), Meta warned that if a judge sides with the NM Department of Justice in an upcoming bench trial, the company may be forced to shut down its apps for users in the state. NM Attorney General Raúl Torrez described Meta’s threat to pull the plug on its apps as a “PR stunt.”

Last month, a Santa Fe jury held Meta liable for $375 million in damages to NM over the company’s failure to protect child users from online predators. The company’s warning was made ahead of the trial’s second phase, scheduled to begin next week.

In the May 4 bench trial, NM District Judge Bryan Biedscheid will determine whether Meta caused a “public nuisance” and should therefore fund related state programs. NM DOJ lawyers will also argue that Meta needs to make several changes to its platform. These include adding age verification, removing predators, and “protecting minors from encrypted communications that shield bad actors.”

Meta’s response, unsealed on Thursday, reportedly described the state’s demands as “so broad and burdensome that if implemented, it might force Meta to withdraw its apps entirely.” “It does not make economic or engineering sense for Meta to build separate apps just for New Mexico residents,” it continued. The company also claimed that the state lacks the authority to implement its desired changes and that doing so would violate free speech.

In a statement sent to Engadget, NM AG Torrez dismissed Meta’s claims that the proposed remedies weren’t feasible. “We know Meta has the ability to make these changes. For years, the company has rewritten its own rules, redesigned its products, and even bent to the demands of dictators to preserve market access. This is not about technological capability. Meta simply refuses to place the safety of children ahead of engagement, advertising revenue, and profit.”

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 soared across the great console divide to land on PlayStation 5 in December, but players have had to bide their time to experience the game on a PlayStation VR2 headset. Now, they can do just that after the latest update went live on Thursday.

Along with PS VR2 support, the update introduces an option for players to switch off the heads-up display in VR and retain it in 2D modes. There’s one other helpful change for PlayStation 5 players, according to the patch notes: the photo album feature now saves images in the console’s media gallery rather than the game’s internal storage. That could make it easier for you to share snaps you take of the game’s myriad landscapes.

Developer Asobo Studio had planned to release this update on all platforms last week, but it took a little longer than expected. The team said on April 16 it had a few critical bugs to work out first.

Asobo says the update includes performance improvements such as less stuttering and frame rate boosts, “especially in large cities and complex airports.” A new weather radar API sounds pretty interesting too. According to the studio, “the platform now allows aircraft developers to provide authentic weather radars including the tilt function.”

The developer also fully unlocked all career modes, including ones concerning heavy and VTOL aircraft. Other quality of life upgrades on that front include more reliable ground services. “Even if one service (like catering) is unavailable, the rest of the ground crew (baggage, fuel, jetway) will now function correctly to keep players on schedule,” Asobo said. If you somehow needed proof Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is not real life, there you have it.

YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode for Android and iOS is now making its way to all users around the world, including those who aren’t paying for a Premium subscription. Team YouTube says the feature will pop up in more and more users’ accounts over the coming months, so it could take some time to reach most people’s accounts. But once it arrives for them, they’ll be able to shrink the YouTube video they’re playing and continue watching it even after they leave the app. To activate the feature, they simply have to swipe up or press on the home button to close YouTube. The video will keep on playing in a mini player that they can move around on their screen. 

The feature first became available on Android and iOS for Premium subscribers in the US back in 2018 and 2021, respectively, before everyone in the country got access to it. In the feature’s support page, Team YouTube says there will be no changes to the experience for people in the US. Everyone else will get access to picture-in-picture for longform, non-music content on Android and iOS. Premium subscribers notably get an extra perk: The ability to use picture-on-picture for both music and non-music content.