Tech News – Page 19 – by Arlin Schaffel

Texas Sues Top TV Makers for ‘Secretly Recording’ What You Watch

A data-harvesting technique in today’s smart TVs has sparked Texas to sue the top display makers, accusing them of spying on consumers by routinely capturing screenshots. “This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says. “The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/texas-sues-top-tv-makers-for-secretly-recording-what-you-watch

Google wants its AI assistant CC to replace your morning scroll

Google wants you to start your day with AI. Google’s AI, to be specific, which is why the company is launching an experimental agent to comb through your emails, calendar, and documents to deliver a briefing to your inbox every morning. The new feature, called CC, delivers a daily “Your Day Ahead” briefing to your inbox each morning. The personalized briefing — which Google describes as “one clear summary” — outlines your schedule for the day ahead, along with any key tasks or updates you should be aware of, like bills you need to pay or appointments to prepare for.
https://www.theverge.com/news/845280/google-cc-morning-briefing-gemini-ai-agent

Adobe Firefly now supports prompt-based video editing, adds more third-party models

Adobe is updating its AI video-generation app, Firefly, with a new video editor that supports precise prompt-based edits, as well as adding new third-party models for image and video generation, including Black Forest Labs’ FLUX.2 and Topaz Astra. Until now, Firefly only supported prompt-based generation, so you would have to recreate the entire clip if any part of the video was not to your liking.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/16/adobe-firefly-now-supports-prompt-based-video-editing-adds-more-third-party-models/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

‘Slop’ is the word of the year. Here’s how to avoid it

The internet has spent the year arguing about whether AI is genius, theft, or destiny. Merriam-Webster’s editors cut through it with a simpler verdict: slop. The dictionary crowned “slop” its 2025 “word of the year,” joining in on the anti-AI backlash and recognizing that the internet’s new factory setting looks a lot like synthetic filler — low-quality AI content, made in bulk, and poured straight into feeds until the human parts get buried. If your For You page has started to resemble a trough of glossy, almost-real nonsense, congrats, you’re experiencing a cultural moment — with a dictionary entry.
https://qz.com/ai-slop-word-of-the-year-miriam-webster-avoid-it

Mozilla’s new CEO is doubling down on an AI future for Firefox

Mozilla is in a tricky position. It contains both a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the internet a better place for everyone, and a for-profit arm dedicated to, you know, making money. Mozilla is not going to train its own giant LLM anytime soon. But there’s still an AI Mode coming to Firefox next year, which Enzor-DeMeo says will offer users their choice of model and product, all in a browser they can understand and from a company they can trust.
https://www.theverge.com/tech/845216/mozilla-ceo-anthony-enzor-demeo

Google announces experimental ‘Disco’ browser with ‘GenTabs’ powered by Gemini 3

Google Labs today announced “Disco” as an experiment to “shape the future of web browsing.” The first flagship feature of this AI browser is the Gemini 3-powered “GenTab.” For Google, Disco is a “vehicle designed to reimagine browsing and building for the modern web.” Unsurprisingly, it is built on Chromium — just like Chrome — with some common elements, especially the design of tabs.
https://9to5google.com/2025/12/11/google-disco-gentab-browser/

No one knows what to call these things

It turns out “smart glasses” is out as a term. The term “AI glasses” is in. Kind of. Actually, it seems no one’s fully on the same page. Regardless of definitions, one thing is becoming clear: there’s a fundamental shift happening here.
https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/841536/smart-glasses-ai-glasses-xr-ar-headsets-terminology-wearables