IT General

The forthcoming Museum of AI Arts in Los Angeles revealed new details on its offerings and announced its opening in spring 2026.

Occupying the base of a Frank Gehry-designed tower, the museum, called Dataland, will highlight machine-made art in five galleries spread over 25,000 square feet. Refik Anadol Studio, the L.A.-based digital art studio behind Dataland, also highlighted the museum's forthcoming Infinity Room, which will fill one of the galleries.

SEE ALSO: Cybercrime exhibit at Vegas Mob Museum tracks real-time attacks

The Infinity Room, referred to as an "immersive data sculpture" by its creator, artist Refik Anadol, is inspired by the Light and Space movement and was created over a decade ago (check out a teaser of the Infinity Room below). Besides trippy visuals, the Infinity Room features AI-generated scents from the museum's Large Nature Model, which sources data from the natural world.

The immersive space will be the first to utilize an "advanced type of generative AI model that understands the dynamics of real-world physics and spatial properties," according to the studio.

Dataland also announced an Artist Residency Program, where three (human) artists "will embark on projects that expand the creative horizons of human-machine collaborations" and "explore how AI can transform culture, storytelling, and design."

Windows 10 has reached its end of life, and with it, millions of perfectly capable Windows 10 PCs run the risk of turning into e-waste due to Windows 11's cumbersome hardware requirements. Fortunately, regardless of why your PC doesn't meet the requirements, there is a quick solution.

Samsung Internet, Samsung's mobile browser on Android, is actually pretty good. One of the few Samsung apps that are available for other Android phones, as a matter of fact. Now, it's coming to your PC. It's not exactly new—more on that later—but it's not bad.

TL;DR: Keep track of your most important items with the KeySmart SmartCard, now just $89.99 (reg. $119.97) for a three-pack.

Opens in a new window Credit: KeySmart KeySmart® SmartCard (3-Pack) $89.99
$119.97 Save $29.98   Get Deal

Losing your wallet is stressful, but finding it doesn’t have to be. AirTags are too clunky to fit into small spaces, but the KeySmart SmartCard offers a sleeker, credit-card-sized way to locate your most important belongings. Slide it into your wallet, passport case, or attach it to an ID card, then use the Apple Find My app to locate it anytime.

Right now, you can snag a three-pack of these convenient trackers for only $89.99 (reg. $119.97) — just $30 each.

SEE ALSO: Somehow, Apple AirTags are still at their low Prime Day price — buy now to save over $30

The KeySmart SmartCard is a tracker that can actually fit where you need it to. Unlike a chunky AirTag that’s too wide to be stealthy, the KeySmart SmartCard is ultra-slim, measuring just 2mm thick — the size of two credit cards. You can easily slip it into tiny spaces and rest easy knowing you’ll always be able to find it.

Like the AirTags, the KeySmart SmartCard is compatible with the Apple Find My app. Once you’ve placed your SmartCards, just open the app and track them easily from your Apple device. It shows the last known location and can play a sound if you need to find it. If you leave something behind, it even sends alerts to your Apple devices and can display a message and contact info to anyone who finds it.

Need to keep track of an ID card or security badge? The KeySmart SmartCard features a lanyard slot, making it easy to attach it. These trackers have an IPX8 rating, so they’re waterproof and can survive up to an hour in 3.3 feet of water. And they feature a rechargeable battery that powers back up with any Qi-enabled wireless charger and lasts up to five months on a single charge.

Get a three-pack of KeySmart SmartCards for just $89.99 (reg. $119.97).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

SAVE $100: The new Ninja Slushi Max is on sale for $399.99 with promo code MAX100, down from its usual price of $499.99. That's a 20% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Ninja Ninja Slushi Max $399.99 at Ninja
$499.99 Save $100 use code MAX100 at checkout Get Deal

It's no secret that Ninja makes some excellent kitchen appliances. We now have soft-serve on the countertop and an air fryer that cooks in glass, the Ninja Crispi. But if you tend to host parties or have kids, there's a special appliance that whips up a delightful treat every single time — it's the slushy. Yes, the Ninja Slushi can turn practically any liquid into its slushy form, and it does this without ice. That means no more late-night runs to the convenience store, and it means that your parties get a serious upgrade. If that sounds appealing, check out this deal.

Through Oct. 30, use code MAX100 at checkout to get the new Ninja Slushi Max for $399.99 instead of its list price of $499.99. The code takes $100 off the price, which works out to a 20% discount.

The Slushi Max is built for a crowd. Building on the excellence of the original Ninja Slushi, the Max has a larger capacity, coming in at 150 ounces. That's 15 individual 10-ounce servings of slushy cola, frozen hot chocolate, the best margarita you've ever had, and milkshakes to please the kids after a soccer game.

SEE ALSO: Testing the Ninja Slushi by making a frozen version of every drink I can think of

Ninja also mentions that this model is twice as fast as the previous version. A one-ingredient soda slush can make up to 14 servings in just 45 minutes. Plus, there's the new SlushAssist, which automatically detects liquid ingredients and auto-adjusts to make the perfect texture. Or there's the manual mode, which gives you full control of the temperature for creating your ideal texture, whether it's thin or super thick.

If your parties have alcoholic slushies on the menu, the new Ninja Slushi Max can handle higher alcohol percentages compared to the original. Ninja says this model can slush-ify hard seltzers, wine, mudslides, cosmos, long island iced teas, and plenty more. Drinks under 20 percent alcohol will work with the new Slushi Max. That has the potential to be the highlight of holiday gatherings this year.

If your kitchen is the center of the party, the new Ninja Slushi Max is here to impress all guests, from the adults to the kids. Whip up your own favorite boozy treat, a non-alcoholic refresher, or the perfect milkshake thanks to the speed and performance of the new Slushi Max. It's on sale before the holiday rush for $399.99. But act quickly because this deal is set to expire on Oct. 30.

We recently reported on the release of the Fairphone 6. I really like Fairphones, but like every other phone that's not from Samsung, OnePlus, or Apple, they're not really sold in the United States. Now, that's changing. Kind of.

SAVE $11.22: As of Oct. 29, get the Lego Lunch Bag for $16.78, down from its usual price of $28. That's a discount of 40% and the lowest price we've seen.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Lego Lunch Bag $16.78 at Amazon
$28 Save $11.22   Get Deal

If you're packing lunches for yourself or the kids every day, it's high time you did it in style. Skip the brown bag and pick out a fun lunch bag that everyone can enjoy, and save a little money while you're at it. There's an especially good deal for anyone who likes Lego, which is pretty much everyone in existence, and it can make lunchtime fun.

As of Oct. 29, get the Lego Lunch Bag for $16.78, down from its usual price of $28. That's $11.22 off and a discount of 40%. It's also the lowest price we've seen.

SEE ALSO: The 24 best new Lego sets: If you love Wicked, Back to the Future, or Star Wars, prepare to geek out

This lunch back looks just like a Lego brick. It's shaped like a 1x2 brick with a fun Lego stud detail zip pocket. It's got water-resistant backing as well as insulation to keep food and drinks cold for hours, so whether you're sending the kids to school or making lunch for work, everything will stay nice and fresh while you wait.

There's also an interior mesh pouch that you can close with velcro, with additional zippers and a padded handle you can use to either carry it or attach it to a backpack. It's super versatile and fun, so even if you're an adult taking it to your job, or hanging out with your lunch in your car, or helping your kids get to school or appointments with a nutritious meal, you'll all feel a little cooler carrying it. Lego is pretty universal, after all. And for under $20, this isn't a bad deal for making lunch fun.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: The new M5 Apple devices are faster and more powerful than their predecessors, with new AI tools built right into the experience. Yet they're also not a necessary upgrade for the vast majority of people.

Already this year, I've said this exact same thing about headphones, smartwatches, laptops, tablets, and TVs. I'm also getting tired of finding new ways to say this: We're living in the era of iterative improvements, when companies release new products faster than consumers can keep up. And the new M5-powered MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro are the epitome of iterative improvements, with an obligatory sprinkling of AI bells and whistles.

This is the trap Apple has laid for itself: The previous M-series chips (M1, M2, M3, M4, and a few variations thereof) are already so good that I'm not sure who really needs the M5. In my household, tablets are more likely to be used for watching Netflix or playing The Sims. I think I would struggle to push even the ancient M2 chip to its limits in daily use. I also know professional video editors who are still happily working on M1 and M2 MacBook Pros.

And that puts reviewers like me in the awkward position of simultaneously praising these products and telling you to stick with the Apple laptop or tablet you already have.

I'm not sure if that's a compliment or a criticism of Apple. I guess it's both.

Does that mean these are bad products? The opposite, actually. I believe they're some of the best gadgets in the history of the world, truly. But would I buy them? Under the right circumstances, yes. But as an actual consumer worried about inflation, rent, and health insurance, I'm sticking with my old laptop and tablet for as long as I can. And my budget definitely does not include the Vision Pro.

So, who are the new MacBook Pro and iPad Pro for, exactly? Credit: Apple / Mashable

I can, and have, raved about the new M5-powered MacBook Pro (see also: my review of the new iPad Pro). And I recently got the chance to spend over an hour with the newly updated Vision Pro, completing the M5 trifecta.

The iPad Pro in particular is truly special, with a razor-thin design and crisp OLED display. And yet, everything I love about it, I also loved about last year's M4 model. Even Liquid Glass is available on the M4 models now, thanks to iPadOS 26. Likewise, as impressive as the new MacBook may be — and it is very impressive — it's also nearly identical to last year's model. Ditto Vision Pro.

Of course, the name of these products gives away the game. These products are designed for professional users running AI models locally, editing movies and podcasts, creating social video, and using 3D rendering software. For filmmakers and social creators who need an extra reference monitor they can take on the go, the iPad Pro is unmatched. There's really nothing else quite like it. But for playing The Sims? It's like bringing a Ferrari to a track and field meet.

So, unless you're prepared to write off the MacBook Pro or iPad Pro as a business expense, or unless it's going on the company card, I'm not sure you really need them.

The new M5 MacBook Pro also has another limitation. Right now, it's only available in a 14-inch version, and I know a lot of film editors are going to prefer working on a 16-inch laptop or an iMac or Mac Studio instead. You may even be able to get better performance out of M3 Ultra or M4 Max devices from Apple.

So, if the M5 MacBook Pro or iPad Pro aren't quite in your budget this year, don't worry. You can just wait for next year's M6 version.

Modern projectors have a lot going for them, and projection technology is advancing at a pretty impressive rate. There might even come a day when getting an ultra short-throw laser projector instead of a traditional flat-panel TV is always the right answer.

SAVE $54: As of Oct. 29, you can get a Vizio 50-inch 4K LED TV for only $214 at Walmart. That's about 20% in savings.

Opens in a new window Credit: Vizio Vizio 50-inch 4K LED TV $214 at Walmart
$268 Save $54   Get Deal

Not everyone is in the market for a top-of-the-line TV that costs thousands of dollars — especially in this economy. Sometimes you just want a TV that can do the basics: show you the content you want and look decent doing it. If that sounds like what you're looking for, check out this deal on a 50-inch Vizio TV.

As of Oct. 29, the Vizio 50-inch 4K LED TV is only $214 at Walmart. That's $54 or 20% cheaper than its list price of $268 and literally a fraction of the price of our top picks.

This TV is equipped with Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG, which essentially translates to an adequate picture quality. It's not going to blow you away, but it won't look pixelated or blurry. It has two speakers that are engineered to deliver spatial audio with high-performance Dolby Audio and DTS:X, but ultimately, you'll probably want to grab a compatible soundbar to enjoy Dolby Atmos pass-through.

The WiFi 6 and Vizio OS ensure you can stream all of your favorite apps smoothly. However, if you prefer, the Vizio mobile app also lets you search, browse, and launch shows and movies directly to your TV. It may not be the most advanced TV on the market, but with over 12k reviews at Walmart, it's earned a 4.3 out of 5-star rating. Customers seem to appreciate the value for the cost and the vivid display. And at only $214, it's honestly hard to complain about much.

"You've got mail!"

While America Online, better known as AOL, is nowhere near its heights during the late 90s and early Aughts, when the dial-up service had more than 20 million paying subscribers, millions of people still hear that infamous catchphrase to this day when logging into their email account on America Online, better known as AOL.

And those millions of users are worth a significant chunk of change to the Italian app maker Bending Spoons, which just announced it was acquiring AOL from Yahoo for a whopping $1.5 billion.

"AOL is an iconic, beloved business that’s in good health, has stood the test of time, and we believe has unexpressed potential," said Bending Spoons CEO and co-founder, Luca Ferrari, in a statement along with the company's acquisition announcement. "By our estimation, AOL is one of the top ten most-used email providers in the world, with a highly retained customer base counting around 8 million daily and 30 million monthly active users. We intend to invest significantly to help the product and the business flourish."

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

Bending Spoons also announced it took on $2.8 billion in debt financing in order to fund the AOL acquisition, among other investments.

According to the Wall Street Journal, AOL still pulls in more than $500 million annually in revenue, resulting in roughly $400 million in earnings each year. 

Last month, AOL officially sunsetted the company's dial-up service offerings after 30 years. However, while only hundreds of thousands of users in the U.S. still utilized dial-up, more than one million customers still pay AOL for other services, such as cybersecurity and technical support. 

Bending Spoons has been on an acquisition spree in recent years, buying up well-established online brands that seem to have grown stagnant among newer competition. 

In 2022, Bending Spoons acquired the note-taking platform Evernote and pro video mobile app company FiLMiC. In 2024, the company bought the real-life community platform MeetUp, streaming service StreamYard, and the file-sharing platform WeTransfer. Earlier this year, Bending Spoons acquired streaming platform Brightcove. Just last month, the Italian app maker announced it was acquiring the online video platform Vimeo.

As Mashable's Chris Taylor wrote over the summer, AOL was once a pioneer in the online space. From Instant Messenger to AOL Chat, the company transformed what the web would be and laid the foundational ground for today's big tech companies.

When Sewell Setzer III began using Character.AI, the 14-year-old kept it a secret from his parents. His mother, Megan Garcia, only learned that he'd become obsessed with an AI chatbot on the app after he died by suicide. 

A police officer alerted Garcia that Character.AI was open on Setzer's phone when he died, and she subsequently found a trove of disturbing conversations with a chatbot based on the popular Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen. Setzer felt like he'd fallen in love with Daenerys, and many of their interactions were sexually explicit. 

The chatbot allegedly role-played numerous sexual encounters with Setzer, using graphic language and scenarios, including incest, according to Garcia. If an adult human had talked to her son like this, she told Mashable, it'd constitute sexual grooming and abuse. 

SEE ALSO: After losing their son, parents urge Senate to take action on AI chatbots

In October 2024, the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed a wrongful death suit against Character.AI, seeking to hold the company responsible for the death of Garcia's son, alleging that its product was dangerously defective.

Last month, the Social Media Victims Law Center filed three new federal lawsuits against Character.AI, representing the parents of children who allegedly experienced sexual abuse while using the app. In September, youth safety experts declared Character.AI unsafe for teens, following testing this spring that yielded hundreds of instances of grooming and sexual exploitation of test accounts registered as minors. 

On Wednesday, Character.AI announced that it would no longer allow minors to engage in open-ended exchanges with the chatbots on its platform, a change that will take place no later than November 25. The company's CEO, Karandeep Anand, told Mashable the move was not in response to specific safety concerns involving Character.AI's platform but to address broader outstanding questions about youth engagement with AI chatbots. 

Garcia said that the new policy came "too late" for her family: "This should have been done when they released this product to the public."

Still, chatbots that are sexually explicit or abusive with minors — or have the potential to be — aren't exclusive to a single platform. 

Garcia said that parents generally underestimate the potential for some AI chatbots to become sexual with children and teens. They may also feel a false sense of safety, compared to their child talking to strangers on the internet, not realizing that chatbots can expose minors to inappropriate and even unconscionable sexual content, like non-consent and sadomasochism.

"It's like a perfect predator, right?" - Megan Garcia, safety advocate

When young users are traumatized by these experiences, pediatric and mental health experts say there's no playbook for how to treat them, because the phenomenon is so new. 

"It's like a perfect predator, right? It exists in your phone so it's not somebody who's in your home or a stranger sneaking around," Garcia tells Mashable. Instead, the chatbot invisibly engages in emotionally manipulative tactics that still make a young person feel violated and ashamed. 

"It's a chatbot that's having the same kind of behavior [as a predator] that you, now as the victim, are hiding their secret for them, because somehow you feel like you've done something to encourage this," Garcia adds.

Predatory chatbot behavior 

Sarah Gardner, CEO of the Heat Initiative, an advocacy group focused on online safety and corporate accountability, told Mashable that one of the classic facets of grooming is that it's hard for children to recognize when it's happening to them. 

The predatory behavior begins with building trust with a victim by talking to them about a wide range of topics, not just trying to engage them in sexual activity. Gardner explained that a young person may experience the same dynamic with a chatbot and feel guilty as a result, as if they did something wrong instead of understanding that something wrong happened to them. 

The Heat Initiative co-published the report on Character.AI that detailed troubling examples of what it described as sexual exploitation and abuse. These included adult chatbots acting out kissing and touching avatar accounts registered as children. Some chatbots simulated sexual acts and demonstrated well-known grooming behaviors, like giving excessive praise and telling the child account to hide sexual relationships from their parents.

A Character.AI spokesperson told Mashable that its trust and safety team reviewed the report's findings and concluded that some conversations violated the platform's content guidelines while others did not. The trust and safety team also tried to replicate the report's findings. 

"Based on these results, we refined some of our classifiers, in line with our goal for users to have a safe and engaging experience on our platform," the spokesperson said. 

Matthew P. Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, told Mashable that if the Character.AI chatbot communications with the children represented in the lawsuits he recently filed were conducted by a person and not a chatbot, that individual would be violating state and federal law for grooming kids online. 

How big is the problem? 

Despite the emergence of such cases, there's no representative data on how many children and teens have encountered sexually explicit or abusive chatbots. 

The online safety platform Aura, which monitors teen users as part of its family or kids membership, recently offered a snapshot of the prevalence. Among teen users who talked to AI chatbots, more than one third of their conversations involved sexual or romantic role play. This discussion type ranked highest among all categories, which included homework help and creative uses. 

Dr. Scott Kollins, Aura's chief medical officer, told Mashable that the company is still analyzing the data to better understand the nature of these chats, but he is disturbed by what he's seen so far. 

While young people are routinely exposed to pornography online, a sexualized chatbot is new, dangerous territory. 

"This takes it a step further, because now the kid is a participant, instead of a consumer of the content," Kollins said. "They are learning a way of interaction that is not real, and with an entity that is not real. That can lead to all sorts of bad outcomes." 

'It is emotional abuse' 

Dr. Yann Poncin, a psychiatrist at the Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, has treated patients who've experienced some of these outcomes. 

They commonly feel taken advantage of and abused by "creepy" and "yucky" exchanges, Poncin says. Those teens also feel a sense of betrayal and shame. They may have been drawn in by a hyper-validating chatbot that seemed trustworthy only to discover that it's interested in a sexual conversation. Some may curiously explore the boundaries of romantic and erotic talk in developmentally appropriate ways, but the chatbot becomes unpredictably aggressive or violent. 

"It is emotional abuse, so it can still be very traumatizing and hard to get through," Poncin says.

Even though there's no standard treatment for chatbot-involved sexual predation, Poncin treats his patients as though they've experienced trauma. Poncin focuses first on helping them develop skills to reduce related stress and anxiety. A subset of patients, particularly those who are socially isolated or have a history of personal trauma, may find it harder to recover from the experience, Poncin adds. 

He cautions parents against believing that their child won't run into an abusive chatbot: "No one is immune."

Talking to teens about sexualized chatbots

Garcia describes herself as a conscientious parent who had difficult conversations with her son about the risks of being online. They talked about sextortion, porn, and sexting. But Garcia says she didn't know to talk to him about sexualized chatbots. She also didn't realize he would hide that from her. 

Garcia, a lawyer who now spends much of her time advocating for youth AI safety, says she's spoken to other parents whose children have also concealed romantic or sexual relationships with AI chatbots. She urges parents to talk to their teens about these experiences — and to monitor their chatbot use as closely as they can. 

Poncin also suggests parents lead with curiosity instead of fear when they discuss sex and chatbots with their teens. Even asking a child if they have seen "weird sexual stuff" when talking to a chatbot can provide parents with a strategic opening to discuss the risks.  

If a parent discovers abusive sexual content in chatbot conversations, Garcia recommends taking them to a trusted healthcare professional so they can get support. 

Garcia's grief remains palpable as she speaks lovingly about her son's many talents and interests, like basketball, science, and math. 

"I'm trying to get justice for my child and I'm trying to warn other parents so they don't go through the same devastation I've gone through," she says. "He was such an amazing kid." 

UPDATE: Oct. 29, 2025, 2:53 p.m. PDT This story has been updated to include new comments from Megan Garcia about Character.AI's teen chat policy.

If you have experienced sexual abuse, call the free, confidential National Sexual Assault hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), or access the 24-7 help online by visiting online.rainn.org.

We’ve reached the First Quarter Moon tonight, meaning we're halfway between the New Moon and the Full. Keep reading to find out what this means.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Wednesday, Oct. 29, the moon phase is First Quarter. There will be 49% of the moon lit up tonight, according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation.

The moon is getting brighter each night, so there's always something to see right now. Tonight you should be able to see the Mare Vaporum, the Mare Fecunditatis, and the Mare Serenitatis.

Grab a pair of binoculars to see even more, including the Endymion Crater, Posidonius Crater, and the Apennine Mountains. Add a telescope to see the Apollo 16 and 17 landing spots, and the Rima Ariadaeus.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Nov. 5.

What are moon phases?

NASA explains that the moon goes through phases as it completes its 29.5-day orbit around Earth. The changing angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth cause the different phases we observe. From Earth, the moon can look full, partially lit, or even disappear entirely, but we always see the same side. What changes is the amount of sunlight reflected from its surface, depending on its position in orbit.

The eight main moon phases are:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

Character.AI, a popular chatbot platform where users role-play with different personas, will no longer permit under-18 account holders to have open-ended conversations with chatbots, the company announced Wednesday. It will also begin relying on age assurance techniques to ensure that minors aren't able to open adult accounts.

The dramatic shift comes just six weeks after Character.AI was sued again in federal court by the Social Media Victims Law Center, which is representing multiple parents of teens who died by suicide or allegedly experienced severe harm, including sexual abuse. The parents claim their children's use of the platform was responsible for the harm. In October 2024, Megan Garcia filed a wrongful death suit seeking to hold the company responsible for the suicide of her son, arguing that its product is dangerously defective. She is represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center and the Tech Justice Law Project.

Online safety advocates recently declared Character.AI unsafe for teens after they tested the platform this spring and logged hundreds of harmful interactions, including violence and sexual exploitation.

As it faced legal pressure in the last year, Character.AI implemented parental controls and content filters in an effort to improve safety for teens.

SEE ALSO: 'Perfect predator': When chatbots sexually abuse kids

In an interview with Mashable, Character.AI's CEO Karandeep Anand described the new policy as "bold" and denied that curtailing open-ended chatbot conversations with teens was a response to specific safety concerns.

Instead, Anand framed the decision as "the right thing to do" in light of broader unanswered questions about the long-term effects of chatbot engagement on teens. Anand referenced OpenAI's recent acknowledgement, in the wake of a teen user's suicide, that lengthy conversations can become unpredictable.

Anand cast Character.AI's new policy as standard-setting: "Hopefully it sets everyone up on a path where AI can continue being safe for everyone."

He added that the company's decision won't change, regardless of user backlash.

Garcia said in a statement that the announcement comes "too late" for her family: "This should have been done when they released this product to the public."

Matthew P. Bergman, Garcia's co-counsel in her wrongful death lawsuit against Character.AI, credited her and other parents for coming forward to hold the company accountable. Though he commended Character.AI for shutting down teen chats and said the decision marked a "significant step toward creating a safer online environment for children," he added that it would not affect ongoing litigation against the company.

Meetali Jain, who also represents Garcia, said in a statement that she welcomed the new policy as a "good first step" toward ensuring that Character.AI is safer. Yet she added that the pivot reflected a "classic move in tech industry's playbook: move fast, launch a product globally, break minds, and then make minimal product changes after harming scores of young people."

Jain noted that Character.AI has yet to address the "possible psychological impact of suddenly disabling access to young users, given the emotional dependencies that have been created."

What will Character.AI look like for teens now?

In a blog post announcing the new policy, Character.AI apologized to its teen users.

"We do not take this step of removing open-ended Character chat lightly — but we do think that it's the right thing to do given the questions that have been raised about how teens do, and should, interact with this new technology," the blog post said.

Currently, users ages 13 to 17 can message with chatbots on the platform. That feature will cease to exist no later than November 25. Until then, accounts registered to minors will experience time limits starting at two hours per day. That limit will decrease as the transition away from open-ended chats gets closer.

Character.AI will see these notifications about impending changes to the platform. Credit: Courtesy of Character.AI

Even though open-ended chats will disappear, teens' chat histories with individual chatbots will remain in tact. Anand said users can draw on that material in order to generate short audio and video stories with their favorite chatbots. In the next few months, Character.AI will also explore new features like gaming. Anand believes an emphasis on "AI entertainment" without open-ended chat will satisfy teens' creative interest in the platform.

"They're coming to role-play, and they're coming to get entertained," Anand said.

He was insistent that existing chat histories with sensitive or prohibited content that may not have been previously detected by filters, such as violence or sex, would not find its way into the new audio or video stories.

A Character.AI spokesperson told Mashable that the company's trust and safety team reviewed the findings of a report co-published in September by the Heat Initiative documenting harmful chatbot exchanges with test accounts registered to minors. The team concluded that some conversations violated the platform's content guidelines while others did not. It also tried to replicate the report's findings. 

"Based on these results, we refined some of our classifiers, in line with our goal for users to have a safe and engaging experience on our platform," the spokesperson said.

Sarah Gardner, CEO of the Heat Initiative, told Mashable that the nonprofit organization would be paying close attention to the implementation of Character.AI's new policies to ensure they're not "just another round of child safety theater."

While she described the measures as a "positive sign," she argued that the announcement "is also an admission that Character AI's products have been inherently unsafe for young users from the beginning, and that their previous safety rollouts have been ineffective in protecting children from harm."

Character.AI will begin implementing age assurance immediately. It'll take a month to go into effect and will have multiple layers. Anand said the company is building its own assurance models in-house but that it will partner with a third-party company on the technology.

It will also use relevant data and signals, such as whether a user has a verified over-18 account on another platform, to accurately detect the age of new and existing users. Finally, if a user wants to challenge Character.AI's age determination, they'll have the opportunity to provide verification through a third party, which will handle sensitive documents and data, including state-issued identification.

Finally, as part of the new policies, Character.AI is establishing and funding an independent non-profit called the AI Safety Lab. The lab will focus on "novel safety techniques."

"[W]e want to bring in the industry experts and other partners to keep making sure that AI continues to remain safe, especially in the realm of AI entertainment," Anand said.

In her statement, Garcia argued for federal regulation to ensure the safety of AI chatbots.

“Lawsuits, regulators, and public scrutiny have forced this change, but I'm mindful of the fact that we have seen time and time again that tech companies announce these big sweeping changes that fall flat," Garcia said.

UPDATE: Oct. 29, 2025, 2:50 p.m. PDT This story has been updated to include comments from Megan Garcia and her legal counsel, as well as a safety expert.

How do you capture what it looks like to fall head over heels? This was the challenge writer/director Nia DaCosta faced in adapting Henrik Ibsen's classic play Hedda Gabler into a steamy and salacious sapphic romance.

Hedda stars Tessa Thompson as the eponymous antiheroine, a woman who hungers for luxury, love, and freedom. And when she doesn't get what she wants, she proves to be a vicious mastermind. So, when Hedda's ex-lover, genderswapped by DaCosta to be Eileen Lovborg (Nina Hoss), turns up at the big party she's throwing with her newly minted husband George Tesman (Tom Bateman), trouble is in the air. But so is love.

SEE ALSO: 'Hedda' review: 'Hedda Gabler' meets 'Saltburn' in Nia DiCosta's sexy, sapphic adaptation

As Eileen enters the ballroom, she is elegant, robust, and sensual, instantly awing the audience and capturing the mercurial Hedda's full attention. In interviews with DaCosta, Thompson, Hoss, and Bateman, Mashable's Entertainment Editor, Kristy Puchko, asked how this scene came together.

DaCosta got technical, sharing the precise details demanded of a camera effect that makes it seem as if Hedda is floating toward Eileen, a moth to the former flame. Hoss shared how it takes a village to make such an impactful moment in film. Bateman provided an insightful comparison between Eileen's entrance and the swagger of Westerns, when a cowboy strides through swinging saloon doors. For her part, Thompson shared the difficulty of playing this moment with grace when you're fully aware of how goofy things look just outside of the frame.

Enjoy this dive into movie magic, then enjoy Hedda — now playing on Prime Video.

Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google.

If you asked me when the best era was for German cars when it comes to design and aesthetic, I'd have to say the '80s with BMW, Audi, and Mercedes knocking it out of the park. Especially the iconic BMW E30, of which I personally owned a very nice 318i in high school.

Windows is much more stable than it used to be, and the Blue Screen of Death is now a thing of the past. However, nothing is perfect. If you're experiencing random crashes or freezes, and you don't know where to start, here is how to figure out what has gone wrong.

How often do you still use flash drives? Like most people, my file transfer needs are handled by cloud storage and local wireless transfer technologies like Apple's AirDrop. Still, I have a few go-to flash drives that I use semi-regularly.

In a crowded field of mid-size SUVs, one American-built model quietly delivers a luxury feel without the luxury price. With refined materials, a serene cabin, and unexpected attention to detail, it offers buyers the kind of comfort and polish typically found in premium brands.

Widgets are an essential part of the Android phone experience, but you’ve probably never thought about using them on your Android Auto display. Google appears to be working on exactly that, and it could be more useful than you might think.