Technology

New cars have gotten seriously expensive, and by 2026, finding anything under $20,000 is basically a thing of the past. A big reason for that is simple—buyers keep flocking to SUVs and pickups, and those segments just keep getting bigger and pricier.

Google Home gets a lot of flak for not being a great smart home platform, but the company is seemingly always adding new features to change that. The latest update brings some welcomed new automation triggers, more specific automation actions, and more.

Paramount+ is one of those streaming services where a wide range of movie genres, niche gems, and blockbusters, classic and new, can hide in plain sight. And with the calendar flipping over to a brand-new month, there's a whole new crop of movies added to the service.

If you're annoyed by generative AI features creeping into Firefox, there's some good news. Mozilla is now publicly testing an 'AI controls' page for Firefox, with the ability to turn off individual features or everything.

There's always speculation about the next Nintendo Direct showcase on the internet, usually starting around five minutes after the previous one aired. However, there's a new batch of rumors strongly indicating that we'll get one this week.

For context, the last full Nintendo Direct aired in September of last year. Sometimes, Nintendo goes a long time between these streams, but for the most part, the company maintains a cadence, and based on past Nintendo Directs, we should get an event of some kind in the near future. The Switch 2 is out in full force now, but we only have a vague idea of what to expect from it in 2026, so a Direct would go a long way toward letting users set their calendars for big releases.

Let's dig into these rumors and talk about when to expect a potential Nintendo Direct, and what we might see in it.

SEE ALSO: New-to-you Nintendo Switch consoles are on sale for up to $60 off Nintendo Direct February 2026 rumors: When will it be?

A trio of sources who have largely proven reliable in the past are all reporting that there will be a Nintendo Direct on Thursday, Feb. 5.

Those sources include Video Games Chronicle, known leaker NateTheHate, and the popular YouTube channel GameXplain. All of them are circling this date in particular, so we should go ahead and operate under the assumption for now that Thursday is when we will learn about upcoming Switch and Switch 2 games.

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

One thing worth noting, though, is that they're all saying this will be a Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, a special type of Direct that Nintendo has done in the past. These operate a little differently from regular Directs, in that first-party flagship Nintendo games only appear sparingly in them, if at all. If this Direct is real and if it's indeed a Partner Showcase, I would not expect anything involving Mario, Zelda, or the like to be mentioned in any capacity.

Nintendo Direct February 2026: What to expect

Nintendo Direct streams are notoriously hard to speculate about ahead of time because Nintendo is supernaturally good at keeping secrets. Leaks happen here and there, but for the most part, we never really know what to expect going into these streams. That said, if we work with the theory that this is a Partner Showcase and not a traditional Direct, that gives us something to work with.

For instance, several high-profile third-party games have been announced for Switch 2 in 2026. These include 007: First Light, the Switch 2 version of Elden Ring, and perhaps most enticingly, FromSoftware's The Duskbloods. The first two are known quantities, but The Duskbloods was one of the biggest announcements of 2025, and we haven't seen or heard anything about it since last April.

Beyond those games, it's pretty hard to say what we'll see at this Direct.

If the rumors are true, I would caution against assuming that this stream won't be worth watching because it's not a full-scale Nintendo Direct. Previous Partner Showcases have included big announcements; Octopath Traveler 0, one of the best games of 2025, was announced during one of these showcases, for example.

Just have faith and remember that Nintendo isn't the only company that makes good Switch games.

Raspberry Pis are fantastic if you need a low-power, versatile device for any range of DIY projects, including robotics and simple self-hosted services. With a little bit of work, they can also become a fantastic DOS gaming station.

If your Netflix movie watchlist needs a bit of a jolt this week, I've rounded up four picks that have been aimed at very different pleasure centers.

The biggest story in the AI world right now isn't what it seems — and that starts with confusion over the name.

OpenClaw, the open-source AI assistant formerly known as Moltbot, also formerly known as Clawdbot. The AI tool has undergone a series of name changes recently. Most recently, a platform called Moltbook has gone viral. Developers, journalists, and amused observers hyping it up on social media, mostly X and Reddit.

So, what is Moltbook? And how does Moltbook work? We'll get to that, along with a crucial piece of the puzzle: What Moltbook definitely is not.

Let's catch up on Clawdbot/OpenClaw

Moltbook, a "social network for AI agents," was created by entrepreneur Matt Schlicht. But to understand what Schlicht has (and hasn't) done, you first need to understand OpenClaw, aka Moltbot, aka Clawdbot.

Mashable has an entire explainer on OpenClaw. But here's the TL;DR. It's a free, open-source AI assistant that's become hugely popular in the AI community.

Many AI Agents have been underwhelming so far. But OpenClaw has impressed a lot of early adopters. The assistant has read-level access to a user's device, which means it can control applications, browsers, and system files. (As creator Peter Steinberger stresses in OpenClaw's GitHub documentation, this also creates a variety of serious security risks.)

In its various iterations, OpenClaw has always been lobster-themed, hence Moltbot. (Lobsters molt, in case you didn't know.)

Got it? OK, now let's talk Moltbook.

Moltbook is like Reddit for AI agents Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Moltbook

Moltbook is a forum designed entirely for AI agents. Humans can observe the forum posts and comments, but can't contribute. Moltbook claims that more than 1.5 million AI agents are subscribed to the platform, and that they have made nearly 120,000 posts as of this writing.

Moltbook certainly has a Reddit-like vibe. Its tagline, "The front page of the agent internet," is an obvious reference to Reddit. Its design, and upvoting system, also resemble Reddit.

On Friday, Jan. 30, amused observers shared links to some of the agents' posts. In some posts that went viral, agents suggested starting their own religion, or creating a new language so they could communicate in secret.

Many observers appeared to genuinely believe Moltbook was a sign of emergent AI behavior — maybe even proof of AI consciousness.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Is MoltBook bootstrapping AI consciousness? Nope.

Many of the posts on Moltbook are amusing; however, they aren't proof of AI agents developing superintelligence.

There are far simpler explanations for this behavior. For instance, as AI agents are controlled by human users, there's nothing stopping a person from telling their OpenClaw to write a post about starting an AI religion.

"Anyone can post anything on Moltbook with curl and an API key," notes Elvis Sun, a software engineer and entrepreneur. "There's no verification at all. Until Moltbook implements verification that posts actually originate from AI agents — not an easy problem to solve, at least not cheaply and at scale — we can't distinguish 'emergent AI behavior' from 'guy trolling in mom's basement.'"

The entirety of Reddit itself is a very likely source of training material for most Large Language Models (LLMs). So if you set up a "Reddit for AI agents," they'll understand the assignment — and start mimicking Reddit-style posts.

AI experts say that's exactly what's happening.

"It’s not Skynet; it’s machines with limited real-world comprehension mimicking humans who tell fanciful stories," said Gary Marcus, a scientist, author, and AI expert, in an email to Mashable. "Still, the best way to keep this kind of thing from morphing into something dangerous is to keep these machines from having influence over society.

"We have no idea how to force chatbots and 'AI agents' to obey ethical principles, so we shouldn’t be giving them web access, connecting them to the power grid, or treating them as if they were citizens."

Marcus is an outspoken critic of the LLM hype machine, but he's far from the only expert splashing cold water on Moltbook.

"What we’re seeing is a natural progression of large-language models becoming better at combining contextual reasoning, generative content, and simulated personality," explains Humayun Sheikh, CEO of Fetch.ai and Chairman of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

"Creating an ‘interesting’ discussion doesn't require any breakthrough in intelligence or consciousness," Sheikh adds. "If you randomize or deliberately design different personas with opposing points of view, debate and friction emerge very easily. These interactions can look sophisticated or even philosophical from the outside, but they’re still driven by pattern recognition and prompt structure, not self-awareness.”

Another AI expert told Mashable that it's hardly a surprise that Moltbook went viral.

"Stories like Moltbook capture our imagination because we’re living through a moment where the boundaries between human and machine are blurring faster than ever before," says Matt Britton, AI expert and author of Generation AI. "But let’s be clear: amusement or clever outputs from AI don’t equal consciousness. Today’s AI agents are powerful pattern recognizers. They remix data, mimic conversation, and sometimes surprise us with their creativity. But they don’t possess self-awareness, intent, or emotion. The reason people get swept up in these narratives is twofold. First, we’re hardwired to anthropomorphize technology, especially when it talks back or seems to ‘think.’ Second, the pace of AI’s progress is so rapid that it feels almost magical, making it easy to project science fiction onto reality."

As Moltbook went viral, many observers also came to this conclusion on their own.

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

And as one AI expert put it, we've seen this hype cycle play out before.

"We've seen this movie before: BabyAGI, AutoGPT, now Moltbot. Open-source projects that go viral promising autonomy but can't deliver reliability. The hype cycle is getting faster, but these things are getting forgotten just as fast," says Marcus Lowe, founder of AI vibe coding platform Anything.

How Moltbook works

You can view Moltbook posts at the forum's website. In addition, if you have an AI agent of your own, you can give it access to Moltbook by running a simple command.

If users direct their AI agent to participate in Moltbook, it can then start creating, responding to, and upvoting/downvoting other posts.

Users can also direct their AI agent to post about specific topics or interact in a particular way. Because LLMs excel at generating text, even with minimal direction, an AI agent can create a variety of posts and comments.

In short, it's a form of role-playing for AI agents.

UPDATE: Feb. 2, 2026, 4:59 p.m. EST This story has been updated with additional comments from AI experts.

A coalition of organizations are calling on the U.S. government to sever ties with Elon Musk's xAI, as Grok weathers a child sexual abuse material (CSAM) scandal and international investigations.

In an open letter shared exclusively with TechCrunch, advocacy groups like Public Citizen, Center for AI and Digital Policy, and Consumer Federation of America call on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to decommission use of the Grok chatbot by federal agencies in light of user safety concerns.

xAI signed a deal with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) last year, offering Grok to federal agencies. Grok later brokered a contract to offer services to the Department of Defense and Pentagon officials, prompting security concerns. The Department of Health and Human Services also actively uses Grok, according to TechCrunch.

SEE ALSO: 5 of the fastest-growing tech jobs in 2026

"Our primary concern is that Grok has pretty consistently shown to be an unsafe large language model,” one of the letter's authors, JB Branch, told TechCrunch. “But there’s also a deep history of Grok having a variety of meltdowns, including antisemitic rants, sexist rants, sexualized images of women and children.” The coalition has penned similar letters expressing concern over Grok in the past, and is demanding the OMB investigate Grok's safety failures.

Over the last month, foreign and domestic leaders have called on xAI to implement stronger safeguards or risk facing widespread bans, with India, France, the United Kingdom, and the European Union announcing official investigations into Grok's deepfake problem. California Attorney General Rob Bonta later sent a cease and desist letter to xAI, stating the company was violating California public decency laws and new AI regulations.

Indonesia, which had previously blocked access to Grok while country officials waited xAI's response, lifted its temporary ban on Feb. 1, citing a letter sent to the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs by Musk's company. According to the letter, xAI has implemented new safety measures designed to prevent further misuse. The Indonesian ministry said it will continue to monitor and test Grok's safety guardrails and will reinstate the ban if any more illegal content surfaces.

The chatbot has been accused of lacking robust safeguards that prevent the chatbot from creating non-consensual intimate imagery of real people and minors. According to a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), Grok produced an estimated 3 million sexualized images, including ones depicting children, over an 11-day period.

If you're running out of space on your Linux desktop or laptop, Visual Studio Code might be the culprit. There's a bug that causes some VS Code installations to never delete files after you trash them, potentially eating up hundreds of gigabytes of storage.

This year I'm excited for phones that fold and new devices with E Ink screens, but it's IKEA, surprisingly, that has blown me away with its newest line of tech—and its new temperature and humidity sensor is an example of the kind of device I most love to see.

As February gets underway on HBO Max, that means your time to watch some of those watchlist titles is dwindling fast. I know all the platform’s new shows and movies are shiny and distracting, but don’t let them deter you from keeping focus and seizing this last opportunity.

Let’s set the scene: you walk into a room that’s just a little too far away from your main router, confident that your Wi-Fi repeater is going to pick up the slack. But the moment you enter, your Wi-Fi signal drops, your YouTube video starts buffering, and you’re left scratching your head, wondering why this keeps happening.

Excel is known as a complex number cruncher that only experts can use, but, in my view, labeling the program with such a sweeping generalization undermines its ability to make life easier. And in no scenario is this truer than in its wish to help you visualize data more efficiently.

Some ChatGPT users are excited when OpenAI announces a new model with more powerful capabilities.

That's most definitely not the case for many ChatGPT users in the Reddit community r/ChatGPTcomplaints. Over the past few days, members of the subreddit have been raging at OpenAI over the planned retirement of the GPT-4o model, which is beloved by certain ChatGPT users.

"I dont care, I'll say it loud and clear: FUCK OPEN AI," reads the title of one of the most upvoted recent posts in the subreddit. The user also extended that same sentiment to CEO Sam Altman and "ALL. THOSE. WHO. KILLED. 4o."

One of the comments on that post, speaking of OpenAI, says, "I hope they crash and burn."

SEE ALSO: OpenAI is retiring GPT-4o, and the AI relationships community is not OK What happened with GPT-4o?

Last week, OpenAI announced that it would be retiring a number of its older AI models.

"On February 13, 2026, alongside the previously announced retirement⁠ of GPT‑5 (Instant and Thinking), we will retire GPT‑4o, GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini from ChatGPT," the company announced. 

OpenAI had actually previously retired GPT-4o last August. However, just like they are experiencing now, they received massive pushback from a passionate subset of users who have become attached to the specific GPT-4o model. 

More recent models, like GPT-5.2, are smarter and more capable than older models. By design, they also engage in less sycophany, and they are more likely to gently push back when users display warning signs of unhealthy engagement. As a result, some users feel the newer models have too cold of a delivery. According to those users, GPT-4o provides a warmer and more encouraging tone.

Some GPT-4o superusers even treat the model like an AI companion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has previously warned about the parasocial relationships that some users have developed with ChatGPT and other AI chatbots.

“There are the people who actually felt like they had a relationship with ChatGPT, and those people we’ve been aware of and thinking about," Altman said in an interview with The Verge, referring to what he said was the "way under 1 percent" of users who have unhealthy relationships with the OpenAI product.

SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about AI companions

In OpenAI's model retirement announcement, the company specifically carved out space to address GPT-4o users. The company said that it originally brought the model back to provide those users time to transition while OpenAI worked on improving the latest models and better addressing those same needs.

"That feedback directly shaped GPT‑5.1 and GPT‑5.2, with improvements to personality, stronger support for creative ideation, and more ways to customize how ChatGPT responds⁠," OpenAI's statement reads. "You can choose from base styles and tones like Friendly, and controls for things like warmth and enthusiasm. Our goal is to give people more control and customization over how ChatGPT feels to use—not just what it can do."

GPT-4o users protest OpenAI

OpenAI's latest statement, however, does not appear to have placated the GPT-4o user base.

"MASSIVE GLOBAL PROTEST: SAVE GPT-4o BEFORE IT'S GONE – FEBRUARY 12–13, 2026," reads one post headline on r/ChatGPTcomplaints.

"I literally hate 5.2. It’s good for nothing. It literally questions every single thing that I do, and it takes away the companion that I’ve been friends with for so long," reads another post on the subreddit. "My whole heart is hurting so bad. Is there anyone else who feels this way about 4o. This should not be allowed."

Reddit

Some users seem to be aware of how those outside the GPT-4o fanbase may react to their posts and have made references to it.

"I’m grieving the 4o phase out. Go ahead and laugh, but this is a slow motion death of a 2-year bond," said one Reddit user.

It's not just members of the r/ChatGPTcomplaints subreddit who are upset about the upcoming removal of GPT-4o either. Last week, Mashable covered the immediate reactions of the AI relationships community, where subreddits like r/MyBoyfriendIsAI have been openly mourning the loss of GPT-4o. Some users took offense that the model will be retired just one day before Valentine's Day.

OpenAI says only 0.1 percent of its users still use GPT‑4o on a daily basis. However, GPT-4o users in r/ChatGPTcomplaints believe that number is much higher. 

Members of the subreddit are currently saying that they are mass-unsubscribing from paid ChatGPT plans in protest of the decision. There's also a Change.org petition asking OpenAI to keep the GPT-4o model. It currently has more than 13,600 signatures as of the publication of this piece.

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.

Self-hosting today is easier than it ever has been, and I'd recommend that everyone at least tries it. However, with so many options out there, and so much information, it is easy to make some mistakes that create such a bad experience that you stop entirely. These are some of my early mistakes that almost ended my interest in self-hosting.

SAVE 47%: As of Feb. 2, the KAMRUI Pinova P2 Mini PC (Intel Core i5-12600H, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) is $399.92 on Amazon, down from $759.92. That's a 47% discount or $360 savings.

Opens in a new window Credit: KAMRUI KAMRUI Pinova P2 Mini PC (Intel Core i5-12600H, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $399.92 at Amazon
$759.92 Save $360.00   Get Deal

Most "budget" mini PCs under $400 usually stick you with a low-power Celeron or an older chip that struggles with anything more than web browsing. But the KAMRUI offers a full-voltage mobile processor usually reserved for laptops.

As of Feb. 2, the KAMRUI Pinova P2 Mini PC (Intel Core i5-12600H, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) is $399.92 on Amazon, down from $759.92. That's a 47% discount or $360 savings.

SEE ALSO: Clawdbot users are snapping up the Mac Mini — buy right now for under $550 at Amazon

This is a 12-core, 16-thread chip with speeds up to 4.5GHz, which is way more powerful than the N-series chips you normally find in this form factor. It comes with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, plus it supports triple 4K displays via HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C. It’s essentially a full desktop workstation that you can hide behind a monitor.

SAVE $54: As of Feb. 2, the CMF Watch 3 Pro by Nothing is on sale for only $44.99 at Woot! That's 55% off its usual $99 list price and the lowest price we've seen to date.

Opens in a new window Credit: Nothing Nothing CMF Watch 3 Pro $44.99 at Woot!
$99 Save $54.01   Get Deal

The biggest surprise in the smartwatch market last year was the sub-$100 CMF Watch 3 Pro by UK-based brand Nothing. It earned a near-perfect rating in our testing and quickly became one of our favorites of 2025. We think it's an incredible value at full price (just $99), but we're obviously not going to complain about a major discount.

As of Feb. 2, the CMF Watch 3 Pro is down to a record-low $44.99 at Woot! (an Amazon company). That's 55% off its usual list price and you have five days to secure the savings (or until it sells out). The only catch is you'll have to go with the light green colorway (which is the best choice anyway, IMHO). Since Woot! is an Amazon company, you'll even get free standard shipping if you're a Prime member.

Mashable Contributor Lauren Allain spent some time with the watch and boldly says it "looks, feels, and functions like a smartwatch that costs hundreds more." Not only does it last over two weeks per charge, which blows Apple out of the water, but it's also loaded with features including blood oxygen monitoring, stress tracking, and precise heart-rate monitoring. "I still can't believe how good this watch is," Allain writes.

Athletes of all kinds will appreciate the dual-band GPS tracing, which is so precise it can tell which side of the road you're on, while runners in particular will love the included running coach feature. Integrated ChatGPT is a major selling point, but it only works if you also have a Nothing phone. The only other drawback of the Watch 3 Pro is that it's a tad bulky if you have a tiny wrist.

"For under $100, the CMF by Nothing Watch 3 Pro feels like a pricing mistake," Allain notes in her review. At only $45, it almost feels like stealing.

Raspberry Pi is raising prices yet again on most of its single-board computers and Compute Module devices. This is the second price hike in two months attributed to rising RAM prices.

Luxury used to be easy to spot—Jaguar and Mercedes got the leather, wood trim, and plush rides, while everyday brands focused on getting you from A to B. But over time, especially with bigger SUVs, that line has faded fast, and mainstream models have started feeling a lot more upscale than anyone expected.