The May 18th issue of the Chicago Sun-Times features dozens of pages of recommended summer activities: new trends, outdoor activities, and books to read. But some of the recommendations point to fake, AI-generated books, and other articles quote and cite people that don’t appear to exist.Alongside actual books like Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman, a summer reading list features fake titles by real authors. Min Jin Lee is a real, lauded novelist — but “Nightshade Market,” “a riveting tale set in Seoul’s underground economy,” isn’t one of her works. Rebecca Makkai, a Chicago local, is credited for a fake book called “Boiling Point” that the article claims is about a climate scientist whose teenage daughter turns on her.In a post on Bluesky, the Sun-Times said it was “looking into how this made it into print,” noting that it wasn’t editorial content and wasn’t created or approved by the newsroom. Victor Lim, senior director of audience development, added in an email to The Verge that “it is unacceptable for any content we provide to our readers to be inaccurate,” saying more information will be provided soon. It’s not clear if the content is sponsored — the cover page for the section bears the Sun-Times logo and simply calls it “Your guide to the best of summer.” In a statement published to the newspaper’s website, the Sun-Times said the section was “licensed from a national content partner,” which 404 Media identified as media conglomerate Hearst. The Sun-Times said it was removing the section from digital editions and updating its policies so that third-party content meets the paper’s standards and is more clearly identified.We are looking into how this made it into print as we speak. It is not editorial content and was not created by, or approved by, the Sun-Times newsroom. We value your trust in our reporting and take this very seriously. More info will be provided soon.— Chicago Sun-Times (@chicago.suntimes.com) 2025-05-20T14:19:10.366ZThe book list appears without a byline, but a writer named Marco Buscaglia is credited for other pieces in the summer guide. Buscaglia’s byline appears on a story about hammock culture in the US that quotes several experts and publications, some of whom do not appear to be real. It references a 2023 Outside magazine article by Brianna Madia, a real author and blogger, that I was unable to find. The piece also cites an “outdoor industry market analysis” by Eagles Nest Outfitters that I was unable to find online. Also quoted is “Dr. Jennifer Campos, professor of leisure studies at the University of Colorado,” who does not appear to exist. Buscaglia did not immediately respond to a request for comment but admitted to 404 Media that he uses AI “for background at times” and always checks the material. “This time, I did not and I can’t believe I missed it because it’s so obvious. No excuses,” he told 404. “On me 100 percent and I’m completely embarrassed.”Another uncredited article titled “Summer food trends” features similar seemingly nonexistent experts, including a “Dr. Catherine Furst, food anthropologist at Cornell University.” Padma Lakshmi is also attributed in the piece for a quote she doesn’t appear to have said.News outlets have repeatedly run AI-generated content next to their actual journalism, often blaming the issue on third-party content creators. High-profile incidents of AI-generated content at Gannett and Sports Illustrated raised questions about the editorial process, and in both cases, a third-party marketing firm was behind the AI sludge. Newsrooms’ defense is typically that they had nothing to do with the content — but the appearance of AI-generated work alongside real reporting and writing by human staffers damages trust all the same. Update May 20th: Added additional details about the Sun-Times’ response to public outcry.

Google is adding its Gemini AI assistant to Chrome, the company announced at Google I/O on Tuesday. Initially, Gemini will be able to “clarify complex information on any webpage you’re reading or summarize information,” according to a blog post from Google Labs and Gemini VP Josh Woodward. Google envisions that Gemini in Chrome will later “work across multiple tabs and navigate websites on your behalf.”I saw a demo during a briefing ahead of Tuesday’s announcement. In Chrome, you’ll see a little sparkle icon in the top right corner. Click that and a Gemini chatbot window will open — it’s a floating UI that you can move and resize. From there, you can ask questions about the website.In the demo, Charmaine D’Silva, a director of product management on the Chrome team, opened a page for a sleeping bag at REI and clicked on a suggested Gemini prompt to list the bag’s key features. Gemini read the entire page and listed a quick summary of the bag. D’Silva then asked if the sleeping bag was a good option for camping in Maine, and Gemini in Chrome responded by pulling information from the REI page and the web.After that, D’Silva went to a shopping page on another retailer’s website for a different sleeping bag and asked Gemini to compare the two sleeping bags. Gemini did that and included a comparison table.You’ll initially be able to keep a conversation going with Gemini as you navigate from tab to tab. But “later in the year,” Gemini in Chrome will let you select multiple tabs at once and ask a question about all of them.D’Silva also showed a demo of a feature that will be available in the future: using Gemini to navigate websites. In the demo, D’Silva pulled up Gemini Live in Chrome to help navigate a recipe site. D’Silva asked Gemini to scroll to the ingredients, and the AI zipped to that part of the page. It also responded when D’Silva asked for help converting the required amount of sugar from cups to grams.In Google’s selected demos, Gemini in Chrome seems like it could occasionally be useful, especially with comparison tables or in-the-moment ingredient conversions. I’d rather just read the website or do my own research instead of reading Gemini’s AI summaries, especially since AI can hallucinate incorrect information.Gemini in Chrome is launching on Wednesday. It will initially release on Windows and macOS in early access to users 18 or older who use English as their language. It will be available to people who subscribe to Google’s AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions or users of Chrome’s beta, canary, and dev channels, Parisa Tabriz, Google’s VP and GM of Chrome, said in the briefing.As for bringing Gemini to mobile Chrome, “it’s an area that we’ll think about,” Tabriz says, but right now, the company is “very focused on desktop.”Correction, May 20th: Gemini in Chrome can keep a conversation going as you move from tab to tab; it doesn’t only work across two tabs, as we initially reported.

Visualizing data can significantly enhance the clarity and impact of your notes. Being a Markdown-first editor, Obsidian doesn’t support charts by default. That’s where its rich plugin community comes into play. Charts is one such plugin that enables a wide variety of editable, interactive, and animated charts within your Obsidian vault.

Lately, I've been feeling disenchanted with the PC hardware industry. The old excitement surrounding product launches and reviews has given way to familiar waves of disappointment. Brands like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel have done their fair share in making gamers feel this way, thanks to the latest CPUs and GPUs launched in the last few months. PC gamers are gradually picking up on the new normal of PC hardware, but it's high time they realized that things are probably going to stay this way for a long time.

We all strive to be more productive in our daily lives, and when it comes to working from a PC, there are a lot of factors that play into it. Having the right peripherals can make a huge difference to various aspects of your day, and some are more noticeable than others.

Proof that there’s a display.Here in sunny Mountain View, California, I am sequestered in a teeny-tiny box. Outside, there's a long line of tech journalists, and we are all here for one thing: to try out Project Moohan and Google's Android XR smart glasses prototypes. (The Project Mariner booth is maybe 10 feet away and remarkably empty.)While nothing was going to steal AI's spotlight at this year's keynote - 95 mentions! - Android XR has been generating a lot of buzz on the ground. But the demos we got to see here were notably shorter, with more guardrails, than what I got to see back in December. Probably because, unlike a few months ago, there are cameras everywhere and these are "risky" demos.First up is Project Moohan. Not much has changed since I first slipped on the headset. It's still an Android-flavored Apple Vision Pro, albeit much lighter and more comfortable to wear. Like Oculus headsets, there's a dial in the back that lets you adjust the fit. If you press the top button, it brings up Gemini. You can ask Gemini to do things, because that is what AI assistants are here for. Specifically, I ask it to take me to my old college stomping grounds in Tokyo in Google Maps without having to open the G …Read the full story at The Verge.

Fortnite is once again available on the iOS App Store in the US, according to Epic Games. You can get it from the App Store here. Epic says it has returned to the Epic Games Store and AltStore as well.Apple kicked Fortnite off the App Store nearly five years ago after Epic Games added its own in-app payment system to the game, which violated Apple’s rules. But after a major court ruling in Epic Games v. Apple that forced Apple to not take fees from purchases made outside of apps, the game is available to play on US iPhones once again.we back fam https://t.co/X14bCXoylB— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 20, 2025Shortly after the big ruling hit, CEO Tim Sweeney said that Epic planned to bring back Fortnite to iOS in the US. He also made a “peace proposal:” “If Apple extends the court’s friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we’ll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.“On May 9th, it submitted the app to Apple. Ahead of that, Sweeney said that Epic would use its Sweden developer account to submit the game to the US App Store. Late last week, Epic said that Apple had blocked Fortnite’s return to the App Store, and the game also became unavailable on other alternative app stores in the EU. However, Apple said that it had “asked that Epic Sweden resubmit the app update without including the US storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies” and that “we did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces.”Epic asked the judge in the Epic v. Apple case to order Apple to review its Fortnite submission on May 16th. Yesterday, the judge said in a filing that Apple is “fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing,” and that if a resolution wasn’t reached, the Apple official who “is personally responsible for ensuring compliance” would have to appear at a hearing next Tuesday.However, shortly after Fortnite returned to the App Store on Tuesday, Epic and Apple filed a joint notice saying that they have “resolved all issues” from Epic’s May 16th filing. Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.Epic also recently rolled out a new promotion to encourage players to use its payment systems: if you use Epic’s system in Fortnite, Rocket League, or Fall Guys on PC, iOS, Android, and the web, the company will give you 20 percent back in Epic Rewards that can be used for other purchases in its games or on the Epic Games Store.In the iOS version of Fortnite that was released on Tuesday, the app shows you that 20 percent bonus when you pick which payment system you want to use to buy V-Bucks.The company launched a new Star Wars-themed season for Fortnite on May 2nd.If you get the app from the App Store, it will be a small initial download, and after you actually open the app, it will download the rest of the game. For a colleague, that additional download was 12.95GB.Update, May 20th: Added details of Epic and Apple’s joint notice.

If you're looking to play games on the go, you're going to need a laptop that's dedicated to the task. Luckily, gaming laptops can be found at all different price points, which means you can always find one that's going to fit your budget. Of course, being able to find a powerful model for cheap is always something we're looking out for, which is why this $500 discount on the HP Omen 16 stood out for us.

Google has announced it’s rolling out the colorful new Android 16 interface for beta testers as reported by 9to5Google. The QPR1 beta includes the company’s Material 3 Expressive design language revealed officially last week and includes new visuals for the launcher, notifications, lock screen, and a very Apple-inspired quick settings page.QPRs, or quarterly platform releases, generally are more feature-rich updates for Android compared to the monthly security update patches. With Android 16 expected to launch to everyone soon, it will be followed in the fall by this QPR1 update that adds the new visual touches. Users with eligible Pixel devices, including ones as old as the Pixel 6 and up to the 9A, that are registered in the Beta program can get access to the new release as soon as it’s ready. However, if you’re already beta testing Android 16 but you’d rather wait to get the new design, you can opt out of this release on the Android Beta website (note: don’t install the system update afterward, as that will wipe your device — just wait for Android 16’s official launch).If you want to try the redesigned Android 16 but are not currently enrolled in the beta, Google posted instructions on Reddit on how to get started:You can get started with Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1 today by enrolling your Pixel device. Eligible devices include Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a, 7, 7 Pro, 7a, 8, 8 Pro, 8a, 9, 9 Pro, 9a, Pixel Tablet series devices*. Once enrolled, eligible devices will receive an over-the-air (OTA) update to the latest Beta versions. If you were previously enrolled in Android 16 Beta (and have not opted-out), you will automatically receive QPR1 Beta 1 and any future Beta updates.*

Customizing the look and feel of your Windows system is fun and exciting. One tool that has a dramatic effect on your system is Windhawk. It allows you to implement several customizations to your Windows system. Once you download and install Windhawk, you can choose from various mods that you can install to make Windows 11 work and appear as you want it. I initially became familiar with it while creating the Windows 25 mod, which was fun replicating.

We at XDA are hard at work trying to keep up with everything popping off at Computex right now. With so many announcements being made on a daily basis, we have keyboards firing on all cylinders to keep up with the incoming news. Now, we've caught wind of the fact that Docker Desktop will allow people to run AI models on their Snapdragon X chip, which is huge news for people who want to run their own agents on their local NPUs.

Artificial intelligence may not have changed the world as many manufacturers had planned, but it still has its neat uses. Adobe Photoshop’s AI features, for instance, are surprisingly useful regardless of whether you’re a casual user or an image-editing maestro. If you’re a student or someone who deals with large chunks of text, the all-powerful NotebookLM can serve as a reliable research assistant.