Platforms that permit adult content must employ effective age assurance methods, according to Ireland’s Online Safety Code.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X is under investigation yet again; this time for its alleged non-compliance with regulations around age assurances and parental controls.

Ireland’s media regulator Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM) has today (8 September) launched its first investigation under the Online Safety Code to probe whether X is effective in ensuring children don’t come across sexual and other adult content on its platform.

Under the Online Safety Code – which came into complete effect last year – age assurance is a requirement for platforms that permits adult-only content such as pornography, or content that consists of real or realistic gore and violence.

Age assurance measures can include age estimation, which often uses AI technology to estimate a user’s age, while increasingly stricter regulations also require platforms to verify users’ ages via photo identification.

For years, users, including minors, could self-declare as adults while signing up to platforms. Under new regulations, this is no longer an acceptable age barrier.

In addition, platforms such as X are also required to provide parental control systems to ensure that guardians can steer what type of content their children encounter.

CnaM said it launched its probe after its platform supervision team raised concerns around X’s compliance with regulations. It found that parental controls put in place by X “may not be effective, do not have minimum requirements, are hard to locate and are not brought to the attention of new users at sign-up stage”.

The new investigation will probe whether X is employing effective age assurance measures, whether parental control systems it uses reach the minimum functional requirement, and whether it directs new users to the available controls.

“We understand the concerns that parents and guardians have about content their children may be seeing online and concerns of strangers seeing their children’s content,” said CnaM’s digital services commissioner John Evans.

“Platforms which allow users under the age of 16 must have parental controls which are under the control of parents and guardians, they must ensure that these parental controls are effective and easy to locate, and they must draw users attention to these parental controls at account sign-up stage, for any parent or guardian who wishes to use them.

“Platforms which are accessible to children and allow adult-only video content, such as pornography or extreme and gratuitous violence or acts of cruelty, must ensure that this content cannot normally be accessed by children by implementing effective age assurance measures,” Evans added.

The Irish regulator opened a different probe into X last year to investigate whether the social media platform broke the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) with its content moderation policies.

The platform, meanwhile, is also being separately investigated by the EU – alongside CnaM – the Data Protection Commission, and the UK government over its Grok AI chatbot, which enabled users to generate millions of non-consensual sexually explicit content. X faced the first penalty issued under the DSA last year after it was fined €120m for breaking rules around transparency obligations.

The bloc is tightening regulations around social media platforms as lawmakers grapple with its long-term negative effects on children. 28 large platforms and services are being monitored in the EU under some of the world’s strictest laws around social media harms, while an increasing number of member states are opting to ban platforms for minors altogether.

Several non-EU countries have taken similar routes, all following behind Australia, the first country to ban social media for under 16s. Research, however, reveals that a complete platform ban for minors may not work.

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Elon Musk at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, September 2025. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (CC BY-SA 4.0)

OpenAI released ChatGPT Images 2.5 with two new API models, one of which Adobe has already put into Firefly. The company says more than 3 billion images a week are created across ChatGPT and its image API. The notable additions are interface features rather than model research, including the ability to share the prompt alongside an image

OpenAI released ChatGPT Images 2.5 on Tuesday. The company said in its announcement that the model brings sharper detail, more precise editing and up to 50% lower latency than Images 2.0.

Two new models go to developers. GPT-Image-2.5 Flare is the default, and Sunburst is the slower, higher-control option for production creative work.

Adobe is a launch customer

The detail worth pausing on is in the testimonials. Adobe says the new GPT-Image-2.5 models are now in Firefly, its creative AI studio.

Matt Chotin, a senior director of product at Adobe, framed Firefly as bringing leading AI models together with Adobe’s own tools in one place. That is a company positioning itself as the interface rather than only the model.

It is a deliberate strategy, not a concession. Firefly has been built as a conversational layer over the whole toolset, and model choice is part of that pitch.

The traffic runs both ways

Adobe is inside ChatGPT too. More than 70 Adobe tools are available there.

So each company is a distribution channel for the other. Neither can be confident it owns the moment a creative task begins.

That ambiguity is the whole competitive question in creative software right now. Whoever owns the starting point captures the workflow.

Prompts become objects

OpenAI is answering that question with a social feature. When you share an image now, you can attach the prompt that made it, and someone else can run it with their own photos.

OpenAI links to a viral 1980s headshot prompt as the example. That is a distribution mechanic dressed as a convenience.

A shareable prompt is a template that spreads on its own. It also keeps the loop inside ChatGPT rather than inside anyone else’s canvas.

The other new features point the same way

Sketch lets you draw in ChatGPT and use the drawing as a reference. Templates offer starting formats such as posters and merchandise, and comments can be placed directly on an image.

None of this is model research. It is interface work, and interface work is what you do when you want people to stay.

Availability is broad. Images 2.5 is rolling out to ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work and Codex users on every tier, across desktop, mobile and web.

Three billion a week

The scale figure is the one to sit with. OpenAI says more than 3 billion images are created weekly across ChatGPT Images and the GPT-Image models in the API.

That is the company’s own number and is not independently audited. Taken at face value it is a vast quantity of synthetic imagery entering circulation every week.

OpenAI says it applies C2PA metadata and invisible watermarking, alongside prompt and image checks, and has published a system card for the release. Provenance marking at that volume is a genuine engineering commitment.

Whether provenance survives contact

Marking images is necessary and not sufficient. Metadata is routinely stripped by platforms, screenshots and re-encoding, and invisible watermarks vary in robustness.

Regulators are still working out what any of it means legally. Brazil has been defining what counts as a deepfake ahead of its vote.

The prompt-sharing feature cuts against provenance in one respect. It makes it easier for a distinctive look to be reproduced by many people from the same recipe.

The competitive picture

The reference-photo improvements target the most commercially valuable use. Putting a real person or product into new settings is what advertising, ecommerce and social content actually need.

Higgsfield and Manus, both quoted in the announcement, are building on the API rather than competing with it. Manus says Flare runs two to four times faster than the previous model in its own evaluations.

Others are going the other way. Freepik rebranded as Magnific as a profitable AI creative platform on $230m of recurring revenue, built as its own destination.

What to watch

Watch whether Adobe keeps naming its model suppliers. A studio that aggregates models is strong while it can choose, and weaker if one supplier becomes indispensable.

Watch the prompt-sharing numbers too, if OpenAI ever publishes them. Adobe has been assembling its own answer across Firefly, GenStudio and partnerships, and the contest is over where work starts rather than which model renders it.

CarPlay is great as it comes, but a few personalization tweaks make it even more convenient.

Rearrange apps and use widgets in CarPlay

Adnan Ahmed for Engadget

Judging by a leaked Apple identifier, the next-generation Apple TV will get a major upgrade with the A19 or A19 Pro system-on-chip.

In June 2026, tvOS 27 code revealed that the Apple TV 4K was on track to receive Siri AI support. Now, Apple’s own code has revealed even more about the hardware that will make this change possible.

According to MacRumors, the model identifier of the upcoming Apple TV 4K suggests the device will feature the A19 or A19 Pro chip. While this change will undoubtedly give the new model 8GB or 12GB of RAM, up from 6GB on the 2022 variant with the A15 Bionic chip, it will also allow for Apple Intelligence.

Additionally, the alleged use of an A19 or A19 Pro chip aligns with a June 2026 leak claiming the new Apple TV 4K would ship with Apple’s N1 networking chip. The N1 is already found in devices that feature Apple’s A19 and A19 Pro chips, those being the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro.

It would make sense for Apple to use a tried-and-true combination for its upcoming Apple TV 4K refresh. New chip aside, however, Tuesday’s leak doesn’t offer any significant details about the next-generation Apple TV.

Previous rumors have suggested that the device will ship with a new Siri Remote, though it’s unclear if this accessory will include new features like ultra-wideband support or Find My integration. Going back even further, an August 2025 rumor claimed the next Apple TV 4K would gain the A17 Pro chip, though this seems unlikely at this point.

Apple could unveil an updated Apple TV 4K at its “Surprise and Shine” event, which will be held on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. However, there have been rumors for about 18 months that the device is imminent.

Apple’s child safety toolset is already robust and expanding with iOS 27, but the UK government isn’t happy and continues to threaten legislation.

Apple introduced Sensitive Content Warnings with iOS 17 in 2023 for child accounts and later introduced it as an option for adults. Several new features have been added since, including age verification systems in the UK, plus a comprehensive rethink of child safety with iOS 27 coming soon.

However, according to a report from Bloomberg, these measures aren’t enough and legislation may still be necessary. UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has told the House of Commons that the government would introduce legislation on the matter, but didn’t say when or to what extent.

She’s targeting tech giants like Apple and Google with these legal threats, but both companies have already implemented some level of system-wide parental controls. Apple specifically has increasingly added features targeting parents wanting to further police their children’s activity on their devices and online.

For example, parents can already control what apps they access, who they can communicate with, and when their device can be used. Sensitive Content Warnings already pop up in Messages, FaceTime, and in third-party apps that utilize the API, but they only warn the user of sensitive content instead of blocking it entirely.

“For the children” isn’t always straightforward

Apple announced expanded and rethought parental controls and child safety features during WWDC 2026 that will roll out to the public later in September. Even then, Nandy said these features are a “step in the right direction” but not enough.

Apple already has a child safety website for its new features

The UK legislators haven’t specified how these protections are not sufficient nor how Apple might improve upon them. With iOS 27, parents have control of nearly every minute interaction a child could have on their device, even which websites they visit.

The level of access and control parents have over their children’s accounts is so in-depth that it has led some to be concerned about children’s privacy. Apple argues that it has followed recommendations for how these systems should be in place, and it is up to the parents how far they will take the systems in managing their child.

Those in the LGBTQ community, for example, worry that such controls will isolate a child seeking answers, leaving them unable to do so without alerting their parents to a website they’ve visited. Others worry that such invasive tools will prevent a child from testing boundaries and learning important lessons they otherwise couldn’t in sheltered conditions.

Some speculate that the UK and other governments’ use of “for the children” seeks to erode individual rights by having such OS-level technologies introduced. People fear further encroachment of individual rights and privacy through increased surveillance technologies.

Apple may already comply

Apple can only offer tools for the world to use. It cannot police how those tools are used, and abusive households don’t need technology to enable abuse.

The UK legislators haven’t specified what Apple hasn’t done to satisfy them, yet

However, given the in-depth levels of parent controls and privacy-invading tools already available to parents, it isn’t clear what the UK will demand. Perhaps Apple has already met whatever requirements the UK government will dream up and won’t have to fight with legislators.

There is one potential hole in Apple’s child safety features the UK could attempt to address — the opt-in nature. Apple has advanced tools and APIs for child safety, but developers don’t have to bother implementing them, which renders them useless for that specific app.

To make things more confusing, Nandy said that if tech companies introduce better restrictions, legislation won’t be necessary and a bill won’t be passed.

The UK government is focused on child safety recently and passed one of the world’s strictest social media bans for anyone under 16. While some suggest this is what is best for children’s mental health, others say it pushes children into darker, less regulated portions of the internet to find community.

Thankfully, even though Apple had to implement system-level age verification, it did so without those security-holed ID checker systems. Instead, it uses things like the age of your account, a Face ID scan, and other obvious indicators that don’t invade a user’s privacy.

Like with any tool, there will be people that abuse it. Apple’s child safety tools and parental controls are comprehensive as they are, but the UK could argue for more and force the matter via law if necessary.

The GL.iNet Beryl 7 is a travel router that is designed for those on the go who still need control over their networking.

Especially today, it feels like people are more aware of their networking than ever. There’s fear over what people are able to see. There’s fear of what other people can see of your own data, and there are people trying to take control of their own connections. That’s one very real use case for the Beryl 7.

• The AVEN thrust-vectoring nozzle has been added to the X-BAT AI-piloted fighter with vertical take-off capabilities
• Thrust-vectoring allows a plane’s exhaust to be redirected, instead of relying purely on manipulating airflow across the wings for movement
• The engine was first trialed on an F-16 fighter in the 1990s

Shield AI has revealed the X-BAT AI-piloted fighter jet relies on a jet engine variation first developed over 35 years ago and tested on a General Dynamics F-16 in the 1990s.

The AVEN – Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle – essentially replicates the actions of a wing, but instead of manipulating airflow across the airfoil, it directs the exhaust, in a process labeled “thrust-vectoring.”

Remove those photobombers with even more accuracy than before.

Removing objects from your photos with Clean Up

Filipe Espósito for Engadget

If you’ve used Clean Up before, you’ll know where to find it in iOS 27. The difference is that it now has some extra controls. To start, choose a photo you want to adjust in the Photos app and tap the Edit button at the bottom. Select Tools and choose Clean Up. You’ll see an Auto button at the top, which lets you change the processing type. Leave this set to Auto to have your phone choose between the other two modes depending on how complex the image is. 

Fast retouches your photos with a smaller AI model. It gets the job done much faster, but it’s not ideal for more complex retouching. Say you have a photo of a landscape and you want to remove a trash can in the background. Or maybe you need to hide the wiring on the street lights. These are the kinds of edits that the Quick model is most likely to handle well.

But where Apple’s Clean Up feature has always struggled is with more complex edits. When there are a bunch of people behind you ruining your selfie, that’s where the High Quality option comes in. More advanced AI models can better understand the context of an image. But this improved processing comes at the cost of taking longer and using more battery.

Filipe Espósito for Engadget

Clean Up often tries to recognize unknown objects that you’ll want to remove from your photo. This doesn’t always work as it should, so it’s more accurate to circle what you want to remove.

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Extending and reframing photos

Filipe Espósito for Engadget