Back to your regularly scheduled AI slop
Well, that didn’t last long. Only last week, Meta debuted a controversial AI feature that allowed users to generate images inspired by public Instagram accounts by simply mentioning their username. What’s worse is that all public Instagram accounts were automatically opted in, resulting in countless unwelcome generations.
“Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they want to reference. Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”
Missed the mark is certainly one way to frame it. Automatically putting people’s privacy at risk is another way. The Facebook company has, at the very least, taken the criticism to heart and disabled the feature, for now. That doesn’t do anything for the likely thousands of people whose likeness was added to an AI model.
Samsung’s TriFold 2 is still a ways off
Remember the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold? Probably not. That’s saying something, seeing as the phone only really got its start in the back end of 2025. Either way, don’t expect this one to get a sequel quite as soon as the rest. The South Korean outfit is reportedly facing a delay while the company works out a new hinge design. That, plus the small little issue of increasingly expensive components, means the foldable will likely get delayed into oblivion.
Korean leaker Lanzuk (yeux1122) reckons that something’s got to take its place. They claim that Samsung will finally put all rollable displays to good use, which have been the talk of many tech conventions in recent years. The last we heard of the device, it seemed likely that Samsung would target a 2028 release for the rollable.
But now, it seems, it may arrive sooner than we initially expected. There’s still no firm date mentioned, but we can guess that it won’t land later this year. That really only leaves 2027, if it’s ahead of schedule. Of course, ’til Samsung says the words “Galaxy Z Roll” — that’s definitely what it’ll be called, right? — anything can happen.
The truth may set Disney+ free
Like all the rest of ’em, Disney+ isn’t afraid of hitting its customers with a price hike. South African subscribers got a taste of capitalism at work back in May, the last time prices for the streamer got a bump. That makes the news that Disney is reportedly weighing up the decision to introduce a free tier all the more surprising.
It was Business Insider that spread the word first. It cites two people familiar with the matter, claiming that Product and tech chief Adam Smith broached the idea of a free tier during a town hall meeting. He didn’t elaborate on how far this ‘idea’ might stretch, nor when we might see it come to fruition. If ever.
The thinking is that a free tier would help Disney stand out in an ever-expanding pool of streamers. Apple TV already allows non-paying viewers to watch an episode or two before asking you to whip out your credit card. It’s still unclear what model Disney+ would adopt, or what type of content we may see on the platform. We imagine it’d be heavily subsidised by ad space, and that the content on offer would be very, very light on calories.
Samsung Health has an unhealthy reliance on AI
If you’re like the rest of the world, there’s a good chance you don’t want Samsung’s official Health app to be infected with AI. Too late. Before, you could easily ignore the artificial intelligence inside the app. Now, Samsung is holding your health data hostage unless you give it permission to use your data for AI training.
Some users have reported seeing a new notice appearing on the front page of the app, asking them to “Consent to the Use of Health Data for AI Training and Modelling.” Failure to comply results in the app sending another notice — this time warning the user that they will not be able to sync health data with their Samsung account. It gets worse. That data will be deleted unless “retained pursuant to applicable law.”
In other words, let Samsung’s AI root around your private data, or risk not being able to even use said data. A Samsung Health page later confirmed which data, specifically, it’s interested in. It wants your data “related to body measurements, nutrition, step count and activity, and sleep.” It also wants your medication data, health records, and even cycle tracking stats.
