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Last month, Instagram began rolling out a new set of controls that allowed users to personalize the topics recommended to them by the Reels algorithm. Now, Meta is making that feature available to all English users of the app globally, along with the ability to highlight their top topics for the coming year. The feature begins with a selection of topics Meta's AI thinks you're interested in based on your recent activity, and has controls to remove them or add new categories. There's also a separate field for identifying what you want to see less of, and a new "build your 2026 algorithm" that allows you to highlight three topics in particular. Meta's algorithm tagged a skiing clip as "snowboarding."Screenshot via InstagramI don't yet have the 2026-specific control yet, but I was able to tweak some of my preferred topics and was surprised at how quickly the algorithm seemed to adjust. I added "snowboarding" as a topic and then later, when I clicked over to Reels, the first clip I saw was tagged "snowboarding." Unfortunately, the video wasn't actually about snowboarding it featured a clip of a freestyle skiing event so Meta's systems might still need a little work at classifying the actual content. But given how sensitive the Reels algorithm can be, it's nice to have a way of opting out of interests even if you briefly went down a rabbit hole. The feature won't, however, let you ask to see fewer ads. I tried to add "ads" to my "what you want to see less of" list and received an error. "No results found. Try another topic or interest." I was able to successfully add "sponsored content" and "AI" to my "see less" list, though I'm pretty sure the latter will affect videos about AI rather than those made with the help of it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-wants-you-to-personalize-your-reels-algorithm-for-2026-215252736.html?src=rss
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The Senate has passed the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (DEFIANCE ) Act with unanimous consent, according to the bills co-sponsor Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). The bill lets the subjects of nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes take civil action against the people who create and host them.Deepfakes are a known issue online, but without the proper protections, easy access to AI-powered image and video generation tools has made it possible for anyone to create compromising content using another person's likeness. This has become a particular problem on X, where the integration of Grok, the AI assistant created by X's parent company xAI, makes it possible for anyone to turn the content of another person's post into an image-generating prompt. Over the last month, that's allowed users to create sexually explicit images of children, just by replying to a post with @grok and a request. In response, Ofcom, the UK's media regulator, has already opened an investigation into X for potentially violating the Online Safety Act. The chatbot has also been outright blocked in Malaysia and Indonesia. The DEFIANCE Act won't prevent Grok or other AI tools from generating nonconsensual deepfakes, but it would make creating or hosting that content potentially very expensive for anyone on the receiving end of a lawsuit.The Senate passed an earlier version of the DEFIANCE Act in 2024, but it stalled in the House. Given the urgency of Grok's deepfake problem, the hope is this new version of the bill won't see the same resistance. Congress passed an earlier piece of deepfake regulation last year, the Take It Down Act, with bipartisan support. That bill was focused on the companies who host nonconsensual, sexually explicit content, rather than the people exploited by it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/senate-passes-defiance-act-for-a-second-time-to-address-grok-deepfakes-212151712.html?src=rss
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Several of Meta's VR studios have been affected by the company's metaverse-focused layoffs. The company has shuttered three of its VR studios, including Armature, Sanzaru and Twisted Pixel. VR fitness app Supernatural will no longer be updated with fresh content.Employees at Twisted Pixel, which released Marvel's Deadpool VR in November, and Sanzaru, known for Asgard's Wrath, posted on social media about the closures. Bloomberg reported that Armature, which brought Resident Evil 4 to Quest back in 2021 has also closed and that the popular VR fitness app Supernatural will no longer be updated with fresh content, though the current version will continue to be supported. A spokesperson for Meta confirmed the closures. "We said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward Wearables," the spokesperson said in a statement to Engadget. "This is part of that effort, and we plan to reinvest the savings to support the growth of wearables this year."The cuts raise questions about Meta's commitment to supporting a VR ecosystem it has invested heavily in. The company hasn't announced any new VR headsets since the Quest 3S in 2024, and last month it "paused" planned Horizon OS headsets from Asus and Lenovo. Now, it's also pulling back on in-house game development too. Meta is claiming, internally at least, that it remains committed to supporting the industry. These changes do not mean we are moving away from video games, Oculus Studios director Tamara Sciamanna wrote in the memo reported by Bloomberg. "With this change we are shifting our investment to focus on our third-party developers and partners to ensure long-term sustainability.Have a tip for Karissa? You can reach her by email, on X, Bluesky, Threads, or send a message to @karissabe.51 to chat confidentially on Signal.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-has-closed-three-vr-studios-as-part-of-its-metaverse-cuts-202720670.html?src=rss
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