Are you reading more text written by an AI bot? A Pew Research study published this week says it’s very likely.

That’s not breaking news if you’re aware of the Dead Internet Theory that dates back to 2021. CNET writer Trisha Jandoc dove into that theory last year, which basically says people believe the internet died 10 years ago in 2016 and that much of what we see online now is AI-generated.

There is some truth to that. Pew researchers scanned nearly half a million English webpages from the past five years using Common Crawl, a web archive. That dates back to before ChatGPT was made publicly available in November 2022. Researchers ran those pages through Open Pangram, an AI detection tool, to see if it was written or edited by AI. Then the researchers looked at a sample of 10,000 pages from last month to spot signs of AI-written content. They looked for phrases, words and language that are more common among AI bots than humans. 

Researchers made it clear that AI detection models don’t always get it right. Sometimes they flag text written by humans as AI authorship and AI-written text as being written by a human. 

Nonetheless, the study found that 10% of the samples “show significant signs of AI authorship.” 

“One in 10 webpages as of July 2026 may seem modest. But the internet includes a mix of new and old material. A lot of pages in these random samples couldn’t have been written by AI,” the study findings said. “If we filter old webpages out of our samples and look at only the pages published after the release of ChatGPT, the trend is even more pronounced.” 

Researchers say this trend began in 2022 when ChatGPT was released and increased as other AI bots launched, like Claude and Google’s Gemini. 

Where is AI-written content spotted the most? 

The Pew Research study shows that AI-derived text is most common on .com domains, with about 1 out of every 10 pages. Other domains have less AI-written work — 4.6% for .org and around 1% for .edu and .gov webpages. 

Looking to spot AI-written text? Researchers say certain types of punctuation, words and phrases are more common in AI-generated text compared to humans. For example, em dashes and Oxford commas in lists. This is mainly because they’re trained on datasets of human text, so they mimic that style and, as a result, use them more than humans do. The researchers found that em dashes appear twice as frequently, negative parallelisms are more common and Oxford commas are used 63% more than in human-written text. AI is also more likely to use certain words, like “delve” and “interplay.”

“They also learn to recognize more subtle statistical patterns in word choice and sentence structure, which help them determine whether a particular piece of writing was likely AI-authored,” researchers said. 

A few other common AI-written flags include key terms from your prompt being used repeatedly, repetitive explanations and a bot-like tone instead of a natural one. More importantly, AI bots even make it clear that their responses could be inaccurate, so it’s best to double-check elsewhere online. But in this case, Pew’s findings show that we may not be able to trust the sources that we’re verifying it against if that content is AI-generated, too.

Dashia is the consumer insights editor for CNET. She specializes in data-driven analysis and news at the intersection of tech, personal finance and consumer sentiment. Dashia investigates economic shifts and everyday challenges to help readers make well-informed decisions, and she covers a range of topics, including technology, security, energy and money. Dashia graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She loves baking, teaching spinning and spending time with her family.

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Apple accidentally leaked identifying numbers for much of its upcoming product line, AirPods with cameras rumors spark a new privacy debate, and Siri AI gets partnered articles on the AppleInsider Podcast.

Among the various product identifiers discovered in macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate code, the AirPods with cameras were present. Deeper in the code still was a seemingly-forgotten demo video of a user accessing Visual Intelligence while wearing AirPods Pro.

Many were quick to jump to the conclusion that these could enable creepy actions like those perpetrated while wearing Meta smart glasses. However, rumors suggest these AirPods with cameras won’t take photos at all.

Your hosts also discuss Apple’s continued problems with App Review, Epic’s dissatisfaction with all things related to App Store commissions, and a $40 million Ferrari.

Apple Maps is getting ads in the United States and Canada soon, which will bring more revenue to Apple’s services division. The question is whether or not Apple can keep things tasteful for users, or if this is the start of a slippery slope to surveillance capitalism.

Regretfully there’s no video this week because of a few technical problems that we have since solved. Video will be back next week.

BONUS: Subscribe via Patreon or Apple Podcasts to hear AppleInsider+, the extended edition. This time, your hosts discuss Apple’s move into advertising and what it means for apps like Apple Maps.

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Before astronauts became brands, billionaires started launching rockets for fun and every space movie required a soundtrack capable of loosening drywall, there was The Right Stuff.

Philip Kaufman’s 1983 epic about America’s test pilots and the original Mercury Seven astronauts arrives from the Criterion Collection on 4K UHD on November 24, 2026, with a new 4K restoration supervised and approved by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, Dolby Vision HDR and the film’s 70mm 5.1 surround soundtrack in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio.

That audio choice is especially welcome. Criterion has not invented a Dolby Atmos remix to make the back of the box look newer. Instead, it is preserving a soundtrack connected to the film’s 70mm presentation, which feels appropriate for a movie that won Academy Awards for both Sound and Sound Effects Editing.

Sometimes the upgrade is knowing when not to “upgrade” something.

The Right Stuff 4K UHD Release Details

Criterion’s director-approved special edition uses a new 4K digital restoration supervised and approved by Caleb Deschanel, whose cinematography earned an Academy Award nomination for the film. The 193-minute feature is presented in its 1.85:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Vision HDR.

Audio options include the 70mm 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, along with alternate 2.0 surround and 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio tracks. The two-disc set places the film on 4K UHD and the supplemental material on Blu-ray.

Criterion 4K UHD Features

• New 4K restoration supervised and approved by Caleb Deschanel
• Dolby Vision HDR
• 70mm 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• Alternate 2.0 surround and 5.1 surround audio tracks
• Archival Philip Kaufman interview excerpts from the Academy Film Archive
• New programs on the film’s visual effects, sound design and editing
• Realizing The Right Stuff
• T 20 Years and Counting
• The Real Men with The Right Stuff
• Selected-scene commentary with Kaufman and members of the cast and crew
• Deleted scenes
• Trailer
• English SDH subtitles
• Essay by critic Michael Sragow

Criterion lists the November 24, 2026 4K UHD edition at $49.95 MSRP, with a current direct preorder price of $39.96. A two-disc Blu-ray edition is $39.95 MSRP.

Three Hours About Test Pilots Shouldn’t Work This Well

Kaufman’s film is based on Tom Wolfe’s book about the early American space program, beginning not with NASA but with Chuck Yeager, played by Sam Shepard, and the dangerous world of test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base.

Yeager’s 1947 attempt to break the sound barrier establishes the film’s central question: what exactly constitutes courage when courage is being transformed into public mythology?

The story eventually shifts to the Mercury Seven, with Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard, Ed Harris as John Glenn, Fred Ward as Gus Grissom, Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper and an exceptional ensemble filling out the rest of the program. Kaufman avoids turning them into marble statues. They are competitive, frightened, funny, vain, ambitious and occasionally ridiculous.

That is a major reason the movie still works.

The Library of Congress added The Right Stuff to the National Film Registry in 2013, recognizing a film that operates simultaneously as a Western, a satire and a Space Age epic. It celebrates extraordinary achievement while remaining suspicious of the media machine turning astronauts into national celebrities.

The rockets matter, but so do the men standing beside them wondering why Life magazine suddenly cares what their wives are wearing.

Why The Right Stuff Was So Influential

Science-fiction movies had been taking audiences into space for decades, but The Right Stuff was more interested in how human beings actually got there.

Kaufman combined practical effects, aerial photography and NASA archival footage to make the early space program feel dangerous, improvised and physical. Aircraft fail. Rockets explode. Machinery rattles. People make mistakes. The movie never lets the hardware become cleaner or safer than it really was.

It also helped establish a way of dramatizing aerospace history that could be heroic without becoming completely reverential. The men accomplish extraordinary things, but the film is equally interested in politics, celebrity, ego and the machinery required to manufacture national heroes.

The Academy noticed. The Right Stuff received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Supporting Actor for Sam Shepard and Cinematography for Deschanel. It won four: Film Editing, Original Score for Bill Conti, Sound and Sound Effects Editing.

More than four decades later, that combination of technical detail, human drama and healthy skepticism remains difficult to duplicate.

Why 4K UHD Is Such a Good Fit

Deschanel’s photography moves between desert landscapes, cockpit interiors, military installations, launch pads, fire, clouds and the blackness of space. A strong Dolby Vision presentation should help preserve the film’s wide tonal range without making it look artificially modern.

The practical effects may benefit just as much. Modern space movies can put a virtual camera almost anywhere, but The Right Stuff comes from an era when spacecraft, aircraft and optical effects had texture, weight and physical lighting. A good 4K master should make that craftsmanship easier to appreciate without exposing it merely for the sake of increased resolution.

Then there is the sound. Aircraft engines, rocket launches, cockpit noise, explosions and Bill Conti’s Oscar-winning score were central to the original experience. Criterion’s decision to preserve the 70mm 5.1 presentation in lossless audio gives home-theater owners something much more meaningful than another revisionist remix.

No height channels required. Your subwoofer will cope with the indignity.

A Different Kind of Space Movie

Modern space films often emphasize visual scale and technical spectacle. The Right Stuff is interested in something messier: why anybody would willingly climb into machines that engineers themselves were not always sure would survive.

That makes its heroes more interesting. Yeager, Glenn, Shepard, Grissom and Cooper are not presented as flawless monuments. They are people operating at the edge of technology, politics and personal ambition.

Kaufman also understands that bravery and insanity occasionally occupy neighboring offices.

That human element is what keeps the film from becoming a museum piece. The technology has changed enormously since 1983, but the personalities, institutional pressures and need to turn complicated people into simple public heroes remain remarkably familiar.

The Bottom Line

Criterion could have sold The Right Stuff on a new 4K restoration and Dolby Vision alone. The involvement of Caleb Deschanel and preservation of the 70mm 5.1 soundtrack make this edition considerably more compelling.

Its photography, practical effects and Oscar-winning sound work are exactly the kind of material that can benefit from UHD without requiring unnecessary revisionism. The supplemental package also focuses on the filmmaking itself, including the visual effects, editing and sound design that helped make the movie so influential.

At 193 minutes, The Right Stuff will also test your commitment to both physical media and bladder management.

But Kaufman’s film earned the running time. More than forty years later, it remains funny, muscular, technically fascinating and deeply impressed by the people who pushed aviation and space exploration forward without ever becoming entirely convinced that putting them on pedestals was a good idea.

That still feels like the right way to remember them.

Where to pre-order: $49.95 at Criterion

Related Reading:

• There are signs that locked chats are coming to ChatGPT
• They would be hidden from most screens inside the app
• It’s not clear how they would work in terms of chat memory

OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI assistant continues to evolve and improve, and it looks as though the latest upgrade to the app may let you lock your most sensitive cuts behind a PIN code or fingerprint scan, to prevent anyone else from catching a glimpse of them.

This is based on hidden, not-yet-active code found in the latest version of ChatGPT for Android, spotted by Android Authority. There are references to “locked chats” and the ability to “protect chats” from prying eyes.

from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

The Plantum app is a digital tool that helps to identify plants, diagnose plant diseases, and improve plant care. The app can identify over 40,000 plant species, assess their health, and give specific care advice. Plantum offers a suite of digital tools that help users improve plant care by considering light conditions, soil, water schedule, appropriate temperature, and more. Plantum collaborates with professional botanists worldwide. In-house experts answer users’ questions about plant care and help treat sick plants in the most challenging situations. Moreover, the app functions as a plant encyclopedia and includes many articles and videos on how to improve plant care routines. Users will appreciate the ability to set up reminders for watering, misting, feeding, and rotating plants, and to receive alerts if weather conditions change significantly. Plantum is a personal assistant for plant lovers and anyone who wants to care for indoor or outdoor plants without worry, and to implement the most relevant approaches for every plant pet. It’s only available for iOS users and is on sale for $20.

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iPhones stolen in San Francisco ended up in Los Angeles; an iPhone and MacBook were seized from a disgraced ex-Congressman, and police arrested a man for AirTag stalking, all in this week’s Apple Crime Blotter.

The latest in an occasional AppleInsider feature, looking at the world of Apple-related crime.

Bail revoked in Hingham Apple Store crash case

The man charged in the November 2022 crash at the Hingham, Mass. Apple Store had his bail revoked in mid-August.

According to NBC Boston, Plymouth County prosecutors revoked Bradley Rein’s bail after saying he violated probation. The violation, the report said, concerned his alcohol-monitoring bracelet.

Rein was charged with several crimes, including second-degree murder and motor vehicle homicide by reckless operation, following the incident in which his 2019 Toyota 4Runner crashed into the Apple Store, killing one man and injuring 22 individuals.

Rein has pleaded not guilty, and the case still has not gone to trial after nearly four years.

iPhone, MacBook were seized from former Rep. Eric Swalwell

Federal agents seized devices, including an iPhone and MacBook, from former Rep. Eric Swalwell on August 15.

The San Francisco Standard obtained the warrant and reports that the FBI’s Public Corruption and Civil Rights Squad served it. The former lawmaker was searched at San Francisco International Airport, the report said, and his home in Washington was raided.

Swalwell resigned from Congress and dropped his bid for governor of California in April, after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. The New York Times reported that Swalwell is facing “a civil rights investigation concerning allegations of sexual assault.”

iPhones stolen from Outside Lands festival landed in Los Angeles

Several attendees at the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco in early August reported that their iPhones were stolen by pickpockets. Those victims, following Find My iPhone pings, discovered their stolen devices had landed in Los Angeles.

The San Francisco Standard reports at least three victims followed their iPhones as they moved down Interstate 5, down the California coast.

One of the victims said that the Los Angeles Police Department reported receiving as many as 20 such reports in a single day. But according to the report, jurisdictional complications kept police investigations from moving forward.

Police seek man accused of buying two MacBooks with a stolen credit card

Police in Monroeville, Pa., are looking for a man they say stole a credit card from a car and used it to buy two MacBook Pro computers from Best Buy.

According to WPXI, the two computers are valued at $5,000.

Man arrested for AirTag stalking, paintball gun shooting

A 37-year-old man in Louisville was arrested in early August and accused of using an AirTag to stalk his ex-girlfriend, in violation of a protective order. In addition, he is accused of shooting at her windshield with a paintball gun.

According to WLKY, the man violated the protective order “several times” in a four-day period in July.

After the woman was involved in a car accident, she told police that she had noticed an AirTag ping near her car. The man charged later texted the woman’s boyfriend, called the woman from different phone numbers, and later fired at her car with a paintball gun.

He was charged with stalking, intentional unlawful use of a tracking device, and wanton endangerment.

Tracking of iPad signal leads to arrest in burglary

A man accused of a burglary at an apartment complex in Oregon was caught after an iPad stolen in the burglary was tracked.

KPTV explains that police in Clackamas County were following a ping from a burglary the day before in southwest Portland. Police saw a man who matched the description of the suspect, who ran back to his apartment.

The 33-year-old resisted arrest but was eventually subdued.

Police were able to recover the iPad, as well as other stolen items, which included “three guitars, an amplifier, two watches, an empty firearm case, a duffel bag containing prescription medication and eyeglasses, power tools, banking documents, family photographs, and a college diploma.”

Other illicit items were also discovered in the residence, including a gun, ammunition, and various documents, including “driver’s licenses, passports, birth certificates, checks, and bank cards.”

The man was charged with several crimes, including burglary, theft, theft of a firearm, felon in possession of a firearm, and resisting arrest.

AirTag leads to arrest in vehicle prowl

Police in Olympia, Wash., said in late July that they had arrested a man who broke a car window and took items from the car.

According to The Olympian, an AirTag was inside some of the stolen items, which led police to a house in nearby Lakewood. The items were returned and the suspect arrested. He was charged with suspicion of second-degree vehicle prowl and second-degree theft.

Man arrested after stolen AirPods were tracked to his home

A 19-year-old man in North Carolina was charged on Wednesday after a woman tracked a pair of her stolen AirPods to the man’s home.

WLOS reports the woman says the man broke into her car and stole several items, including the AirPods, an iPad Pro, a wallet, a purse and a medicine bag.

She followed the Find My iPhone signal to the man’s home, and after a “verbal confrontation,” police arrived and arrested the man. He was charged with felony breaking and entering a motor vehicle, felony larceny, and felony possession of stolen goods/property.

Railway police in India follow Apple Watch to catch diamond gang

The Tambaram Railway Police in July arrested two members of a North Indian Railway theft gang in connection with the theft of diamond jewelry on a train.

According to The Deccan Chronicle, a stolen bag taken in the heist had an Apple Watch in it, which led investigators to track its location and identify which section of the train the theft had taken place in.

Going over a list of passengers in that section, they were able to narrow it down.

The thieves, investigators believe, “transferred the jewellery from the stolen bag into their own bags inside the moving train and threw the bag containing the Apple Watch out of the train.”

iPad, cash stolen from coffee shop

A coffee shop in Buffalo’s Elmwood neighborhood had to close for a day in late July after cash and an iPad were stolen in a break-in.

According to WGRZ, Overwinter Coffee said that someone snuck in through an open window.

Buffalo Police reported that a warrant had been issued for an arrest.

“Detectives identified him through surveillance footage after he unlawfully entered the business through an open side window and stole approximately $600 in cash and an iPad,” the police department said, per the station.

If you buy the new Pixel 11 Pro, you might have to proactively tell people that you bought the latest phone, unless they are following each and every launch. The main reason is that the Pixel 11 doesn’t look that different from prior models. The main updates to its aesthetics are its new colors, which are admittedly gorgeous, and the addition of a small glowing light on the back of the phone, which has limited use.

The phone arrives with some new Gemini features, but I’m not sure if AI chops are attracting customers to buy new phones these days. In daily use, what you may notice is that the Pixel 11 Pro’s cameras are snappier, and there are more options for you to customize the way your photos look. Otherwise, the Pixel 11 Pro XL feels like the previous-gen phone had a big Pixel Drop update.

I have used the Obsidian Pixel 11 Pro XL for nearly a week, and so far, I can say that despite the relatively iterative updates, the phone is still solid and feels good to use.

Rambler

Rambler is one of my favorite new features on the Pixel 11 Pro XL. This new, AI-powered dictation tool takes out filler words like “um” and “ah” and formats your speech. The feature directly takes on other dictation apps like Wispr and Willow.

The dictation tool also handles switching between languages and noisy environments well.
Though it might make its way to some other devices, if you have a Pixel, this is a very cool and useful feature that you could end up using daily, compared with some of the other AI features.

For the last year, I have used dictation tools frequently to take quick notes, reply to emails, and messages on devices that I use. Google’s tool is on par with a few of the top tools in the industry, I found. (The tool is so good that I have pretty much rambled my way into writing this section without needing any edits!)

Gemini updates

I’ve just had the phone for five days, so the Proactive Suggestions feature, designed to surface context-aware suggestions from apps, didn’t yet show up everywhere. I did see it when I conversed with friends over text messages, when they were asking me about my schedule. My only gripe is that I’d want Gemini to know about all my calendars, not just Google’s, and suggest my availability based on that.

Suggestions also don’t always show up. For instance, when someone asked for my address, Gemini should have picked that up from my emails, but it didn’t.

In addition, Gemini offers agentic capabilities that can help you with completing some tasks, such as placing a food order for you. But this feature is available in the U.S., and as I am based in India, I couldn’t test it.

The new Live Translate feature is useful for when you are watching a live stream or a video without translated captions. However, you will need to download specific languages.

HiLight is not really a highlight

One of Google’s marketing messages this year was about how it designed Pixel to make you look at your screen less.

The company has only one feature to show for it called HiLight, an LED notification light on the back of the phone that replaced last year’s temperature sensor. The feature allows you to keep your phone face down, while delivering subtle alerts by way of the light.

The light itself looks cool when active as it lights up in green, yellow, pink, purple, or white. But a big limitation is that it only works when you activate Gemini or get phone calls from your favorite contacts, not texts.

The light can also indicate that Gemini is listening or thinking. This may be useful to know that Gemini is processing information after you have asked it to execute a complex task. But besides that, I can only think of a few scenarios when my phone is face down, and I’m not wearing any earbuds to listen for the activation sound, but still need to know if Gemini is active.

Besides, for favorite callers, you can always set a special ringtone. There may be only a few occasions when your phone is on silent, and if you haven’t set up calls from close people to get through, and you are paying attention to a light on the back of the phone.

This feature is ripe for future customization, however, so hopefully it continues to be developed. I would like to one day choose a color for when I get a text or WhatsApp message from my contacts. Plus, if I can assign different colors for different apps, I would know if I need to pick up my phone or if I can tackle that task later.

Pixel’s cameras are snappy

Google decided to opt for a larger sensor for both the main and the telephoto sensors compared with the Pixel 10 Pro XL. On paper, this change means cameras can let in more light and, in turn, capture more details. (I didn’t pixel-peep to confirm this). However, thanks to the new processor and software updates, the camera app and capture feel snappy, and you can take photos faster.

Google also made Night Sight, its low-light photography mode, faster, which means you don’t have to hold the phone with the subject in focus for as long and can more easily avoid blurry photos.

Google’s Pro Res Zoom feature, which uses AI to upscale some parts of the photo when you go above 30x digital zoom on Pro XL, has been improved. The maximum zoom level was 100x last year, and now it is 120x. It is tough to keep your hand steady and take a legible photo, even after all the AI magic, if the subject is across the street. But for a lower zoom range, you get a usable photo.

One of the marquee features of this year’s camera release is called Looks, which acts like filters, but Google claims that it’s changing the way the computational photography pipeline works on the phone.

There are four core default looks called original, natural, shadows, and vanilla that you can select from the settings menu. You can also switch between other Looks called editorial, classic (with more grain), digi (reminds you of old digital cameras), black tie, and minimal.

On the Pixel 11, one-touch quick access controls are customizable, so I could swap out white balance for ISO to appear directly. I could also quickly access Looks through this section and take photos in different styles.

Another new addition to the feature set is Magic Capture, which lets you initiate a video clip and use AI to pull out top moments from the clip that could be saved as photos. This is great for capturing wiggly things like babies or pets, or action shots, as in sports. There are a few limitations, though — the mode doesn’t do well with moving subjects and saves photos only in 12-megapixel resolution.

I have two cats and a dog, so I am going to use this feature frequently! I’ll leave you with a picture of my cat trying to catch a feather, saved by Magic Capture.

Price

Unfortunately, the component crunch has forced hardware companies to raise device prices. Google scrapped the 128GB base model, and while it priced the 256GB model the same as last year’s version for the Pixel 11 and the Pixel 11 Pro, it reduced the RAM size from 16GB to 12GB for both.

The Pixel 11 Pro XL also got a $100 bump from last year’s price.

Because of this, the new Pixels don’t incentivize gadget enthusiasts to upgrade from last year’s phone, despite being solid devices. The camera improvements are notable, and Rambler is great, but some of this will likely trickle down to older Pixels in the future.