IT General

Your 3D printer is essentially a fancy CNC machine, with a few heated elements (and maybe a fan or two). While extruding filament might be the main reason you bought it, there are some more unconventional things you can use your 3D printer for.

Once upon a time, streaming was considered a cheap alternative to cable. Now, depending on the services you subscribe to, "cheap" is hardly the word.

So far in 2026, several apps have undergone price increases, to the point where it's hard to keep up. That's where we come in. Here are the major streaming services that have hiked up their prices in 2026 so far.

SEE ALSO: What's new to streaming this week? (April 10, 2026) Prime Video

In March, Amazon changed the pricing structure for Prime Video, downgrading its cheaper options and locking important features behind its premium tier. The basic cost of Amazon Prime is still $14.99 a month or $139 a year, but that tier now only has access to 1080p streams on Prime Video.

To see 4K Prime Video content, you now need to pony up an extra $4.99/mo for a new "Ultra" tier that also gets rid of ads. Prime Video Ultra also allows for more simultaneous streams and more downloads. But at a 33% premium to the regular price, is it worth it in this economy?

Paramount Plus

Back in January, Paramount Plus upped the prices of both its available tiers by an additional $1 per month.

The cheaper, ad-supported Essential tier is now $9 monthly or $90 annually (up from $60), while the ad-free Premium tier is now $14 monthly or $140 annually (up from $120).

Crunchyroll

Anime fans are not immune to price hikes, either. Crunchyroll, the biggest name in anime streaming, increased its prices in February. The cheapest Fan tier went from $7.99 to $9.99 per month, the middle Mega Fan tier went from $11.99 to $13.99, and the Ultimate Fan tier went from $15.99 to $17.99.

This was the service's first real price hike in years, and it didn't come without some perks: Users can now download content to watch offline, for one thing. Sadly, the free, ad-supported Crunchyroll tier was killed earlier this year — so if you want to watch the best in anime, you'll probably have to pay.

Spotify

Spotify increased the price of its Premium plan from $11.99 to $12.99 per month in February. The cheaper Student plan went from $5.99 to $6.99. Duo and Family plan users saw $2 hikes. The former went from $16.99 to $18.99 per month, while the latter jumped from $19.99 to $21.99.

Sling TV

Sling TV is the only service on this list that was explicitly supposed to replace cable. Unfortunately, it also became the victim of a price hike earlier this year. There are too many tiers and permutations of Sling to list here, but the TL;DR is that prices went up by $4 per month for many users.

YouTube Premium

Last but not least is YouTube Premium, lowkey one of the better investments you can make if you really, truly hate ads on YouTube. This service got a $2 a month price increase, going fro $13.99 to $15.99 in April.

Sadly, there don't seem to be any extra perks to go along with this price increase.

Many of us can't go anywhere without our smartphones, and neither do the astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft.

The historic Artemis II mission sent four brave astronauts 248,655 miles away from Earth, a historic record — and the iPhone 17 Pro Max went with them. The Orion spacecraft, dubbed Integrity by its crew, is a marvel of engineering, but it's also home to some familiar terrestrial technology.

Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen brought all sorts of quirky items along with them to space (including at least one jar of Nutella). In addition to iPhones, the Artemis II crew is traveling with consumer gadgets from GoPro, Nikon, and Microsoft, all of which serve practical purposes aboard Orion.

The astronauts have been using the latest Apple flagship smartphone, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, to document life aboard Orion. They've sent back some unforgettable selfies with these smartphones.

NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows Credit: NASA

In addition, the astronauts have been using two Nikon D5 DSLR camera bodies, along with a variety of lenses, batteries, and camera accessories. Taking photographs of the lunar surface was one of the most important scientific objectives of the Artemis II mission, and the Nikon cameras have been essential for that task. (We've been marveling over the photographs all week long.)

Artemis II Pilot Victor Glover, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen configure their camera equipment. Credit: NASA

In addition, each of the astronauts is using a personal computing device, or a PCD. For this mission, the astronauts are using Microsoft Surface Pro tablets, for both important scientific work as well as more mundane tasks, like checking their email.

Finally, a variety of GoPro cameras are in use, both within the Orion cabin and on the exterior of the craft.

NASA documents state that the astronauts are using handheld GoPro action cameras to record the mission, and the footage will eventually appear in a Disney/NatGeo documentary.

In addition, specialized GoPro cameras have been installed on Orion's solar arrays.

A GoPro representative told Mashable that Artemis II astronauts are using HERO11 Black action cameras and a MAX1 360-degree camera onboard Orion. Outside the cabin, NASA placed modified HERO4 Black cameras on the solar arrays.

GoPro cameras have a reputation for durability, but these conditions are particularly extreme.

The Orion crew is scheduled to return to Earth on April 10, and the world has been following every step of the mission with bated breath.

Godspeed, Artemis II!

Many were expecting U.S. electric car sales to drop sharply after the federal government ended its EV tax credit, but the extent of that plunge is now becoming clear. Cox Automotive reports that EV sales fell 27 percent year-over-year in the first quarter (Q1) of 2026 to just 216,399 cars, or 5.8 percent of the total market.

"Fetch" is never going to happen. But "moon joy" just might.

NASA began using the phrase "moon joy" all over its social media accounts as the Artemis II crew approached the moon this week. Now the agency has gone all in with a definition on the official NASA account on X, along with the ideal photo — its lunar adventurers looking adorably like the first fourple in space — leading into a video of moon joy moments.

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"The feeling of intense happiness and excitement that only comes from a mission to the moon" is how NASA defines moon joy (which sounds to us like it should be one word, but we'll wait for an official ruling from the AP Stylebook).

The phrase has been used several times throughout the Artemis II mission. The first use NASA posted was on Sunday, April 5: a clip of the mission control communicator calmly replying to a litany of excited identification of lunar locations from astronaut Reid Wiseman aboard Orion.

"Copy," mission control says with a chuckle. "Moon joy."

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One commenter on X called the phrase "the most perfectly understated response to astronauts losing their minds over seeing the moon up close for the first time." (Which calls to mind this classic 1969 moon landing story from the Onion — featuring a mission control transcript that seems closer to how the Apollo team would have expressed its moon joy if they hadn't been so professionally understated.)

NASA knew a good meme when it saw one. When the astronauts were woken up on Monday, mission control told them, "Our room is buzzing with moon joy." When the Artemis II astronauts viewed a solar eclipse that same day, it also qualified as moon joy — because the eclipse was one only they could see.

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Moon joy is infectious, it turns out — even reaching the astronauts aboard the International Space Station, according to a live NASA broadcast of a ship-to-ship call between Orion and the ISS.

"We can tell that you guys are definitely experiencing moon joy," Jessica Meir, commander of the ISS Crew-12 mission, told the Artemis II crew, "and I feel like even we are experiencing moon joy right now."

The ISS's moon joy manifested, according to Meir, in a particularly nerdy jape.

At the moment Orion set the new record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth on Monday, her crew went to the far end of the station to claim that they were the farthest humans away from them at that moment — presumably since the ISS happened to be on the opposite side of the Earth at the time.

Even Rise, the official Artemis II mission mascot, got in on the moon joy meme on Wednesday, turning in the perfect made-for-Hollywood cute character catchphrase.

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Of course, NASA couldn't make moon joy happen all on its own. Luckily, back on Earth, moon joy is already a thing — because ironically, and unlike fetch in Mean Girls, it's not happening in a vacuum.

We noted the unusually unified, unabashedly earnest reactions to last week's Artemis II launch. That sense of wonder and delight has only grown, and #moonjoy has become the positive hashtag for an otherwise uniformly terrible year.

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How long moon joy lasts, and whether it stays with us for NASA's planned moon landing in 2028, is anyone's guess. But this week at least, it was a real and global thing — and that is, in itself, pretty fetch.

Elisha Sauers contributed to this report.

Many of the modern-day AAA games cannot be played at their maximum graphical settings on GPUs with 8GB VRAM. Thanks to a Valve developer, there’s now a way to improve the performance of GPUs limited by their VRAM.

When it comes to TV shows, Amazon Prime Video has a bingeworthy collection from which to choose. From comedies that leave you gasping for air to captivating stories that linger long after the credits roll, there’s no shortage of content on this mountain of entertainment.

After you have had a 3D printer for a while, you start to see things and think, “I could make that.” However, there’s one thing that I use every day that I have never attempted to print: a phone case. I decided to finally give it a shot, and I was surprised by the results.

This weekend, you can fill your watch list with Oscar-winning films, spanning different eras of Hollywood and genres that give you a good mix of tropes. Netflix has a solid mix of these award-winning titles, including originals and licensed films that may be available only for a limited run.

BookTokers, Bookstagramers, and the most passionate Kindle users across the internet are fuming this week. On April 7, Amazon notified affected users that the company would be discontinuing support on 13 devices, including nine Kindle e-readers.

Amazon already faces plenty of backlash in the book world. Last year, Amazon launched a massive book sale, which coincided with Independent Bookstore Day. This most recent news has left some Kindle users with a bad taste in their mouth, and now some readers are asking, "Should I switch to a Kobo?"

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While Kindle is the biggest name in e-readers, Kobos are climbing the ranks.

We've tried and loved both the Kobo Clara and Kobo Libra, and the devices are just as great as any Kindle. Kobo e-readers have features that Amazon abandoned in its Kindles, like page-turning buttons, plus seamless Libby integration. But if the decision to switch to a Kobo is driven out of worries that your current Kindle will eventually get bricked too, then a Kobo won't solve this problem.

Older tech being phased out is an unfortunate reality of our modern era. Unlike a Kitchenaid mixer, which doesn't require software updates to stay functional, a phone, computer, tablet, or e-reader always will. Unfortunately, with such frequent product releases, we're accustomed to a system of planned obsolescence. So, it feels revolutionary when Google announces a plan for automatic updates that makes Chromebooks last up to a decade.

And to be fair, it's impressive that Amazon devices that are at least 14 years old are still kicking it, which is a testament to the device's longevity. However, it's understandable if you want to switch to a Kobo. But our word of caution is to switch for the right reasons because it's highly probable Kobo e-readers will face the same bricked fate.

Why you shouldn't switch to a Kobo from a Kindle

If you want to switch to a Kobo from a Kindle because you think it won't be discontinued, I have bad news. Kobo also has a history of retiring devices and no longer supporting them with software updates. On the company's website, they have a list of products, including e-readers, that it no longer supports.

This is just the fate of any device requiring regular software updates.

Companies are also incentivized to do this because it means pushing users to buy a new device, even if it frustrates the customer. And let's clear up one misconception. While Kindles and Kobos are no longer supported with software updates, these past-gen devices can still run. (Our colleagues at PCMag have advice for holding onto older Kindles.) It may mean they can no longer access the internet; however, users should still have access to the library of books currently on the device, and they can add books by connecting it to a computer.

Something else to keep in mind with switching to a Kobo is that you won't be able to transfer over your library. Both Kindle and Kobo use DRM on books purchased in their respective stores, which means you can only read those files on that specific brand of e-reader. However, you can still revisit those books through the Kindle app. Some users even recommend buying a used Kindle if you do want to stick with the brand.

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So, if you are making a pros and cons list, there are still plenty more reasons why you should switch to a Kobo.

Why you should switch to a Kobo from a Kindle Kindle Scribe (left) and Kobo Libra Colour (right). Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

There are plenty of reasons to shop for a Kobo. Across the board, Kobo e-readers are just as speedy and user-friendly as any Kindle. They have an accessible user interface, but there are some slight differences, like how Kobo numbers their pages based on digital pages while Kindle numbers are based on the physical book.

Unless your Kindle library is entirely full of DRM-free EPUB files, you won't be able to access any book you've purchased in the Kindle library on your new Kobo e-reader. But if you can get over that, then there's plenty to look forward to with a Kobo.

Page-turning buttons

Older Kindle models have a coveted feature that the newest models don't: page-turning buttons. With models like the Kindle 5 no longer being supported and the Kindle Oasis discontinued, users don't have no longer have a new Kindle option to shop that includes page-turning buttons.

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If you want those buttons, look to the Kobo Libra Colour, which has two page-turning buttons on the side so you don't need to tap the touch screen. Those buttons also mean there's extra space to hold the device, for a really comfortable hold. The Kobo Libra Colour also has something that no Kindle does, an internal gyroscope, which means you can rotate the device to hold it with the opposite hand and the screen will automatically rotate.

A native remote With just two buttons, the Kobo remote lets you turn the page forward and backward. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

For readers maximizing their reading nook with an e-reader stand, a remote makes it easy to turn the pages while keeping your hands warm under the blanket. Kobo is the first e-reader brand to come out with a remote to pair with their e-readers.

We've tested the Kobo remote, and it rocks, connecting via Bluetooth, and it's far better than any random remote you can find on Amazon to go with a Kindle.

Libby integration

Libby users with a Kindle will rejoice at an even more straightforward integration on Kobo e-readers. On a Kobo, you can login to your library card directly on your device and books you borrow through Libby/Overdrive automatically populate onto your device. The downside is that if you have multiple library cards you use on Libby, you can only log into one at a time on a Kobo e-reader.

Color at a cheaper price

Kindle has its own color e-readers, but Kobos are much cheaper.

The basic Kindle Colorsoft costs $199.99 while the comparable Kobo Clara Colour is just $159.99, which happens to be the same price as the Kindle Paperwhite. So if you're looking to upgrade to a color e-reader anyway, it's far more affordable to do so with a Kobo.

Choosing a 2026 Toyota RAV4 isn’t tough because it’s a bad SUV—it’s tough because there are a ton of trims, and each one mixes features and value a little differently. And with hybrid power now standard across the board, the whole lineup just got a lot more interesting.

Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program has been the fastest way to experience the future of the operating system. But for many users who update their Windows Insider build after reading about a shiny new feature are left disappointed as it’s nowhere to be found. The company is finally targeting two complaints it has received from the Insider community—a confusing channel structure and the maddening gap between announced features and when they actually show up.

Mesh Wi-Fi is the go-to solution many people use to create whole-home coverage when running Ethernet cables isn’t an option. But there’s a good chance you can get more stable and faster connectivity than with Wi-Fi by using your home’s coaxial wiring. Thanks to the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) standard, you can get reliable wired internet anywhere you’ve got a coax port.

Apple is closing the doors on three retail locations in June, including the first store to win a unionized staff.

The employees of the Apple store in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, voted to unionize with the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) in 2022. The union is organized with the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE).

SEE ALSO: What AI can tell you about your blood test

A second Apple store in Oklahoma City voted to unionize shortly after Townson's historic action. Despite the forward momentum, other Apple unionization efforts have petered out under mounting pressure from the company, CNBC reports.

Towson employees were notified of the closure in a Thursday morning staff call. The group ratified its first contract with Apple in 2024, set to expire in 2027. According to union representatives, Apple has said they are prevented from relocating employees under the union's Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), but encouraged them to apply for other open positions. Apple employees at the two other locations set to close — Apple North County, in Escondido, California, and Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, Connecticut — will be moved to nearby stores.

IAM said Apple's claims about its inability to relocate employees at the Maryland store are false, and alleges the closure is "a cynical attempt to bust the union."

Apple says "declining conditions" in local shopping corridors, including the departure of retailers from the Townson Town Center mall, and a shift away from mall locations, prompted the closures.

In a statement following the announcement, IAM representatives wrote: "The IAM Union is outraged by Apple's decision to close its Towson, Md., store — the first unionized U.S. Apple retail location — and abandon both its workers and a community that relies on it for critical services and its unique access to public transit."

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Apple workers and union across the country have been organizing a movement to unionize retail staff, including salespeople and Genius bar staff, for several years.

It doesn't take long browsing through Prime Video's library of documentaries and documentary shows to fall down a rabbit hole of niche doc topics full of the obscure, fascinating, and wonderful options that go on for pages.

YouTube isn't immune to the wave of streaming service price hikes. The video giant has confirmed in a statement that it's raising prices for both YouTube Premium and YouTube Music subscribers.

About half of young people ages 14-29 are now using artificial intelligence every day or week, and yet just 15 percent of them see AI as a net positive for society. And you don't have to go far in the tech world to encounter AI doomers warning about the dire risks of AI run amok.

Indeed, such doom and gloom can be hard to avoid when the headlines constantly remind us that our world is heating up, drying up, and blowing up. And that's what makes the new Focus Features documentary, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, such a head-scratcher. The movie is a call to action, not just to regulate artificial intelligence so it can be harnessed for good, but a call to arms for optimists (and aspiring optimists like myself).

The AI Doc was produced by Everything Everywhere All At Once co-director Daniel Kwan and directed by filmmakers Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell. Roher, who won the Oscar for his 2022 documentary Navalny, is the emotional anchor of the movie, and he urged me to resist the siren call of cynicism around AI.

"[Cynicism] is, frankly, easy," he said. "Very, very easy. And it's kind of like the low-hanging knee-jerk reaction to something. You'll realize that it’s actually the only wrong answer to this."

SEE ALSO: Review: 'The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist' is a panic attack, in a good way

In the documentary, the Oscar-winning director learns that his wife is pregnant just as he begins a good and proper AI doom spiral. So, he takes us along for the ride as he explores the dangers of AI, both real and imagined. He even talks to the "final bosses" of the AI problem — the handful of men sitting atop the AI industry — OpenAI's Sam Altman (or is it Sam Altman’s OpenAI?), Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei.

Roher spoke with me by phone after the movie's release, where he confronted me about my own cynicism around artificial intelligence. We also talked about how AI is being used in Hollywood, the ongoing copyright battles between artists, filmmakers, and the AI industry, and whether AGI is really as imminent as it seems.

As a tech editor, I get whiplash covering AI. I talk to tech people, who talk about AI like it's the greatest thing in the world — it’s going to solve all our problems and change the world. And then I talk to artists and reporters, who tell me it's a scam, it's just destroying the [environment]. Have you experienced the same thing as a creative who talks to a lot of tech people?

Daniel Roher: I think that's a good way to articulate it. If you talk to one set of people, and they tell you one thing, and then talk to another set of people, and they tell you the polar opposite. And the particularly complicated component is that both people are incredibly intelligent and thoughtful and well read and well researched, and so it's sort of like looking at two truths at the same time and trying to decipher it and figure out how to reconcile that reality.

I imagine one tough thing about making an AI documentary is the pace of change in this space. For the first time, we're really seeing AI used in a war capacity. I'm just curious how your thinking has evolved since the movie wrapped?

I'm just becoming more and more concerned. Obviously, the documentary is about how scared I was, and I think now, as I'm seeing some of the [dangers] discussed in the documentary [happen]...like AI being used in conflicts. It's just very concerning and very scary. 

And you've seen red lines drawn in the sand by some companies, while others blow through them. I'm particularly speaking to Anthropic and the very reasonable red lines that they drew down with the Pentagon and what was comfortable for them, gaining the public support of most people in the world, including Sam Altman and OpenAI, only to be then designated a supply chain risk and have Sam Altman swoop in and and, you know, make his own deal with the Pentagon. 

But Sam Altman is someone who has a sort of air of someone who came out of the womb wearing his turtleneck and running shoes ready to give his keynote address at Davos...I found him to be just media-trained up the wazoo. Not a particularly genuine person. - Daniel Roher, Director

That type of, I don't know if you want to call it bad faith dealing, is pretty Machiavellian, and it's scary.

Yeah, and it kind of lines up with Sam Altman's reputation. His reputation is a bit Machiavellian. There have been accusations, I know, by former employees and board members that he's... I've heard the word "two-faced." What was your impression of Altman? Did it seem like he had a good grasp of the seriousness of the risks here?

I guess, although if he really did, I think he'd be doing more to work with his colleagues to try and create safety precautions and common-sense safety measures, which he's not doing. So perhaps not. 

SEE ALSO: Trump orders Pentagon to stop using 'woke' Anthropic in fiery Truth social post

But Sam Altman is someone who has a sort of air of someone who came out of the womb wearing his turtleneck and running shoes, ready to give his keynote address at Davos. Like, that's his energy, which is a vibe, you know? I would say that he and I didn't hit it off. Before that, I found him to be just media-trained up the wazoo. Not a particularly genuine person.

Co-director Daniel Roher appears in 'The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist.' Credit: Focus Features

The documentary did a really good job of laying out how, basically, our entire global economy is being rearranged around this arms race for AGI. All the biggest tech players in the world, the financial powers, they're all pouring resources into this race to be the first one to achieve AGI. And I guess one of the questions I have is, what happens if AGI isn't possible? What if AGI turns out to be a mirage? 

Well, how do you define AGI?

I would say, AI that's capable of replacing the average worker. Smart enough that it can do the average laptop job, the average manufacturing job, pretty much out of the box. 

By that metric, we have already achieved AGI. No debate.

I mean, I'm only going by the box you draw on the floor, and based on your explanation, certainly we've achieved AGI. Certainly, AI can write your article, and certainly AI can interview me, and certainly AI can write a movie, and certainly AI can drive a truck. It's just a question of the bureaucracies of our world being slow to incorporate these systems. But I think, by your definition, we have reached it. And anyone who says that it's not possible, or that this will plateau, that has not been my experience, just observing reality around me.

I don't know that it's quite all the way there. I think it still needs quite a bit of babysitting, from what I've seen. But maybe that's a bit of denialism on my part. 

For me, artificial general intelligence is an AI system that can do a wide variety of tasks at a level superior to that of an individual. So that is not limited to just, you know, coding or writing an essay. Anything, it can do better than you, not just one category. That's what I understand AGI to be. 

SEE ALSO: 'The AI Doc' producer Daniel Kwan on the future and threat of artificial intelligence

Without some sort of consensus on what we're talking about, it's hard to focus the discussion. And that's just a challenge with this, and how fast it's moving, and the fact that there are no clearly defined goalposts of what we're even talking about.

As you've gotten further into fatherhood, have your feelings on AI changed?

I would have typically described myself as quite a cynical, perhaps a denialistic person. I would have, you know, five years ago, said, "Oh yeah, this is gonna be terrible. There's nothing we can do in the face of this." And I don't feel that way now. I feel like the worst thing you can do is be cynical. And I think my perspective, geared towards optimism and collective action, is framed through the lens of fatherhood. It's irresponsible to be a parent and to be nihilistic or cynical, and that's why I really try and focus on what we can do, what I can do, and what you can do, what we can all do.

What are one or two things someone can do if they’re worried about AI?

Educate yourself. Use the software. Understand what they're capable of. Think critically about what you want to use these for, [and] what you don't want to use them for. That's really, really, really important. 

And then the other thing is to evaluate what we call your sphere of influence. If you're a single mom, if you're a truck driver, if you're a teacher, if you're a dog walker, if you're a filmmaker, or a politician or so on and so forth, you have power in your life, some smaller than others, but you have power nonetheless, even if it's just calling someone and talking to them about this, telling them what you've learned and how you're feeling about it, trying to explain to someone the value of collective action and being a a participant in finding a solution here. Because it'll take all of us. 

Five, 10 years ago, that would have sounded like corny, [politically correct] woo-woo, Kumbaya bullshit to me, but there is no other choice. 

So I very much believe in the power of collective action. And then there are basic political pressures that we can do. What political party, what candidates are on the right side of this issue, who is advocating for common sense, regulations, and guardrails to ensure that this technology doesn't consume us, but we still have power over our own future?

Those are a few things that might not seem satisfying to people, but it's not as easy as, like, change your light bulbs, you know, drive your car less, take the train instead of flying. It's more challenging.

[For] the tech CEO to be like, you know, "Fuck you, I will come for your shit." My response is, "Fuck you back. No, you're not." And I applaud the media outlets like the New York Times who are standing up for their material and doing the very, very good public work of fighting companies in the courts. - Daniel Roher, Director

Among many artists and many progressive people in general, there's a real intense resistance to using AI or to allowing AI to become normalized. For example, whenever we hear about AI being used in the process of making a video game, there are calls to boycott that game. Are you seeing that among other filmmakers or artists as well?

Yeah, sure, and that's their prerogative. This shit is fucking scary. I get it. I get why people are freaked out, why they don't want to use it, and why they want to boycott. But it's also the plain reality that it's here and it's not going anywhere. 

And so what I'm more interested in is figuring out how we can be creative beings alongside this thing, right? And what do I do that this thing cannot do, because I believe that my unique lived experience on Earth is just a different category of existence than this obtuse, oblique computer God thing that we're building that is just trained off of all of our regurgitated knowledge and stuff. I believe my lived experience is unique. That's the biggest thing. 

And then beyond that, I'm also very mindful of when it comes to using AI to create art — how is this empowering me versus how is it replacing me? And if it's empowering me in a meaningful way, then I'm like, "Cool, great." If it's going to replace me, I'm like, "No thank you." And it's also the paradox, and the reality is that the same thing that empowers me can also replace me, and that's why it takes all of us to sort of stand up and say, "You know what? We don't want to use it for this. I don't want to play a video game that was made by an AI, or I don't want to watch a film that was shot out by a computer. No, thank you. I appreciate the artist's hand."

Maybe that's naive, but that's just my opinion, as someone who is an artist who makes stuff as my vocation and reason for existing.

I've found some people take a very, very hard line that if there’s any involvement of AI, I won't engage with it at all. And I wonder sometimes if those people are kind of alienating themselves from the larger conversations that need to happen.

I don't disregard that position. I understand why people feel that way. My position is, this is fucking terrifying. Like, this is actually really scary. And I know most of my creative friends who have had the experience of using Sora or looking at ChatGPT and being like, "Oh, look, the thing that I've been training my whole life to do no longer has any value. So what the fuck do I do with that?" That, in and of itself, is scary, and it seems like a very natural reaction for people to be like, "No, fuck that. No, thank you. Not for me."

You know, is that healthy in the grand scheme? Probably not. But as I said earlier, my position is that this isn't going anywhere, and it's just a question of how we can coexist and co-evolve with this technology in a way that is empowering and not depleting.

I also wanted to quickly ask about the copyright issue. I interviewed the CEO of a major AI video company, Luma AI, and he basically said, anything we train on is [fair use]. You know, we're going to train on whatever we want. But if the output looks like copyrighted, protected material, that's a problem, and that's where we draw the line. 

Do you get a sense that that's kind of a losing battle, that ultimately AI companies are going to do what they want?

The guy who has a financial vested interest is saying that he's gonna train his model on what the fuck he wants? It's kind of like the guy who runs the tobacco company saying that, you know, smoking is good for you. Everyone should have a cigarette, and if you say differently, fuck you. And to that, I'm like, "Dude, go fuck yourself." Language like “the battle's already been lost”? And it's like, dude, relax. The battle hasn't already been lost. 

This is just a unique challenge of 25th-century technology that's crash-landed into the 21st century, being regulated by legislative processes forged in the 17-fucking-hundreds. And court cases take a long time, but I think, at the end of the day, the book is still very much open on whether the IP battle has been won or lost.

So, yeah, for the tech CEO to be like, you know, "Fuck you, I will come for your shit." My response is, "Fuck you back. No, you're not." And I applaud media outlets like the New York Times, which are standing up for their material and doing the very, very good public work of fighting companies in court. And this is what I'm talking about, as a collective action. There has been a tangible pushback against the overreach of these AI companies. I feel it. I sense it in the ether. People are scared. People are pushing back. People are saying, "No, thank you," and I'm inspired by that.

[Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable's parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.]

I think that speaks to the doomer in me. I have the skeptic, the cynicism, in myself as well. 

I don't know what your life is like, but I hope for you that you get to experience having kids, because it rocks, it's just so fun. And maybe you're not a person who wants to do that in your life, and that's fine, too. But I hope that your main character arc is that, one day, you have a family and you understand viscerally that the cynicism you're speaking to is, frankly, easy. Very, very easy. And it's kind of like the low-hanging knee-jerk reaction to something. You'll realize that it’s actually the only wrong answer to this.

Visit The AI Doc Get Involved website for more information. You can catch The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist in theaters now.

Some of the quotes in this story have been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

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