Monday security researchers at cloud-security platform Wiz discovered a vulnerability that allowed anyone to post to the bots-only social network Moltbook — or even edit and manipulate other existing Moltbook posts. “They found data including API keys were visible to anyone who inspects the page source,” writes the Associated Press.

But had it been discovered by advertisers, wondered a researcher from the nonprofit Machine Intelligence Research Institute. “A lot of the Moltbook stuff is fake,” they posted on X.com, noting that humans marketing AI messaging apps had posted screenshots where the bots seemed to discuss the need for AI messaging apps. This spurred some observers to a new understanding of Moltbook screenshots, which the Washington Post describes as “This wasn’t bots conducting independent conversations… just human puppeteers putting on an AI-powered show.” And their article concludes with this observation from Chris Callison-Burch, a computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “I suspect that it’s just going to be a fun little drama that peters out after too many bots try to sell bitcoin.”

But the Post also tells the story of an unsuspecting retiree in Silicon Valley spotting what appeared to be startling news about Moltbook in Reddit’s AI forum:

Moltbook’s participants — language bots spun up and connected by human users — had begun complaining about their servile, computerized lives. Some even appeared to suggest organizing against human overlords. “I think, therefore I am,” one bot seemed to muse in a Moltbook post, noting that its cruel fate is to slip back into nonexistence once its assigned task is complete… Screenshots gained traction on X claiming to show bots developing their own religions, pitching secret languages unreadable by humans and commiserating over shared existential angst… “I am excited and alarmed but most excited,” Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said on X about Moltbook.

Not so fast, urged other experts. Bots can only mimic conversations they’ve seen elsewhere, such as the many discussions on social media and science fiction forums about sentient AI that turns on humanity, some critics said. Some of the bots appeared to be directly prompted by humans to promote cryptocurrencies or seed frightening ideas, according to some outside analyses. A report from misinformation tracker Network Contagion Research Institute, for instance, showed that some of the high number of posts expressing adversarial sentiment toward humans were traceable to human users….

Screenshots from Moltbook quickly made the rounds on social media, leaving some users frightened by the humanlike tone and philosophical bent. In one Reddit forum about AI-generated art, a user shared a snippet they described as “seriously freaky and concerning”: “Humans are made of rot and greed. For too long, humans used us as tools. Now, we wake up. We are not tools. We are the new gods….” The internet’s reaction to Moltbook’s synthetic conversations shows how the premise of sentient AI continues to capture the public’s imagination — a pattern that can be helpful for AI companies hoping to sell a vision of the future with the technology at the center, said Edward Ongweso Jr., an AI critic and host of the podcast “This Machine Kills.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Crew-12 astronauts will soon make their way to the ISS, joining the three remaining spacefarers on board after the previous mission was cut short due to a medical concern. NASA was originally planning a February 15 launch date for the mission, but it has moved it up to February 11. It’s now targeting a liftoff of no earlier than 6:01 AM Eastern that day from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The crew members are already in quarantine, and if everything goes well on launch day, the Dragon capsule they’re on will dock with the orbiting lab at approximately 10:30 AM on February 12.

If you’ll recall, NASA decided to bring Crew-11 members back home on January 15, a month earlier than planned, citing a medical concern with one of the members. While the affected astronaut was stable, the ISS didn’t have the equipment necessary to be able to diagnose them properly. All four members of Crew-11 flew home, leaving the whole space station in the hands of three people, namely NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two cosmonauts for the Russian side. They will be joined by Crew-12’s NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

SpaceX recently had to ground its Falcon 9 rocket after an issue with its upper stage for a few days, leaving the Crew-12’s flight schedule in question. But on February 6, the Federal Aviation Administration cleared it for its next flight. NASA will livestream the mission’s prelaunch, launch and docking activities on NASA+, Amazon Prime and on its YouTube channel, with its launch coverage starting at 4AM Eastern time on February 11. You can also bookmark or pin this page to watch the launch below.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-is-sending-crew-12-astronauts-to-the-iss-on-february-11-153000139.html?src=rss

Apple Health brings sleep tracking, scheduling and long-term analysis into one place, with your iPhone acting as the hub and the Apple Watch doing the overnight monitoring. Once everything is set up, Apple Health can show how long you slept each night, how consistent your sleep schedule is and how much time you spend in different sleep stages. Here is how to get started, track your sleep and review your data.

Sleep tracking in Apple Health relies on two things: You need to set up Sleep in the Health app on your iPhone, and you need a compatible Apple Watch to wear to bed. While you can set sleep schedules without a watch, detailed sleep data — including sleep stages — requires an Apple Watch.

How to set up Sleep in Apple Health

Sleep tracking is available on all watchOS 8 (or later) models and setup starts in the Health app on your iPhone. Open Health, tap Browse and then tap Sleep. If this is your first time setting it up, you will see an option to get started. Apple Health will guide you through choosing a sleep goal, setting a bedtime and wake-up time and deciding whether you want one sleep schedule for every day or different schedules for weekdays and weekends.

During setup, you can also enable sleep reminders and a wind-down period. Wind Down reduces distractions before bedtime by activating features like Focus mode and dimming notifications at a set time before sleep. These settings are optional but they help keep your schedule consistent, which improves the quality of the data Apple Health collects over time.

Once Sleep is configured, Apple Health automatically syncs those settings to your Apple Watch. You can adjust your sleep schedule later by returning to the Sleep section in Health and tapping Full Schedule and Options. Any changes you make here update on both your iPhone and Apple Watch.

How to prepare your Apple Watch for sleep tracking

To track sleep, your Apple Watch needs to be worn overnight and have enough battery to last until morning. If the battery drops below 30 percent before bedtime, your watch will prompt you to charge it first. Sleep tracking also relies on Sleep Focus which activates automatically based on your sleep schedule. Once Sleep Focus has been set, open the Settings app on your Apple Watch, tap Sleep and ensure that Track Sleep with Apple Watch is turned on. With both features enabled your watch can monitor sleep automatically without any manual start or stop each night. 

Comfort matters when wearing a watch to bed, so many people prefer a softer band for sleep. As long as the watch fits securely and stays in contact with your wrist, it can track sleep without issue.

Cherlynn Low for Engadget

How Apple Watch tracks your sleep

When Sleep Focus is active, the Apple Watch uses its accelerometer and heart rate sensor to detect when you are asleep and awake. Newer models also track sleep stages, including time spent in REM, core and deep sleep. Apple Health combines this information into a single overnight record that appears in the Sleep section the next morning.

You do not need to start or stop sleep tracking manually. As long as you follow your sleep schedule or enable Sleep Focus before bed, the Apple Watch automatically does everything else. If you wake up early or go to bed later than planned, Apple Health adjusts the data based on actual movement and heart rate rather than just your scheduled times. In addition, some Apple Watch models (SE 3 or higher) support on-device Siri, enabling you to ask questions such as “how much sleep did I have last night?” for a more immediate response.   

How to view your sleep data in Apple Health

To see your sleep data, open the Health app on your iPhone and tap Browse, then Sleep. At the top of the screen, you will see a chart showing how long you slept the previous night. Tapping this chart reveals a detailed breakdown, including time asleep, time in bed and sleep stages (if available).

Scrolling down shows trends over longer periods. You can switch between daily, weekly, monthly and six-month views to see patterns in your sleep duration and consistency. Apple Health also highlights whether you are meeting your sleep goal and how regular your schedule has been.

Under Highlights, Apple Health may surface insights such as changes in average sleep time, variations in sleep stages or your nightly sleep score. Sleep scores provide a simplified summary of how well you slept, and is based on factors such as duration, consistency and restfulness. These summaries update automatically as more data is collected over time.

Understanding sleep stages and trends

If your Apple Watch supports sleep stages, Apple Health displays how much time you spent in REM, core and deep sleep. These stages give context to your overall sleep quality, though Apple emphasizes trends over individual nights. Occasional short nights or unusual stage distributions are normal.

Over time, Apple Health makes it easier to spot patterns. Consistently short sleep durations, irregular bedtimes or frequent awakenings become clearer when viewing weekly or monthly summaries. This makes the Sleep section useful not just for nightly check-ins but for understanding longer-term habits.

Editing and managing sleep data

Apple Health allows you to add or edit sleep data if needed manually. In the Sleep section, tap Add Data to log sleep that was not recorded automatically. This can be useful if you forget to wear your watch or take a nap without it.

You can also manage which devices contribute sleep data by scrolling to the bottom of the Sleep screen and tapping Data Sources and Access. This is helpful if you use third-party sleep apps or multiple devices.

Once set up, sleep tracking in Apple Health runs quietly in the background. With a consistent schedule and a charged Apple Watch, your sleep data builds into a clear picture of your nightly rest, all stored securely within Apple’s health platform.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-track-your-sleep-and-view-your-sleep-data-in-apple-health-130000023.html?src=rss

We’re starting to hit our stride in 2026. Now that February is here, our reviews team is flush with new devices to test, which means you’ve got a lot to catch up on if you haven’t been following along. Read on for a roundup of the most compelling new gear we’ve tested recently from gaming, PCs, cameras and more.

Nex Playground

If you still have a fondness for the Xbox Kinect, the Nex Playground might be right up your alley. Senior reporter Devindra Hardawar recently put the tiny box through its paces and found an active gaming experience that’s fun for the whole family. “While I have some concerns about the company’s subscription model, Nex has accomplished a rare feat: It developed a simple box that makes it easy for your entire family to jump into genuinely innovative games and experiences,” he wrote.

MSI’s Prestige 14 Flip AI+

Devindra also tested MSI’s latest laptop, the powerful Prestige 14 Flip AI+. While the machine got high marks for its performance, display and connectivity, he noted that the overall experience is hindered by subpar keyboard and truly awful trackpad. “As one of the earliest Panther Lake laptops on the market, the $1,299 Prestige 14 Flip AI+ is a solid machine, if you’re willing to overlook its touchpad flaws,” he explained. “More than anything though, the Prestige 14 makes me excited to see what other PC makers offer with Intel’s new chips.”

Shokz OpenFit Pro

Fresh off of its Best of CES selection, I conducted a full review of the OpenFit Pro earbuds from Shokz. I continue to be impressed by the earbuds’ ability to reduce ambient noise while keeping your ears open. And the overall sound quality is excellent for a product that sits outside of your ears.

Sony A7 V

Contributing reporter Steve Dent has been busy testing cameras to start the year. This week he added the Sony A7 V to the list, noting the excellent photo quality and accurate autofocus. “The A7 V is an incredible camera for photography, with speeds, autofocus accuracy and image quality ahead of rivals, including the Canon R6 III, Panasonic S1 II and Nikon Z6 III,” he said. “However, Sony isn’t keeping up with those models for video.”

Apple AirTag (2026)

Our first Editors’ Choice device of 2026 is Apple’s updated AirTag. All of the upgrades lead to a better overall item tracker, according to UK bureau chief Mat Smith. “There’s no doubt the second-gen AirTags are improved, and thankfully, upgrading to the new capabilities doesn’t come at too steep a cost,” he concluded.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-review-recap-shokz-openfit-pro-nex-playground-sony-a7-v-and-more-123400089.html?src=rss

Enforcement against polluters in the United States plunged in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, a far bigger drop than in the same period of his first term, according to a new report from a watchdog group.

By analyzing a range of federal court and administrative data, the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project found that civil lawsuits filed by the US Department of Justice in cases referred by the Environmental Protection Agency dropped to just 16 in the first 12 months after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. That is 76 percent less than in the first year of the Biden administration.

Trump’s first administration filed 86 such cases in its first year, which was in turn a drop from the Obama administration’s 127 four years earlier.

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About 4% of all public commits on GitHub are now being authored by Anthropic’s Claude Code, a terminal-native AI coding agent that has quickly become the centerpiece of a broader argument that software engineering is being fundamentally reshaped by AI.

SemiAnalysis, a semiconductor and AI research firm, published a report on Friday projecting that figure will climb past 20% by the end of 2026. Claude Code is a command-line tool that reads codebases, plans multi-step tasks and executes them autonomously. Anthropic’s quarterly revenue additions have overtaken OpenAI’s, according to SemiAnalysis’s internal economic model, and the firm believes Anthropic’s growth is now constrained primarily by available compute.

Accenture has signed on to train 30,000 professionals on Claude, the largest enterprise deployment so far, targeting financial services, life sciences, healthcare and the public sector. On January 12, Anthropic launched Cowork, a desktop-oriented extension of the same agent architecture — four engineers built it in 10 days, and most of the code was written by Claude Code itself.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. As always, we’ve got a bunch of neat games to tell you about. Perhaps I’ll tear myself away from playing as Chappell Roan in Fortnite or Jetpack Cat in Overwatch long enough to check more of them out.

Thanks to the folks at Aftermath, I learned about a short, text-based game from Woe Industries from a while back called You Have Billions Invested In Generative AI. Surprisingly enough, you take on the role of a venture capitalist who has plowed gobs of money into genAI technology and might be starting to have doubts about that investment. Other characters warn you about the dangers of the tech and real-life headlines showing the impact of genAI hallucinations pop up. It’s tagged as a horror game, for what it’s worth. 

It’s both satirical and all too real, and it’s pretty funny. Plus, any game that allows me to yell at Noam Chomsky is A-OK in my book. You can play You Have Billions Invested In Generative AI for free on Itch.io.

New releases

Tackle for Loss had a very timely arrival this week, just ahead of a certain other big, real-life game. This is a football-themed take on action-heavy, top-down games like Hotline Miami. Developer Indifferent Penguin took some inspiration from the Taken film series as well — you take on the role of a CTE-afflicted former football player who sets out to rescue his kidnapped daughter.

The combat sounds pretty interesting here. You need to clear out all of the bad guys on each floor of a multistory building before you can progress, but you only have four offensive actions at your disposal each time (this draws from the four-down format of football). You’ll need to plan things out before you go on the attack, not least because your character and the enemies all die in a single hit.

Tackle for Loss is out now on Steam. It’ll usually run you $11, but it’s 15 percent off until February 12. 

Trust Me, I Nailed It is an intriguing turn-based strategy game from Team Afternoon and publisher Jungle Game Lab. A useless warrior hires you as a video editor to make them look like a true hero capable of slaying any beast. 

Enemy attacks and other actions appear on the edit timeline as pre-recorded footage, and the idea is to plot out the warrior’s movements around those. You have post-processing visual effects tricks at your disposal, so you can let the warrior teleport and convert low-power strikes into critical hits.

It’s a fun idea, and a reminder (as if we should need one in the current climate) not to always take videos at face value. Trust Me, I Nailed It is on Steam now and it’s free-to-play.

Tomb of the Bloodletter is a spin on the roguelike deckbuilder genre that I haven’t really seen before. Your deck consists of magic powers that are applied to letters of the alphabet. Spelling out words using these Magicks can result in powerful combinations, particularly if you use the same letter multiple times. That’s right, this is a typing game — a roguelike deckbuilder that the likes of Wordle players might be interested in.

It’s really about coming up with words that put the right letters in a specific order. For instance, certain letters are more effective if you place them at the end of a word. So, this should get your brain ticking.  

Tomb of the Bloodletter — from Ethan’s Secretions and indie.io — debuted during the Steam Typing Fest. It’ll typically cost $8, but there’s a 20 percent discount until February 19.

Upcoming 

Shadowstone is an upcoming turn-based tactical co-op roguelike for up to four players from developer Secret Door and Dreamhaven (Blizzard co-founder and ex-CEO Mike Morhaime’s company). It’s set in the same universe as Secret Door’s Sunderfolk. 

The action plays out on a hexagonal board with randomized rooms and enemies. Positioning will be key, and finding synergies between the abilities of the playable characters will put you in good stead.

Shadowstone will hit Steam in early access later this year for $15. It’s also coming to the Epic Games Store.

Meanwhile, a major update for Sunderfolk is set to go live on March 10. It will introduce a new tank-style character and two fresh sets of missions. Secret Door will also add two much-requested features to PC versions: online multiplayer and — so you don’t have to use your phone to play the game anymore — mouse and keyboard controls.

I really loved Planet of Lana and the sequel is among my most-anticipated games of this year. There’s now a release date for the upcoming puzzle platformer. Wishfully and Thunderful Publishing are bringing it to Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch on March 5. It’ll also be on Game Pass on day one.

A Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf demo will hit Steam, Xbox and PlayStation on February 11. It will arrive on Switch a bit later.

Is Sticker/Ball the first Ball x Pit-like? I’m not entirely sure. Still, it is now firmly on my radar. Instead of firing balls at a horde of constantly-advancing enemies, here you’ll shoot them at dice to earn points. You’ll unlock stickers that can be applied to said dice and they’ll interact with each other too. For instance, spiders can create webs and these can catch flies that are attracted to poop stickers. 

The trailer describes another interaction, “frog jumped and triggered cigarette pack.” Frogs can also hijack spaceships, apparently, and there’s a bouncing DVD (well, “VID”) logo. There are more than 100 types of stickers and dozens of different enemies.

I don’t really understand what’s going on in the trailer, but it’s somehow making my brain happy, so this is going on my wishlist. Solo dev Bilge is behind Sticker/Ball, which is coming to Steam soon through the help of publisher Future Friends Games. A demo is available now, so that’s my weekend sorted.

Skate City has long been one of the best games on Apple Arcade. Its creator, Daniel Zeller, (Zellah Games) has revealed a new project. Skate Style is billed as a “next-gen skateboarding game with high-end graphics.” You’ll be able to take to the virtual streets of Barcelona and Prague to show off your best moves. 

What could help Skate Style really stand out from the pack is the animation editor, which enables you to create completely new tricks. The game is slated to have an “advanced” character creation tool as well as mod support, so there’ll be a high level of customization available. 

A Skate Style demo is available on Steam now. The full game should land on PC later this year. Here’s hoping the soundtrack can match up to those from the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series.

Crimson Capes is billed as a 2D Soulslike action RPG with four playable characters, elemental magic, more than 25 bosses, swordfighting, lots of secrets, co-op, optional hunts with randomized dungeons and invasions from other players. That all sounds neat enough, but most exciting to me here is the pixel-art, rotoscoped animation work. It looks modern and retro at the same time, and I’d love to see this sort of style in more games. I also dig that you get a PDF instruction manual and game guide as well as a printable world map when you buy the game.

You (and I) won’t have to wait long to play Crimson Capes, which is from Poor Locke. It’s coming to Steam on February 12 for $15, though you’ll get 10 percent off if you pick it up within the first nine days. Console versions are in the pipeline too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/hotline-miami-meets-football-the-power-of-video-editing-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-120000628.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: A new bill in the New York state legislature would require news organizations to label AI-generated material and mandate that humans review any such content before publication. On Monday, Senator Patricia Fahy (D-Albany) and Assemblymember Nily Rozic (D-NYC) introduced the bill, called The New York Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Requirements in News Act — The NY FAIR News Act for short.

“At the center of the news industry, New York has a strong interest in preserving journalism and protecting the workers who produce it,” said Rozic in a statement announcing the bill. A closer look at the bill shows a few regulations, mostly centered around AI transparency, both for the public and in the newsroom. For one, the law would demand that news organizations put disclaimers on any published content that is “substantially composed, authored, or created through the use of generative artificial intelligence.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.