Also: Pokémon Legends: Z-A sells well but not great and more leaks from The Simpsons Fortnite collab
The post <i>Sims 4</i> YouTubers Abandon EA Creator Program Over Saudi Arabia appeared first on Kotaku.
Monthly Archives: October 2025
Play, pedagogy, and real-world impact: What we learned from the AI Quests webinars
How do you teach AI in a way that resonates with 11- to 14-year-olds long after the lesson ends? In two recent Experience AI webinars, we explored that question with collaborators from Google Research, Google DeepMind, and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. During the webinars, we also showcased AI Quests, a gamified, classroom-first experience where learners use AI concepts to solve real problems.
“The AI technology you’ll experience is amazing, but it’s not magic. Success depends on the decisions you make.”
That line, delivered by Professor Sky, the in-game mentor, captures the core message of AI Quests: AI systems are built by people and shaped by human judgment at every step.
What is AI Quests?
We’ve embedded AI Quests into the Foundations of AI unit in Experience AI, our free AI literacy programme created with Google DeepMind.
As Google Research’s Liat Ben Rafael explained, “AI Quests is a gamified experience… where students discover firsthand how AI is used in the real world to create positive impact.” Each quest is grounded in a real research programme and mirrors the AI project lifecycle you’ll recognise from our Experience AI lessons: define the problem, prepare data, train, test, deploy.
The first quest, Market Marshes, asks students to help Luna, one of the central characters, to protect a riverside market from flooding. Players roam, gather candidate data (from rainfall stats to town gossip), clean it, choose relevant features, and train a model. If the model underperforms, they iterate, exactly as real AI developers would.
Emma Staves, Learning Manager at the Foundation, notes that a key moment is when learners test their model: “It’s made really clear that the data that’s being used to test the model is historic data.” That simple design choice can help you to unlock rich discussions with your learners about validation, reliability, and what counts as “accurate enough” for real decisions.
Designed around how students actually learn
Developed in collaboration with learning scientists at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, the quests reflect what Victor Lee, Faculty Lead for AI and Education at Stanford, describes as “enduring understanding”:
“The enduring understanding is about how humans can initiate and design AI applications that can address some of humanity’s biggest unsolved challenges.”
To keep that focus, the team blends:
- Situated learning – for example, a concrete flood scenario rather than abstract exercises
- Pedagogical agents – characters who nudge, model, and explain
- Embedded feedback and productive failure – learn by trying, revising, and trying again
- Self-explanation prompts – ‘learning tickets’ that ask students to articulate what they’re doing and why
In other words, the quests are all about playing with purpose.
What teachers are seeing in the classroom
We piloted AI Quests with some teachers, including Dave Cross, Curriculum Leader for Computer Science at North Liverpool Academy, who tested the quests with his Year 7 students, before extending it to his GCSE classes:
“We see it moving forward as a really solid foundation… for that further learning.”
He also saw strong cross-curricular ties: geography colleagues spotted “massive opportunities” to use the flood quest in their own units, while broader staff discussions turned to digital citizenship, data literacy, and fairness. The cross-disciplinary nature of AI is increasingly apparent, and so AI literacy shouldn’t be limited to computing — students need to encounter AI across multiple subjects and in everyday life.
Where the research comes in: Forecasting floods days in advance
The second webinar connected the classroom experience to the real project it’s modelled on: Google Research Flood Forecasting. Gila Loike, Product Manager, set the scene:
“Our research team develops AI models that predict flooding all over the world, five to seven days before the flood occurs.”
Deborah Cohen, the Research Scientist leading the team at Google Research focused on flooding, also explained that traditional models can’t easily predict floods in places with little data. However, AI can fill those gaps by combining information from rivers, weather forecasts, and satellites, to give accurate warnings around the world:
“With AI we were able to expand our coverage to the entire world.”
The results are real and practical. Accurate predictions help:
- People stay safe by receiving flood alerts through familiar apps
- Emergency teams plan routes and close roads in time
- Farmers decide whether to move animals or harvest early
- Aid organisations act sooner, delivering supplies or financial support before the flood hits
To make sure their models work well, the team compares predictions with real river data, where available, and with satellite images showing flooded areas. Students explore these same ideas in the AI Quest game, cleaning messy data, testing their models, and checking how accurate their results are.
“Students are really engaged by the real-world challenge,” said Emma Staves about the Market Marshes quest. “That authenticity makes learning come alive.” It helps students see how classroom ideas, like features, accuracy, bias, and model cards, connect directly to real decisions and their consequences.
Coming soon: Health quests and more languages
Liat also gave a sneak peek at the next quest, a health-focused story on blindness prevention. It introduces new layers — privacy, diverse data, field testing — while following the same lifecycle. More quests are in development, with additional languages planned from early 2026.
Why this matters now
The key message from both webinars is clear: AI literacy isn’t just about using technology — it’s about understanding our role in shaping it. As one Stanford researcher put it, “AI isn’t this magic thing that just happens to us. Humans decide how to use it, and how choices around data affect accuracy and fairness.”
Our goal with Experience AI is to help young people become thoughtful, creative problem-solvers who can navigate an AI-powered world with confidence and integrity — and AI Quests fits perfectly with that.
Find out more
You can watch both webinars anytime on our YouTube and LinkedIn channels
Webinar 1: LinkedIn, YouTube
Webinar 2: LinkedIn, YouTube
Explore our Experience AI resources — already used by nearly two million learners and educators to understand, question, and create with AI — to bring them and AI Quests into your classroom. You’ll find the Foundations of AI unit, alongside materials on large language models, ecosystems and AI, and AI safety, at rpf.io/experienceai-resources
The post Play, pedagogy, and real-world impact: What we learned from the AI Quests webinars appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
India Trials Delhi Cloud Seeding To Clean Air in World’s Most Polluted City
The Delhi regional government is trialling a cloud-seeding experiment to induce artificial rain, in an effort to clean the air in the world’s most polluted city. From a report: The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has been proposing the use of cloud seeding as a way to bring Delhi’s air pollution under control since it was elected to lead the regional government this year.
Cloud seeding involves using aircraft or drones to add to clouds particles of silver iodide, which have a structure similar to ice. Water droplets cluster around the particles, modifying the structure of the clouds and increasing the chance of precipitation. Months of unpredictable weather over India’s capital had put the BJP’s cloud-seeding plans on pause. But days after Delhi’s air quality once again fell into the hazardous range after Diwali festival, and a thick brown haze settled over the city, the government said the scheme would finally be rolled out.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A Child Held Me Hostage In Pokémon Legends: Z-A
This game has no business being this funny
The post A Child Held Me Hostage In <em>Pokémon Legends: Z-A</em> appeared first on Kotaku.
This browser claims “perfect privacies protection,” but it acts like malware
The Universe Browser makes some big promises to its potential users. Its online advertisements claim it’s the “fastest browser,” that people using it will “avoid privacy leaks” and that the software will help “keep you away from danger.” However, everything likely isn’t as it seems.
The browser, which is linked to Chinese online gambling websites and is thought to have been downloaded millions of times, actually routes all Internet traffic through servers in China and “covertly installs several programs that run silently in the background,” according to new findings from network security company Infoblox. The researchers say the “hidden” elements include features similar to malware—including “key logging, surreptitious connections,” and changing a device’s network connections.
Perhaps most significantly, the Infoblox researchers who collaborated with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the work, found links between the browser’s operation and Southeast Asia’s sprawling, multibillion-dollar cybercrime ecosystem, which has connections to money-laundering, illegal online gambling, human trafficking, and scam operations that use forced labor. The browser itself, the researchers says, is directly linked to a network around major online gambling company BBIN, which the researchers have labeled a threat group they call Vault Viper.
Nike’s New Robotic Shoe Is Like A Smart Exoskeleton For Your Feet
So far, common shoemaker practice in helping runners go faster is to make footwear lighter without compromising rigidity and grip. Now, Nike has unveiled Project Amplify, the world’s first powered shoe system for running and walking, designed not necessarily for elite marathon runners, but for everyday athletes who just want to go a little
Google’s XR Studio Releases ‘Job Simulator’ Style MR Experience Exclusive to Android XR
Owlchemy Labs, the Google-owned XR studio, released a new mixed reality title exclusively for Android XR which expands the Job Simulator universe.
The News
Owlchemy Labs, the studio behind VR games Job Simulator (2016) and Vacation Simulator (2019), released both games on Android XR’s first officially supported headset, Samsung Galaxy XR.
Alongside it comes a free mixed reality experience, called Inside[JOB], which the studio says in a blogpost offers up the “same blend of chaos, humor, and hands-on interaction that helped define modern VR, as well as a first look at our next evolution in spatial experiences.”
As an Android XR platform exclusive, Inside Job isn’t a full title as such, but rather what Owlchemy calls an “interactive XR playground,” which puts the series robotic protagonist ‘JobBot’ in the spotlight as he discovers your reality.
In Inside Job, users tweak system settings, fish for data, and repair PCs in VR, blending passthrough MR with full VR segments set in the Job Simulator universe. The studio says Inside Job isn’t a sequel as such, but rather “a chance to experiment with our latest hand-tracking tech while solving a series of lighthearted repairs.”
The game launched alongside Samsung Galaxy XR this week, priced at $1,800, which is currently the only Android XR headset on the market. You can find Inside Job for free over on the Playstore here.
My Take
I think it’s pretty clear that Galaxy XR’s high price tag basically excludes it from being a viable outlet for large-format, system-selling exclusives, which is why gamers probably shouldn’t wring their hands and yell into the heavens with full-on FOMO just yet. Basically, it’s a Vision Pro, but cheaper, and with access to Android apps and maybe a few Quest ports. That’s very cool for XR obsessed people like you and me, and also companies looking to build enterprise apps, but not many others right now.
The real question on my mind is “what’s really next for Owlchemy Labs?” I suspect the answer to that question won’t materialize so quickly. As a reminder, Owlchemy Labs has developed some of the best-selling games in the medium, so they’re probably hoping to jump in at the right moment—but it’s difficult to intuit when that might be.
Olwchemy Labs says in a recent blogpost that porting their games to Android XR has allowed them to “experiment with new layers of immersion through native support for hand, eye, and face tracking.” I can bet other established XR studios are interested in mobilizing those hardware features too, if only in service of deepening user immersion, but I’m skeptical of whether will be enough.
I’ll admit it: the next XR headset wave may well come when consumers can eventually choose between a cheap and cheerful Android XR headset, a next-gen Quest, and possibly even Valve’s rumored Steam Frame (aka ‘Deckard’). But I have a hard time believing face and eye-tracking alone will be additive enough to the glut of consumers. Yes, future headsets will probably have higher resolutions, more processing power, and hopefully be lighter and more comfortable than they are now. But at risk of belaboring the point, all of it needs to hit a real consumer price point to move the needle.
Notably, there are a few consumer headsets on the market with face and eye-tracking currently: VIVE XR Elite, Pico 4 Pro, and Apple Vision Pro, the latter of which just launched its M5 hardware refresh for $3,500. None of those have garnered the incumbent consumer support to make them de facto competitors to Meta’s Quest 3/3S platform though. As an aside, Quest 3 is essentially a Quest Pro without face and eye-tracking—or the $1,500 price tag—which was eventually reduced to $1,000 to flush stock before it was discontinued earlier this year. Meta learned that lesson early on, it seems.
Assuming the studio wants to continue pushing the boundaries of immersive design at scale like it did with Job Simulator in 2016, I’d imagine they’re doing what most developers are at this point: i.e. using these prosumer headsets as ad hoc developer kits in preparation for the next big consumer headset generation yet to come. When that will be, I just can’t say.
The post Google’s XR Studio Releases ‘Job Simulator’ Style MR Experience Exclusive to Android XR appeared first on Road to VR.
Satellite shows what’s really happening at the East Wing of the White House
You need to go up—way up—to fully appreciate the changes underway at the White House this week.
Demolition crews starting tearing down the East Wing of the presidential mansion Tuesday to clear room for the construction of a new $300 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a recent priority of President Donald Trump. The teardown drew criticism and surprise from Democratic lawmakers, former White House staffers, and members of the public.
It was, after all, just three months ago that President Donald Trump defended his ballroom plan by saying it wouldn’t affect the existing structure at the White House. “It won’t interfere with the current building,” he said in July. “It’ll be near it but not touching it—and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”
This eufy C10 Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum Drops Over 50%, Practically Free Compared to Dyson
Save more than 50% on the Eufy C10 robot vacuum for a limited time at Amazon.
The post This eufy C10 Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum Drops Over 50%, Practically Free Compared to Dyson appeared first on Kotaku.
Liberal Democrats call for ‘bike bait’ plan to catch thieves
A ‘bike bait’ unit should be set up in the National Crime Agency to carry out “bike bait” operations to catch bicycle thieves, the Liberal Democrats have said.
The party has suggested the unit would work with local police forces to carry out targeted operations, planting bicycles fitted with trackers in theft hotspots so officers can catch offenders and uncover criminal networks.
‘Operation Bike Bait’ would also coordinate the collection and sharing of intelligence and best practice across police forces, “helping to build a national picture of bike theft and improve the policing response.”
It has cited Home Office data which shows that across England and Wales, 86 per cent of bike theft cases are unsolved.
Bristol Liberal Democrat councillor Nicholas Coombes said: “Like thousands of other cyclists, I am always worried to leave my bike around the city because of the danger posed by bike thieves. It shouldn’t have to be like this.
“I know local people are furious about the effective decriminalisation of bike theft in our city. Hundreds are denied the justice they deserve after their property is stolen, letting criminals get away scot-free. Our police do fantastic work in our community, but they need support and resource.”
- Read more: Bikes stolen at train stations after being left for more than two hours will not be investigated
The Liberal Democrats proposal is not without precedent. In 2024, ITV News reported that City of London police were able to follow a ‘bait bike’ through London, which led officers to a haul of around £130,000 worth of stolen bicycles.
Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns at Cycling UK, said: “The idea to target bike theft and the wider criminal networks that treat it like a business is a strong one. With so many stolen bikes being resold through online platforms, we know full well that targeting these groups can significantly reduce theft.
“People rely on their bikes as one of the most affordable ways to get around. It is simply not acceptable that the British Transport Police will not review the evidence of these crimes, when they relate to larger issues around organised crime. It’s time we treat this issue seriously.”
The ‘Operation Bike Bait’ proposal comes as part of the Liberal Democrats renewed calls for the Government to implement “proper community policing”.
It also follows the British Transport Police’s decision not to investigate bike thefts at train stations where the bicycle has been left for more than two hours.
Critics said the measure effectively ‘decriminalises’ bike theft and that it “will hit lowest income groups the hardest”.
The British Transport Police refuted the claim that bicycle thefts have been decriminalised, stating: “Bicycle thefts have not been de-criminalised as some headlines have suggested. When we do not have a clear time or location for the offence, or if there is a lack of CCTV, witnesses or other evidence, it can be very difficult to solve a crime.
“If it is available, we will review around two hours of CCTV footage to try to identify the incident, but it is not proportionate to review longer periods.”
Typst 0.14 released
Version 0.14 of the
Typst document processor has been released.
Typst document processor has been released.
If you need to comply with accessibility-related regulations, Typst
0.14 has your back. Typst now generates accessible documents by
default, with opt-in support for stricter checks. For those working
with complex illustrations, PDFs are now supported as a native
image format. In case you’re typesetting a book, the new
character-level justification will give your layout the final
touch. And if you’re building a website or blog, many improvements
to Typst’s HTML export are waiting for you.
LWN looked at Typst in September.
A Duck With A Gun Has Replaced Battlefield 6 In The Top 5 Most-Played Steam Games
These ducks aren’t messing around
The post A Duck With A Gun Has Replaced <i>Battlefield 6</i> In The Top 5 Most-Played Steam Games appeared first on Kotaku.
Intel Rides AI Wave To Strong Q3 Earnings, Chip Demand To Outpace Supply Into 2026
Intel’s continued efforts to right the ship are paying off with another strong quarter in the books, with the company reporting $13.7 billion in revenue in Q3. That’s a 3% year-over-year gain and enough to beat Wall Street’s estimates. According to Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, the latest earnings are a direct reflection of “improved execution” as
Updated AMD ISP4 Driver Posted For Linux With Fixes & Improvements
AMD’s ISP4 image signal processing IP is so far just used by the HP ZBook Ultra G1a laptop but will presumably be used by more of the higher-end AMD Ryzen next-gen laptops. AMD engineers today posted their fifth iteration of their open-source Linux driver for enabling the ISP4 use…
Counter-Strike’s Player Economy Is In a Multi-Billion Dollar Freefall
Counter-Strike has long been known for two things: tight tactical FPS gameplay and a thriving player marketplace effectively valued at literal billions of dollars. Now, thanks to a recent update from Valve, the latter is in a downward spiral, having lost 25% of its value — or $1.75 billion — overnight. Polygon: First, some context. Counter-Strike is a free-to-play multiplayer shooter. As with most other F2P games, it generates revenue from selling cosmetics. They arrive in lootbox-like Cases, which are opened by Keys purchased with real-world currency. They can also be obtained through trading with other players and purchasing from Steam Community Market. Beyond Steam, unofficial third-party marketplaces for CS cosmetics have also popped up as channels for buying and selling items.
Because items are obtained at random through opening Cases, rarer items fetch the highest value on the open marketplaces. Items of lower-rarity tiers can also be traded in at volume for an item of a higher tier via trade up contracts. Previously, Knives and Gloves could not be obtained through trade up contracts, exponentially increasing their value as highly sought-after items. Prior to the most recent update, some Knives, like a Doppler Ruby Butterfly Knife, could fetch around $20,000 on third-party storefronts like CSFloat.
Following Valve’s Oct. 22 update to Counter-Strike, the second-highest-tier, Covert (Red), can now be traded up and turned into Knives and Gloves. Essentially, this means that a previously extremely rare and highly sought-after cosmetic is going to be much more obtainable for those who increasingly want it, reducing the value of Knives and Gloves on the open marketplace. And this is where the market descends into a freefall. Now, that Butterfly Knife mentioned above? It’s going for around $12,000, as people are essentially dumping their stock, with 15 sold over the past 16 hours at the time of this writing.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Super Easy KDE Plasma 6 Customization | Beautiful Clean Nature Vibes
A minimal KDE Plasma 6 setup that’s effortless to build and customize.Combining Utterly Nord’s elegance with natural anime-inspired visuals, this desktop brings clarity and balance.Menus and widgets are adjusted for a smooth, clean
Dodgers vs. Blue Jays, Game 1: How to watch the 2025 MLB World Series without cable
The League Championship Series are history, and the final two teams have emerged: The 2025 Fall Classic will see the Los Angeles Dodgers face the Toronto Blue Jays. Game 1 of the 2025 MLB World Series begins tonight — Friday, Oct. 24 — at 8PM ET/5PM PT, with the Blue Jays getting the initial home field advantage at Rogers Centre, Toronto. Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers are aiming to win their second consecutive championship, while Vlad Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays are eyeing their first ring since 1993. The World Series odds favor the Dodgers ahead of Game 1. Every 2025 MLB World Series game will air on Fox and Fox Deportes.
Of course, Fox is a “free” over-the-air channel, so any affordable digital antenna will pull in the game if you live close enough to a local affiliate. But if that’s not an option, here’s a full rundown of how to watch the Dodgers vs. Blue Jays World Series, even without cable.
How to watch the L.A. Dodgers vs. Toronto Blue Jays, Game 1
You can stream Fox on any live TV streaming service that airs Fox local stations, including DirecTV, Fubo and Hulu + Live TV. MLB World Series games will also be available on Fox’s new streaming platform, Fox One.
More ways to watch the 2025 World Series
When is the Dodgers vs. Blue Jays game time?
Game 1 of the Dodgers vs. Blue Jays World Series begins on Friday, Oct. 24 at 8PM ET/5PM PT. The Blue Jays are hosting the first two games of the series at Rogers Centre, Toronto.
What channel is playing the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Toronto Blue Jays?
Every game in the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays, will air on Fox and Fox Deportes.
When is the 2025 World Series?
Game 1 of the World Series between the Dodgers and Blue Jays is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 24.
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Toronto Blue Jays World Series schedule
All times Eastern
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Game 1: Friday, Oct. 24, 8PM ET
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Game 2: Saturday, Oct. 25, 8PM ET
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Game 3: Monday, Oct. 27, 8PM ET
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Game 4: Tuesday, Oct. 28, 8PM ET
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Game 5*: Wednesday, Oct. 29, 8PM ET
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Game 6*: Friday, Oct. 31, 8PM ET
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Game 7*: Saturday, Nov. 1, 8PM ET
*if necessary
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/dodgers-vs-blue-jays-game-1-how-to-watch-the-2025-mlb-world-series-without-cable-133403870.html?src=rss
This Is The Closest We’ve Gotten To A New KPop Demon Hunters Song
Ejae, the voice and songwriter behind the Netflix hit, is making her grand debut
The post This Is The Closest We’ve Gotten To A New <em>KPop Demon Hunters</em> Song appeared first on Kotaku.
Amazon says automation bug caused massive AWS outage
Amazon has published a lengthy report about the outage that knocked numerous websites, services, apps and games offline on October 20. It all started with a bug in its automation software DynamoDB, where its AWS customers store their data, which then triggered more issues in its other systems that relied on the software.
As Amazon explains, DynamoDB maintains hundreds of thousands of DNS records and is supposed to be able to fix any issue automatically. But on October 20, the DynamoDB DNS management system suffered from a bug that resulted in an empty DNS record for Amazon’s data centers in North Virginia. DynamoDB was supposed to repair the issue on its own, but it had failed to do so, prompting Amazon to fix the problem manually. While the issue was happening, all systems that needed to connect to DynamoDB couldn’t and experienced DNS failures, including the customers of its cloud computing services. It felt like half the internet wasn’t working when that happened.
The websites and services affected by the outage include Amazon itself, Amazon Alexa devices, Bank of America, Snapchat, Canva, Reddit, Apple Music, Apple TV, Lyft, Duolingo, Fortnite, Disney+, Venmo, Doordash, Hulu, PlayStation and even Eight Sleep, whose beds connect to the internet to adjust their temperature and incline. Some of them were slow to respond, while others were completely inaccessible.
“We apologize for the impact this event caused our customers. While we have a strong track record of operating our services with the highest levels of availability, we know how critical our services are to our customers, their applications and end users, and their businesses. We know this event impacted many customers in significant ways. We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to improve our availability even further,” Amazon said in a statement.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-says-automation-bug-caused-massive-aws-outage-133028856.html?src=rss
HP 17.3″ Ryzen 5 Laptop Bundle Goes for Peanuts With 75% Off and $200 Worth of Free Accessories
Is your current work laptop slowing you down? Now is the time to upgrade.
The post HP 17.3″ Ryzen 5 Laptop Bundle Goes for Peanuts With 75% Off and $200 Worth of Free Accessories appeared first on Kotaku.